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Haven’t blogged in a couple days. Life took precedence for a bit, LOL. On Monday my daughter started school. She is going to a nice albeit a bit uptight private school. So far she really likes it. But I swear after ONE day they took my precious Paige and sent home Hannah Montana. She has become obsessed with fashion and what clothes she wears to school, the “right” shoes, the nicest looking barrettes, etc. I wear flip-flops, T-shirts, no makeup, and my hair is boy-short so I don’t even have to comb it. I am not exactly setting an example for my daughter to be a fashionista but I guess I just couldn’t win after she spent a few days with schoolmates.

At dinner last night she was telling me how two girls had the exact same socks (gasp!), two other girls had nice bracelets, and one girl had a shirt that was slightly prettier than hers. She also explained that she only wants to wear “fancy” clothes to school. I asked why and I swear this was her answer, “Moooom, I have to look ravishing.” Oy-vay!

We had one heck of a storm on Monday too, as Hurricane Ike morphed after it hit land and went north. We had some major tree damage and one massive tree will likely have to be completely removed. :(  But my oldest son has loved doing storm clean-up and watching daddy chainsaw the tree limbs. He collected about 500 hickory nuts that fell off the trees and he got to climb the fallen tree limbs. Boys!

I am a big fan of children’s museums. If you have never been to one they are basically designed for children (usually 8 and younger) to engage in play activities. I think we have 4 dedicated children’s museums in Ohio. This past weekend we went to one in Pittsburgh though and a great time was had by all…mostly.

This particular museum’s claim to fame is the Mr. Roger’s wing where they have Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood sets for kids to play on… the castle, the trolley, the front porch swing, the clock tower, etc. They also have a elaborate attic for kids to crawl through and find treasures, an art studio, a garage complete with tools and a real car and gas pump, a dance/music studio, a nursery, and a waterplay area.

My kids had a blast. Mom and dad have a few complaints though. The staff was overall very unfriendly and one staffer woman even shoved my 4 year old daughter. Hubby had to handle that situation because mama bear was ready to attack. The beverage/snack bar closed about 1.5 hours before closing time so that was irritating. We went into the art studio over and hour before close and they refused to give my oldest son paints because they were “closing soon”. We ended up having to use paints that other kids left out and they hadn’t gotten around to cleaning up yet. They officially closed the room a full half hour before the close of the museum. Then with 30 minutes till closing we went back to the waterplay room and they were already cleaning up all the waterplay toys, practically snatching them out of kids hands. Basically they were trying their hardest to get parents to pack up and leave 30-60 minutes before closing time. I thought that was really outrageous and I will be writing a scathing letter to them. So much for customer service. IMO if the museum closes at 5PM then that means they don’t touch anything until 5PM. It is like trying to get people to leave a movie ten minutes before the end!

BUT my kids did have a good time and we have some great pictures and memories of them playing.. check out this Flickr set for complete pics. We just won’t be going back to that museum anytime soon. Cleveland will likely get our business next time.

TGIF! Have an awesome weekend everyone! Mine has started out great. Picked up a child’s drumset and a baby doll stroller for $1 each at yard sales this morning! I also hit the homeschool supplies mother load at Costco and found a ton of raw delights at Whole Paycheck Foods.

The winner of the Organic Jammies according to random.org is commenter #27, Misty at The Urech Quads! Congrats!

Now…on to cool links this week.

The Good Human wrote a great post about creating positive change. If you think small changes don’t add up just consider these points:

* The average coffee farmer gets just 2 cents from a $3 latte.

* Eating 1 pound of meat emits the same amount of greenhouse gases as driving a hummer 40 miles.

Ouch!

I also ran across an amazing story about a couple in Canada that decided to unpave their front driveway and plant grass. The city government initially refused to allow them to do it, saying that an all grass yard and driveway was a saftey hazard. But when it hit the media they backed off. Watch the amazing transformation here. I LOVE what they did.

I just found an awesome online store that sells baby shower invitations and thank you cards made from post consumer recycled paper and they have a big selection. Check it out.

Have your kids gone back to school yet? I read and commented on one mom’s experiences or rather nightmares with her local schools. This has to take the cake. She found out a bully was stealing her son’s lunches….therefore requiring him to buy two essentially and when she complained to the administrators they guilted her for denying food to a less fortunate kid who didn’t have lunch money. WTH??? With this stuff going on it is no wonder homeschooling is gaining popularity.

Also related to school, this great post encourages us to contact schools and urge them to adopt a no idling policy for their school buses. Sitting and letting their engines run creates a toxic atmosphere for our kiddos and it is very bad for the environment. Also, parents need to remember not to idle in the pick up line.

And last…I just love this post by Simple Mom on how to dress up your walls for cheap.

I am amazed every day by how many choices we have to further green causes. It seems that businesses are are either getting hip to green marketing or they are trying to do their own own part…or maybe a combo of both. But more and more you help further green causes just by buying the stuff you would otherwise buy. Aka green cleaners instead of conventional, reusable instead of disposable, airline ticket from airline that offsets carbon usage, etc. It gets easier and easier to be little green.

Take this infrared sauna company. If you are in the market for one (uh not me.. but different strokes ya know) you can even shop a little greener. This company has taken action on the global warming front and they want every customer to know that a purchase from them is a purchase from a company that cares. Not only do they have a green office (offsetting five times as much carbon as they produce), for each order they receive, they offset between one to five tons of carbon based on the model ordered. As they say on their site, “Crystal Sauna is the first and only infrared sauna company that provides carbon free products and operates a carbon free business.”

Even this sauna business is doing their part to further all that is green. Would we have seen something like this even five years ago? Probably not. Green options are getting better every day.

TGIF! Have an awesome weekend everyone!

I have had an eventful week here. It was my birthday and my 10 year wedding anniversary was yesterday. My oldest son’s 8th birthday is in 11 days so I have been busy prepping for that. We are going to Pittsburgh to celebrate. That’s a mom’s life I tell ya…no big to-do over MY birthday or our wedding anniversary but the kids always have the best birthdays.

Hubby and I got his homeschool area all set up last night with a brand new HP computer and printer, and all his other gear. There is a also a comfy couch and sitting chair in the area for reading aloud. His special touch was to put a strobe light on his desk, LOL. Here is a pic:

We went garage saling this morning and got a few math workbooks, a board game, and a talking Franklin Phonics toy for the younger kids.

Other cool stuff:

Nature2 Express - If you remember awhile back I wrote about pool systems you could install to purify your pool water without chemicals. Well, those systems cost a few thousand dollars but I just became aware of a pretty nifty alternative. Nature2 Express has a unit that attaches to the plastic plumbing of most in-ground and aboveground pool systems. During the regular pool filtration cycle, water flows through the Nature2 Express cartridge, where a combination of silver and copper minerals destroy bacteria. This process significantly reduces the need for large amounts of chlorine. The unit only costs $175 so this looks likea GREAT alternative if you want a more eco friendly and kid friendly pool. If you have a pool make sure to check these out.

rBGH - I have mentioned many times on this blog how I oppose Monsanto and their growth hormones and gentically modified seeds. Well, it seemed for a long time that they would win the rBGH battle and force us to drink that nasty hormone in our milk. Just a few months ago they were lobbying in my state of Ohio to make it illegal for companies to label their milk as rBGH free. They knew that if conumers had a choice between hormone laced milk and milk without….consumers would pick the latter! I wrote a pretty seething letter to my local paper about it. But 5 years of consumer pressure has taken its toll and Monsanto announced this month that they are getting out of the rBGH business! Woot! But the battle for clean, healthy, eco friendly food is not over. Consumers need to fight Monsanto’s other products…gentically modified seeds.

I found a CUTE toy set from Haba that my daughter would love. A set of cloth pastries for play kitchens. Don’t these look deliciously real? I may have to break my nothing new rule for Christmas to get her these.

If your looking for a great family friendly movie this weekend…I recommend Flicka. I just saw it this week and it is WONDERFUL! It also has some delicious eye candy named Tim McGraw, LOL. It is movies like these that make me wish I was back on the farm.

Other things I have written this week at other blogs:

Essential Equipment for a Raw Foods Kitchen

Video - How To Make A Green Smoothie

5 Ideas For A Green Birthday Party

Have a great weekend!

TGIF! Have an awesome weekend everyone! I am hoping for a laaaazy weekend with my hubby and kids. I really hope hubby won’t try and talk me into going to Zoombezi Bay but I think I will be outnumbered if he does.

I went garage sale hopping this morning but there weren’t that many unfortunately and the lack of available sales made for traffic jams and buying frenzy at the few there were. I think the economy is getting to people. I bought one book today…one of those Little Golden books that I used to have when I was kid called The Monster at the End of This Book. I used to love it and I am sure my kids will too. I got it for a quarter.

I wrote for some other blogs this week so check out Getting Rid of Bugs Naturally and Getting Plenty of Protein from a Raw Diet.

Other cool links I found this week include:

The Forest Gump Homeschool Method - A really helpful look at how challenging it can be to homeschool, especially with higher needs children and how it is okay to take a break and see where their interests lead.

Related to that I found a cool website that creates cool printable handwriting worksheets where you choose the words. These will be awesome for handwriting and spelling practice. I can use scrap paper too.

This list of homemade art supplies and recipes is cool too.

I bookmarked this Etsy store that sells Waldorf Playstands. I think this will be my daughter’s 5th year birthday present.

This week she got a pretty cool toy from Melissa and Doug. It is a Nina Ballerina Magnetic Dress-Up Doll and she can’t quit playing with it. It comes in a nice wooden box and has a flat doll made of wood. She can be made to stand inside a small wooden doll stand. You can then dress her up with magnetic clothes. There are many different tops, skirts, dresses, hair ribbons/tiaras, shoes, etc. It is pretty fun. It is only $8.75 at Amazon and they also have several other similar dolls too.

I wanted to get free shipping so I also got the wooden spelling puzzle board…also from Melissa and Doug. It too is really pretty cool. It has 10 two-sided spelling boards and over 70 wooden letters. Place the colorful wooden letters in their proper places to spell words. It makes learning fun!

And did you happen to catch the latest buzz in the anti-vaccine community? Amanda Peet was recently interviewed and the subject of vaccines came up. She basically lambasted non-vaccinating parents and called them parasites. She has decided to fully vaccinate her daughter with no alternative schedule or delays and she feels comfortable with this because get this….she is “educated” on the matter. I had to laugh my hind off after reading that because almost every single non-vaccinating parent I know has devoted many, many hours and weeks to researching vaccines, their side effects, the problems associated with them and their ingredients, ect. Many have been researching this stuff on and off for YEARS.

Amanda Peet claims to be educated because she discussed vaccines with an infectious diseases doctor at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. This doctor also happens to be a co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine, and a board member of Every Child by Two, a pro-vaccine organization cofounded in 1991. Does she really expect that a doctor making money off of vaccine sales to be honest with her???? Sorry but I have lost all respect for Amanda Peet. Non-vaccinating parents don’t give two hoots if other parents choose to vaccinate…we won’t name call…we just want the medical community and other parents (who really have done the research) to admit that there is risk involved with vaccination. We aren’t parasites…we did our research and we came to the conclusion that the vaccine side effects are more dangerous than the probability of getting the diseases they protect against. If other parents find the opposite to be true…fine…to each his own….but no name calling at the non-vaccinating parents ok? If your vaccines are so great then why are you even worried about the non-vaccinated kids hmm???

Read: The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child

Okay….now I am hoppin mad and ready to go do some cardio kickboxing….but I have one last link for those feeling crafty. Check out these crayon roll/travel pouch hybrids….pretty awesome!

Have a great weekend all!