Sandra

The Do-It-Yourself Way to Change Your Car’s Air Filter for Cleaner, Fresher Air

April 11, 2013 by Sandra 4 Comments

As a mom (and a human being in general), clean air is important to me, especially in our car’s cabin.

We’re a family of seven, and while I can’t control weird odors that might arise out-of-thin-air (if you know what I mean), at least I can have the peace of mind that the air flowing inside of our car’s cabin is being filtered to remove the pollen particles and road dust that are trying to get in. And now that it’s allergy season, well, all the more reason to change our air filter to ensure that our family is getting the best quality air when we’re riding in the car.

Why pay someone else to do it, when you can do-it-yourself?

One way that we can enjoy clean-smelling air is by changing our car’s air filter — at home. Instead of paying out-of-pocket at an expensive mechanic’s shop or dealership, we DIY-it to get the job done. And we use the FRAM Fresh Breeze air filter.

Here’s how we changed our air filter:

First, we visited the FRAM Fresh Breeze website to find out how to change out the air filter in our specific make and model vehicle. The FRAM site makes it super easy to find out which air filter to buy for your specific vehicle, and they even have videos and downloadable PDFs to show you just how to do change out the filter.

Next, we purchased the specific filter we needed from Walmart. You can see details of my glamorous shopping trip here.

After that, we changed out the filter in a few easy steps.

(Ladies, you may need a man’s help to remove the glove compartment. ;))

After you remove the old filter, take a minute or two to marvel at how gross it is.

Next…

The final step…

And that’s it. Easy, right?

The Results

I definitely noticed an improvement in the freshness of the air in our car. (Side note: Did you know that the air inside your car can be dirtier than the air outside? All the more reason to change the air filter once or twice a year!) The FRAM Fresh Breeze air filter uses Arm and Hammer baking soda, which is going to help preserve the freshness for months to come.

I’m going to write myself a note to check the air filter again in six months.

If you want to purchase a FRAM Fresh Breeze air filter for your car, be sure to check out these Mail-In Rebates available right now. 🙂

When was the last time your car’s air filter was changed? Did you know it was this easy to change it yourself?

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias® and FRAM #cbias #SocialFabric #FresherCar — I love sharing my opinions with my readers.

10 Goals for the Week

April 10, 2013 by Sandra 4 Comments

I know it’s Wednesday, and I was supposed to get this post up on Monday. As usual, life has been busy, and as usual, I’m working on making my schedule and life more manageable. It’s a work in progress.

Here’s how I did with my goals last week:

Family/Mothering Goals:

1. ~~Cook with Isaac~~ — We made carrot cupcakes again.

2. ~~Research homeschool curriculum~~

Personal Goals:

3. ~~Drink juice 2 days this week~~ — Thanks to my hubby juicing for us, I was able to drink juice more than two days last week.

4. ~~Read 10 pages of the book Desperate~~ — I love reading this book on Sunday evenings.

5. ~~Walk on the treadmill for 2 hours over the course of the week~~ — Thanks to my accountability partners, I spent nearly 3 hours total on the treadmill last week.

Home Management Goals:

6. ~~Unpack one box~~

7. Clip coupons that continue to pile up — I started to clip coupons, but I never made it through the entire pile. I got about 5% done. Better than nothing, right?

Business Goals:

8. ~~Work on projects~~

9. ~~Return emails~~

10. ~~Write 4 blog posts~~

Here are my goals for this week:

Family/Mothering Goals:

1. Cook with Nathan

2. Read library books to the kids

Personal Goals:

3. Drink juice 2 days this week

4. Read 10 pages of the book Desperate

5. Walk on the treadmill for 2 hours over the course of the week and workout my arms at least once this week

Home Management Goals:

6. Unpack one box

7. Clip coupons that continue to pile up — I’m not giving up on this goal!

Business Goals:

8. Work on projects

9. Return emails

10. Write 4 blog posts

What are your goals for this week?

Disney World Trip Report and Tips for Your Next Disney Vacation: Day 3

April 9, 2013 by Sandra 8 Comments

I’m recapping our trip to Disney World! We’re on Day 3. If you’ve missed Day 1 and Day 2, just click on the links below in our Vacation Schedule to read those posts.

Our Vacation Schedule

Day 1: Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Day 2: Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Day 3: Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Day 4: Epcot

Day 5: Epcot

Day 6: Magic Kingdom

Day 7: Magic Kingdom

Day 8: No parks. We checked out of our resort and tried to make it to our reservation at Chef Mickey’s. It was not meant to be…I’ll share the details as to ‘why’ in my Day 8 post. 🙁

Day Three

As you can see from our schedule, day three was another exciting day of exploring Disney’s Hollywood Studios. We spent two days at Hollywood Studios and still didn’t see and experience everything we wanted to, however, we made the most of the time we spent there.

When we got up that morning, we tried to get to the park as soon as we could, so we didn’t really eat breakfast (unless leftover Disney desserts count? ;)) and instead decided to have an early lunch at the park. We knew from previous experience that if we wanted to have a comfortable lunch at the park and be able to sit down as a family of seven, that we needed to have lunch early, if possible.

JEDI TRAINING

After we entered the park, we headed straight for the location where we could sign Breanna up for the Jedi Training Academy. This is a neat show where kids get to be Padawans in training and put on a show for people in the audience. We got in line and found out that she’d be part of the show that started around 1:20pm.

TIP: If your child wants to be a Padawan-in-training, make sure to sign them up right after you enter the park. Otherwise, they may miss their chance. Slots gets filled up very quickly.

LUNCH

After we had gone through the process to get Breanna signed up to be a young jedi, we separated, and Ruben took the three oldest kids to ride Star Tours. I took our two youngest kids to the Backlot Express, where we’d have lunch after Ruben and the other kids joined us.

DID YOU KNOW? The Backlot Express has a ton of seating, so it’s a great option for large groups or families to sit down and eat, especially during the busy season at Disney. There’s also neat areas in the restaurant where you can take fun pictures of your kids.

I’m glad we decided to eat at the Backlot Express. While we waited for Ruben and the kids to meet us there, my two youngest and I explored the restaurant and took pictures.

David absolutely loved this part of our trip.

We had lunch using our Quick Service Disney dining plan, which is one meal per person (except for Elisabeth because she’s under 3 years old), one drink, and one dessert. It was a little chilly and rainy this day, so we opted to make some of our drinks hot chocolate.

After lunch, we decided to get in line to meet Woody and Buzz Lightyear!

The line was a little long, but it didn’t matter because it went quickly and there were lots of great photo opportunities while waiting.

Disney is so creative. I love how they can even make waiting in line fun and memorable.

As we continued to wait in line, I started to think we might not make it back in time for Breanna’s jedi training appointment, so we decided to split up again. Ruben stayed in line with the boys, and the girls and I went to check Breanna in for her star wars training.

THE JEDI TRAINING THAT WASN’T MEANT TO BE

There had been a light misty rain coming down for almost the entire day, so I wasn’t sure if the training was going to take place or be cancelled. I didn’t want to disappoint Breanna, though, so we went through the motions to see if it would be a go.

Now, here’s where I’m going to say that Disney kind of disappointed us. We got back to the place where we needed to be for the training. There were LOTS of other parents and kids there, too. Just picture a bunch of parents wanting to make their kids’ day, and a bunch of kids happily and anxiously awaiting to become young padawans-in-training.

GOOF UP

We were all there for the same training time, and instead of the Disney cast members telling us that training had been cancelled due to the rain and tell us to all go on our merry ways, they did something quite different. They had us go through ALL the motions (picture kids getting a fun pep talk while getting all excited) and act like the show was going to be taking place.

Then we walked over to the stage area in Hollywood Studios where the show takes place…still no one says that the show has been cancelled…we’re told that one parent was allowed to get in a line with their child while the other parent waited a short distance away (to look on as the show would be performed on stage).

As we waited in line and as this whole process went on, my ears were listening, trying to overhear the talk between cast members. I was catching parts of what they were saying, which is why I was not thrilled, because it seemed like they were pretty certain the show was not going to go on.

We continued to wait in line…

Then, finally, we are told that the show isn’t going to go on. A loud recorded voice is heard making the announcement that the show has been cancelled.

Children are completely devastated.

Okay, not really, but they were disappointed. Parents were definitely not happy. Some even voiced how disappointed they were at how the whole situation was handled to a Disney cast member.

There was a bit of consolation, though. The kids didn’t get to be padawans-in-training, but they did get to be ushered into a very dark area where they got to meet Darth Vadar, another jedi, and some storm troopers. We got a few pictures. Breanna was handed a certificate, and that was that.

She didn’t get to be a young jedi that day, but at least we tried. We went on with our day and had fun exploring the rest of the park. 🙂

By the time the whole jedi training situation was over, Ruben and the kids had made their way back to where we were in the park. I was happy to hear that they enjoyed meeting Woody and Buzz!

Since we were so close to Star Tours (a favorite ride for some people in our family), Ruben took the three oldest kids to ride it again.

We uploaded a movie to YouTube with part of their experience. 🙂

After that, we explored the park some more.

We met more characters…Wreck-It Ralph and Vanellope.

Characters from The Incredibles

Green Army Soldier from Toy Story

We packed a lot into this day, and one of the highlights was definitely getting to ride Toy Story Mania! again. We’d gotten fast passes for it earlier in the day.

But the highlight that really made my jaw drop, literally, was the AMAZING light show that we saw as we got ready to leave Hollywood Studios. At some point in the near future, we’re going to upload a video to YouTube so that you can see what I’m talking about, but for now, I have this picture.

The lights and the show were spectacular. Seriously, spectacular. I wasn’t expecting to see something like this, and, well, it makes me want to book another trip to Disney right now.

Oh, how I wish I could…

Anyway, we wrapped up our day by taking more pictures as we made our way out of Hollywood Studios.

All in all, it was a terrific day, and we can’t wait to go back!

I can’t remember now, but I’m pretty sure we had dinner back at the resort that night. I don’t have any pictures to verify, though. 😉

Writing these posts makes me really miss Disney, but they also bring back a flood of happy memories.

Have you ever been to Disney’s Hollywood Studios? If you have any Disney tips, be sure to share those, too!

Stay tuned for Day 4 at Epcot! I promise to try to get that post up sooner than later.

Use the Walgreens Steps with Balance Rewards program to help you live a healthier lifestyle

April 8, 2013 by Sandra 4 Comments

Wouldn’t it be great to earn real rewards that can amount to real dollars being saved at the checkout lane? Wouldn’t it be great to save money while being encouraged to live a healthy lifestyle?

I have to shout a big, “Yes!” to both of those things.

As a wife and mom on a journey to lose weight and be healthy…and as a girl who knows it ISN’T going to happen overnight (but I’m in it for the long haul)…I need motivation to keep moving forward. I need encouragement to keep going and not give up, even when the scale makes me feel like I should’ve never stepped on it in the first place, because it’s not showing me the numbers I want to see.

Staying Motivated

I have a number of ways that I stay motivated to be healthy. They’re sort of my little tool kit that keeps me going. One of those tools that I know I’ll be using for the long haul is the Steps with Balance Rewards program with Walgreens.

Have you heard of it?

It’s a neat program where you earn Balance Rewards for setting goals (such as weight loss goals), and you can even earn rewards for exercising. For example, last week I walked on the treadmill for nearly three hours, and I earned rewards for doing so. No pedometer or anything special was needed to track my walking. I simply input the information into my Steps with Balance Rewards account, and I was rewarded points.

Easy, right?

In a nutshell, here’s what you can do with the Steps with Balance Rewards program:

Earn points for walking, running, and tracking your weight (set goals easily on the website)

Track progress toward meeting your goals

Sync a device to log activity while you are out

Connect with friends in Walgreens’ revamped community forum

How Balance Rewards turn into Real Savings

As I accumulate rewards, they will eventually translate into money that can be taken off of my total when I checkout at Walgreens. That’s pretty great.

How to sign up!

I’ve created a ‘pin’ able graphic to show just how easy it is to get started with the Steps with Balance Rewards program.

Simply hit the ‘Pin it’ button at the top of this post to pin this graphic and refer back to later. 🙂

Overall, I’m really enjoying this program. I love this it’s another tool in my belt on this journey to lose weight and be healthy for myself and my family.

One more thing you might be interested in knowing…

Walgreens has a ‘Step Up To Win’ sweepstakes going on right now, which has daily instant win prizes and a grand prize, a trip to The Biggest Loser resort of the winner’s choice — that would be a great trip to win!

So…how do you stay motivated to live a healthy lifestyle? What’s in your tool kit that keeps you going?

P.S. You can enjoy more posts like this and get fun and creative ideas for a whole lot more over on the Collective Bias AisleShare FUN website.

Take a peek at my recent shopping trip to Walgreens to snag something that helps me to live a healthier lifestyle here.

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias® and Walgreens #cbias #SocialFabric #BalanceRewards — I love sharing my opinions with my readers.

Sandra

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