Healthy Green Moms » Green & Simple Living

It’s Winter Somewhere

Monica — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 22:55:52 +0000

We have yet to see any real winter weather in our area. No real snow to speak of and temperatures hovering around zero for weeks. Since we love snow, mountains, snowboarding, snowshoeing and making big huge (and teeny tiny) snow angels we decided to head over to our local hill for a few days of R&R.

I thought you would enjoy a moment of our sleigh ride through the forest. Evan is keeping warm by nursing under the thermal blanket while Olivia (and Tom and Jerry) take us for a ride.

And this is why I pray when my hubby goes out for a few turns. Even still, I cannot wait to join him. Likely next year when Evan will be old enough to be away from momma’s milk for a decent period of time.

Nothing refreshes me the way a little time in nature does.

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It’s Winter Somewhere

Homegrown Revolution: Radical Change Taking Root

Monica — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 20:23:48 +0000

Giveaway: 3 Eco Books For the Whole Family

Monica — Mon, 04 May 2009 22:17:50 +0000

We are definitely not a green as I’d like to be. Although we do a good job on some fronts, there are still so many ways we can be more conscious on a day to day basis. Now that Liv is getting older, I am excited to learn more about going green through her eyes. I normally like to get cool green tips from my favorite bloggers but in Liv’s world, books and outings are a great way for us to learn and discuss.

The following eco books are a great addition to the family library. All three of these books are sure to spark discussion about what kids of all ages – and their families – can do to help the environment.

Earth in the Hot Seat : Bulletins from a Warming World by Marfe Ferguson Delano (National Geographic Children’s Books, March 2009, $16.95, ages 10+)

Laid out with a magazine-like format, this visually beautiful book clearly explains the dangers and challenges of global warming. Unlike many “doomsday” books regarding global warming, Earth in the Hot Seat is an uplifting and positive book that explores both global and local approaches to climate change, with personal accounts and real-life stories. The book also includes a quiz and tips on how to calculate and reduce your personal carbon footprint.

Michael Recycle by Ellie Bethel, illustrated by Alexandra Colombo (Worthwhile Books, March 2009, $15.99, ages 4+)

Michael Recycle tells the adventures of a young superhero whose power allows him to teach people about recycling. This is a very easy to read, fun adventure that is not at all preachy or full of facts and figures. The illustrations and rhyming will keep your kids interested while learning what we can all do to keep the town clean and beautiful. After cleaning up a town, the people declare: “To Michael Recycle! The green-caped crusader, our super-green hero, the planet’s new savior!” This book is a perfect pick for the Pre-K through Elementary school crowd. Helpful tips and resources about recycling can be found in the back of the book.

True Green Kids: 100 Things You Can Do to Save the Planet by Kim McKay (National Geographic Children’s Books, September 2008, $17.95, ages 10-14)

True Green Kids is an innovative collection of fun and practical ways to help kids become agents for environmental change in their world. The fresh ideas for environmental stewardship can be applied everywhere from the living room to the local park – and encourages the involvement of parents, teachers, friends and neighbors. I love the way it is laid out, colorful and like a design book of ideas!

WIN IT: One lucky reader will win all three books – compliments of yours truly!

There are 3 ways to enter:

1. Leave a comment on this post, answering this question: What is your child’s favorite book right now?

2. To get a second entry. Subscribe to the HealthyGreenMoms feed and then email me the “code” at the bottom of any article either in your feed reader or HGM email feed.

Email the code to healthygreenmoms (at) gmail (dot) com. Put the entire “code” directly in the subject line. (The subject line is all I need!)

(There is only one secret code and email required for all the “babymoon giveaways.” If you emailed me on this or the previous giveaway – you automatically have a second entry for the rest of the “babymoon giveaways” There’s no need to email me again)

3. To get a third entry. Blog, tell your Facebook friends or tweet about this giveaway and leave me another comment telling me what you did!

Winner selected randomly. This contest ends next Monday, May 11th at midnight. Good luck!

Earth Day 2009.

Monica — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:25:45 +0000

Image: Niffty

I like to think that Earth Day is every day. Learning how to conserve energy, stay healthy and pass green values down to our children is certainly not an annual event. There will never be a day where we can’t improve on the last when it comes to living green as it is certainly a work in progress (that I should write about more often!) This year I am more excited about earth day than I have ever been. Dare I say that the Earth Day principles have reached the masses and… gasp, become more mainstream?

For years, people concerned about the state of the earth were considered “on the fringe” or having merely pagan values instead of a God (or Creator, Universe etc) centered belief system. In some of my circles at least, this silly assumption has held back many discussions about what we can do to protect the earth because expressing a deep love for both God and Earth in the same breath has been considered by some as being “confused.”

Now more than ever, it is clear to scholars of multiple disciplines that the wisdom of the earth, science and spirituality are essentially the same. Never before in our history has there been a greater opportunity for people with various belief systems to walk through the doorway of these integrated philosophies to accept responsibility for their own lives and the health of the Earth. It’s a transformation on a much more spiritual level! This Earth Day, it is exciting to see the whole world join together to celebrate our world home and share ideas on how we can prevent future destruction.

I remember when I set out on my own healing journey. I began to care about what I put into and on my body. My body became a temple for clean energy and I worked hard (and still do) to clean the old programming and garbage out of my mind. Funny enough, I also began to care more for my external environment. People and places became important to me in ways they never had before. I began to see myself again as a citizen of the world destined to leave an impact of my choosing. The more I healed, the more I became more integrated with the world around me. Restoring my health has been as much a scientific discovery as it has been spiritual and earth based. Nature was as much a part of restoring my health as prayer and intention.

This Earth Day, it is clear to me more than ever that there need not be a separation between love of God and the Earth. The Earth is a powerful source for health and healing. One only needs to be still with nature to experience Truth.

As more families become healthy and healed, we will have strong healthy communities. And when our communities are healthy, we will see lasting change in our world. There is much work to do, but this Earth Day 2009 is a significant step towards a healthy future for future generations.

Happy Earth Day to you and your family, wishing you much health and happiness!

Have a look at these great posts to celebrate Earth Day 2009

Green & Clean Mom – Earth Day 2009 plus Giveaways

Mom Grind – 54 Tips For Green Living

Jenny Mannion – 10 Ways To Celebrate and Enjoy Nature

Gaiam – Earth Day Around The World

Remodeling This Life – On Purpose – not an earth day post but beautifully fitting just the same

Do You Use a Grocery Delivery Service?

Monica — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 04:02:48 +0000

I cannot lie, there are a couple luxuries I have grown very accustomed to. One of them is my organic grocery delivery each Thursday that is set on autopilot. I’m not much of a shopper. I tend to be a little too frugal when I’m the one buying the food. We always seem to run out. My husband does a much better job but he’s too busy so the organic home delivery has been a life saver for both of us.

I’m not doing many reviews these days but since we have had so much success with home grocery delivery I wanted to give a nod to a great company and cause. A local grocery delivery company is one great way for families to support the local economy while getting healthier food. In a nutshell, home delivery is like a ride-share for your groceries.

If you live in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Victoria, Vancouver or Calgary, this may be a great time to consider making a switch.

Spud! is one service that specializes in 100% organic produce and natural groceries. All of the food they sell has real ingredients and is made by real people, much of it grown locally.

We get our bins dropped outside our front door each week. Because they are temperature controlled/insulated, I don’t worry if I’m running behind and don’t grab it right away. The prices are comparable or lower than what you would find at Whole Foods/Capers/Choices and like a regular store they offer weekly specials, caselot deals, multi-buy offers etc.

A couple of cool things about Spud:

Spud! is carbon neutral. Greenhouse gas emissions are reduced where possible and carbon credits are purchased through offset providers to offset remaining emissions. Also, for every deliver van carrying an average of 60 orders, that’s up to 120 cars off the road!

All produce and products are sourced from responsible suppliers including fair trade cooperatives and like-minded businesses.

Products sourced locally – more than 60% (compared to about 20% at an average grocery store)

Spud! buys fresh every day, 95% of the produce leaves the warehouse within 24 hours.

Being green is easy. From each order, Spud! gives 22 cents to a carbon offset provider to support alternative energy projects.

If you are considering home grocery delivery and saving money is also a concern, you don’t have to do it 100% or nothing! I started out buying only our dairy, fruit and vegetables for example, and continued to grab the staples from our local store. Now I add more grocery items to the list if it falls into my “must be organic” category. For store items, we buy in larger quantities so we don’t have to run small errands for single items we run out of (usually when the pot is on the stove and everyone is starving!)

To get started, all you do is place your order online and they deliver your order to your home/office in a reusable rubber bins. You can set your preferences, shop when you want, order on a regular basis or just order as you need. If your order isn’t perfect, they will refund your money!

Spud has a limited time offer for all their new customers:

Use promo code GREENMOMS when you sign up at www.spud.com or www.spud.ca (for Canada) and receive $25 OFF over your first 4 deliveries ($5 off the first 3, and $10 off your 4th). Offer expires May 30, 2009.

I’m always curious, do you use a grocery delivery service? Do you another great food option in your area?

Do You Know a Green Irene?

Monica — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 04:12:55 +0000

How great would it be to have someone come over and show you exactly what you need to do to create a green and healthy home for your family? I also couldn’t think of a more beneficial time to save on energy costs, especially with what seems to be a record winter so far across USA and Canada. But having your very own Eco-consultant sounds like it would cost a lot, right?

Think again. One of the more interesting business ideas I’ve come across lately is a company called Green Irene. Green Irene trains local people in your area to become Eco-consultants. This direct sales model allows people with a passion for green living to make extra money spreading the green goodness around by helping people make the energy efficient changes they want in their home.

Green Irene has a few super products to choose from:

$99 will get you a Green Home Makeover Kit. This is where a local Green Irene consultant comes over and shows you step by step how to save energy and water, improve your air quality, reduce waste, reduce harmful chemicals in the home and yard and even more. After the consultation, your local Green Irene recommends specific researched products to help you implement the changes to your home immediately so you can begin saving energy cost over the long term.
The $133 Energy & Water Conservation Kit is also a fantastic buy that could end up saving you over $4,200 in the next seven years! This is certainly something to look at in these economic times.
Did you know that simple light bulb changes in your home could end up saving you around $7000 over several years? An EZ Bulb SwapOut Service will get your home suited up with new CFL’s and LED’s but you get to see what they look like first, before you commit to the switch. See how much you could save in energy costs by visiting the Green Irene Bulb Savings Calculator

Interested in finding out more? See if there are local consultants in your area. Going green these days has never made more financial sense and with Green Irene, you can save energy costs or even earn an extra income by becoming a Eco-consultant. Either way, you’re doing something great for our planet!

5 Ideas For Naturally Chic Christmas Decorating

Monica — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:00:53 +0000

I love decorating our home for Christmas. I am that mom who plays festive music each day for an entire month and the first few days of December are spend dancing to Christmas jazz while decorating. I personally love a simple modern style with some zen lines and splashes of color. Is there a formal name for my decorating style? Decorating is one of my hobbies though, so even though the focus of HGM is not design, I wanted to include these decorating ideas because they will help you “green” your Christmas and save money.

This year, I’m incorporating more natural elements into our decorating to help green our Christmas. “Natural” however, doesn’t have to mean decorating that looks ragged or cheap. Try a couple of these ideas for a naturally chic Christmas:

Fresh Pomegranates. Arrange 3 or 5 on a decorative square or rectangular dish. They look gorgeous any time of year but especially at Christmas.
Tree Cuttings. Perfect for decorating banisters, mantles, and archways. Nurseries have natural garlands for sale and so do farmer’s markets. Gather up boughs with cut ends together and tie with a beautiful satin ribbon or burlap. A perfect wreath over the hearth.
Twig Vases. Are there any cuttings available around your home? As long as they aren’t soaked, they make beautiful vase arrangements. I like to use glass vases and add a few small pine cones to the bottom.
Yarn Ball Wreaths. This kinda sounds lame, but I assure you, I saw this at Starbucks and loved what they did! Using your Christmas colors, create different sizes of yarn balls out of yarn. Some yarns have a little sparkle in them and look lovely at this time of year. Then arrange yarn balls with some conventional Christmas balls around a wreath form for a simple & chic look.
Display Gifts wrapped in scarves or simple brown paper with beautiful satin ribbon (that you can save each year) are beautiful arranged on an uncluttered shelf.

Each year, many families purchase new decorations for their home and tree. This year, why not choose to use some naturally chic decorations?

Share some of your holiday decorating ideas in the comments below!