I am growing three readers. Serious readers. Kids who rarely can be seen without a book under their nose. We are also library regulars (so much so that I am only days away from becoming the mayor. WOOT!) and have amassed quite the library at home.

So when a friend of a friend contacted me about reviewing her new children’s book, my ears perked up. Even more so when I saw the topic. So let me digress a minute.

I have to girls. I worry about their friendships a lot. A LOT. I am constantly raising concerns to Ryan about I am afraid they are getting left out, not making close friends, sad about how other girls treat them, the list goes on. Ryan usually looks at me like I am a bit of my rocker and says, “Jill, you are projecting, our girls are doing really well.”

I am beginning to think he is right. I stink at girl friendships. I have been burned several times and now live my life quite guarded when it comes to friends. If you knew me you might say I have a lot of friends because I am quite social and have a pretty active social life. But scratch the surface a little and you will see that I keep most people at arms length. It is something I really want to work on, but truth be told, I am wary. But also a little lonely. So that is my little therapy session.

One of the things I always found hard in my friendships growing up was the friendships of three. Did you have those? They are kind of the worst. You feel like you have a bestie but then this other person appears and suddenly THEY are besties and you are just the leftover friend. Someone is always feeling hurt and left out.

Well, what if you could teach your kids a way to navigate the waters of “three’s a crowd” and keep their friendships in tact? Pink Tiara Cookies For Three is a resource for parents to help their kids do exactly that. And I have to admit, I might have learned a thing or two myself.

Perfect for little girls, Pink Tiara Cookies For Three, is totally relatable and adorably illustrated. It reminded me a lot of another MAJOR favorite in our house, Pinkalicious. I think your little girls will love this book and it will lead to some great dialogue in your house.

Maria Dismondy is a mom herself and is passionate about using books to teach kids to do the right thing whether the topic is bullying, difficulties with friendships or respecting those that are different. Her blog tour is going on through the end of the month and you can find out all about it, over at her blog.

You can get a copy of the book at the author’s site and she will autograph it for you. Or you can win one from me along with an adorable tiara cookie cutter so you can make cookies just like the book!! To enter, simply leave a comment on this post. Maybe about your great female friends. Or lack of. It will be like therapy.

For extra entries (please leave a SEPARATE comment for each entry:

• Participate by linking up to Things I Love Thursday and leave a comment letting me know you linked up
• Tweet about the giveaway (sample tweet: Enter to win @mariadismondy ‘s new children’s book over at The @DiaperDiaries: http://tinyurl.com/84byepl)

The winner will be chosen at random on Thurs. Jan. 25th. Best of luck!

So what do you love this week? Write about it and then link up below. Just a reminder to please make sure you are linking to your actual TILT post and not just your blog. All of the other Things I Love Thursday guidelines are here. Link away!

True confessions. 1) Ryan really does the bulk of the laundry in these parts. 2) We rarely separate our clothes. 3) We don’t really mess with the temperature much but let our fancy washing machine do that for us.

So since we are super lazy with our laundry (which shouldn’t really come as a surprise), it makes sense to buy laundry detergent that does some work for us and saves us some money. Enter Tide Coldwater.

Did you know that when you wash a load in cold, you can wash three loads for the price of one in hot water? It works on stains, colors and whites. I honestly didn’t notice a single difference in our wash using just the cold water cycles and was thrilled to know I was saving money. I have always trusted Tide with my wash so this is just one more reason to use them!

Want to learn more?

Join the Tide Coldwater Twitter Party
When: January 19th, 2012, 9pm ET
Follow: #tide, #washcold and @shespeaksup

Have you tried Tide Coldwater? Do you wash your clothes in cold water so save money?

I received Tide Coldwater and a gift card from SheSpeaks to facilitate my review.

What are you loving this week? Write a post about it. Link back here. Then enter your permalink in the Mr. Linky and you are good to go. Spend some time visiting the other participants and spread the love around. Thanks as always for linking up!! Here are all the Things I Love Thursday guidelines.

  If 2009 and 2010 were the years of “greening up” the way we eat. We have also made some strides in other areas of “green-ness”. I pack all the kid’s lunches in reusable containers. I only use my own bags at the grocery store. Even for produce!! We have come a long way baby.

But the one area I have had a little bit of trouble with is household cleaners. I have been trying gradually to use up all of my old cleaners and make the transition to homemade cleaners. But I gotta admit, as much as everyone raves about simple baking soda and vinegar cleaners, they just take a lot of elbow grease. Either that or we are an overly messy family (this is not REMOTELY out of the realm of possibility).

I have heard great things about Shaklee for a long time from a lot of people, but hadn’t really tried it out. I was sent their Basic H2 Concentrate and their Basic H2 Wipes to review. We might have found a winner in our house.

What I love about the Basic H2 Concentrate is that a 16 oz. bottle makes 48 gallons of cleaner. You simply mix it with water and a very little goes a long way. And you can use it for ev. ery. thing. You don’t need a separate cleaner for tiles, wood, windows and appliances. You can even use it on furniture and to clean your pots and pans. This stuff cleans it all. And it does it with minimal elbow grease.

Of course, if you have been reading me for any amount of time you know I will rave about the Basic H2 Wipes. I LOVE cleaning with wipes. I try and ration these a little because they are a bit pricey, but they are perfect for wiping down the bathroom in between cleans. And it cleans all the same things that the liquid cleaner does. And they are biodegradable so I don’t feel guilty using them!!

Shaklee has an impressive commitment to creating products that are safe for your family and safe for the environment. This is exactly the direction I want to take our family in when it comes to cleaning this year. I am excited that I will be able to use the cleaner for quite some time and hopefully it will usher in the next phase of green-ness!

What do you love? Inquiring readers want to know. I would love for you to link up with your own Things I Love Thursday post. Just a reminder: link to to your actual post and if you would be so kind as to link back to me, I would be so grateful. Here are a few more Things I Love Thursday tips, then link away!!