I love water! With a Berkey water purifier on our kitchen counter, I've gotten quite spoiled having unlimited and convenient drinking water. I like to drink lots of water and drink about a gallon a day.

On busy days when we're away from home, I struggle to remember to drink enough water and often end up with a headache or just plain feeling exhausted!

But, a few months ago, Joshua bought some Contigo water bottles for me. After using them multiple times each day and repeatedly saying, "I LOVE THESE!" I decided to snap a few photos and tell you about them!

Things I love about these Contigo water bottles:

One-hand operation

No messing with lids! The hand that holds the bottle presses a button near the top to allow the water to dispense. I can hold my baby in one arm and use my free hand to take a quick drink. Since the majority of my day (and night!) is spent with only one free hand, this is wonderful!

The water comes out fast

Since there is a separate air-intake vent in the lid, the water can come out of this bottle as fast (or as slowly) as I want. I always preferred to drink from cups rather than water bottles because I like to drink a lot of water, quickly. These bottles don't slow me down!

Holds 24 ounces (750 ml)

Bigger than a .5 liter water bottle, but not too big to easily carry and use, I really like this size of water bottle!

Doesn't spill

These lids work great, with no leaks even when the bottle isn't in an upright position.

BPA-free plastic

Narrow enough to fit in the diaper bag pocket! :)

Dishwasher-safe

Although I must say, the bottle is too tall to fit in the top rack of my dishwasher. I don't mind hand-washing the bottle part though, especially since I only wash it once a week (or less).

Things not to love:

Made in China

We bought a box of three of these Contigo water bottles at Costco for under $20. I really think I only needed one for my daily use, but that isn't how Costco works. ;) If you can find them at your local Costco, it's a good price and the extra bottle or two would make a lovely gift for someone else!

Last summer, we got the boys their own water bottles for traveling. These Contigo kid's mugs have worked great!

Things I like:

BPA-free
Doesn't leak or spill
Lid is sturdy (no rubbery parts to tear or crack like many sippy cups)
Non-slip bottom
Dishwasher safe
Dispenses water faster than most "sippy cups"

Things I don't like:

Small (8 oz.)
Lid could be hard to clean, especially if you drink something like milk and don't clean it right away. We only use ours for water and haven't had any issues with cleaning the lids.

We got the Contigo kids' mugs at Costco as well, paying about $15 for the 4-pack. I'm very pleased with them, although I wish they were bigger since my children frequently like to drink 8+ ounces of water at one time!

Have you heard about January's Eat From the Pantry challenge? Crystal and Jessica are challenging anyone who wants to join them in spending the month of January eating from the pantry and avoiding grocery shopping! :)

I can't wait to see what they come up with! :) Right now I'm actually working on filling our freezer/pantry for when the baby's born, but hopefully in another month or so I'll be enjoying a bit of a break. ;)

I think also that maybe since I shop mostly at Costco and only get the foods we eat on a regular basis (fresh and frozen fruits and veggies, meat, dairy, and occasional non-perishables) and don't get the "sales", I don't end up with as many "odds and ends" to use up. :)

For example, the items in my weekly grocery shopping photos are nearly all things we were running out of or would use within 7-10 days. I don't have to watch for a sale and buying as-needed helps keep my fridge and pantry streamlined. :) I know I am not getting rock-bottom prices on everything we buy but I am happy with the lack of stress when it comes to shopping! And I'm almost always satisfied that we're eating nutritious food. :D

My friend Melissa is so creative! I love her blog post about making homemade play dough that is colored and scented!

She includes step-by-step photos, and descriptions of all the flavors of playdough that she made. I love that she used brewed teas in place of the water in the play dough recipe, to give it a yummy scent!

For example, the yellow play dough is Egg Nog flavored, made with pumpkin spice tea (for the water in the play dough recipe) and egg-noggy spices added to the dough! So fun! :)

One of the best "kitchen" investments we've made has been the Berkey water filtering system. It gets heavy use here at our house, and we've been completely satisfied with its performance. You can read my full review here, as well as a re-cap of the Berkey and More Than Alive (the company where we bought ours).

A number of readers here have been able to purchase from More Than Alive with a 10% discount code, and I've had several requests about when the next discount code will be offered. Well, it's here! And not a 10% discount, but a 25% discount for anything More Than Alive carries.

There are several steps to this deal, so if you're interested, read carefully.

1. On 7/21/09 (anytime) log on to MoreThanAlive.com

2. Click the Amazon link and order The Vision by Debi Pearl. (It is a $15 book and you can get free shipping if your order is $25 or more. I have not read this book so I can't endorse it personally, although I will say I plan to order it through this special offer.)

3. Email your receipt to Mel Cohen at melcohen@hughes.net OR fax your receipt to 931-593-2494 (no cover page needed). Be sure to include your full shipping address and email address. Receipts must be received by July 31, 2009 for you to receive your 2 FREE copies.

4. Mel Cohen will ship you 2 FREE copies of The Vision for every book ordered.

5. When you send your Amazon receipt to Mel Cohen, he will e-mail you the promotion code that will allow you to receive 25% off all purchases from anything at More Than Alive! The 25% offer is good from July 22 to July 31, 2009.

So how is this a good deal, since most of you probably weren't already planning to purchase the book The Vision?

If you were planning to purchase a Berkey ($200+) then 25% off of that is at least $50 savings. Essentially you are spending $15 for a $50 coupon. :) In that case you can consider the 3 copies of The Vision to be free gifts! By the way, the Berkeys still come with free shipping and a free gift (we love the fluoride/arsenic filters, a $59 value, that we got when we purchased our Berkey).

Also, for those of you who get Amazon.com gift certificates through SwagBucks (like I do), you can use the gift cards to pay for your $15 book. This is what I plan to do. :)

So basically, this is the best offer I've seen for a new Berkey. If you have questions, just leave a comment and I'll reply. :)

Full disclosure, as always: I'm not receiving earnings of any kind for purchases of the book or use of the 25% promotion code at More Than Alive. :)

Here are a few links worthy of your spare minutes today, should you have such. ;)

Leah posted about making our Spicy Grilled Steak Stir Fry... only her photo is about 100 times better than mine! She makes it look appetizing and admonishes her readers to give it a try.

My sister Amy posted pictures and the recipe for my family's Sugar Cookie. It's from a 100+ year old cook book and has a yummy old-fashioned flavor, with nutmeg. :)

The Sifford Sojournal, a fascinating tutorial-laden blog by a couple homesteading in Texas, shares about making homemade apple cider vinegar and cheese waxing, among other topics.

The Purple Foodie is a fun food blog I recently found with some delicious-looking recipes like Olive and Rosemary Crackers, Garlicky Baked Fries, and Cheddar Cheese Biscuits. Yum!

I've mentioned SwagBucks in the past. If you haven't heard of it, SwagBucks is a search engine that rewards you with points for doing searches. These points can be redeemed for prizes and gift cards. The maximum cash exchange value for the points seems to be about $0.10 each.

With doing an average of 4-5 searches each day (searches I'd normally be doing any way), I earn enough points for a $5 Amazon.com gift card each month. For me personally, using SwagBucks equates to about $60 of free Amazon.com stuff per year. For no additional effort/work (aside from initially signing up!) that amount is worth it to me. :)

If you sign up this week through my link, and enter the code TAMMYSCODE (case sensitive) you'll start off your SwagBucks account with 6 points. (45 points will get you a $5 gift card for Amazon.com)

If you've heard people talking about how they've made hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars through SwagBucks, making it sound easy -- well, it IS easy to earn lots more than $60/year... IF you can get other people to sign up through your referral link. :)

When someone signs up through your referral link, you'll get points whenever they do, until they reach 100. So if you know enough people who are willing to sign up, you can increase your earnings by a hundred-fold (or more) without doing a thing. It is legitimate, it does work. BUT. If you're not willing to email all your friends about it and you don't have a more widely-read blog, you won't be earning hundreds of dollars in your first month.

SwagBucks also has special promotions where you can find codes and enter them for a free point. But, do keep in mind that these SwagBucks are only worth about 10 cents each. If you spend 10 minutes searching for a code that's worth 1 point, is your time really only worth $0.60 per hour? My time is much more valuable, so for that reason I stick to using SwagBucks only for searches I'd already be doing, when I'm already on the computer. That means it's not taking extra time and the free gift cards are truly "free" to me. :)

The points are somewhat randomly awarded. Between my younger brother and me, we have figured out that SwagBucks are usually awarded within the first 1-4 searches done per day. If your IP changes you can earn extra points. (For example, if you do 1-4 searches at work and get SwagBucks, you can do a few searches at home and get more SwagBucks, whereas if you just did all of those searches at home, you wouldn't get more points.)

So. I know this is a long post, but whenever I promote anything that will benefit me in the end (even if you'll benefit too), I feel I need to be very clear. :) You can decide whether SwagBucks is something you want to do or not, but hopefully I've presented a true picture of how it will really work for the average user. :)

One more note: On the Amazon.com gift cards, they are very convenient to use. You can apply as many cards as you'd like to an order. The cards can cover shipping and tax. Any amount not used will still be credited on your account. (For example, if I placed a $36 order (including tax) and apply eight $5 cards, Amazon will put the remaining $4 as credit on my account.)

(Grilled Lemon Garlic Pepper Chicken)

Lin asks:

Do you still like your Weber grill and if so which one do you recommend?

Joshua responds:

The answer to this question is pretty simple. No, I don't like my Weber grill... I LOVE my Weber grill! The thing is 5 years old and still works exceptionally well. For about $200 it has proven to be an exceptional investment. (Maybe too good because it hasn't allowed me to upgrade to a newer model.)

From my previous posts about the grill you can see a lot of the perks. The single element allows for simple grilling that eliminates hot and cold spots. The low profile dome and cooking guide turn out consistent dishes cooked to desired doneness. The cast iron grate sears the meat nicely with restaurant style grill marks. Flare ups are rare and yet the way juices are run down the grate and come in contact with the flame creates a nice smokey effect which, in conjunction with the grill dome ventings gives the food nice smokey flavor uncharacteristic of most gas grills in my experience.

Grilled Texas Broil, an affordable steak option (on sale, ~$2/lb.)

In short, the Weber Q grill is a durable product that has constantly turned out reliable and tasty results for our family. We have enjoyed it for cooking for two and we have fed 10 adults steak dinners and it has performed admirably in each scenario!

Read more...

My brother emailed this link to get a coupon (by mail) for free beef hot dogs. Yum! :) Note: This has now expired. I hope you all were able to request some free hot dogs today! :)

Chili dogs sounds like a great summer meal to make when the coupon arrives in 4-6 weeks! :)

Spicy Grilled Lamb Burgers

A few interesting posts I've come across recently:

Raspberry-Peach Yogurt Smoothie is yet another beautiful photo and recipe from Julie's recipes! :) I love her pictures.

Jane wrote about making fried dandelion flowers, with pictures. I remember making and eating those with my siblings when I was a kid. :) And dandelion salad... yum! The little green closed-up buds at the bottom of the bowl were the best! :)

Katie wrote about the fate of returned food at the grocery store. I enjoyed her post and thought it was some good "food" for thought! I did leave a rather lengthy comment under her post with some clarifications/more info, so be sure to scroll down to get my "take". :)

I just came across Rachael's recipe for Southwest Salad, a meatless taco salad recipe. A lady from our church has brought that salad to several potlucks and it's very delicious!! :) For an easy, summery lunch, check it out! :)

I'm not able to read as many blogs as I'd like at times, so if you have something you'd like to share with me, feel free to send me your link! :)

My sister Bonnie blogged about a disastrous chocolate cake she made recently. :)

I'm sure we've all had those meals that, when we set the food in front of our guinea pigs family members, we said "It's actually pretty good. Just try it." :)

Really, just close your eyes and taste it... I added some salt and the flavor's not too bad... ;)