We were so excited about our newest product, the Wrap Kit, that we sent some out to our friends in the blogosphere to let them try them out. Here’s what they had to say!

PS – have you tried our new Wrap Kits? What did you think?

• My OKC Mommy: http://www.myokcmommy.com/2011/07/land-o-frost-wrap-kit-review.html
• Leslie Loves Veggies: http://leslielovesveggies.net/2011/08/land-ofrost-new-wrap-kits-yummerlicious-review/
• Bless Their Hearts Mom: http://blesstheirheartsmom.blogspot.com/2011/08/product-review-land-of-frost-wrap-kits.html
• Mom in Training: http://stacytilton.blogspot.com/2011/08/land-ofrost-wrap-kits.html
• Flip Out Mama: http://flipoutmama.blogspot.com/2011/08/land-o-frost-wrap-kit-yummy-review.html
• Living, Laughing, Loving and Reviewing: http://sweetone624.wordpress.com/2011/08/14/land-o-frost-wrap-kit-review/
• Amanda Loves to Save: http://newcouponuser.blogspot.com/2011/08/land-ofrost-wrap-kits-review.html
• Musing Mainiac: http://musingmainiac.com/2011/08/4807.html
• Deb’s Here: http://debshere.blogspot.com/2011/08/land-o-frost-wrap-kit-review.html
• Mommy’s Memorandum: http://mommysmemorandum.com/%20/land-o-frost-wrap-kits/
• Coupon Clippin’ Mommy: http://www.couponclippinmommy.com/
• Hanging off the Wire: http://hangingoffthewire.blogspot.com/2011/08/land-ofrost-wrap-kits.html
• One Busy Moma: http://www.onebusymoma.net/2011/08/land-o-frost-wrap-kit-review.html
• Shop with me Mama: http://shopwithmemama.com/2011/08/back-to-school-with-land-ofrost-new-wrap-kits
• Networking Witches: http://networkingwitches.com/2011/08/land-o-frost-new-wrap-kits-with-meat-cheese-wraps/
• My 2 Cents: http://my-2-cents.blogspot.com/
• Up State Ramblings: http://www.upstateramblings.com/2011/08/convenient-camp-food.html
• One Scrappy Mom: http://onescrappymom.com/2011/08/land-o-frost-quick-wraps-on-the-go/
• Lowes Food Smart Shoppers: https://blogs.lowesfoods.com/andrea-everhart/post.cfm/passport-to-fun
• My Springfield Mommy: http://www.myspringfieldmommy.com/2011/08/land-ofrost-wrap-kit-review.html
• OC Deal Mama: http://ocdealmama.com/2011/09/04/product-review-land-o-frost-wrap-kits/
• Pink Daddy Chatter: http://www.pinkdandychatter.com/2011/09/review-roasted-turkey-and-pepper-jack.html
• Mama’s Passions: http://mamaspassions.blogspot.com/2011/09/review-land-o-frost-wrap-kit.html
• Quick Tattletails: http://www.quicktattletails.com/2011/09/land-o-frost-wrap-kit-review.html
• Keenly Kristin: http://keenlykristin.com/2011/10/05/wrap-it-up-land-o-frost-wrap-kits-review/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wrap-it-up-land-o-frost-wrap-kits-review
• Vickie’s Voice: http://victoriasvoice44.blogspot.com/2011/10/land-o-frost-wrap-kits-review.html

The first time around the magic moment happened when Berger, then a globe-trotting diplomatic correspondent for NBC, found herself fixed up with Don Hewitt, the brash creator and executive producer of CBS’s 60 Minutes. They hit it off from the moment he called to make a first date—to the point where Hewitt inquired, “If it works out on Thursday, can we have ­dinner on Friday and Saturday, too?” By the end of that 1976 weekend Berger had found her life’s companion. “He was a really good-looking guy, full of vitality—he laughed a lot,” Berger recalls. “We went out for ­Chinese food and my fortune cookie read: ‘You are doomed to be happy in marriage.’­ ”

And indeed she was. Berger, who had been based in Washington, quit her job to be with him. She moved back to New York City, her hometown, and found a new career anchoring public affairs programs. She was 43 when the couple wed (Hewitt was 56), in 1979, a period before the advent of today’s fertility technology. “I wanted to be a mother but never connected with the right guy,” she says. “By the time I connected it was too late.”

She put aside those maternal yearnings for nearly three decades. But a chance encounter far from home—on a dusty Ethiopian street populated by vendors and beggars—upended her well-ordered, adult-centered life. Berger had gone to Addis Ababa in January 2008 to research a magazine article on Rick Hodes, M.D., an American physician who works in Mother Teresa’s Mission caring for desperately sick children. Chloe Malle, the daughter of Berger’s friend Candice Bergen and then a Brown University senior, tagged along on the trip and one afternoon suggested walking from the clinic to their hotel—a mile away.

During that walk they saw a little beggar holding his hand out. “He was looking up, as dirty as he could be in a green T-shirt, with these long eye­lashes,” Berger recalls. But what really got her attention was the child’s back, which was curved in a bizarre hump. Dr. Hodes, an internist now familiar with many third-world illnesses, would later explain to Berger that this deformity signified tuberculosis of the spine. Fatal if left untreated, it is common in Ethiopia but virtually unknown in America. As they walked away, Berger remem­bers, “I was just haunted by this little boy.” Says Malle, “Marilyn had cre­ated this entire connection ­between her and that boy in her mind.”

Back at the mission, Berger imme­diately told Hodes about the ­homeless boy with the ill-formed back, which prompted a search. Thanks to word of mouth the boy, Danny, was ­located and agreed to be examined at the clinic. He told them that he had fled his abusive stepfather and impoverished mother for the streets.

Danny was named a legal ward of Mother Teresa’s Mission. Hodes, a single man who has adopted five Ethiopian children, eventually took Danny into his home and made arrangements for him to have spinal surgery in Ghana. “­Marilyn saved Danny’s life,” Hodes says. “Without surgery he’d have died.”

Berger, en route to Ethiopia on a r­eporting trip, stopped over in ­Ghana to visit Danny after the operation. “I saw him for a few hours and he was very thin,” she says. “He had malaria. He was lying there like a sick puppy.”

By then she was emotionally hooked. Several months later, when she heard that Hodes was coming to New York City on a fund-raising trip, she asked him to bring Danny for an extended visit with her and Hewitt. Fate then dealt another odd twist: A week after Danny’s arrival, Hewitt, who had not been well, went to see a doctor and received a terrible diag­nosis: pancreatic cancer.

The summer of 2009 was a trying time for the threesome. Hewitt was dying but opted for upbeat denial, refusing to acknowledge his illness. The couple’s friends looked on in ­wonderment at this strange confluence of events. “We were back and forth to their house as Don got sicker,” recalls Joan Ganz Cooney, a friend of Berger’s for 30 years. “Marilyn was so happy as a mother. Don was proud of them, looking at the two of them and smiling as they played together. He liked Danny and he’d say, ‘What a boy!’ ”

Hewitt died in August 2009. A grieving Berger buried him, then set about finding a local school that would take Danny. “It was such an incredible blessing to have Danny at a time when there was an enormous hole,” says her friend Arlene Alda. Still, Berger agonized over whether she was doing the right thing for Danny, given her age. “I began to think, what would it mean to take in a child? My friends said, ‘You’re too old!’ But my mother lived until she was 101. I feel good. If I can give him 10 years, he’ll be 18. I hope I’ll live ­longer than that.”

These days Berger has a full household. Robert Fishman, her 24-year-old nephew and a Columbia Journalism School graduate, now lives with them. She has also hired a male student as a “manny” to come in at least twice a week so Danny has men in his daily life.

Rick Hodes has been designated Danny’s legal deci­sion maker and ­Danny has taken Hodes as his last name. (With D.H. as his initials, Berger notes, he can use Don Hewitt’s monogrammed possessions.) Under Ethiopian law, Berger is considered too old to legally adopt the boy, who is believed to be 8 and is now in second grade. But he will live with Berger ­permanently. “Danny is still in my life,” Hodes explains. “But Marilyn is able to give him such opportunities. I could give him half a mattress. He’s in a ­different world now.”

Indeed, Berger took Danny skiing this winter in Aspen and later on a trip to Los Angeles, where he attended a private screening of How to Train Your Dragon and he played with Julia ­Roberts’s twins. “I tried to tell him American people don’t all live this way,” says Berger, “but there he was in a plush screening room eating frozen custard.”

A small, lively boy, Danny is grumpy this afternoon when Berger retrieves him from school. His teacher has just chastised him for ­being too boisterous during a baseball game in Central Park. He loves baseball so much that he has been sleeping with his mitt under his pillow. Berger hugs and comforts him and Danny takes her hand while crossing the street. Soon he is mischievously kicking a ball down the sidewalk. If he bears psychic wounds from his traumatic past, they are not visible. “He never asks, ‘What if I had been left there?’ ” says Berger. “I’ve offered to take him back to Ethiopia to visit, but he says he wants to stay here.”

Berger is keenly aware that Danny came along at a time when she would otherwise be bereft. “I read somewhere that mourning comes in waves,” she says. “I have a feeling it’s still coming—sometimes I’ll see Don’s keys, his eyeglasses. We’ll be having dinner and I’ll think, without Danny I’d be having ­dinner alone.”

Yet life with Danny astonishes her every day with moments of joy. “I am blissed out,” says Berger, who transformed Hewitt’s old ­office into a  bright ­bedroom adorned with a ­Spider-Man comforter and matching rug. “Danny said he wants to call me mom. I told him I can’t replace his ­mo­ther, but I can be his American mother.”

Formerly a late sleeper, Berger is now up at 7:30 a.m. to wake Danny. After­noons find her supervising his piano lessons or playing catch in the park. And rather than go to the opera at night with widowed friends, she’s at his bedside reading out loud. She shows me the book of jokes they have been giggling over of late. Her face turns incandescent when she talks about Danny. “Danny is a little Don,” she says, “a very large personality even if he is a tiny figure. He does as much for me as I do for him. They say I saved his life, but he has also saved mine.”

“He fills my life,” says Berger with Danny, who needs more surgery on his back.

Berger is the author of This Is a Soul, a book about Rick Hodes that was published this past April by William Morrow.

Ladies’ Home Journal

aug 10

CLOTHES CALL

At the beginning of every week, I place five school outfits for each child into the separate compartments of a closet organizer. If the kids wake up late, they can just grab the clothes and go! -brownsugareyna

NEAT SHEETS

To make midnight accidents less of an ordeal, I put several fitted sheets onto each of my kids’ beds at the same time—with waterproof mattress-top protectors between each sheet. If your little one gets sick or wets the bed during the night, just peel off the top sheet and mattress-pad combo andtuck him back in! -kendallg1

FILED AWAY

I keep a folder for each kid’s papers in the kitchen. Slips they bring from school go straight in, so they know where to look for them later. -stepanek99

FUN FINDER

When my son throws a tantrum, I say, “Go to your room and look for a happy face.” He can come out when he can return with a smile. I’m asking for an attitude adjustment—but in language he can understand. -Mommablogsalot

WATCH ’E WORK

It’s amazing how cooperative kids will be about cleaning up if you just tell them that you’ll time them while they do it. Most children love racing the clock. -ESPcooks

AT THE BEEP

When both kids want to use the same toy, I set a timer. Whoever has the toy first can play with it until the timer beeps. Knowing it’s fair and that a turn is coming makes it easier for the other kid to wait. -rlh14

STASH WITH TRASH

A leftover egg carton can be used as a drawer organizer or to separate your favorite pieces of jewelry, while toilet paper rolls can be used to cover cords and keep them neatly wrapped up (simply label the outside so you’ll know what the cord goes to). -tcorganized

HAIR REPAIR

When my hair gets too static-y, I spritz static guard on my hands and run them through it (I keep a can at home and in my desk drawer at work—that way I’m always frizz free!). -tny_frgsn

PRACTICE PERFECTION

We say “please” and “thank you” every time our kids hand us something and “you’re welcome” each time they say “thank you.” It feels silly when they give you the same toy 18 times, but those phrases were among the first my kids used correctly.

CHIC IDEA

For a cute pregnancy announcement, I gave our parents Easter eggs along with a note that read, “There’s a little chick coming your way!”

THE NAME GAME

My son has had a case of the whinys since he was 3. Luckily, naming his voices really helped him—he can recognize a whiny, a sassy, a happy, a grumpy, and a loving voice. If he says something in a tone I don’t like, I’ll raise an eyebrow and he’ll apologize, and then say what he wants in a happy voice.

THE POWER OF SONG

We make toothbrushing fun by singing Raffi’s “Brush Your Teeth” song to our son. He loves it so much! -HeathsMommy

ROLE MODEL

To ease my 2½-year-old’s fear of the dentist, we brought his friend (whom my little guy looks up to) with us to the appointment. With Evan there, my son did just great! -fishercl

Check out these great parents.com/community groups.

What are some of your favorite ways to make life easier?

April 2010     Parents

Noah certainly has no trouble bringing his outside voice inside and keeping it there. He gets right in my face and starts “talking” at the top of his lungs, telling me about some fantastic tower he’s just built, something funny the Bulldog just did, or what kind of snack he’d like.

When it’s at its worst, and as if by some magical curse, I usually stare at him blankly, smiling without replying. This of course frustrates him a tad and he wants to know if I heard him. “It’s so weird,” I tell him. “I try hard to hear what you’re saying, but I can’t hear outside voices when they’re inside.” This is usually followed by a laugh and a repeat of whatever he said at a new decibel level that my ears can handle.

I do hear the same statements slip out that I remember my own parents saying from time to time. “I’m right here!” or “you don’t need to yell everything!” It makes me laugh thinking back to when I was a kid and how much I must have yelled things to my folks. I’m pretty sure it’s a universal kid thing.

As Noah ages, the need to mention the use of inside voices had diminished, but its still very much present. As is my need to tell him to use his outside voice outside while we’re out in the yard or riding our bikes. For some reason, the opposite phenomenon is true when we’re outdoors. Maybe it’s the heat, maybe it’s the peacefulness of the mountain neighborhood in which we live, maybe it’s the overwhelming bigness of the world around him, but Noah rarely talks loudly enough for me to hear him while we’re outside.

“Can you talk louder?” I constantly ask him. “When we’re outside, I can’t hear what you’re saying unless you say it loud!” This is usually said when I’m across the yard or when I’m ten feet behind him on my own bike while his feet move a thousand pedals an hour on his little trike. I tell him “if there was ever a time to use your outside voice, this is it! This is your big chance!”

My favorite is when I’m mowing the lawn and I see him standing on the back patio, saying something to me. He inevitably gets frustrated that I can’t hear him while the lawnmower is going, so I turn it off and ask him what he needs. Chocolate milk. His sand toys. Can he let the Bulldog out of his kennel. I try to explain to him that when the lawn mower is going, I can’t hear him until it’s turned off again. “Why not?” he usually asks. I tell him it’s too loud. Last time I said it, he replied, “but I can hear what I’m saying, Daddy!”

Part of me will be sad when he’s old enough that the concept of sound and how loud he needs to make himself makes more sense to him. While it’s not always easy or less than ear-grating for him to use inside voices outside or outside voices inside, it constantly makes me laugh. And I’m going to miss that one day.

PS. What are your experiences with kids and their outside/inside voices? Do you remember your parents using those phrases? What do you find yourself saying when your kids get a little too loud or talk a little too quietly?

I’m the one who’s supposed to teach.

However, I think that my most pivotal parenting moments are actually provided by my kids.

I’m a parent, a coach, a PTA mom, a room mom, a mom; one thing I’m not, is a helicopter parent.  I am always in my child’s life but I am not controlling their life.  I try to nudge and guide and lead, without directing it.

My kindergartner plays on a team that I co-coach, it’s a team of Kinder, 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd graders.  This might be the most competitive sport/league that I’ve ever experienced.  I have heard parents and coaches say to other players:  “What is wrong with you?!”  “If you don’t run now, I’ll make you run later”  “I’m writing this down.  Everyone will remember how you dropped that ball tonight”

My skin has crawled and I’ve VERY loudly and vocally praised my kids/team. I praise them for their attitudes, for what they do right, for how hard they try, pay attention, listen, smile, laugh, cheer.. whatever it may be.  They are there. The show up, they try.

This past Monday we had a game.  We played THE number one team in the league.  My daughter was HAULING it from 1^st to 2^nd and then rounding the bases to 3rd; I’m still not clear on what happened, it was a blur, a flash of dust and bodies and tears.  All I remember is yelling for her to run and then seeing her body bounce against the dirt, her knees scraping the ground and her body bouncing as it slammed into the dirt.

There was no thought, only my running across the field, I felt the other adults moving with me, running towards her, I heard the exclamations of the girls and the inhalations as all the parents there  simultaneously sucked in their breath, grateful it wasn’t their child on the ground.

We gathered her into our arms and she sobbed, she acknowledged that it was her knee.  She was in pain, she was red, short of breath, hitching and crying and yet.. when the umpire told her she was safe.  That she could KEEP second base, she limped over to it and stood tall, all the while tears rolling down her face, her body standing tall against the pain.

And then, as I walked back across the field I saw my daughter limp across the field towards the pitcher’s mound.  I saw her gather the taller-than-she-girl, the girl who had accidentally caused my daughter’s fall, the girl who was two grades older than she into her arms and hug her.  I saw my kindergartner take an older girl in her arms and hug her, console her, tell her it was okay.

More than I saw, that night I felt my daughter teach the world a lesson of compassion and maturity.

That night, I learned a priceless lesson from my daughter and I realized that while I am her mother, I am not always the teacher.

Now being a mom of 4 boys myself, I have started the “special night” tradition with my sons. Actually, I have been calling them “date days.” Working from home, and not having true set hours, it’s very easy to “lose” myself in my work. But I can’t allow my work to get in the way of my time with my sons… and sometimes I feel like it does. So this week I started something that I plan to continue once a month with each of my sons.

I had a date day with my oldest sons (they refused to be separated) this past week. I did it the same way my mom and dad did it with me… they got to choose a place to eat and decide what to do. Of course… they wanted cheeseburgers and indoor mini-golf! We laughed. We joked. We had fun. We were silly. And we were together. That was the most important… we were together. It was a special moment in time because it’s a time in their life that I hope they remember and continue to want to do. I still remember all the “special nights” with my parents and I am excited to do the same with my own children.

I think the best part of our date day was when we got home and my son Alexander asked me, “Mommy, when can we go on a date again?

It was the cutest, most precious moment of all.

Do you try and make special time with each of your children? How do you do it?

When talking to your child, highlight all the moments of fun that you had together when creating your video. Whether you win the contest or not, all the participants are winners for taking a chance and creating something of their own, with all the fun along the way.  When helping your child through any disappointment they may feel in not winning the contest, it’s important to help him/her understand that formal recognition is only a small part of the activity, and the real prize was getting to spend time together.

Stop by Woodman’s or Schnucks and let us know what you think! Here are a few of our favorite tasty recipes to get you started.

SPICY BUFFALO CHICKEN WRAP

Ingredients:

• 1 Package of Land O’ Frost All Natural Slow Roasted Chicken
• 2 Tablespoons of Butter
• 4 Tablespoons of Buffalo Wing Sauce
• ¼ Cup of Pepper Jack Cheese, shredded
• 8 Flour or Whole Wheat Tortillas

Directions:

1. Remove the Slow Roasted Chicken from the shrink wrap and sleeve; puncture 3 holes in the package and heat in the microwave for 1 minute on HIGH.
2. Heat Butter and Buffalo Wing Sauce over medium heat in a medium saucepan.
3. With a kitchen shears open the Slow Roasted Chicken and place it in the saucepan with the butter/wing sauce mixture.
4. Simmer for 10 to 12 minutes using 2 forks to shred the Slow Roasted Chicken.
5. Add the Pepper Jack Cheese and stir until melted.
6. Spoon the mixture onto the tortillas, wrap or roll and ENJOY!

SHREDDED BUFFALO CHICKEN DIP

Ingredients:

• 1 Package of Land O’ Frost All Natural Slow Roasted Chicken
• ½ Cup of Buffalo Wing Sauce
• ½ Cup of Ranch Dressing
• 4 oz. package of Cream Cheese (softened)
• ½ Cup of shredded Cheddar Cheese

Directions:

1. Remove the Slow Roasted Chicken from the shrink wrap and sleeve; puncture 3 holes in the package and heat in the microwave for 1 minute on HIGH.
2. With a kitchen shears open the Slow Roasted Chicken and place in an 8 x 8 casserole dish and shred with 2 forks.
3. In a separate bowl, mix the Buffalo Wing Sauce, and Ranch Dressing.  Then, melt (or just mix it in if it is softened enough) the Cream Cheese and mix it with the Ranch/Wing Sauce.  Once combined, pour the mixture on the shredded chicken and stir in the dish until the chicken is well coated.
4. Add the shredded Cheddar Cheese on top of the chicken mixture.  Just enough to cover the mixture.  Bake at 350° for 20 to 30 minutes.
5. Serve the dip with your favorite crackers, tortilla chips, beagle chips, etc.

BBQ PULLED PORK SLIDERS

Ingredients:

• 1 Package of Land O’ Frost All Natural Savory Pulled Pork
• ½ cup of your favorite type of BBQ Sauce
• 15-20 Sliced Dill Pickles
• 1 cup of Creamy Cole Slaw (optional)
• 8 Slider Buns

Directions:

1. Heat the Savory Pulled Pork per the instructions on the package.
2. With a kitchen shears open the Pulled Pork and place in a medium sauce pan and shred apart using 2 forks.
3. Add the BBQ sauce  to the Pulled Pork and cook over medium heat on the stove top for 10 minutes.
4. Spoon the mixture onto the Slider Buns and top with your choice of Sliced Dill Pickels or Creamy Cole Slaw. And ENJOY!

Land O’ Frost, the nation’s largest family-owned packaged lunch meat company, today announced it has signed an agreement to purchase Wimmer’s Meats, a leading provider of specialty sausages and hot dogs based in West Point, Nebraska.

Both Land O’Frost and Wimmer’s are companies with a rich heritage that were founded by entrepreneurs and have been family-owned and operated for multiple generations.

“We are very excited to welcome Wimmer’s to the Land O’Frost family.  The acquisition of Wimmer’s will open new markets for Land O’Frost and help us continue to grow our company,” said David VanEekeren, president and CEO of Land O’ Frost. “Wimmer’s products, facilities and expertise complement our offerings rather well and will help us to grow the combined company over the years to come.”

Land O’ Frost is the fastest growing brand in the pre-sliced lunch meat category in large part because of its focus on product innovation, organic growth and now strategic acquisition.  The addition of Wimmer’s to the company’s portfolio will allow Land O’Frost the opportunity to compete in another category within the meat industry to further grow the company.

“Our decision to join the Land O’ Frost family was about how we can best serve our customers, our employees, our community and our brand. We strongly believe this strategic decision will mean a bright future for all four,” said Dave Wimmer, chairman and CEO of Wimmer’s Meats.

As part of the transaction, Land O’Frost will acquire all of Wimmer’s assets including its entire brand portfolio which includes the Wimmer’s, Basset’s, Fairbury and Ambassador brands and its West Point, Nebraska manufacturing facility.

The transaction is expected to close prior to the end of January.  Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Learn more about Wimmer’s Meats here: