Beyond the Sling by Mayim Bialik, PhD Review and Giveaway

When I was younger I loved watching a show called Blossom. You may remember it yourself. The 1990s sitcom starred Mayim Bialik as Blossom Russo, a teenage girl living with her father and two brothers. I remember loving Blossom's and Six's (her best friend) fashion sense on the show. I loved their flower hats and funky, vibrant-colored clothes. They had neat names too and liking them was probably one of the reasons I also picked unique names for my children. The star of the show Mayim Bialik now plays the role of the geeky neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler on one of my favorite TV series, Big Bang Theory.

Before Big Bang Theory, Mayim did some unconventional things with her life. She didn't follow the typical child star life choices. She got a PhD in neuroscience from UCLA, married her college sweetheart and had two boys. After having kids she sought answers on how to best parent them as they grew and found a parenting style called attachment parenting best suited her. She then wrote a book called "Beyond the Sling" to tell about her findings.

I was able to read and keep Beyond the Sling by Mayim Bialik, PhD for free for a review here on my blog. For those of us with a background in Attachment Parenting (AP) this book is a wonderful refresher. For the rest it is great parenting advice and for anyone wanting to know more about how AP works this is a great book. Mayim tells us her experiences with AP and what worked for her. This book isn't saying anyone has to be a perfect parent. Instead it calls parenting the most natural and instinctual event on the planet and that the principles of attachment parenting are innate.

Mayim says we should follow our instincts and try to learn to "speak baby". This made me think of Dr. Who, of which I am a big fan, where he tells Alfie's father that he speaks baby. Yes...I know I am a total geek :) I can't always understand what my littlest is saying in words but she does try to tell me what she wants or needs in other ways and I need to better "speak baby". You'd think after 5 kids I would have the baby speak down. Yes, even I need to be more in tune. I know there are definite areas that I need to improve upon in parenting, spending more time listening to my kids is one of them.

My kids love my attention, they relish it! They love for me to do things with them. This is one reason why I do Attachment Parenting, AP, and love it. AP usually means different things to different people. Some practice more extremely than others. I am not totally "crunchy" in my methods. What do I do? I keep my boys uncircumcised, breastfeed my babies usually until they self wean, baby wear, have cloth diapered and practiced co-sleeping, and homeschool. I am also trying out gentle discipline. I also practice natural parenting because I feel it goes hand in hand with AP. I love to buy organic, all natural, nontoxic, biodegradable, eco-friendly, local and/or sustainable products every chance I get; I teach my kids about reducing, reusing, re-purposing and recycling; and we grow our own fruits, vegetables, herbs and natural remedies in our very own garden with which we also collect rain water and compost for. This is all how I parent the best. I know that parenting is going to be different for different people.

Even though parenting is different for everyone it still shouldn't be rocket science. This book tells us that good intuition is all we need in parenting. Listening to what your family needs and adjusting around those needs, not the other way around. Prioritizing your life around your family is important. Your children need you now and you will never get the first years of life back. For some this is a guilt trip...it really shouldn't be.

This book also goes into birth, breastfeeding, babywearing and holding your child, co-sleeping, elimination communication, gentle discipline and so much more. I have had power struggles lately with my older kids and the chapter on gentle discipline really helped me realize how to better approach things. I really hadn't thought about it, but I was gravitating towards how my parents had disciplined me when I was young, a lot of yelling and fighting back and forth was therefore involved. I felt powerless because my kids wouldn't listen to me, but it was really that I wasn't listening to them and their needs. Yelling at them wasn't getting me anywhere. I am trying to now hold my temper and my tongue and listen more. Slowly but surely everything seems to be running more smoothly and efficiently in my home because of this little refresher in gentle discipline.

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DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: Thanks to Mayim's PR for sending me product for free to review and one to give away for free. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review.

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CSN Stores KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker Mixer Attachment Review

Since I am a CSN Preferred Blogger I received a $65 Gift Code free to use at their stores and review the item I got with it. Since I already had a KitchenAid stand mixer I decided to get the KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker Mixer Attachment. I was looking forward to making my own ice cream, frozen yogurt, sorbet and sherbet in the comfort of my own home. This attachment converts any* KitchenAid stand mixer into an ice cream maker. It creates up to 2 quarts in about 25 minutes. The dasher is powered by the KitchenAid and once you freeze the bowl in the freezer for at least 15 hours (18 hours or longer is better for less of a soft serve consistency) it is ready for you to add the mixture, mix it, then freeze it in the freeze bowl some more to get the thickness desired.

Using this attachment and making frozen desserts with it does take quite a bit of preparation too in advance. I have used a Rival motorized ice cream maker before that needed rock salt and ice. The Rival machine actually took less time (20-40 minutes) to make ice cream because you don't have to wait for the freeze bowl to freeze in the freezer. After the first batch is done & eaten and the bowl components are washed it is best to just leave the freeze bowl in the freezer so you are ready to use it again right away. Also, if you like to make more than one batch at a time a second freeze bowl is great to have around so you can alternate between them. If you don't mind the wait of freezing time in between batches and already have a KitchenAid stand mixer then this is an excellent choice for an ice cream maker. I made vanilla ice cream from the recipe in the booklet that came with it and it turned out fantastic. Very simple and easy to use. Just read the instructions in the booklet and follow them.

You will need to hand-wash the freeze bowl so no damage becomes of it, but the dasher, drive assembly, and adapter ring are all dishwasher-safe. It also comes with a 1-year hassle-free replacement warranty.

*US or Canadian mixers only. However if you have a machine from somewhere else you can call KitchenAid to possibly get some extra parts for this to make it work for you...or so I am told.

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: Thanks to CSN Stores for providing me with the $65 Gift Code free to use at their stores so that I could review the item I got with it. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for posting this review.