Update #1

So, I got into the new shopping cart and it's clear to me that it is far more complicated than anything I can manage myself. So I've been searching high and low for someone to hire. You would be amazed at how difficult that is!

In the meantime, I had the idea to add products to the sidebar with Add to Cart buttons. I'll be working on this until I have our most popular products available there. You'll have the option to checkout with paypal, or you can use a credit card through paypal even if you don't have a paypal account. This is just a stop-gap measure to allow you regular customers to still do your shopping while we're under construction. I hope it helps!

Web Site is Temporarily Down

Supermom's Health and Wellness will temporarily be under construction starting Thursday, Aug, 28, 2008. We will be getting the site back up and running as soon as possible. If you need to place an order, please email us at Supermom@SupermomsHealthAndWellness.com or give Erica a call at 859-339-9417. We still have all of our products in stock and would be happy to ship things out to you!

Thank you for your support and patience as we go through this crazy transition. Keep visiting us here at the blog for the latest information, or join our email newsletter. We will be sure to let you know as soon as we are open for business again. :)

Hello from a very stressed out Supermom

If you've been to the store yesterday or today you may have noticed that it's impossible to place an order. Unfortunately, that is because my web hosting service has violated their terms of service, gone out of business, become incommunicado, and now I am scrambling to fix not just one but TWO web sites where nobody can shop.

This involves me having to move to new hosting (done!), needing to move two web sites to completely new shopping carts (not done! will take much time! Not a good thing!), and much, much technical stress, strain, and chaos in between where I would normally be, and where I'm going (kicking and screaming all along the way). The good news is that once all of this gets resolved, Supermom's Health and Wellness is going to be better than ever and in a much more secure situation as far as hosting goes. So, it's a good thing, just a hard way to have to get there.

I plan to delight and amazed you (ha!) with the Long Version of this terrible tale once I get to the other side of it. In the mean time, here are some things for you to know:

If you want to place an order soon, please just go ahead and call or email me. The checkout will not work, and I am not sure how long it will take to get it working. It looks like I may be stuck with non-working web sites for a few days or maybe even a week or more. (don't get me started crying--I may not be able to stop!) I still have all the products here and would be very happy to take your call and send you what you need in record time, as usual. :)

My phone number is 859-339-9417. The best times to get a real, live ME answering is from 8am-10pm Eastern time. (BUT, after 1pm is better because in the mornings I'm normally doing school with 5 kiddos.) If I don't answer, just leave a message. I really will call you back! It's just that sometimes I have to take showers, eat dinner, and wipe the stress tears from my eyes as I try to get this business back up and running properly.

My email address is supermom (at) supermomshealthandwellness.com

When you email me to place your order just let me know if you would like to pay by credit card (I will call you for that--don't put it in an email. I want your info to be safe!) or paypal. If paypal, let me know your paypal address and I can send you an invoice once I tally up your order.

To thank you all for supporting me through this really tough situation, I will be including a free little giftie with every order. I just love my customers and it really upsets me when things like this happen. I appreciate your kind comments and calls--just a few minutes ago I had the pleasure of talking to one wonderful customer for a few minutes, and it gave me a nice boost in the middle of a distressing day.

I'll be updating here and with regular newsletters as I have updates. I would appreciate your prayers as I juggle the responsibilities of home, family, and business during this Code Red situation on the business front. :)

Thanks again,
Erica

Giveaway!

I bet that a lot of you would enjoy checking out the Lunch Tote giveaway that I've got going on over at The Baby Boutique Blog this week. Hurry! It ends Saturday morning!

A customer writes about the lemonade

I thought this was a fun little "testimonial" from one of my new customers:

I recently bought some lemon stevia from you, and now I am addicted to your healthy lemonade!!
My kids are so picky and they all just love it, hubby likes it also.
Just wanted to share, I like to put a couple of cherries in the bottom and let the flavors mix. Very tasty and gives the little ones something to look foward to at the bottom.
You may be able to find some healthier ones at a health food store,not for sure.
Just thought I would share.

Laura

Hey everybody,
You will definitely want to check out this report about the dangerous endocrine-disrupting hormone BPA that is often found in children's feeding products. It'll only take a few minutes to become better-informed and able to protect your children.

Question: Would you like to see Supermom's offering BPA-free bottles, sippy cups, and so on? Which ones interest you the most.

Comment from a recent customer:

Your company is great! You offer what most people lack........service!

Service is HUGE to me. I am always so disappointed when I shop somewhere and it is apparent that my purchases there mean nothing. My goal is to get orders out the same day when possible, and the next day without exception. I love to pack up your orders and get them on their way to you speedily. :) I think of how delighted you will be when the package arrives and you say, "Wow! That was fast!" :)

Thanks for your support of my little home business!

Getting Organized for the New School Year

I know that not everybody visiting me here is a homeschool parent, but a large number of you are. So every now and then I have some homeschool-related goodie to pass along to you.

First of all, I have the brand new edition of The Old Schoolhouse magazine here and can add one in with your next order FREE! Just leave me a note in the comments section of your order and I'll take care of it. :)

Secondly, I just found out about a wonderful set of resources from Cindy Rushton that is designed to help homeschool moms get organized and be prepared for the upcoming school year. The set includes:
Full Ebook library
Mp3 Downloads for all audios (over $700 in workshops!)
Organization 911 Seminar Set
Let's Get Organized Seminar Set
Free Gifts
Printable Planning Pages

You can check it out here.

There are always things to get for the kids at this time of year, but it's important to remember that moms need refreshment and resources to help them do their job, too! Please be sure to take good care of yourselves, ladies. Burn out is no fun.

Hugs to you ladies!

Free Stress Relief for Moms!

A lot of moms are needing a fresh burst of inspiration these days, and I've got just the thing! Check out this page with great ideas for:

summer activities for kids

family-friendly summer recipes

summer exercise ideas for moms

and more!

It's all here, and it's all free. Enjoy!

New Product: Omega Balance 3-6-9

Omega fatty acids are extremely important to our health, but most of us aren't getting anywhere near enough of them in our everyday diets.I've known about Omega fatty acids for a long time and have taken them in the past, but usually found that the capsules smelled very fishy, and had the unfortunately side effect of producing fishy burps hours after taking them. Yukk!

So I was so thrilled to find Omega Balance 3-6-9 because it's got all the good stuff we need, and none of the bad stuff that makes us not want to take it!

Omega Balance contains a blend of borage, organic flax seeds, and fish oils. This unique combination provides an excellent source for these extremely important fatty acids!

You can read more about it here. Good stuff! (and with 180 capsules per bottle, it lasts a good, long time! I like that. Don't you?)

Doggie Rescue

One of the things I did while the site was down was rescue a dog.

The other evening as I was sitting in the living room my oldest son looked out the window and said that there was a dog in the road. My husband and I got up to take a look, and there was this pitiful looking dog right in the road, not even reacting when cars were slowing and going around her.

I went right outside to try to call to her to get out of the road. Her stance was very sad--her head was hanging down and she was barely moving. I wondered if maybe she had already been hit by a car because she seemed so odd.

I called to her, whistled, clapped my hands, and knelt down in the yard near where she was in the road. She barely looked up, and stayed where she was.

At that point I started wondering if she was sick with rabies or something. I had never seen a dog act this way before.

My husband came out of the house to get involved. At this point quite a few cars had gone by, the dog was not really responding to us, and was walking right down the middle of the car lane.

My daughter brought out one of the little boy belts so that we could make a leash from it. My son used a piece of pizza from our dinner to lure the dog off the road. My husband finally got the dog off to the side of the road and got the lead on her and brought her back to the house.

He had asked me to call the dog warden, so I was in the house looking up the number in the phone book, but I couldn't find it. When I went out to ask him for ideas about who we could call that might know the number, we started looking at this dog more closely.

She was very thin. Not aggressive at all. But pitiful looking, like we wondered if she would live until morning. We started thinking that if we called the dog warden, she would probably be put down immediately since she wasn't looking too promising.

We got her into our fenced back yard and fed her some dog food that our neighbors donated to the cause. As we observed her we decided that we would keep her in our yard for the night and see what we could do to get her some medical care in the morning.

She lived through the night. However, we hadn't realized how chilly it would get. The poor thing is so skinny that she was shivering when my husband went out to see her this morning. She couldn't even stand up.

We got her wrapped up in some blankets and brought her into the house. Here's how she looked around 7am:

Such a sweet face!

Here's a full body shot of her this morning. The picture doesn't show it that well, but her hair is very coarse and full of burrs. When you pet her you realize that she has almost no body fat at all. She's very, very thin.
In this picture you can sort of see the back of her neck and the bad condition of her fur. She looked a lot worse in person.


We called our local vet and were able to get her in there bright and early today. Thankfully, what they learned is that although she is very underweight (only 24 pounds) and somewhat dehydrated, she doesn't seem to have any illnesses except for some worms. (yumm!) (No more bare feet in the backyard!!)

The vet said that he would guesstimate her age to be 5-7 years, so we were way off there. We had thought that she was maybe 6 months old.

And, the big twist is that she seems to be deaf. Which explains some of her behavior when we first found her in the road. Oh, she has cataracts too. So she probably couldn't even see me at first.

After we got her home my husband gave her a hair cut to get all the nasty crud off of her, and then it was bath time (using a Scrappy's Choice Dog Shampoo Bar, of course!):


She was mighty dirty. Here's what the tub looked like afterwards (and, yes, it was actually a clean tub before she got in there):


The big question at the vet's office was: What is going to happen to this dog now? Did we want to keep her?

What can I say. My compassion for the hungry, sick, and needy of the world extends to animals as well.

So now apparently we have a dog. At least until we get her back to health and see what's what.

The kids are so excited. They are saying things like "This is a dream come true!" and "God sent us the perfect dog!" Truly, the dog is rather ideal. Not even the slightest bit of aggression. Very submissive. She seems to have almost no expectations from people, either good or bad. We wonder if she has been around people very much at all. She is very calm. Of course, she doesn't have the strength to be anything but calm. So, things could change as her health improves. The vet thinks that she should gain around 12 pounds to be at a normal weight. (Can you imagine needing to gain 50% more body weight?! The poor thing!! She is so thin!)

I can see that it will be a challenge to figure out how to train a dog that can't hear. She doesn't react to any finger snapping, clapping, or vocalizations. How on earth do you correct and teach a dog like this? I googled "training deaf dogs" and found that there is quite a lot of helpful information about it. Hopefully we'll be able to have some measure of success, because she doesn't seem to understand even the most basic body language or signals from us. She doesn't seem to know the first thing about what to expect in life.

We brainstormed about possible names for her. We thought about having a Name That Doggie contest here on the blog. The kids were suggesting things like "cocoa puff" and "oatmeal chunk" and "jasmine." As I was watching the dog out the window and thinking about how cute she is, and about her being deaf, I thought of the talented deaf actress Marlee Matlin, and realized that Marlee would be a perfect name for her. Everybody agreed.

So, meet Marlee, my deaf, worm-ridden dog. My guess is that she's here to stay.

Giveaway!

I just wanted to let you folks know that there is a great giveaway happening over at The Baby Boutique Blog this week. It's for a Child Safety Pack. I thought some of you might enjoy entering the contest!

Yay! The site is back up!

I've had a very stressful four days waiting for my sites to reappear. I apologize to any of you that tried to visit Supermom's Health and Wellness and were unable to. Apparently my hosting service had a gigantic problem. :( Anyhoo--all is well now. To celebrate, let's have a sale! Use coupon code YAY to take 10% off anything at the store! (coupon is good through Sunday, Aug. 17)

Zoinks! My site is down!

Oh me oh my, Supermom's Health and Wellness is down right now! Don't know why, but have emailed the web host to try to get it straightened out. Sorry for the inconvenience! We'll be back up just as soon as possible. And I have no idea when that will be. :(

Who Wants to Wheel and Deal?

Hey folks,

As some of you may already know, I'm discontinuing some products that haven't been strong sellers, so that I can have space to bring in more NEW products.

Right now I am down to a small selection of a few things and am wondering if any of you would like to wheel and deal with me.....

Here's the plan: I'm posting these items at wholesale prices just here on the blog. If you want any of this stuff, email me at supermom@supermomshealthandwellness.com with Wheel and Deal in the subject line, telling me what you want and how many of each you would like. (do NOT go through the regular shopping cart) You get these great prices, but will be paying actual shipping instead of the usual flat $6.95. For some of you that might mean you pay less, and for those of you that choose heavier items or live farther away, it might mean you pay more. I want to let these go at low prices, but I can't lose money on the shipping. So, I'll scratch your back with rock bottom prices, and you can pay your own shipping. :)

You will be able to pay by paypal or credit/debit card once we figure out your total.

If you want to purchase any regular items along with these bargains, just let me know in your email.

Here's one little Pretty Please for you folks: Please only email me with your order if you are ready to commit to it. I am starting homeschooling with my children tomorrow, so I really, truly do not have time to figure out shipping costs, get back to you, and then have you change your mind. I am going to pack up your order once, weigh it once, and plan to get paid and ship it out once. :) I hope you know that I don't mean to be rude--I just have to be realistic about what I can do in light of all of my other responsibilities.

I can tell you that I use Priority Mail service most of the time, but will also be able to let you know what the Parcel Post rates are in case you prefer that. I have both sizes of flat rate boxes available for larger or heavier orders. The regular flat rate box mails for a little more than $9. The bigger one mails for a little more than $12, I think.

Teeccino: Canisters now $5.25, Sample Packets just $1 each
Vanilla Nut Teeccino--just 3 sample packets
Java Teeccino--just 2 sample packets
Maya Caffe Teeccino--just 1 canister left, and 7 sample packets

Baby Ganics--all varieties
All-Purpose Cleaner $4 each
Floor Cleaner Concentrate $5 each
Glass and Surface Cleaner $4 each
Tub and Tile Cleaner $4.50 each


Handmade Soaps (these are AWESOME! My family loves these. They are also great for little gifts. Stock up for Christmas.) $3 each

Herbal Lavender--just 1 left
Coconut Almond Fudge--just 1 left
Peppermint Shaving Soap tin--just 3 left (these never even made it to the site for some reason, but are great for guys who like to shave with soap-in-a-tin and a shaving brush!)
Shaving Brush with fine bristles and wooden handle--very nice--just 1 left $8
Goat Milk Peppermint-just 1 left
Goat Milk Lavender--just 2 left
Goat Milk Hyacinth--just 2 left
Peppermint Shampoo Bar--6 left
Scrappy's Choice Dog Shampoo--4 left
Unscented All-Vegetable Soap--5 left
Herbal Kitchen--3 left
Lively Lemon--4 left

Teas: Boxes of tea bags are now $4, Canisters of Instant Tea are $5.50

Rooibos tea bags--2 boxes left
Yerba Mate Royale Chai Tea bags--3 boxes left
Yerba Mate Royale Vanilla tea bags--7 left
Yerba Mate Royale Instant tea canister--3 left

Vegan Laundry Detergent Kits are now $4.50 (just 4 left)
Regular Laundry Detergent Kits are now $4.50 (just 3 left)
scents available for either type of kit: peppermint or unscented

Sweet Leaf Stevia Plus 100 count packets on clearance for $8

Larabars on clearance for $1.20 each
Pistachio- 5 left
Banana Cookie- 4 left
Cashew Cookie- 7 left
Cocoa Mole- 9 left
Pecan Pie- 5 left

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine: I've got lots of Spring 2008 and Summer 2008 issues here. I'd be happy to send you as many of each as you'd like, for free, since you're already paying the shipping on your total order.

I also have free Sonlight catalogs for any of you that want those. Just let me know how many you want. :)

I will try to update this list as things sell, depending on whether or not I have time. Hopefully I'll be too busy reading to my kids and packing up your orders. ;)

Half Price Sale from Amy Puetz!

For those of you that have enjoyed Amy Puetz's books Come and Get It! Revolutionary War era recipes, and Tea Time from the Victorian era, you will be excited to know that Amy is having a half price sale on all of her ebooks until August 16. If you will be studying history with your children this year, you will not want to miss these unique resources!

Check it out here

Back to School Blast Seminar ONLINE!

Anybody ready to kick off your new school year with a great homeschool seminar--in YOUR home? Do you want practical, real-life, proven ideas for homeschooling? A big dose of encouragement? Real help is available from real homeschool moms who guarantee to help you kick off the best year ever.

Coming to YOUR home!
Virtual Seminar Series
Free Gifts!
Special offers!
Mp3 Downloads for all audios!

Tickets Now On Sale!

Get More Details here

Welcome to the new blog site!

I'll be working on getting the old blog content over here just as soon as I can! If you're missing something that you need right away, you can always go back to the old blog to find it.

Floatie Swim Suit Safety Alert

I wrote this post several years ago, and now dig it out every year and re-post to share with people each summer.

We have an Easy Set pool at our house. It's a pretty big one, and we have floatation swim suits for our three youngest boys to wear, although we keep the pool shallow enough that all of them can walk around in it and still have their heads above water. Last year when I bought the suits the baby was one and the better quality suits did not come in his size, so I got a cheaper one, which he had continued to wear this year.
The other day the kids were playing in the pool while my husband and I sat on the deck watching them and chatting. Our youngest, who is now 2, lost his footing in the pool and very quickly was floating face down in the water. Fortunately my husband saw it right away and got to him within just a few seconds, so everything turned out ok.

BUT

The problem is that this suit was not designed to flip a child over onto their back if they needed to rely on the floatation! Our baby was helpless, face down in the water. He would have actually been safer with no suit on at all, since he would have been able to stand to his feet after losing his footing.

It only takes a very few moments for a little one to drown. I am so thankful we were right there with our eyes on the pool happenings.

We tossed out that suit and today I went and bought him one of the better ones, that are designed to keep a kid floating on their backs. Here is the difference between the two suits:

The kind that flips a child onto their back has a float in the front of the suit that is longer than the one in the back.

The kind of suit that put my baby into the pool face first is a kind that is designed for children who need a floatie while learning to swim. The floats are all around the suit and are the same size all the way around.

Just thought someone else might appreciate the reminder. Go check and see if your little one's floatie suits will flip them to their backs in their moment of need.

Two New Products!

I've got two new additions to the store today that I am so excited about! Wanna hear about 'em?

The first is Miracle Salve. This is a wonderful product for minor scrapes, burns, cuts, stings, bites, sores, rashes, eczema, dry skin, and more. I have been using it on my family for many months now and am very pleased with it. I appreciate it that this one product can do so much, instead of needing to purchase many different items for specific ailments. And my children appreciate that it does not have a strong scent like some herbal skin salves do. :) We have tried some that were so very, very *healthy* smelling ---aka stinky!-- that the kids just really didn't want to use it at all. They love the Miracle Salve and now put it on all of their little ailments on their own.

I bought the four ounce size to try out, and can see now that this product lasts a really long time. So I decided to just offer the two ounce size in the store for now. I could have made a little more profit on the 4 ounce size, but I think that 2 ounce containers will probably be helpful for most families without having to spend ten more dollars. If you feel that you would rather have the four ounce size, just contact me and I will be happy to get it in stock for you.

The second new product is Glucosamine/MSM. This supplement is great for helping your joints stay lubricated so they don't hurt! Back almost ten years ago after my third child was born (he's turning 10 tomorrow!! oh my goodness!) I started experiencing a lot of pain and soreness in my hands. Thankfully, someone told me about glucosamine and how it helps lubricate our joints. Through three more pregnancies and entire decade I have found glucosamine to be a good friend in helping me feel good and stay active with my growing family. :)

Glucosamine is an amino acid that contributes to making cartilage, which is the shock-absorbing gel in our joints. As we age, or as our bodies take on a lot of hard work (like pregnant mommies!), our bodies can slow down the production of cartilage, resulting in us feeling sore even while doing regular things in life.

Although pain killers can take away the symptom, that doesn't help solve the problem. Glucosamine gives relief from the symptom while also helping your body repair itself!

There are several more good things about this particular formulation, so if you are at all interested, please check it out here.

I hope to be bringing you more helpful products this summer. If you have any suggestions of what you would like to see sold here, or a health problem that you would like a solution to, let me know--I'd love to help you!