Did you know that some women are preparing and ingesting their placentas? You can find recipes for placenta smoothie, placenta pizza… some women cook it up in a stew. Dried placenta has been a traditional remedy in Chinese medicine for centuries.

While the practice might seem repulsive to some, it apparently has several important benefits. For one, increased milk production, sense of well-being and avoidance of postnatal depression.

My guest today, Jodi Selander, has a more tasteful option. She dries and encapsulates the placenta for ingestion. Learn more about placenta encapsulation at Natural Moms Talk Radio.

I have found a new headband that is very versatile and I love using it to personalize an outfit. It is the headband scarf by Goody.

What it consists of is a headband with approximately 5-6 holes in it that a black (standard) scarf is threaded through when you purchase it. This scarf is then tied underneath the back of your head or off to one side for effect.

The nice thing about the headband is that the scarf is removable, washable, and you can put just about any scarf back through the holes to match your outfit.

While I wouldn’t want this look ALL the time, it is nice to have the option there especially for colorful or printed shirts that are sometimes difficult to match (but often come with a belt on the shirt, etc. that you can then thread through the headband to customize your look).

I have found that the headband/scarf works the other way too, I can wear a solid color shirt and coordinate it with different printed scarfs for a custom look.

You can purchase these just about anywhere for $5-$7, well worth the price, in my opinion.

Um, who doesn’t? The reality T.V. series “I love Money” featured on VH1, is a collection of other reality t.v. star cast offs (Rock of Love cast off girl “Rodeo”, “Midget Mack” from I Love New York, “Chance” and “Real” from I Love New York, “Nibbles” from Flavor of Love 2, etc.)

While some of these characters are interesting (see list above) others on the show are just a waste of space (“Toasty” from Flavor of Love – looking into her blank stare is NOT entertaining, “Punkin” from Flavor of Love – the last interesting thing she did was spit on “New York” two reality series ago).

In general I like “reality” t.v. even if it is contrived, but I draw the line with this kind of boring fluff that VH1 is currently putting out.

Hot lunch at school can become quite expensive. Figure on average, hot lunch costs $2.10 per day if you include milk with the meal. If you have three children, $6.30 a day, multiplied by five days, that’s $31.50 a week… just for lunch! Is it convenient for parents? You betcha. Can it be expensive? You betcha!

(For more help with your family meal-planning click here)

I’m going to give you some excellent money saving lunch ideas. It’s important to remember that you must not embarrass your children with the lunch you force them to take (egg salad sandwiches aren’t real popular in school). You need to come up with some fun, tasty meals that will make your child the envy of the lunch table. The object here is to save money and ensure your well thought-out lunch doesn’t end up at the bottom of the trash barrel.

I remember a day when it was cool to bring a thermos to school. Mine had My Little Ponies (the original ones) and my brother’s was Lost in Space. Kid’s thermoses are quite adorable, however a word of caution: they don’t keep hot foods as hot as the trusty metal and glass thermoses. Just be certain to preheat the thermos with boiling water, and then put the hot food directly into the thermos. Your hot food should stay warm until lunch time, four hours later.

Leftovers make great thermos food. Make sure you get a wide mouth, shorter thermos. You could fill it with soup, stew, mac and cheese, hamburger helper, chili, spaghetti and even hotdogs. Another idea is to fill the thermos with taco meat with the cheese already added. Then put a hard taco shell or a soft tortilla into the lunch bag and your bambino is ready for a fiesta!

Of course you could also serve cold lunches in the thermos. How about tuna salad, macaroni salad, or spaghetti salad? Or fill it with antipasto – variety of meats and cheeses. Don’t forget about celery and peanut butter or crackers and cheese. Roll-ups go over well, too. There are a couple different variations: Cream cheese spread on a slice of salami, with a sweet pickle inside; or instead of rolling up a slice of salami, roll up a tortilla that is stuffed with ham and shredded cheese.

Forget those pre-made lunches in a cardboard box. Forget the standard PBJ. Think out of the box. Economical can also be fun. Your child’s friends will try to trade their lunch for the fun meal you packed!

Get More Menu-Planning Ideas: Sign up for your menu planning report.

The makers of Heavy Duty – LOVE THEM – have made me very happy (Heavy Duty Foot Cream is pictured here). Heavy Duty is a USA company (based out of California) that in the past predominantly marketed products to men (featuring good lookin’ gals on the labels and having clever packaging for their products – most in the shape of oil containers, etc.)

My husband and I first stumbled across these products while in bath and body works. There was one little lonely section of man products and this collection jumped out at my spouse. Finally, something manly looking for personal care needs. He became a steady client thereafter. I would secretly use his body scrub as an exfoliant for my skin, it was awesome. On a recent trip to my local pharmacy, I noticed that there was a “Heavy Duty” display…whaaaaa? This wasn’t here before.

In the display were a few new products geared what looked like – towards women or men – like it could go either way. I was thrilled! I picked up the foot cream and bought it immediately. I went home and used it and it works great. My husband has been using it too.

He is a little bummed that this “guy product” has now seemed to become unisex, if not downright “girl” in some areas, but a good product is a good product – no matter who it’s marketed for.

Read More Reviews Here

So, things are about to get exciting around here. This week, BabyHacks is starting on solid foods. And by “solid foods” I mean flavored sludge. I am both excited and repelled at the same time. I’m excited because I can’t wait to watch her experience the flavors that the world has to offer. I’m repelled because I think it’s going to be messy and time consuming, and it’s going to result in much stinkier diapers.

Since I’m a big fan of Mama Hacks to make life easier, I’m already planning ahead for how to make this whole process work the best. I want to make as much of baby food as possible, because I want to know what’s going into my baby. Also because I’m insane.

What I’ve discovered is that I don’t have to make fresh vegetable purees every single day. Instead, I’m steaming a bunch of produce at once, sending it through the food processor, and then freezing the resulting mush in ice cube trays. Each section in the tray holds about an ounce of puree.

Once the baby food is frozen, I can transport it into reusable containers marked “green beans,” “carrots,” or whatever. At dinner time, I’ll grab a couple of cubes out of the container and heat them up in the baby food warmer. If all goes according to plan, this will take a lot of the work out of making daily meals, and I’ll only need to rely on prepackaged baby food when we’re traveling.

(Mama Hack: n. A tip or technique that reduces the chaos in a mama’s life and makes it easier to manage or more convenient. Because no one looks back and says, “I wish it would have been more complicated.”)

Nobody likes a headache – that’s obvious. The good news is, that 90% of headaches are due to “curable” or temporary triggers, including stress, allergens, lack of sleep, and even odors for the very sensitive – things that are in your control. The remaining 10% are caused by medical conditions or illnesses for which you would otherwise have already sought treatment.

Make sure you get regular sleep, stay hydrated and avoid things that trigger your headaches.

If you experience regular headaches, it may help to keep a “diary” of when they occur, how long they last, and what, if anything, you remember being associated with each headache. Your doctor can then help you determine whether something such as a lifestyle or diet change may be of benefit. In some cases, the headaches may be caused by your menstrual cycle, which can’t be helped, but which may alleviate any fears you have about their frequency.

Headaches which are severe, causing blurred vision, dizziness, difficulty thinking, or which occur along with nausea and vertigo, should always be reported to your doctor.

Sometimes it can be intimidating to do something you’ve never done something before. That doesn’t mean you can’t do it, though. All it takes is a willingness to learn and to simply go for it.

Whether you’re talking about a new work skill, or a pastime that your partner would like you to join them in, willingness can make up for a lack of initial enthusiasm if you feel a bit overwhelmed or hesitant that you can make a success of your venture.

Remember, this is an opportunity to gain new knowledge. It may turn out to be something you don’t care for, or don’t take a real interest in. But the chance is there to gain a new perspective on something, and no knowledge is ever truly wasted.

So go ahead – take the plunge into something new. Be confident that the experience will be a positive one, and you may be surprised how true that prediction is! And the funniest part is, once you’ve done it, you’ll wonder what you were worried about in the first place.

PapaHacks, BabyHacks, and I have been on the road this week, and it’s really been a lot of fun. We traveled to Seattle and stayed just a couple of blocks from the Space Needle. PapaHacks was in a class all week, but the baby and I walked all over the city and had a ton of fun. We did the Children’s Museum, the Seattle Aquarium, Pike’s Place Market, the Pacific Science Center, and more.

I have to admit that the stroller was the ultimate Mama Hack this week. We have the kind where the car seat snaps right in so that the baby could face me as we trounced around the Emerald City. There’s a space under the car seat where I was able to store the Baby Bjorn (which I already raved about in an earlier article), so I could get the baby out of the stroller when she got fussy but was still able to have my hands free to push the stroller along.

In addition to the fact that I could use the basket underneath to hold my purchases, I was mostly relieved that it allowed me a way to strap the squirmy little baby down while I hauled us from the Seattle Center to the Waterfront and back. It also allowed the little one to drift off from time to time, so despite the fact that her entire world was off kilter while living in a hotel and spending most of her days outside, her nap schedule actually stayed fairly consistent.

The downside was that the stroller is pretty big, and it made the crowds a little harder to navigate. I’m really curious as to how a more compact stroller would have fared. Anyone have a suggestion for MamaHacks on what kind to look for?

(Mama Hack: n. A tip or technique that reduces the chaos in a mama’s life and makes it easier to manage or more convenient. Because no one looks back and says, “The more I carried my baby, the lighter she seemed!”)