Purex Post: Dial Hand Soap (GIVEAWAY)

March 27, 2015 thdpr

As you may know, I am very fortunate to be a part of a program called Purex Insiders. They often will send products for me to test and talk about along with some coupons.In this case, I was sent two Dial products to try and blog about. One was their new Miracle Oil Hand Soap and the other was the Sugar Cane Husk Scrub.I was a bit skeptical about the miracle oil because I wasn't sure what kind of residue would be left behind. I am REALLY particular when it comes to my hand soap. Smell, feel, and how my hands feel afterwards are all factors for me.I was so impressed by both of these products on all levels. Both soaps left my hands feeling clean with no residue, smelling awesome, and not dry at all. Dial-Miracle-Promo I really enjoyed the Miracle Oil soap for it's smell and the moisture it left behind on my hands. Not oily, but moisturized. It is infused with Marula oil and really conditioned my hands nicely. Plus, I knew that I was getting the Dial commitment to health and safety. I wish the doctor's office would stock this instead of their harsh foams! Starting in February, you can find Dial Miracle Oil Hand Soap any where you buy Dial soaps. Dial-Sugar-Promo The other soap I tried was the deep cleansing Sugar Cane Husk Scrub. This is also a hand soap and has these tiny little (they call them) 'micro scrubbers' in the formula to help exfoliate and clean your hands. This product also impressed me with the smell and feel of the soap. I guess I shouldn't be so skeptical about the smell of hand soaps but I am. Too many awful experiences that leave my hands dry and smelling terrible! I used to work for a local luxury soap maker here in Denver as a side job, selling their products in the retail store. One thing I loved about them was that they sold sugar scrubs instead of salt. Many people don't realize that a sugar grain in rounded where as salt has sharp edges. You get a similar result but the salt actually scratches your skin and drys it out. Sugar is for sure the way to go when you exfoliate. I don't know if these 'micro scrubbers' are actual sugar crystals but they seem to do the job and do it well. All in all I was very pleased! Again, the Dial Sugar Cane Husk Scrub is available at retailers starting in February.So to wrap this up, I actually have a little give away! Comment below and tell me what your pet peeves are about hand soap and which is your current favorite and I will pick THREE winners to receive a coupon for a FREE DIAL HAND SOAP! Comment by April 5 to be entered!A special thank you to the Dial brand for providing the products and the coupons. And as usual, they provided the sample in exchange for a review but all opinions expressed here are my own!

Oh Baby!

March 5, 2015 thdpr

In the spirit of keeping our friends and family updated on baby news, I am going to cross post some of my blogs from my other site - Talia, She Wrote.You can find all baby related posts by using the 'Baby Haykin' category. And all big updates will be posted here - thehaykins.com/baby

Homemade Prune Filling

March 4, 2015 thdpr

It is will great disgrace that I realize I haven't blogged in a year. But it's been a rough year. We know it's been at least a Jewish calendar year since my last post was about Hamentaschen. I just wanted to share again, the amazing Prune Butter recipe I found last year from Tori Avey. You can find her Lekvar Plum Butter recipe in full, with stunning pictures, here.This year, I felt comfortable enough with the consistency and idea of the recipe to freehand it a bit. I also did not remember to get the oranges I needed so I had to improvise... this was a common problem for me this year... being 6 months pregnant, my brain seems to have taken a vacation to Hawaii. I also forgot the lemon juice for the hamentaschen dough recipe (you can find that recipe here). What I learned is that white vinegar can substitute nicely for lemon juice. It gives the acidity but no flavor. It worked fine but (baby brain) I left the dough too long before I baked them (think 2 days) and it dried out so I had to start over. Fortunately then I had lemons and added the juice. It really does give it a nice zing.Anyway, here is my modified Plum Butter recipe that I used this year. My proportions are cut in a quarter from Tori's recipe. That was plenty for me to make half a batch of prune. Last year I had a ton of filling left over. I only make one batch these days but ... maybe I will be making more for preschool classes in the near future B'H!Kosher, She Eats Modified Plum Butter recipe (with ultimate gratitude to Tori Avey!)[ingredients]DON'T LET THESE MEASUREMENTS DRIVE YOU CRAZY! I only had a 1/2 cup of prunes so that informed the whole thing. I just felt it out. It needed a bit more water while it was cooking so I added it. I also used white bakers sugar because I couldn't find my brown sugar.Directions:

Combine all of the ingredients in a saucepan except for the brown sugar. Stir and bring to a boil for one minute.
Reduce heat to medium low so the mixture simmers slowly and constantly. Cover the pot. Let the mixture simmer covered for 20 minutes, stirring every few minutes.
Remove the lid from the pan. Let the prunes continue to simmer for 3-5 more minutes, stirring frequently, until most of the liquid has evaporated/absorbed. Keep a close eye on the pan to make sure the prunes don't burn. When there are about 3 tbsp of liquid left in the pan, remove from heat.
Stir the brown sugar into the prune mixture till brown sugar melts and dissolves.
Mash the prune mixture with a potato masher till a smooth puree forms. Run a fork through the mixture to break up any pieces the potato masher missed. You can also use an immersion blender for a smoother puree, if you want to.
Let cool to room temperature before using. Store in a sealed, airtight container in the refrigerator. Refrigerating the filling to chill completely will make it easier to work with when filling hamantaschen.

These are Tori's instructions. They work pretty darn well. I was using a tiny saucepan since it was a small batch. We got a 0.5 quart all-clad butter warmer for our wedding. It was the best gift ever (thanks Joan!) because Dan uses it to warm his cream up in the mornings and I use it for tiny projects like this. Only downside is, it doesn't have a lid. So I did the recipe uncovered. It would have absorbed better covered but it worked just fine. So if you lost your brain (like me) or are in a rush (like me) you won't ruin it if you don't cover it. I also didn't let it cool fully before I used it and didn't mash the prunes enough. I tossed it in the fridge while I did the poppyseed filling and then used it. It was fine but she is right, it will work better cooled. As for the lack of mashing... it didn't seem like enough to use an immersion blender. And the pot was too small for a potato masher... so I violently attacked it with a fork. If I had more time, I might have used two forks. As people have been eating them, there are larger chunks of prune than I would prefer.Regardless of all of my shortcuts and changes, it's a tasty recipe and is now permanently in my arsenal. Now I need a homemade poppyseed filling... anyone have any good ones? Hamentaschen

3/3/15

March 3, 2015 thdpr

Today was a hectic day. Meeting after meeting. Project after project. Email after email. I cranked all day. But there was something that was never far from my mind today.Today, our little girl, our second baby, was due. I felt such hope about that pregnancy. Surely after our first loss, G-d would help us keep this baby. All the signs were there. We found out we were pregnant on Dan's birthday. The baby was due on 3/3, one of the alternate dates we picked for our wedding. But also, if the baby was born on 3/3, we would share a hebrew birthday 13 Adar. We would both be Purim babies. And if this baby came two weeks late (just like I did) we would share an English birthday. My in-laws, my stepmother and I all share March birthdays. See?! So many signs. I carry you in my heart But that little girl was not meant to come home with us. She was very ill, we found out after we lost her and it was (we learned from the doctor) better that she wasn't born. But she and her older sibling (due 12/13/14) are never far from my mind. I wear a little heart necklace all the time now. It reminds me of the two little hearts that aren't here with us. I know that they are in our hearts though and their little brother who, G-d willing, will join us in June will be a very special part of our family.A loss mom said to me once, "I was so sad about my miscarriage but after I had my son, I realized that without that loss, I wouldn't have the amazing boy I have today."So I was sad on 12/13/14 and 3/3/15 but I am so thank-full and joy-full that this little man is growing perfectly inside me. Baby Boy Haykin - we can't wait to meet you! (But stay safe in there as long as you need to!!)

3/3/15

March 3, 2015 thdpr

It's been a while...

February 24, 2015 thdpr

I have to stop feeling guilty for not writing. I get so busy with life and neglect my blogs and then I feel guilty for not writing and then the cycle continues. However, in recent days I have been sending people to my blog for a multitude of reasons and it has amplified my guilt...So here's an update. After our two heartbreaking miscarriages last year, I am pregnant again and this one is looking really good. Currently I am 23 weeks and 4 days pregnant with a little boy. He will be, G-d willing, making his appearance in June.The road to this place has been really bumpy. And I have had a lot of thoughts swirling around in my head. I have chastised myself for not blogging through a lot of these thoughts at 1am when I can't sleep... because I am often so busy during the day (and my 'baby brain' is so intense) that I always forget my thoughts and never get them down. It's usually the quiet moments when my son is bouncing around inside of me like I am a human bouncy castle and the insomnia is on full blast, that I think of these things. It's also when I remember all the work I've forgotten to do and the errands I forgotten to run.I'm proud of my body for getting us here. In three short days, we will hit our next milestone... viability. Meaning if our son was born, he would have a chance of surviving. He's kicking me as I type this... haha, maybe he's mad at me for not being able to see 40 (or 42) weeks as the end point. I'm just too jaded to get that comfortable with assuming it will completely work out well.This pregnancy, we only went week to week. In the first trimester, we got weekly ultrasounds and our lives built up until that moment when we saw his heartbeat. Then we nonchalantly talked about dinner and a grocery store run and forgot about it all until the next week. After we got out of the first trimester, I kept putting off telling people. I was just so afraid to lose the baby again. At 10 weeks, we had a free cell DNA test. They take my blood, separate the baby's DNA from mine and tell us if anything is or could be wrong with him. That's also when we found out our boy was going to be a boy. By 12 weeks, we had the results back... he was perfectly healthy as far as they could see and he was a he. It was then when we decided we could celebrate, just the two (three) of us. Finally, around 14 weeks we told friends and family with a note in our holiday cards and then a facebook post. soba annoucement I had so many creative ideas during the first two pregnancies... and I was going to take week by week bump pictures... for this pregnancy, I couldn't even think that far in advance. I was barely making it to our Friday appointments. But as it became public and I became very obviously pregnant and there weren't any more tests the doctor could run to make sure he would be ok... we started to believe this is our reality. I'm still not quite at the "My son will be here in June" place yet... but my big ole' belly and his incessant kicks before bedtime make sure I can't ignore the life inside me.So Thursday is 24 weeks... the next milestone. Then we will get into the third trimester around the middle of the 27th week. Then I am traveling to Florida for work (with Dan in tow to carry the bags, or me, or my barf bag... flying and I don't agree when pregnant... but it's not stopped me), then Passover, then my little cousins' bar/bat mitzvah (twins), then time to plant the garden, then a long distance Mazal Tov to my cousin getting married in Rhode Island because I can't travel at 37+(!!!!!!) weeks, then my brother's 30th (!!!!) birthday, then either my son will be here or we will be celebrating his father's birthday and then he will be here!When you put it all into one paragraph... it doesn't seem that far from now... But then I look back at the YEAR I have spent pregnant (yes, off and on) and I thank G-d it's not that far from now.Last March, when I was starry eyed about starting this family, I would never have guessed that I would be here. Twelve whole months later, pregnant THREE times, and six months pregnant. It's beyond belief.Here's us - me at 21 weeks, Dan at... well... handsome. Denver Jewish Film Fest Opening Night Cross posted from TaliaSheWrote.com

It's been a while...

February 24, 2015 thdpr

What's In A Name?

February 23, 2015 thdpr

This piece originally appeared at ModernLoss.com under the title "Call Me A Mother." Understandably, it was edited and trimmed down. Here are my musings on my losses and what the hell to call me, in full ramble.

“What’s on your mind?” asked Facebook.The empty box sat there. Staring at me. Prompting me to say something. Do you say something? What do you say? Who are you now?Mother’s Day, 2014. Not seven days earlier my husband and I lost our first baby. Perhaps we should zoom further back.My husband and I got married on 3/10/13 (I have a thing for numbers). The moment we got married, the questions started. When are you going to get pregnant? Are you pregnant?We decided that after a short 11 months of knowing each other before we got married that we would take a year of “just us” time before we started trying for a family. I would tell everyone who asked me “my husband demanded a year of marital bliss first” and that seemed to work. But after our first anniversary, the voices got louder.On 4/4/14 (see, numbers) I found out that we were expecting our first child. Welp, that was easy, I thought. Until a month later when I started bleeding and cramping... On 5/5, the loss of our baby was confirmed at almost 8 weeks. On 5/7 I had a D&C (dilation and curettage) surgery to complete the process. On 5/11, Mother’s Day, I felt bombarded.Beautiful babies and proud mommies filled my newsfeed. “Thanks to my baby girl for making me a mom!” “Happy Mother’s Day to the amazing moms I know!”The whole week prior I just wanted to crawl under a rock. I stared listlessly at the tv screen and computer, unable to rally myself to any action. But something about Mother’s Day made me want to speak out. So, for the first time, I told the world (aka my Facebook friend feed) that I was a mom. For only 8 weeks, I carried a baby in my belly but I still felt like a mom.Fast forward through the doctors’ visits and the “actually it happens to one in four women” conversations, my husband and I were lucky to get pregnant again. We found out the day after my husband’s birthday, 6/25. But by 8/15, we found out that we had lost our baby again, this time at nearly 12 weeks.By now I feel like a mother, though I’ve never held my babies in my arms. But what would society call me? They don’t seem to see me as a mother because they’ve never seen me push a stroller down the street. Someone close to me, who also lost a baby, said to me one day, “you know, they have a word for when you lose your parents and they have a word for when you lose your spouse but what do you call a parent who has lost a child?” She had brilliantly encapsulated exactly how I felt that Mother’s Day, staring at the Facebook prompt “what’s on your mind?”WHAT AM I?And it seems I’m not alone. There are numerous articles and questions floating around the internet about this. One in particular struck me. A woman, who lost her 19-year-old son, titled her blog “Always A Mom Of Four.” I know that even though my sweet babies were lost before I met them, I am now a mom to two and my future (G-d willing) children, will know of their siblings lost. Why? Because that is life and it’s our reality.But again, what do you call me? Some circles have started using the Sanskrit word “Vilomah.” It literally means, "against a natural order" and not entirely out of the blue to use since the origin of the word widow is also Sanskrit. Some use the Greek, “Tethligons,” which means, “bereaved parent.” In Hebrew we have, "sh'khol" (שכול) and perhaps that is the word I am searching for. There doesn’t seem to be an English equivalent. It is often translated to “bereavement” but that is not accurate. It is an adjective used in relation to the loss of a young family member, thus for a child. So that would make me שכולה אם - em shakula – a mother who lost her child(ren).But really, I just want you to call me a mother and respect the journey I’ve been through. Not to trivialize my loss since they weren’t born or to tell me I’ll have that same kid another time. Not to tell me my feelings aren’t real since I never met the babies. To respect my unfortunate expertise here.Oh and please don’t call on 12/13 or 3/3. Those will always be important dates for me (their due dates) but, this year at least, I will probably be staying under the covers with my puppy and husband, avoiding all Facebook prompts.

Thanking G-d

August 19, 2014 thdpr

There are just moments when thanking G-d comes so easily. You don't even think about it. Before you eat, after you eat, on shabbat, Rosh Hashanah... we all just say the prayers and don't think about it.And then there are the moments when you choke over the praise. When tears fill your eyes and the words trip over your tongue. How can I praise you right now? How can I thank you for your wondrous blessings when I am hurting?We lost our second pregnancy on Friday (8/15/14). Well, we found out that we lost our second baby on Friday. Our baby was gone for a little while before that and my body didn't know. We came home and grieved. We cried and screamed at G-d. We held each other tight and whispered promises of love and the future. Our dog Soba whimpered and licked our feet. And we prepared for Shabbat dinner.My brother was flying in from NYC that night and Dan went to the airport, grocery store, and liquor store on his way home. He brought me chicken and gin and my beloved Ronin. We drank (that's the only bonus of this situation... you can drink through the pain) and joked and cried and laughed. And then I lit the Shabbat candles. The candles that I had been thinking about adding a new one to... our tradition is to add a candle to the ones you light on Friday night for each child. While I was single I lit one and when I got married I lit two... I dreamed of buying a fancy candle set if we were having a girl so I could pass that set on to her when she got married.But I lit my two candles. And when you light your candles, you say a prayer and then you get to have a private moment with G-d. I have a list of people I pray for in that moment. But I choked. All I could ask is why G-d? Why this baby? Why us?Then we got ready for the kiddush. We sang it out loud, the long version... and I choked.

Blessed are You, Lord our G-d, King of the universe, who has hallowed us with His commandments, has desired us, and has given us, in love and goodwill, His holy Shabbat as a heritage, in remembrance of the work of Creation; the first of the holy festivals, commemorating the Exodus from Egypt. For You have chosen us and sanctified us from among all the nations, and with love and goodwill given us Your holy Shabbat as a heritage. Blessed are You Lord, who hallows the Shabbat.

How do I bless you when I am hurting so bad? How do I thank you for giving me this heritage but taking my babies?I cried as we said these prayers. But I said them. I still praised G-d in the face of the hurt. Why? Because I know that G-d loves me and these challenges make me a better person. They SUCK but I know with each challenge we get stronger as people and as a couple.I thank G-d for bringing Dan and me together. I thank G-d for bringing Soba into our lives. I thank G-d for our health and happiness. Now I just ask G-d to give us some answers as to why we have been diagnosed with recurrent pregnancy loss and to please give us our take home baby.