Mother's Day 2012

Celebrations

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Artwork courtesy of my talented daughter

Happy Mother's Day from 

Mommy Blog Expert's house 

to yours!

Hope your day is special for you and your whole family.

MBE is taking time off to spend some quality time with my kids all weekend. I'll be back to work bright and early Monday morning. Watch for a great lineup of posts starting with the Weekly Twitter Party Calendar Schedule that goes live at 9 am EST on Monday, followed by more stories all week about good things for moms-to-be and veteran moms at every stage of life.

New Ideas for Making the Old Kitchen Cleanup Job Easier & Faster Carving Out More Quality Family Time

Homekeeping

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I love to bake to a fault. I mean I really make a lot of homemade breads, cakes, tortes, pies, cookies and even heart-shaped hot pretzels and elaborate one-of-a-kind Gingerbread Houses. In fact, as I write this post, I've also got yeast dough rising for some braided loaves of egg challah bread I'm making for tonight's traditional Jewish Sabbath family dinner.  

Problem is that I've always hated cleaning up the aftermath of all these creative cooking adventures with a vegeance. That's true especially if it involves recipes like the banana nut bread my family is always begging me to make that unfortunately sticks to my Pyrex loaf pan no matter how much I grease and flour it before pouring in the batter.

A recent batch of pink Heart-Shaped Hot Pretzels I made

Usually I have to soak these nasty, but oft-used baking dishes overnight to make them easier to clean --  but I don't like leaving undone baking ware to scrub the next day. In fact, I'm not a morning person and it makes me really grumpy when the first thing I see in my kitchen is dirty dishes when I stumble out there to make my coffee before driving the kids to school. So I was intrigued -- but skeptical -- when I heard about the new Dawn Power Clean dish washing liquid product that was supposed to deliver overnight soaking power in only 5 minutes.

No one loves a challenge more than I do when it comes to making it easier, faster and mostly more pleasant to get my kitchen duties out of the way before I go to sleep at night.  Hating something can really be a great motivation to just deal with it rather than procrastinating, I've found. After trying this dish soap for the first time using a timer that I set for five minutes, Dawn Power Clean really did the job in five minutes that soaking previously would have taken 8-10 hours. 

A caveat: This new product didn't magically soak off the actual crumbs sticking to my pan by itself. Just like with an overnight soak it still required a sponge to gently wipe out the soiled glass loaf pan but the residue did come off easily and quickly.

Here's the Before and After Photos of that delinquent Pyrex Loaf Dish

Before Dawn Power Clean

After Dawn Power Clean

That night I was able to go to bed a happy woman. You can too. So I encourage you to give this product a try for yourself as well as consider following my five tips to a sparkling clean family friendly kitchen that likely will simultaneously recapture time for you to spend enjoying your kids and significant other, instead.


MBE's Best Practices for Running a Tidy, Efficient Kitchen

• Minimize counter clutter by putting away as much as possible since the less you have out, the less that can gather dust or get dirty
• Get everything needed for a recipe out before you do food preparation because it will prevent messy hand prints and such on your cabinets and refrigerator if you have to grab something forgotten with floured, greasy, or wet hands
• Clean as you go when baking and cooking, wiping up spills and putting all supplies back in their proper places rather than piling them on the counter and in the sink
• Make sure everything in your kitchen sink is washed and put away before bedtime because we all hate that party's over feeling when we wake up the next day
•  Teach your kids as soon as they are old enough to help themselves to food that they should automatically and immediately pick up after themselves

Dawn Power Clean, a Procter & Gamble product, works using micro-scrubbing enzymes that power through food messes with ease on glass bake ware and dishes, cleaning everything from everyday grease to baking pans to tough lasagna and other casserole dishes. The new product is available in two scents Refreshing Rain, which I tried, and Vibrant Fresh. For more information on Dawn Power Clean visit the brand's website and/or follow Dawn on their official Facebook page.

Dawn Power Clean Review Pack MBE Received

FTC Disclosure: I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Dawn blogging program to earn My SocialMoms Rewards Points. I also received free product for participating. The opinions and ideas expressed here are my own. To read more posts on this topic click here. See complete FTC Disclosure information that appears at the bottom of MommyBlogExpert's main page and at the bottom of every individual post on this blog, including this one.

Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive Leave Groceries for Your Letter Carrier to Pickup This Saturday

Community

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Fact: 1 in 6 Americans today is facing hunger

With shocking statistics like that I hope everyone remembers that this weekend isn't just Mother's Day. Actually the day before is the 20th Annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. That's right. On Saturday, May 12 across America residents can expect their regular mailman or mail woman to stop by during their regular delivery to also collect food. These care packages will then be delivered to a variety of local organizations for distribution to families who otherwise might go hungry.

Image from Stamp Out Hunger

 It's simple to help make a difference by donating edible items

• Gather and bag non-perishable food such as canned foods, pasta, cereal and rice
• Leave packed food bag(s) next to your mailbox for pickup by the neighborhood letter carrier who will make sure your donations are delivered to a local food bank or pantry

PLUS
Three easy ways you can use social media to spread the word about this good cause

Tweet this message:

Help @StampOutHunger 5/12 Natl U.S. Food Drive by leaving grocery bags for yr mail carrier #StopDropDonate http://tinyurl.com/7fat4cp

Follow on Twitter @StampOutHunger  

Like StampOutHunger on Facebook

The 2012 Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is a partnership between the National Association of Letter Carriers and the United States Postal Service. Campbell Soup Company is sponsoring the event again this year. For more information visit Stamp Out Hunger.

Image from Stamp Out Hunger

I'm already gathering groceries and bagging them up. How about you? If you're able, I invite you to join me in giving back to your local community. Please leave a comment if you participating in this food drive and if you like, tell some of the things you will be contributing to the largest single day food drive in the USA.

FTC Disclosure: Mommy Blog Expert did not receive any payment or other compensation associated with this post. See complete FTC Disclosure information that appears at the bottom of MommyBlogExpert's main page and at the bottom of every individual post on this blog, including this one.