The morning cup of joe is more utilitarian, it warms us, wakes us and allows us a gradual transition from sleepy to awake while it is slowly sipped. We don’t use an electric coffee maker, rather we do a french press. We seldom have more that the one cup for each of us in the morning, we use cheap ground coffee.

Come evening we traditionally have a latte/ espresso treat with freshly ground beans and some fun flavorings. It’s a tradition we started as an occasional indulgence for ourselves as we completed the day and came back together for the evening. About 10 years ago, the evening coffee was also the “morning coffee” to one of us as we alternated working graveyard shifts early in our lives together.

Now the evening latte is regular occurrence. It’s a surge of happy indulgence and a kick in the pants to get two haggard parents through the madness of bedtime rituals and such.

Nathan has been dreaming of making Starbucks style “pumpkin spice lattes” from home for years.  Cause why pay $5 a cup plus gas money when you have the equipment and skills to be able to do it at home? We’ve tried all sorts of syrups to fulfill this dream, none were resulting in the Starbucks style drink he yearned for.

Then we were given two bottles of Torani syrups to experiment with. We’ve tried Monin Syrups and DaVinci is what we normally use since it’s sold at our local food buying club. We’d looked at Torani syrups before but never committed to buying them online.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get a pumpkin syrup flavor to continue Nathan’s Starbuck mimcing experimentations but we still did lots of syrup playing.

The first thing we learned the HARD way was, Torani syrups aren’t like the watered down ones we were used to. They are much more concentrated  Pouring a full ounce of syrup in a shot of espresso returns a majorly sweet smack in the face. Nathan served me up a few of those face smacks and I just drank them an tried not to be a complainer

Then we really flipped through the Torani recipe book and saw that the recipes called for merely splashes of syrup, not ounces… Surprise & oops! It’s a good surprise, really. Means you get more bang for your buck and syrup lasts much longer. Win!

We were also surprised to learn about all the non-coffee possibilities Torani syrup brings. Did you know they have a BACON flavored syrup? I bet a splash of that in some pancake batter could pretty closely mimic those pancake and bacon monstrosities fast food chains are shoving in our faces these days.

Tiramisu and Toasted Marshmallow were other flavors that had Nathan drooling. They have citrus flavors, baked goods flavors, nut flavors and many other gems. You can make Italian sodas, cocktails, flavored tea, lemonade and much more with the syrups. Have you used a Torani syrup in a recipe before? How did it go? I’d love to hear some interesting ways to use these, perhaps in baking?

For now, we will stick to Torani syrup in our coveted coffee treats, but the next time you have a flavor conundrum consider trying one of the 100+ Torani syrups to do the trick.

This is a sponsored post for SheSpeaks & Torani, I wasn’t paid for this post. Was just provided with a product to test & review.

The post We love our coffee, do you? appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

It’s thick, corse, curly in areas and typically long (unless I am particularly annoyed with it’s weight at any given time). As a youngon I used to spend over an hour each day straightening or taming the mane when it was worn down.

Now that I have kids it’s mostly tied up in a knot on top of my head. Another reason for my lack of hair doing is the Indiana humidity… Humidity and my hair don’t mix and I’ve yet to find a product that makes my hair manageable and somewhat straight, without the use of a hot iron and lots of time spent.

This is why I was interested in trying the new Dove Damage Therapy Conditioner. Plus, I’ve always enjoyed the Dove advertising approach compaired to other beauty products. I like that they try to keep women more “real” in their ads than other beauty product makers.

So I tried out the “Intensive Repair” conditioner in my mane of tangled insanity. It smelled nice but I wasn’t particullary thrilled about the number of chemicals in the product. I’d much rather have a plain smelling product than an overly scented super chemical one.

I typically use chemical free herbal shampoo and conditioner and am typically pleased with the results I get. I am always willing to test out something more conventional with the hopes that it might calm the locks of hair and make them easier to manage.

I should also mention that I am NOT a daily shampooer when it comes to my locks. I find that less regular washing allows my hair to remain hydrated and appear less frizzy. Of course, I am very aware of oily hair and am careful to never let my hair get that way between washings.

So where the Dove conditioner was concerned, it did make my hair more silky feeling in the shower and also immediately following the shower but it definitely made my hair feel more greasy in the days following, which is a problem I typically don’t have with my more natural hair products.

The product did work well but isn’t likely something I’ll use daily (rather it will be an occasional/ special occasion product) as I found it left a buildup and made my hair more greasy feeling and looking between washings.

What is the most important quality to you in hair care products? Do you wash/ condition each day? If so, do you typically use the same products each shampoo or do you rotate them in and out?
Your answers to the above questions can be entered in the Dov contest below for the chance to win if you choose to enter.

Enter to win a $1,000 Spafinder gift certificate!

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY

COMMENTS TO THIS POST ARE NOT SWEEPSTAKES ENTRIES. PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR ENTRY METHODS FOR THIS SWEEPSTAKES.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Follow this link, and provide your email address and your response to the Promotion prompt

b) Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and then visit this link to provide your email address and the URL to that Tweet.

c) Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and then visit this link to provide your email address and the URL to that post.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. Winners will have 72 hours to claim the prize, or an alternative winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 9/4/2012 – 9/30/2012

Be sure to visit Dove®Hair.com to get a coupon for $1.50 off Dove Hair Therapy products.

The post How does Dove conditioner work out in the Talina poof of hair? appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

I remember as a kid, like in the 90’s, we had one of those old school electric toothbrushes. It was nasty and strange. The darn thing vibrated my head so bad that it made me sneeze, get a runny nose and watery eyes. I’ve never really been a fan of putting a motorized device in my mouth, not at home and not at the dentist.

I hated using that darn manual toothbrush with a passion but my mom hounded us each night and forced us to use it. The torture!

So, you can imagine my joy when my husband got his Oral-B Professional Care SmartSeries 5000 Toothbrush in the mail several months back. I was super relieved that it only came with the one toothbrush head and I tormented him about using it.  I believe the words “good luck” and “have fun with that” were used. Eventually, after his rave reviews over it I agreed to give it a try and he bought some extra toothbrush heads for us.

A decade apparently leaves much room for technological advancement because this electric toothbrush isn’t nearly as bad as I remember the torture device of my childhood being. The electric toothbrush jackhammer effect is still noticeable when you press hard while brushing but I feel like it’s not nearly as dramatic and terrible as I remember from my childhood.

The Oral-B Professional Care SmartSeries 5000 Toothbrush, in comparison with a manual brush, DOES seem to remove more junk from my teeth and leaves them feeling dental office polished which makes it feel worth all the “good vibrations”.

For a limited time, blog readers will receive 10% off all items now through August 31st, 2012. Just click here to visit the store and begin browsing for your favorite P&G products. Plus, you’ll get free shipping over $25.

If you are enjoying the Olympic Games right now you’ll be pleased to know their online store also has lots of great Olympic-themed bundles and deals right now. P&G is a big Olympic sponsor.

If you know someone that would enjoy this limited time 10% off + free shipping over $25 deal please share this post with them using the share links below.

Legalities and Disclosures:
I’ll earn a small commission on any sales (both from the product recommended and any others on the P&G eStore) from anyone purchasing products through the above links. It’s one of the ways I keep the site up and running so please click the links and shop if you’re in the market for P&G goods. Thanks!

The post Seriously?! An Electric Toothbrush Turned This Mouth Snob Around! #ad appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

The idea of the webcast was that Peter Walsh and several panelists would present organizational tips for the home, for kids and for the classroom while allowing viewers to submit questions via twitter that the panelists would answer.

N isn’t the most organized person in the world so I was stoked to get some organizational tips from the webcast. They presented lots of good info and many good reminders about organization. Here are a few:

TIPS FOR HOME
1) Find the Vision you have for a Space
2) Make Organization a Family Value
3) Use the Right Tools for Great Organization

TIPS FOR ORGANIZING YOUR CHILD
1) Show that you Value Organization
2) Establish Clear Limits and Routines
3) Always ‘Finish the Cycle’ (Complete a Task)

TIPS FOR THE CLASSROOM
1) Establish Clear Routines
2) Involve Kids with Classroom Organization
3) Use Words, Pictures and Color to help Organize

Just before the webcast we received this surprise box of adorable cupcake themed school supplies courtesy of OfficeMax. The school supplies are adorable and were a fun gift, unfortunately we can’t really use them.

I decided it would be fun to host a giveaway here on the blog so I could pass these cute school supplies on to a lucky reader who can put them to good use. So here are the giveaway details: This giveaway is now closed.

Prize: Back-to-school supplies from Scoolio-Von-Hoolio (includes binders, mini notebook, drawstring backsack, notebook, 2 pocket folder, composition books, pencil set and pencil box)

To enter: Leave a comment on this post with your best organizational tip (this is a mandatory step). Once you have commented with your organizational tip you can make the following optional extra entries. For the extra entries be sure to use the form to enter each of your extra entries or they wont count.

• Comment on any of my other posts (besides this one), tell me which one. Unlimited entries.
• Follow me on twitter, leave me your username. 1 extra entry.
• Tweet the giveaway, leave me the link to your tweet. 1 extra entry per day.
• Follow this blog publicly via friend connect, leave me your username. 1 extra entry.
• Follow this blog on facebook, leave me your facebook name. 1 extra entry.
• Use another media sharing tool (stumble, technorati, digg etc), tell me what you did to share. 1 extra entry per sharing tool.

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Eligibility: This contest is open to those with a US mailing address (unless you are willing to pay for shipping costs to ship out of the USA) and will close on August 31st 2009 at midnight.

The winner will be announced here on the blog. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss the announcement of the contest winner!

The winner will have 72 hours following the announcement to contact me and claim their winnings. If the winner fails to contact me within the 72 hour period they forfeit winnings and another winner will be selected and posted here on the blog.

Random.org will be used to draw the winner.

The post Back to school with Scoolio-Von-Hoolio and OfficeMax giveaway. Get Organized Today! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

Win the chance to cook alongside acclaimed chef, Ben Ford. Ben has created four signature recipes with DOLE Canned Fruit and wants to share his culinary tips with you and three of your friends at his latest hot restaurant in Los Angeles. Enter your short essay and you could win a beautiful weekend in Los Angeles in June cooking and sharing a feast with Ben Ford!

Now, normally we aren’t canned fruit kind of people but we thought we would give it a try since there were so many creative recipe ideas on the site.

I decided to try out one of Ben Ford’s signature recipes with the canned DOLE tropical fruit I got this week since I am trying to eat better these days.

Lately I have been loving smoothies and frozen fruit blends. They are better for you than a candy bar and they are also a sweet treat right? I tried Ben Ford’s Easy Aloha Smoothie, I wasn’t feeling like having to chop up fruits and do lots of prep work. Do you know how much of a pain it is to cut up a pineapple?

What? I am a lazy pregnant lady who is going to be 7 months pregnant as of this Thursday! Wait, I am 7 months pregnant already? WOW. I guess I’ve just slept right through the whole pregnancy huh? Dang…

Anyway, back to my lazy smoothie making. It is called the “Easy Aloha Smoothie” because all you need is a can of mixed fruit, some yogurt and ice. The can of mixed fruit has a nice variety of different fruits to enjoy and you don’t have to peel, cut or slice anything! It doesn’t get easier than that and it was yummy too!

The most important factor in choosing my favorite recipe was ease and quickness. No pregnant lady wants to be standing in the kitchen forever! So, now I want to know which is your favorite of Ben Ford’s recipes? All you need to do is visit this site and click on the recipe link.

Also, if you do decide to enter the essay contest (which you should) please also post your essay in the comment field for us so we can cheer you on!

The post DOLE Recipie Review, what do you think? appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.