As parents one thing we all face, is keeping our energy levels up, as we keep up with our children.  This month Whole Foods Market current podcast series suggests tips and action steps to support our energy levels naturally and safely.  For a great list of energy supporting herbs, and to listen to these podcasts visit the Whole Story blog.

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!

Today we took the kids to our local science museum to see the Grossology exhibit. They had a blast shooting boogers into a giant nose, playing the piano that burps and farts, climbing inside a giant mouth only to come out via the colon as "poop", and smelling all the various bacteria they had in petri dishes, like arm pit bacteria and anal bacteria.

Afterwards we spent some time getting wet in the ocean exhibit and then building stuff in the gadgets section. I am glad we got out of the house before the next big snow storm cause I think we are finally starting to get a little weary of all this snow. Heck I will go back tomorrow and shoot some boogers myself if it means I get to get out of the house and avoid the laundry pile for a bit longer.

As more and more people are going green in their own homes and lifestyle choices, why not include entertainment? For your next dinner party, try a green theme. Yes, some friends might be afraid you will make them eat tofu and cardboard or play Scrabble by the light of a solar lamp but this would be a great opportunity to show them how fun and easy it is to go green. Here are some ideas for keeping it fun and eco friendly.

* Invitations – This is an easy one in this day of Internet savvy and smart phones. Consider going informal and inviting your guests via electronic invitation. You can send an email invitation or even a mobile invitation from your phone.

* Green food – Choose local, seasonal food with a vegetarian emphasis. Meat has serious eco issues so going meatless can be a great way to help reduce the impact of any meal. If you do serve meats, choose organic, grass-fed beef and free range, organic poultry and ham. If you can find locally-raised meat, that is also a good choice. For vegetarian menus, emphasize bean dips and whole grain dishes with fresh fruits and vegetables. 

* Beverages – Serve organic, fair-trade wines, teas and coffee in re-usable cups and mugs. Avoid soft drinks, water or juice in plastic bottles or cans. Instead, serve home-made punch in re-usable cups and hot beverages in insulated pitchers. You can also get organic liquor and use real glasses. Also instead of pre-mixed drinks in plastic bottles or margaritas in plastic tubs buy glass bottles that can be recycled and channel your inner bartender. Having a stainless steel martini shaker and a Vita-Mix make it quite easy I might add. You could also ditch the alcohol altogether and make sparkling fruit smoothies.

* Decorations – Get creative with your decorations! Look to the outdoors for inspiration, and cut greens if it's winter, fall foliage if it's autumn, and flowers for a spring or summer party. Your local farmer's market will have seasonal fruits and veggies that can make attractive centerpieces and decorations, such as colorful squash, cranberries, apples, pears, peaches, etc. Just be sure you use the decorative foods and don't throw them away – in fact, your guests could take some of them home as favors. You can even use live plants as decorations. I LOVE the look of wheat grass growing on kitchen counter tops and dining room tables.

* Lighting – Light your home and table with eco-friendly candles and LED lights, whether as regular-sized bulbs or in festive strings of mini bulbs. You can also get beeswax or soy candles and thrift store jars in various sizes. You can even decoupage the jars with left over holiday tissue paper first if you want colored lights.

* Compost – Don't toss the leftovers! If your menu is vegetarian, leftovers can be composted. Ask your guests to put their veggie and fruit scraps into a designated bin.

Can you have fun and be green? I say yes, how about you?

We started the weekend a bit early. My oldest son had a little spill at school (slipped on ice) and he is home "sick" today. He is actually feeling fine just a bit skittish about his bloodied and battered face, poor thing.

So we all slept in a bit this morning, cause the other two kids don't have school on Fridays. When we got up the kids wanted raw banana ice cream but the food processor is on the fritz. I would use my Vita-Love but a food processor just works better for creamy banana ice cream. I am hoping my husband can figure out the problem when he gets home and put these cozy, frozy bananas to good use.

So… we had leftover black bean brownies. They are good IMO but not fabulous. They are improved by eating them with banana ice cream. My husband and my boys really like them though. Hubby gobbled down five brownies right after I made them, although he did admit they are a bit "different". The recipe is from the Happy Herbivore if you want to check it out.

After a quick bite we all started playing the BEST Wii game called EA Sports Active. I swear this program is better than a gym membership. It is basically like having a personal trainer come to your house and walk you through workouts. In fact you have a virtual personal trainer in one corner of the screen. Just select a workout from a variety of options and you start exercising with the controller in hand and the nunchuck strapped to your upper thigh. You walk or run on a track, do lunges and squats, etc. changing the activity every few minutes until you have done a full workout… they are usually about 20 minutes long. We REALLY like the sports training workouts, especially my son. You shoot hoops, throw basketballs at targets, you practice hitting and catching baseballs, you rollerblade, you hit a punching bag, etc. He loves it. Here is he running on an outdoor track.

Yeah we were still in our jammies, sue me. 

This game also allows you to track your progress, keep track of calories, intensity of workouts, and you can even do a six week challenge. It also comes with a resistance band for bicep curls and other strength training exercises. If you have extra controllers (which we do not have yet) you can also exercise with a partner. Oh how I like this game… me.. I really like a video game, who would have thought it.

After playing with that a bit we made some spinach, banana, mango smoothies with Amazing Grass powder. Oh yum! All 3 kids scarfed theirs down and greedily came after mine. I think we will be making more of these later.

Tonight I hope to go see The Lovely Bones and then start reading the book. I have been looking forward to both for a couple of weeks. Tomorrow we go on a 2 mile winter hike so need to stop and get some Pure Bars for that. These babies kick Lara Bar butt… they are soooo good. Other than that we have no concrete plans… maybe a rousing game of Uno, some sewing, a trip to the oil change place, a few hours spent watching the latest sad news from Haiti…sigh.

What do you plan on doing this weekend?

Today is my little guy's 4th birthday! I am soooo emotional today, sob. Since he is the baby of the family and always will be this hits me especially hard. Mostly though I am just so overjoyed that I am lucky enough to have this special boy in my life. I remember the day he was born with so much clarity. I was alone for most of the process because my husband was out of town and my mom had to watch my other two kids. After his birth I got up from the bed and stood with him by the window. It had snowed overnight and I just stood and looked at the snow covered landscape and breathed in that baby smell. I wasn't lonely that no one else was around, I had my buddy with me. To this day he is till my buddy… always with me. 

Soon he became known as Paku (Paw-Koo)… my daughter's name for him since she couldn't say Parker. I still call him Paku.

This year has been momentous for him. He started preschool in October, going to a public immersion program for kids with disabilities and developmental issues. I guess it took me until he was almost 4 to finally accept that he was developing slower than most kids his age. He didn't talk much and his voice was still baby-like, much about him still seems baby-like but I figured he would catch up eventually. Then a call out of the blue by the school district in our new city, saying that by accident they received paperwork from Parker's old speech therapist (the one we disliked and quit going to). A very nice lady asked if Parker wanted to attend school and offered to have him bussed when I explained I didn't have a car during the day. I felt like it was a sign and it has turned out to be the best thing for him. He loves school, he is talking up a storm now, and in general he is just growing up so fast now… like it was all bottled up in there somewhere and is now exploding out. I never doubted that he was intelligent and that he understood what was going on around him… he just couldn't verbalize. Now he is learning to.

I remember being sad that he hardly ever said "mom" and then last week he jumped on me while I was on the couch and said "Oh mom, I love you, you so pretty". Oh, melt my heart into a big gooey pool already!

Now I need to go and make him some black bean brownies and raw banana ice cream for his birthday celebration tonight!