I’m excited to announce the first Twitter Party in a three part series for the opening of Universal Pictures’ new movie, The Lorax!

Coming to theaters March 2nd, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax is an adaptation of the classic tale of a forest creature who shares the enduring power of hope.  The animated adventure follows the journey of a 12-year-old as he searches for the one thing that will enable him to win the affection the girl of his dreams.  To find it he must discover the story of the Lorax, the grumpy yet charming creature who fights to protect his world. (Rated PG)

View the trailer here:

The Lorax Twitter Party

When: Wednesday, February 1st from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. ET

Where: #TheLoraxMovie on Twitter

How: To participate, use the party tag during the party hour and follow sponsor @UniversalPics and host @ResourcefulMom.  Learn more about how to participate in a Twitter Party.

Want to connect with The Lorax now? Learn more at the official website of The Lorax, on YouTube , and don’t forget to like The Lorax on Facebook!

Prizing

Ten (10) winners will each receive a second place The Lorax prize pack, which includes: 

• $25 Fandango Gift Card
• The Lorax t-shirt

Five (5) winners will each receive a first place The Lorax prize pack, which includes:

• $50 Fandango Gift Card
• The Lorax t-shirt

Ten (10) winners will each receive an IHOP prize pack from IHOP, a partner with The Lorax where you can find menu items featuring the movie!  Each prize pack includes:

• $25 IHOP Gift Card
• The Lorax t-shirt

RSVP

Planning on joining us?  Let us know here by adding your Twitter URL (http://twitter.com/username).  An RSVP is not required to participate or to be entered to win.

When my husband and I began dating, he had just moved into his first apartment and was living on his own for the first time in his life.  His diet consisted of three things: microwave pizzas, frozen chicken nuggets with fries, and chips with queso.  My first experience living completely on my own involved almost daily trips to a salad truck in my west Philly neighborhood near my school.  I loved the fresh vegetables and the cheap meal and suddenly I was thinner and healthier than I’d ever been in my life.  Somehow when we moved in together two years later, the salads stayed behind and the frozen food joined us in the new place.  We got married, I gained weight, we both became less healthy.  I’ve been struggling ever since to convince my husband to eat green foods and yes, food that has never been frozen or processed in any way.

Fast forward to 2004 and the birth of our first child.  Like most parents, we introduced veggies before fruit knowing full well that no baby in her right mind would eat pureed spinach if she had the option to eat mushy bananas.  Mmmm, mushy bananas.  We were met with some dissent during our first attempt at veggie eating…

Two and a half years later our son joined our family and he, too, was not a fan of the veggies, especially the green ones.  We started with squash for him, too….apparently on a Saturday.

Unfortunately, he was also anemic, and so pushing those leafy greens that are rich in iron became a priority.

Behold, the power of Hidden Valley Ranch.

The way that we have always convinced our kids to eat veggies is to provide them with Hidden Valley Ranch for dipping.  My daughter has begun to join me in my love for veggies, but always needs her Ranch by her side.  My son still isn’t a big fan, but he hangs in there, dipping away.

And my husband?  He needs some Ranch for dipping, too.

So why do some people – like me – crave a plate of raw broccoli in the middle of the day while other people avoid it like the plague?  A study released last November suggests that dip can sooth bitter-sensitive taste buds in children.  It turns out that some people are just genetically more sensitive to bitter, and the dip acts as a way to block that sensitivity.  In fact, the study found that 70% of children tested were bitter-sensitive (meaning bitter foods, such as broccoli and cucumber, have a very unpleasant taste to them), but consumed 80% more vegetables when offered a dip (in the study’s case – Hidden Valley Original Ranch) than kids who weren’t given a dip.

As a member of the Hidden Valley Love Your Veggies Parenting Panel, I was provided with testing strips to test which members of my family were sensitive to bitter.  I went first, touching the strip to my tongue and then nearly eating the thing in case I had done it wrong.  All I tasted was paper.  No other sensation.  My daughter went next, and while she wrinkled up her nose, she certainly was not as upset as that day we gave her squash for the first time.  She said yuck and we moved on.  So one kid had a sensitivity to bitter, but not a strong one.  Now came my son.  He also made his ick face and asked for a glass of milk but conceded it wasn’t awful, just bad.

I began to wonder if maybe the strips didn’t work.  Had something happened to them while being shipped here?  Or maybe the line between bitter sensitive and not bitter sensitive was somewhat blurry.

Then my husband came home and I handed him a strip.  We giggled as he put it in his mouth, but the giggles stopped when the poor man ran to the sink and began spitting, begging for a glass of water.  So that is the reason he only ate frozen pizzas in grad school.

This mom – and wife – is thankful to have Hidden Valley Ranch to help her family love their veggies.

How about your family?  Veggie eaters?  Bitter food haters?  Ranch dippers?

This post was written in conjunction with my position on the Hidden Valley Love Your Veggies Parent Panel.  As a panelist, I am compensated for my time as well as my posts and have received product to test.  All opinions and bitter sensitive family members are my own.  

It’s the Year of the Dragon and P.F. Chang’s is inviting everyone to celebrate this Chinese New Year by visiting P.F. Chang’s China Bistro or enjoying P.F. Chang’s Home Menu items.  We’re celebrating with P.F. Chang’s by hosting a Red Envelope Giveaway.

The color red symbolizes good luck, and Red Envelopes, filled with gifts, are presented to family and friends during the Chinese New Year.  Thanks to P.F. Chang’s, fifteen Resourceful Mommy readers will each receive a Red Envelope giveaway prize.  That is one for each day of the Chinese New Year, which runs from January 23rd through February 6th.  The prizes are as follows:

1 Grand Prize Red Envelope includes a night out at the Bistro with their Dragon and a night in enjoying Home Menu with their favorite Dragon

14 Red Envelope First Prizes include Home Menu coupons, Bistro gift cards, co-branded t-shirts

To Enter to Win:

In honor of the Year of the Dragon, nominate a dragon in your life (based on Dragon traits such as confident, bold, honest, generous etc.) to be entered to win one of the fifteen Red Envelope prizes.

This giveaway is open to U.S. residents age 18 years or older and ends February 6th at 11:59 p.m. ET.  P.F. Chang’s Bistro and P.F. Chang’s Home Menu provided me with gift cards and free product and all opinions are my own.

Learn more about P.F. Chang’s delicious Home Menu offerings including Pepper Steak with Chow Fun Noodles, Grilled Chicken Teriyaki with Lo Mein Noodles, Garlic Chicken with Dan Dan Noodles, and Firecracker Shrimp with Yakisoba Noodles by visiting P.F. Chang’s on Twitter at @PFChangs and on Facebook at Facebook.com/pfchangs.

Good luck and happy Chinese New Year!

Giveaway Link-Up

If you are currently hosting a giveaway on your blog and would like to invite other Resourceful Mommy readers to enter, please list the link below. Thanks!

Prize Update:  The following prizes have been generously donated for tonight’s chat.

- FIVE (5) winners will each receive a $50 Visa Gift Card.

- ONE (1) winner will receive a $50 AmEx Gift Card.

- ONE (1) winner will receive a full pass to the Bloggy Moms Conference.

- ONE (1) winner will receive a Full Conference Pass to the Type-A Parent Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina plus the book Mom Blog SEO

- THREE (3) winners will each receive My Trainer Fitness for At Work

- ONE (1) winner will receive a 30 minute phone consultation with Rebecca Scritchfield, RD

More to come!

Two months ago I wrote about the damage that was done to me as a child when people called me fat – to tease, to “encourage,” to hurt and shame.  This week I read, shocked, about a new billboard campaign meant to help end childhood obesity, but using shameful words and pictures of and about innocent children to do so.  I have teamed up with Mamavation and other communities around the blogosphere to ask that this campaign be pulled and to help raise awareness about the life long damage caused by these sorts of shame campaigns.

I hope to see many of you Friday night at 9:00 p.m. ET for the #Ashamed Twitter Chat with @Bookieboo. The invitation follows…

Mom blogging and health-based  communities all over the internet are uniting thisFriday, January 27th from 9-10pm EST to petition the @Strong_4_Life Campaign and the State of Georgia to cease this campaign before it does any more damage to children. The Strong4Life Campaign has purchased billboard ads all over the State of Georgia in hopes to promote a “wake-up call” to Georgian parents about how many children are obese. Unfortunately, they decided to create ads that are so controversial, they are down right offensive and hurtful to children. We think they have gone too far. As a concerned group of moms we recognize that Georgia has a large scale problem with obesity. No one is refuting that. We are refuting however tactics that would inadvertently harm children in the process.

Overweight children in Georgia have been made to feel #Ashamed with these billboards. And furthermore, children of a normal weight are being exposed to very negative representations of overweight children. These negative representations of overweight children are only succeeding in ostracizing them even more, and leaving them open to more attacks. The children these billboards are hoping to help, they are actually harming. Overweight children will be made to feel even more #Ashamed. As mothers and concerned citizens, we are speaking out about this. This is just wrong.

We believe it’s wrong to fight obesity by fighting obese people…especially children. Children are defenseless and cannot fight back on their own. Obese people are not the problem, obesity IS. Campaigns that have a focus on hope, support, and education are far more beneficial to children. Most overweight children already suffer from self esteem issues, which are going to be considerably exasperated by these ads.

Event: Friday, January 27th from 9-10pm EST

Hashtag: #Ashamed

Purpose: To protest the Strong4Life Ads in the State of Georgia and chat about obesity and ways to solve problem

Here are some of the main mom blogging communities that have come out against these ads and will be at the chat:

1. Mamavation with Leah Segedie @Bookieboo

2. Resourceful Mommy Media with Amy Lupold Bair @Resourcefulmom

3. Type A Mom with Kelby Carr @Typeamom

4. 5 Minutes for Mom Community with Janice Croze @5minutesformom

5. Anissa Mayhew with Slightly Bent Productions @AnissaMayhew

6. Christine Young with Dates for Diapers @youngmommy

7. Cecily Kellogg with UpperCase Woman @Cecilyk

8. DietsnReview @Dietsinreview

9. Sue O Lear as @Mrsfatass

10. Amy Bellgardt with Mom Spark Media @Momspark

11. Stacie Haight Connerty with Divine Miss Mommy @Stacieinatlanta

12. Lisa Morris Frame with A Daily Pinch @Daily_Pinch

13. Social Media Moms with Kadi Prescott @kadiprescott

14. Bloggy Moms with Tiffany Noth @bloggymoms

15. InspiredRD with Alysa Bajenaru, RD @InspiredRD

16. DrMommyOnline with Dr. Daisy Sutherland @DrMommy

17. SugarjonesTV with Sugar Jones @SugarJones

18. Queen of Spain with Erin Kotecki Vest @QueenofSpain

19. Fitfluential with Kelly Olexa @KellyOlexa

(More to come…)
We will be doing giveaways during the night and updating this post with what they are…

Join us by tweeting this message:

Friday nite moms R joining together in opposition 2 @Strong_4_Life & their irresponsible ads towards kids, http://bit.ly/zA5FCk #Ashamed

If you would like to join us in opposing these ads and asking the Strong 4 Life Campaign to cease harming children with them, sign the linky at http://www.mamavation.com/2012/01/ashamed-twitter-party-and-petition-for-children-in-georgia.html.

My daughter is turning eight in one month.  Eight.  We have now entered the age of Taylor Swift albums, sleepovers, giggles and whispers in best friend’s ears, eye rolls at boy…eye rolls at everything.

I love that she can tie her brother’s shoes and usually helps him without being asked.  I love that she feeds the cat without a word from her dad or me, that she gets lost in chapter books for hours just like her mom, and that she enjoys practicing piano so much that we don’t even remind her to play.

I love that she’s old enough for inside jokes with grownups and those knowing glances when her little brother does something wacky.

But there are so many things I miss.

I miss the little hand that used to fit completely inside mine and stay there.  I miss the little face that looked up at me pleading to hear The Tooth Book just one more time.  No, I do not miss The Tooth Book.

I do miss Sandra Boynton: the hippos going berserk, the purple socks, the chickens dancing.

I miss wombats that like to curl up in a ball.

I miss Max and Ruby and Laurie Berkner.

I miss Miffy.  Oh, Miffy.

I miss Sesame Street and all the friends in the neighborhood.

I miss words that stand for words but aren’t really words, motions that signal wants and the dopey smiles that go with them.

I miss milky mouths and milk drunk naps in my arms.

I love my big girl. I miss my baby.

If you want to close your eyes 
And sleep beneath the tree 
You can rest your head on me. 

Under a shady tree, you and me 
Under a shady tree, you and me…

 ~Laurie Berkner

Wordless Wednesday

Want more Wordless Wednesday?  Check out:  The Bonafide Life, Better in Bulk, Shanamama, From Dates to Diapers, Not Your Momblog, The Divine Miss Mommy, Colorado Moms, Rajean Blomquist, Brain Foggles, Lil Kid Things, The Centsible Life, Rachel Ferruci, and Zensible Mama. Don’t forget to link your own photos below!

Whether you’re hosting a Super Bowl party or just watching the big game with the family, DIGIORNO pizzas gives you fresh-baked taste, without the need for a tip. Don’t be caught waiting for the pizza delivery guy on game day! Go to your local Walmart and look for the DIGIORNO Guide to Greatness for your Winning Lineup and great savings. DIGIORNO and Walmart will make sure that you’re game day ready.

Ready to start planning for Super Bowl Sunday and have the chance to win great prizes?  Join us as we share our favorite party planning tips and menu ideas at the…

DiGiorno Big Game Twitter Party

When: Thursday, January 26th from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. ET – THIS WEEK!

Prizes

Have you ever had one of those moments in time when everything came together in just the right way at just the right time?  I am the daughter of a motorhead, the blogger whose first post was about her car, and a mother of two who is currently on the hunt hoping to make her very first new car purchase, and so it is with absolute glee that I invite all of you to tweet with me at the Washington Auto Show Twitter Party!

Washington, D.C., has long been the site of the country’s greatest ambitions for progress. The 2012 Washington Auto Show not only symbolizes the brightest and boldest dreams of the auto industry but marks the show’s transformation over the years. The Washington Auto Show ^® has not only become the largest public show in Washington, D.C., it’s also the premier address for showcasing the latest innovations in sustainable technologies and drawing the most influential leaders in the industry.

This year, hundreds of thousands of visitors, including many environmental and automotive visionaries, will explore the more than 700 new makes and models from over 42 manufacturers at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

The 2012 show marks a new era for Washington, D.C.’s largest public show. With its doubled time frame, from five to ten days, it’s an even bigger bonanza for area residents to enjoy the fully stocked, two-story convention center with an automotive showcase many describe as “new-car heaven.”

To learn more, visit the 2012 Washington Auto Show website, http://washingtonautoshow.com, or follow them on Twitter, @WashAutoShow, and on Facebook, http://facebook.com/WashAutoShow.

We would also love to see you at the…

Washington Auto Show Twitter Party

When: Monday, January 30th from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. ET

Where: #WASCarLove on Twitter

How: To participate in the party, please follow sponsor @WashAutoShow, host @ResourcefulMom, and use the hashtag.  Learn more about how to participate in a twitter party.

Prizes

Ten (10) winners will each receive a $25 AmEx Gift Card

One (1) Grand Prize winner will receive a Mommy Date Night Package - $150 Gift Certificate from Think Food Group (good at any Think Food Group restaurant in Washington DC area, including Jaleo, Oyamel, Zaytinya, America Eats Tavern), and 2 tickets to the 2012 Washington Auto Show.

RSVP

Planning on joining us?  Let us know here by adding your Twitter URL (http://twitter.com/username).  An RSVP is not required to participate or to be entered to win.

Slip slidin’ away
Slip slidin’ away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you’re slip slidin’ away

- Simon and Garfunkel

Ever since my birthday in the beginning of November, I’ve been lazily “maintaining” rather than working to achieve fitness and weight goals.  I still walk a few times a week, but I can’t remember the last time I picked up my hand weights or grabbed a Wii fitness game to change things up.  I made it through the birthday/Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year’s period with only a weight gain of four pounds, but three weeks into the new year, I haven’t begun to lose those four pounds.

I lost thirty pounds and completely transformed my body, but the bottom line is, I would like to have lost forty pounds before I moved into maintenance mode.  Those last ten pounds are always the hardest, right?  So what do I do to get to my destination instead of sliding back towards where I started?

I am a goal driven person.  When I write something down and post it somewhere that I can see it, it always happens, no matter how big the challenge.

Today I am giving myself a fixed date by which I will have lost this four pounds plus the additional ten.  I’m going to stop the slip sliding and regain forward motion.  I can’t wait to have a reason to provide you with updates again!  Thank you for sticking with me on what I’m finding is a continuing journey.

Please join us for an incredibly special Twitter Party to celebrate the opening week of Universal Pictures’ Big Miracle.

In theaters February 3rd, Big Miracle is inspired by the true story that captured the hearts of people across the world. The rescue adventure Big Miracle tells the amazing tale of a small town news reporter (John Krasinski) and an animal-loving volunteer (Drew Barrymore) who are joined by rival world superpowers to save a family of majestic gray whales trapped by rapidly forming ice in the Arctic Circle.

Local newsman Adam Carlson (Krasinski) can’t wait to escape the northern tip of Alaska for a bigger market. But just when the story of his career breaks, the world comes chasing it, too. With an oil tycoon, heads of state and hungry journalists descending upon the frigid outpost, the one who worries Adam the most is Rachel Kramer (Barrymore). Not only is she an outspoken environmentalist, she’s also his ex-girlfriend.

With time running out, Rachel and Adam must rally an unlikely coalition of Inuit natives, oil companies and Russian and American military to set aside their differences and free the whales. As the world’s attention turns to the top of the globe, saving these endangered animals becomes a shared cause for nations entrenched against one another and leads to a momentary thaw in the Cold War.

Big Miracle Twitter Party

When: Tuesday, January 31st from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. ET

Where: #BigMiracleMovie on Twitter

How: To participate, use the party tag during the party hour and follow sponsor @UniversalPics and host @ResourcefulMom.  Learn more about how to participate in a Twitter Party.

Want to connect with Big Miracle now? Learn more at the Big Miracle website, on YouTube and don’t forget to like Big Miracle on Facebook!

Prizing

It’s only fitting that the Twitter Party for Big Miracle has big prizing!

Ten (10) winners will each receive a Big Miracle prize pack, which includes:

·         $25 Fandango Gift Card

·         Whale Plush

·         Big Miracle T-shirt

Two (2) winners will each receive a Grand Prize $100 Fandango gift card for “family movie night”

Three (3) winners will receive a very special sterling silver Whale Tale necklace.

RSVP

Planning on joining us?  Let us know here by adding your Twitter URL (http://twitter.com/username).  An RSVP is not required to participate or to be entered to win.

More About Big Miracle

Rating: PG

Cast: Drew Barrymore, John Krasinski, Kristen Bell, Dermot Mulroney, Tim Blake Nelson, Ted Danson

Directed by: Ken Kwapis

Screenplay by: Jack Amiel & Michael Begler

Produced by: Steve Golin, Michael Sugar, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner