Recycling Rubbermaid Style Review and Giveaway

A few years back, my husband and I decided to start recycling plastic.  We always did recycle aluminum cans, after all, you can make some decent money recycling them!  I don't know why we never thought to recycle plastic before.  I guess we figured we didn't throw out that much plastic.  After just a few weeks, we had quite the mound of recyclables piled up in our basement.  We were shocked at the amount of items we kept out of the landfill that year.  Since then, we have had 4 children, and the mounds of plastic, paper, ect that we recycle is huge!  We live out in the country where we are responsible to bring our own recyclables into the recylce center.  This gets to be such a pain because we end up with loads of stuff in our basement.  My family works as a team to make the job easier on everyone.

With Rubbermaids new Hidden Recylcer, our job has become even easier.  Instead of having a paper bag filling with "junk" under the sink, we now have a stylish, heavy duty bag to collect our recyclables in.  No more paper bag denigrating on its way down to the basement.  The Hidden Recycler is a 5 gallon bag which holds up to 36, 12 ounce cans.  Milk jugs fit nicely as well.  My favorite thing about the Hidden Recycler is the leak-proof liner.  No more drips down the basement stairs either.  The bag is machine washable too.  And in the spirit of recycling, the Hidden Recycler itself is made from recyclable material!

If you would like your own Rubbermaid Hidden Recycler, they can be found at Rubbermaid.com or at select Meijer stores.  The suggested retail price of the Hidden Recycler is $15.99.  Or, you can enter right here to win one of your own!

Rubbermaid provided me with a hidden recycler at no charge.  All comments are my own.

The Passover Meal

Tonight marks the first night of Passover.  We had a very nice, intimate meal at a fellow believers house with one other couple.  We actually made it through most of the service with all of the kids.  Of course, we had to give them "jobs" so they felt like they were a big part of it this year.  When it came time for washing of hands, the oldest got to hold the bowl for the water to fall into.  Our 6 year old poured the water over every one's hands.  And our 4 year old got to carry the towel for drying hands.  Of course, Elliana, who is almost 2, was content sitting at the table eating Playdoh!  When we were reading about the plagues that happened in Egypt, the kids threw toy locusts, flies, ping pong balls for hail in the direction of the adults.  They also turned water red to represent the water turning to blood in Egypt.  All in all it was a very nice Passover meal.  Now comes the hard part!  Not eating leavening for 8 days!  This will be very difficult for the kids because most of the snacks they eat lately contain some sort of yeast.  I guess it is a good time to re-incorporate fruits and veggies for snacks.
I am, as I always do, having a hard time letting go of the traditions I had as a child and not passing them on to our children.
I grew up Lutheran, celebrating Easter.  I remember the excitement of Easter as a child, waking up in the morning, finding baskets filled to the brim with chocolate, candy, and sometimes even a toy!  I loved the building excitement as each of us would find our baskets and help the other kids find theirs.  After we gorged ourselves with as much candy we could sneak before mom cut us off, we were off to church.  Often, it was hard to sit still because of the sugar pulsating through our veins!  After church and a quick afternoon nap, we headed to my aunts house for a huge Easter egg hunt.  The winner always won a giant chocolate bunny.  Mmmmm, more chocolate.  However, as time goes on, it seems as though there is way to much emphasis put on Easter baskets and Easter eggs, and no emphasis put on what Jesus did for us.  This is very frustrating for me, a good reminder of why we stopped celebrating the holiday.  For us, we want to live like Jesus did, and he celebrated Passover, even becoming our Passover Lamb.
As it comes to this time of the year, I want to create traditions for my children to pass on to their children.  I want them to remember excitement about Passover, not just remembering sitting through a very long service and dinner.  Do any of you have any suggestions for me?