If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. You can subscribe via RSS reader or email (right). Thanks for visiting!

Everyday it seems I run into another Global Warming skeptic and I have been in the position of not knowing what to say. This is especially so when you run across someone who spouts off some really bizarre little factoid about proof of the hoax being evident in that fact that grapes don’t grow in Greenland anymore. Uh…what????

Well, stumble no longer and get ready to trounce because I discovered a wonderful resource over at Grist, one of my favorite blogs. It has a rebuttal to just about any anti global warming argument inlcuding the grapes in Greenland one! It is called How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic. I have put this list to use on about a dozen different occasions now. They are all well thought out and well researched arguements and have a note of common sense that most people can’t ignore. Good luck!

No it was actually me that got the makeover it was the Nature Moms web site. Did you notice?

I guess I am a nerd because I don’t dream of makeovers for myself….in fact you won’t catch me in a salon but I do like to dream of new web designs, new blog skins, etc. And because the site has grown so much in the last year I thought a makover was do. Hopefully everything is easier to find and more attractive too.

And that is not all!!

I will be hard at work adding more great content and articles in the near future so let me know what YOU want to know more about and stay tuned this year for a great new feature on this blog….a podcast! Then you will be able to read all my blog posts and even listen to my charming self babbling about natural family living.

Thanks to all of my visitors and blog readers for making this site such a success!! Your the best!

Most people it seems have a million things going on at once. We can rarely dedicate ourselves to one task without thinking about all the other things we have to do. I am a stay at home mom and it seems that true rest is never an option. My first thoughts when I get up are about how I need to get the household up and running after the night’s hiatus. Kids need breakfast, my son needs to shower and dress for school, I need to pack his lunch, and I need to make sure the dogs go out. After I drop him off I have two other children to entertain and feed. I also have housework to do, errands to run, and an online business to attend to. I cannot get enough done it seems before I must pick my son up from school, do homework with him, get dinner ready, do some more housework, spend time with my husband and kids, and then finally go to bed thinking about all the things I did NOT get done that day. Sound familiar?

I have found that I need to spend some time unwinding each evening, even when I have things I know I could be doing. But how do you it? How do you decompress in this ever hectic world so full of outside noise and interference? Even with our weakened senses we know we must relax. We must cultivate our senses and find a way to slow things down.

Time alone seems to help. Yes it is hard to manage but it can do wonders for you. You can unwind, tune in to your senses, and concentrate on the steady rhythm of your breathing. Doing something rhythmic with your hands can help, like knitting, doing a crosstitch, embroidery, etc. The rhythmic motion seems to massage your brain and help it relax.

It is also important to turn off the noise. How can you relax with so much going on around you? The TV, the radio, the white noise of the computer and alarm clock…turn it all off. Open a window and listen to the outside sounds….maybe CNBC in the distance, crickets chirping, the wind blowing your curtains….doing with less it seems actually does more for you when you need to relax.

Lighting also helps you to relax. For me it needs to be dark with just a hint of light…perhaps a tiny stain glass lamp that gives off a dull glow or even better…natural light…like firelight. It is beautiful, authentic, and very relaxing. I was just reading an interesting post about lighting throughout history and while this particular post talks mostly of lighting as it developed through the ages and its architectural significance, it makes the very good point that the “most authentic antique light is DIY, free and available to all at the low-low price of nothing - the simple campfire.” Perhaps lighting a fire in your fireplace or lighting a few organic soy candles will be beneficial to the decompression process. Again, doing with less as they did in times past, does more.

So turn the TV off and toss that newspaper aside and really unwind when life gets hectic. The violence we encounter there has no place when we are trying to relax. Brew up some herbal tea and doing some knitting or read a calming book. Perhaps just close your eyes and listen to soft music or a meditation CD. Make this a routine!

I read a quote recently from MaryJane Butters that I love. “Using techniques to accomplish calm in your lives makes all the difference in the world. It just might be the only way to make a difference in the world.”

*Sponsored Post*

Technorati Tags: relax, unwind, massage, candle, firelight, meditation, breathing

I have been wanting to buy a laptop lunchbox for a very long time. I first saw them on the Vegan Lunchbox blog and that was it…I wanted one. But unfortunately I did not have a use for one so I decided against purchasing. A few weeks ago though, my son started kindergarten at a new school and unilke his previous school they attend all day long and serve lunch. And since the school lunches are not healthy, I finally have my chance to use the Laptop Lunchbox system. Hurray!

My son and I were like two kids at Christmas when the postman delivered it. Then we were anxious when we had to wait four whole days to be able to use it But alas we are now using this wonderful lunchbox and we both like it VERY much. Let’s just hope he doesn’t lose it.

The basic idea behine this luchbox is to create fun, practical food containers that promote better nutrition and waste reduction. The lunchbox system eliminates the need for plastic bags, plastic utensils, disposable drink containers, etc. It helps you to make nutritious lunches without adding to the waste problem. I love the design with the individual food containers. It makes it so easy to pack leftovers from the previous night’s dinner and also to add a variety of foods so that my son can get the most nutrition from his lunches. And there are lids too so I can make sure that foods don’t mix. There is even a tiny little container and lid for sauces, dressings, dips, ect. Genius!

They are made with plastic but the company behind the product (two moms) only use plastics that are not suspected to have carcinogenic properties. And since so many lunchboxes have lead in them nowadays I feel secure that this lunchbox system is a good fit for us. We are making a small improvement by ditching the plastic water bottle though. I have ordered him a 12 ounce Klean Kanteen bottle instead. But overall…this lunchbox is wonderful. I love the fact that I am not sending my son to school with anything that needs to be thrown away….everything is reusable.

We ordered the whole laptop Lunchbox System which includes:

an insulated carrying case with nametag
a reusable water bottle
the Laptop Lunch Bento Box
a set of stylish utensils
The Laptop Lunch User’s Guide

The User’s Guide has a lot of wonderful health and nutrition information and several recipes as well as some general tips for making the most of your lunchbox.

The picture above is lunch that my son and I packed together for tomorrow morning. It includes a peanut butter and blackberry jelly sandwhich on whole wheat, fruit salad, apple slices and peanut butter dipping sauce, and peanut butter carob balls rolled in coconut. The carob balls are very healthy with flaxseed meal, raw sunflower seeds, oats, carob powder, peanut butter, and raw honey. Everything in his lunch is organic of course. His drinking bottle (not shown) is filled with water.

The bottom picture is my oldest son with his new lunchbox. I would say that we are both very happy with this purchase. We got our Laptop Lunchbox from my favorite online “green” shop…ReuseableBags!

I just finished reading The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood by William, Martha, James, and Robert Sears. I think I pretty much adore every single Sears book I have read but this one was especially good. The subtitle of the book is 10 Ways to Get Your Family on the Right Nutritional Track and if I had to recommend a book to anyone about healthful eating for children, this is the book I would tell them about.

Our children are facing a nutritional crisis with increases in diabetes, obesity, compromised immune systems, and emotional issues. Even childhood afflictions that you may not immediately assume to be diet related can in fact be linked to the junk food diet that so many kids eat today.

Well Dr. Sears and has been in a pediatric practice for many years and he has been able to see how the pure kids fare and how the junk food kids fare. He has noticed many differences including the fact that his pure kids get sick less, they don’t get diabetes, they are lean and trim, and they don’t get diagnosed with disorders such as ADD and ADHD.

In this book the Sears tell us of ten changes that every family must make:

Shape young tastes early
Feed your family the right carbs
Feed your family the right fats
Feed your children grow foods
Feed your family fill-up foods
Begin the day with a brainy breakfast
Raise a grazer
Feed your child’s immune system
Raise a lean family. Get active as a family.
Teach your children to be wise supermarket shoppers.

These are important points and each is discussed at length.

One of the things that I like the most about this book is the personal experiences that are shared with us. All of the advice they give is practiced in their own homes. I especially love the chapter on supermarket shopping and William Sears tells us about how he took his kids on trips to a mainstream store and Whole Foods store to gauge the reactions and impulses of his children. His experience was very eye opening and made me want to try a similar experiment and record my findings.

The book also has quite a few recipes in the last section including a recipe for their favorite brainy breakfast. There are also some healthy cookie recipes that I will be trying this week just in time for a dinner party this weekend. When I tell my guests they are eating flax seed cookies with carob chips, what will they think? We will see.

This book is a must read for every family.

If your anything like me then you are always looking for ways to encourage environmentalism in your children. It is a big part of my life and I want my kids to grow up and want to be have a deep love for the earth and for protecting it. Sometimes it can be hard to talk to your kids about these matters, especially when the concepts of environmentalism…such as global warming for instance…are so deep. It can be tough to find the right words and make them understand.

I was happy to see today that a revised edition of the book An Inconveneient Truth is now available for kids. An Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis of Global Warming is geared towards kid in grades 5-8.

This young readers’ version of the recent documentary film’s companion adult volume cuts the page count by about a third but preserves the original’s cogent message and many of its striking visuals. After explaining that his interest in the environment predates even his mother’s reading of Silent Spring aloud to him as a teenager, Gore proceeds to document steeply rising carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere, and then to link that to accelerating changes in temperature and precipitation patterns worldwide. Using easy-to-grasp graphics and revealing before-and-after photos, he shows how glaciers and ice shelves are disappearing all over the globe with alarming speed, pointing to profound climate changes and increased danger from rising sea levels in the near future. O’Connor rephrases Gore’s arguments in briefer, simpler language without compromising their flow, plainly intending to disturb readers rather than frighten them. He writes measured, matter-of-fact prose, letting facts and trends speak for themselves—but, suggesting that “what happens locally has worldwide consequences,” he closes with the assertion that we will all have to “change the way we live our lives.” Like the film, this title may leave readers to look elsewhere for both documentation and for specific plans of action, but as an appeal to reason it’s as polished and persuasive as it can be.—John Peters, New York Public Library

Now if only they would make one for kids even younger…

This is taken from NewsTarget and it is VERY important:

Details of a new FDA “final solution” plan to utterly destroy natural medicine by regulating herbs, supplements, vitamins and even massage oils as drugs while criminalizing anyone who sells such products.

If the FDA has its way, even vegetable juices will be regulated as “drugs.” Massage props and hot rocks will be classified as “medical devices,” and the entire nutritional supplements industry will be destroyed, wiped off the slate, and replaced by a stronger-than-ever pharmaceutical monopoly that has already taken over virtually the entire U.S. government. Even information about alternative medicine would be controlled by them!

This is an urgent action item. You still have until April 30 to post comments with the FDA or write your representatives, and you can join hundreds of thousands of other readers who are taking a stand right now to stop this medical tyranny in its tracks. Contact details and web links are printed in the story below.

http://www.newstarget.com/021789.html

Take action now before most of the content on this blog is made illegal!

When it comes to talking about environmental concerns and threats to our planet I do my fair share here on this blog and in my personal life. But how does that make you feel? Does it make you anxious? Are you losing sleep?

Well, I guess it was only a matter of time before a “new” eco-service would hit the market to address this…enter eco-therapy. If all this talk about global warming, deforestation, chemicals in your food, etc. are making you anxious you can get help.

Melissa Pickett, an eco-therapist with a practice in Santa Fe, says she sees between 40 to 80 eco-anxious patients a month.

They complain of panic attacks, loss of appetite, irritability and unexplained bouts of weakness, sleeplessness and “buzzing,” described as an eerie feeling that their cells are twitching. Pickett’s remedies include telling patients to carry natural objects, like certain minerals, for a period of weeks. Making environmentally friendly lifestyle changes can also prove therapeutic, she says.

The fears of the eco-anxious are fueled by abundant media coverage of crises like global warming, collapsed fisheries and food shortages.

Personally all of the environmental problems that we currently face make me more angry and motivated than anything else but if it goes beyond that someday I guess I know where to turn.

Source article

Technorati Tags: eco-anxiety, global warming, therapy, environment

Be sure to check out Part Two of this report, BPA and Glass Baby Bottles for new product information and reviews!

Alot of natural moms have asked me in the last few months what they can do to avoid using plastic baby bottles. I usually tell them that they can always go with the old standard….glass baby bottles. Well, today I read a great article from a San Francisco newspaper about glass baby bottles making a big comeback. Now remember it was San Francisco that I blogged about awhile back and their ban of six toxic chemicals called phthalates and another toxic substance called bisphenol-A in baby toys.

This legislation has no doubt raised awareness there and parents are looking for alternatives to plastic baby bottles.

Then, in late February, Environment California, an advocacy group, released a report titled “Toxic Baby Bottles” that drew intense national media coverage.

When heated, five of the most popular brands of polycarbonate — the clear, shatterproof plastic used in baby bottles — leached bisphenol A at levels that have been found to cause harm in laboratory animals, Environment California found.

Even at low levels, bisphenol A has been linked to abnormalities in the mammary and prostate glands and the eggs of laboratory animals, scientists say. Animal tests also show bisphenol A can speed up puberty and add to weight gain, and may cause changes that can lead to breast and prostate cancer. Understandably parents are concerned and so many of them are concerned that glass bottles have become hard to find there and even some places online. I found some at Amazon.

Also at Amazon you can find a bottle by Born Free if you are not comfortable with glass bottles and their potential breakage factor. Born Free makes BPA-free plastic baby bottles, training cups, and sippy cups.

A rather new product that I also like is the Nubi non-toxic, BPA free bottle line. These bottles are gorgeous!

The popular bottle company Dr. Brown has also released a glass bottle line.

Other options: I recently discovered Medela also makes BPA free baby bottles. The playtex drop in system is also another good alternative as the drop-in liners do not contain BPA.

Now of course breastmilk is best for babies. I breastfed all three of my babies but some families do use bottles for breastmilk and water and some just use bottles period. I know when I was diagnosed with cancer and was hospitalized for a lengthy period of time., my son had to start taking a bottle for half a dozen reasons including the fact that I was on some very nasty drugs at the time. He is still using bottles. I am�thankful there are options.