While I have made the switch to almost all natural and whole foods in our home, I have been slower to embrace all natural cleaners. I am getting there, but then things happen that make me realize I want to have some tougher cleaners around the house. Mainly Pukefest 2013.

It was no irony that my sample of the new Lysol Power and Free literally arrived a few days after the flu had passed. I actually laughed my head off when the package arrived. Because of course. Just about the time I had enough energy back to clean my house from top to bottom of every germ that had infected our place. Because eww.

I have tried lots of different green cleaners (some I have mentioned on the blog, some I have not). I have also tried many a homemade cleaner (I have a whole Pinterest board dedicated to them). My problem with all of them is that I just don’t feel like they get the tough jobs done. They are great for the day to day stuff, but when I need a deep clean (or have slacked off on my cleaning for a little too long……) I want something with a little more muscle.

Up until now that has always meant harsh chemicals. But I was so pleased to see that Lysol’s new cleaner uses hydrogen peroxide to get a deep clean rather than bleach. Tough cleaner without the guilt? SIGN. ME. UP. Plus no bleach smell.

I have tried the multi-purpose cleaner and it totally delivers as promised. It is my new bathroom cleaner and I can’t wait to try their toilet bowl cleaner because I am currently using a bleach based cleaner and I don’t feel good about it at all. My favorite thing about Power and Free is that it leaves a really mild scent. None of the strong overpowering scent of bleach or vinegar.

I need my house to be clean. And I feel enough guilt about how bad I stink at it (keeping it real, housekeeping is not my strong suit). I certainly don’t need to feel guilty about what I am using to clean as well. Thanks to Lysol Power and Free I don’t have to.

Lysol® Power & Free uses the cleaning power of a hydrogen peroxide formula for a powerful clean with no bleach harshness! This helps ensure you don’t have to make sacrifices while cleaning, such as opening all the windows or ushering the kids and pets out of the room. Lysol® Power & Free will help you break free from your ordinary cleaning routine- it’s a powerful clean that’s family friendly!

What do you love about a clean home? One of my readers will win a bottle of Lysol® Power & Free Multi Purpose cleaner to try in their own home! Comment below to be entered to win!

Disclosure: This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Lysol. The opinions and text are all mine. Official Sweepstakes Rules

Or at least my three year old boy. He is in that phase where when he loves a book, HE LOVES A BOOK! He loves a book all the live long day. Thankfully a lot of the books he loves are pretty awesome. So in case you are trying to make a readers out of your preschool boy, I thought I would share our favorites. These lean heavy towards the car/trucks/anything that moves genre cause that is what we are all about these days.

The Bridge is Up!: Cute repetitive story that Silas had memorized after a few reads. I loved the drawings as well.

Cars and Trucks and Things That Go: Actually we are into all things Richard Scarry right now, but this one takes the cake. Richard Scarry + cars/trucks + finding “Goldbug” on every page. We could read this for hours (and sometimes we do)

Little Blue Truck Leads the Way: I guess this is part of a series, but we have never read the first one. This book gets read most nights because there are a few words like “Beep”, “Zoom” and “No” that Silas can “read. Plus there is a sweet message about taking turns and who couldn’t use that??

Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes: Do you have kid’s books that you secretly love so much you constantly suggest reading them? This is that book. I love everything about it. The drawings, the repetition, the song and the “message” at the end is awesome for kids and adults. Can’t get enough of this book (and all other Pete the Cat books)!

Truck Driver Tom: Um yeah. Another book about trucks. I don’t know what to say about that. Except at the end there is the adorable little 2 page spread of every truck in the book. Silas can spend a whole lotta time naming all those trucks.

Disclosure: Affiliate links used in this post

So first off I am going to hit you with more sponsored posts than I would like this week. Everything is suddenly due at once and I TRULY try and limit them but this is just the way it is. That being said, I get to talk about some cool topics so hopefully you will still stick around and read.

So I mentioned last month that one of my favorite pastimes is Skype. Mostly though I have just used it for chatting with friends in Skype chat rooms and video calling home when I am traveling. As a Skype Ambassador I am learning there is a lot more that Skype can do.

One of my FAVE parts of the Toyota trip was handing with Jenny and Jen (seriously there were like 17 variations of people named Jennifer on that trip. Hazard of being born in the late 70s, early 80s). We were inseparable, slightly obnoxious, at times quite loud, and always hilarious. Well we found ourselves hilarious. I am not sure anyone else did……… (although who doesn’t find constant Anchorman quotes HILARIOUS?)

When I discovered that one of the things I could do on Skype was have a group video chat I immediately pitched the idea that we should have a reunion of sorts. Best part? We could do so in our living rooms wearing pajamas (while our husbands made fun of us in the background).

I was a bit nervous that the video would be choppy and the whole experience would be less than stellar. But I was so very wrong. It was like we were all sitting in the same room chatting. The pictures and audio were really clear. Well except when we were talking over the top of each other. Jenny and I can seriously get some talk on.

I think most of us think of Skype video as a one on one thing. If we are ever videoing with a group of people it is only because we are all in the same room. But imagine how fun it would be to regularly get together with girlfriends or family from around the country via video. Book clubs, wine nights, birthday parties? The possibilities are endless.

We could EVEN have a little Diaper Diaries fan club chat……… What do you think?

You must be a Skype premium member to do group video calling, but only one person on the call must be one to be able to use the feature. Get all the pricing information and details about other awesome features for Skype premium membership at their website.

Disclosure: I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Skype. I received Skype credits to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for participating.

If you read my posts about the companies I have been able to visit lately you will notice quickly that they revolve heavily around the same theme. While I love hearing about innovation, women in the workplace, and the latest products, nothing makes me more excited about and loyal to a company like hearing what they are doing in their communities.

In my personal life I spend a lot of time thinking about how I can give back to the causes I care about. One of the greatest blessings in my life is having enough resources to be able to donate to a variety of awesome organizations. So when I hear companies getting excited about giving to worthy causes, I become a fan of that company for life.

We spent a chunk of our afternoon at Toyota hearing about all the various philanthropic causes they are involved in. Impressively Toyota has committed over a 1/2 billion dollars since 1991 (when they started tracking such things). That is billion. With a b.

They have decided to focus their money in three areas. Safety- because as a car company that is one of their primary desires. Environment- because as a car company they know that their product has an impact on the environment and they want to be the best stewards they can be. And Education- simply because they believe strongly in the value of education and the need to all to have access to it.

One of the coolest things I heard all day was that Toyota not only wants to give money but get involved. Listen, writing checks is important. Money is hugely important to non-profits. But so is having people show up and volunteer their time. Money only gets you so far.

So Toyota encourages employees to track their volunteer hours over the course of a year. Once they hit 50 hours, Toyota will donate $250 to a charity of that employee’s choice. If they hit 100 hours, that donation becomes $500. What a great way to celebrate the causes that are important to the people that work there. I was so excited I came home telling Ryan that he should encourage his company to do the same. I think the world would look a little different if more companies did that.

But the thing Toyota does that has me the MOST excited is their 100 Cars for Good campaign. This is the second year for this program which awards 100 Cars to deserving charities across the country. I personally know how awesome this program is because last year one of the winners is one of our absolute favorite local charities, Kid’s Food Basket. In fact I was there the day after I got back from Toyota and look at what I spotted in the parking lot.

Cool right? There are 5 charities nominated every day and all you do is click over on Facebook and vote. You don’t even have to like Toyota to vote because they didn’t want to use their charity campaign as a way to boost votes. Classy right? Programs ends August 21st and you can vote everyday so get clicking!!

Disclosure: I was selected for participation in the TWIN community through a program with Clever Girls Collective. I did not receive any compensation for writing this post, or payment in exchange for participating. The opinions expressed herein are mine, and do not reflect the views of Toyota.

So last week at this time, this was my view:

Actually last week at this time I was in a plane somewhere over Missouri, but the point is last week I was enjoying some beach.

This was the balcony of my hotel room. So yeah. That was pretty awesome.

I flew out to L.A. courtesy of Toyota to hear about their company and drive around in their latest vehicles. You might remember I have been invited to be part of the TWIN network. Well we kicked things off in style.

I arrived in L.A around lunchtime on Tuesday and so I grabbed my bloggy BFF Jenny for lunch and then lounged on the couch in her room until my room was ready. I think she may have wanted to nap or shower or not hear my endless yapping but she was out of luck. Fortunately I also succeeded in annoying the front desk by calling down every half hour asking if my room was ready. So when I got to my room I immediately collapsed and got in a nice nap to recover from my 4:30 wake up call.

We headed out for a lovely dinner where I was totally overserved by our waiter. I take no personal responsibility for my state at the end of the meal. Every time I looked up the waiter was pouring more wine in my glass. I mean it SEEMED like I only had one glass of wine, but my state at the end of the evening suggests otherwise.

I do know that I sat with a lovely Toyota employee, Sona, who I pretty much wanted to move next door and be my friend. She was awesome. I also may or may not have told Jen the same story 7 times. Fortunately she can’t remember the story. Hopefully it was a good one. She seems to think I am kind of awesome so I can only assume it was.

Wednesday morning we headed out to Toyota to learn all about what makes their company great. And you know what makes them great? For years their company has done what they do through the lens of their two pillars.

1. Respect for People
2. Continuous Improvement

If you want to learn a little Japanese today, the word for the day is Kaizen. It means continuous improvement. So even if the product they make is awesome (which it is) they are always looking for ways to innovate and make it better. And I think that totally shows in the cars they make. They are really leaders in a lot of areas including technology, hybrids and safety.

Speaking of technology, hybrids and safety, it was car driving time! Outside of my awesome Toyota Sienna and a rental Camry I haven’t driven many of their cars. And since my Sienna is a 2004 I am totally out of touch with what is going on in the world of new cars. So I first wanted to see what a 2012 Sienna was all about.

I make minivan driving look good

The new Sienna has a little seat in the middle of the third row to accommodate an extra person. I want a car to seat as many people as possible so this is a bonus. I didn’t think it was the most comfortable seat in the world but for carpooling around town it would be nice. For long trips there was a DVD screen that was INSANE. Like your kids head would explode when they saw it. It was huge and could even accommodate a split screen so your kids can watch different shows. They can also accommodate a Wii!! My kids would never want to leave the car.

photo courtesy of Life Rearranged

I didn’t get a chance to drive a Prius cause they were pretty popular, but they aren’t really practical for our family right now because we need BIG in a car. I did ask when they were going to make a Sienna hybrid because I truly would love to drive a car that got awesome gas mileage and was better for the environment. But alas, it ain’t happening. Unfortunately the cost of making a hybrid minivan at this point would make the car so expensive no one would buy it. I am crossing my fingers by the time we can afford another car it will exist.

One of the things that impressed me so much about this experience is that Toyota really cared about what we had to say. A lot of companies just want to tell you why they are awesome. And I don’t mind that because I like to hear why companies are awesome. But throughout the day it also became very obvious they wanted to know what we thought about their cars. Which isn’t that surprising considering their company is built on Kaizen. And since we are a group of opinionated bloggers, there was no lack of feedback for them. Be careful what you wish for.

By the end of the day I was a bit tired since my stupid brain was on EST and I woke up at 4:30 again. Sigh. A hotel room with no kids in sight and I wake up at 4:30. Anywho, tired translated to a little crazy so when we got to the Toyota museum and I spied a display dedicated to advertising over the years there was only one thing to do. Jenny and I simply HAD to recreate their famous ad with the Toyota jump (don’t tell me you are too young to know what that is or I will be forced to punch you).

photo by Glennia Campbell

Yeah, I know. We are awesome. And seriously retro is super cool. I know what you are thinking. Toyota should totally hire us and resurrect the ad campaign. From your lips to Toyota’s ears ladies.

Tomorrow I want to tell you about my absolute favorite thing about Toyota which needs its own post. Their philanthropy. To be continued……

Disclosure: I was selected for participation in the TWIN community through a program with Clever Girls Collective. I did not receive any compensation for writing this post, or payment in exchange for participating. The opinions expressed herein are mine, and do not reflect the views of Toyota.

Are you tired of hearing about the trips I am going on? Well here is the thing. I have been blogging for almost 5 years, watching other bloggers get awesome opportunities to go interact with companies on their home turf and being insanely jealous. Partly because, hello? Free trip away from the kids. But also because I am a dork who loves finding out about the behind the scenes stuff about the companies I love. Also hello? No kids!

So, you all have to bear with me through one more trip. Because I am so stupid excited about this one.

I had to dig through the archives to figure out just when I fell in love with Toyota. I know at first I resisted my “swagger wagon”. But then, like anyone who has ever owned a Toyota Sienna, I fell madly and deeply in love with my car.

Last year, when Clever Girls took applications to join their Toyota Women’s Influencer Network, I jumped on the chance. And then didn’t get asked to join. Insert sad face here. But then, at the beginning of this year, they opened up applications again. I think I wrote a heart felt ode to my Sienna and lo and behold I was chosen!

Next week I get to head out to Los Angeles with several other bloggers and drive the newest Toyota’s. And, ok, so I get to stay on the beach and go out to nice dinners without the kids. But I am so excited to work with Toyota for a few months as well and find out all they are doing in innovation and community efforts (one of which I am excited to tell you about next week).

Let me know if you have any questions you want answered or what you want to hear about from Toyota. And make sure to follow Toyota on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest as well as following the TWIN members using the #toyotawomen hashtag on Twitter.

Disclosure: I was selected for participation in the TWIN community through a program with Clever Girls Collective. I did not receive any compensation for writing this post, or payment in exchange for participating. The opinions expressed herein are mine, and do not reflect the views of Toyota.

I don’t know how you take people who I didn’t know 4 years ago, only see each other once a year, yet feel like they are some of my closest friends. But when you blog, it happens. I so love these girls.

Staci, Becky, me, and Mandi (noticeably absent is Amanda who was home with sick kids)

I am in Atlanta for a few days with Coke learning about some of their initiatives. I’m not going to lie. Seeing these ladies was a big incentive for coming. More to come soon…..

At any given time a day you can find me on my computer (not all day I promise). At at any given time I am on the computer you will find Skype open and chirping.

Throughout my time in the blogging world I have made close friends all over the country. But Skype makes it feel like they are all in my living room. Sometimes all at once, all “talking” at once, with emoticons everywhere. It is my happy place.

Sometimes Ryan travels for work. And we all miss him desperately when he is gone. But when his face pops up on Skype it is almost like he is sitting across the dinner table asking the kids about his day.

And on the rare occasion Ryan and I get away together Skype is what makes us be able to focus on each other. Because we know we can check in with the kiddos and they don’t miss us near as much. And we can usually tell by the weary looks on my parents faces how things are going back at home.

Cards, letters, emails and Facebook updates are all nice. But there is nothing like being able to see the faces of the people you love. Mother’s Day is coming up. Wouldn’t your mom love more than anything to see you face to face (unless you are my mom who sees me every day. She frankly probably wants a break for Mother’s Day).

So of course you could do a boring old card for your mom for Mother’s Day. OR you could send her a rocking greeting from Skype’s “Mom’s You Rock” Facebook app. It is a fun way to rock out with a band and let your mom know how much she means to you. And the best part is, with every video created Skype will donate $1 to a fantastic charity, Save The Children.

I am really excited to announce that I have been chosen as a Skype Ambassador and will be doing some fun Skype experiments in the next few months. I actually have something really fun planned for June and am hoping you all will join in the fun. In the meantime tell me:

How do you use Skype?

I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Skype. I received Skype credits to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for participating.