The Grass is Always Greener

I always scroll through Instagram and read Facebook and check out blogs and thing, "Wow!  How exciting and organized and glamorous everyone else is!" My friends post selfies of them all dressed for work and I'm sitting there in jeans that don't fit right and a free teeshirt with God-knows-what down the front.  Bloggers are saying how they're raising chickens and using GENERATORS to watch the occasional movie and I realize that all the lights are on downstairs and no one is down there.  Then it dawned on me that some of you may read this blog and feel similar, like I'm doing what you feel you should be doing to live greener.  So, to clear the air and make sure that no one is out there reading this thinking that things are so awesome over here I decided to post this video clip.  Just in case you thought our house was super cool there's this.  Sometimes the grass isn't really all that green.  Sometimes it's frozen and you just have to let it go.

Juice Beauty and Listerine Feet

I realize that I blog backwards sometimes, which I'm trying to right with this post.  Instead of telling you about this great product or idea that I tried, I often blog about this great product or idea I WANT to try.  So I've finally gotten around to doing some of the things I've blogged about in the past and I wanted to do a quick update on how that went.

First, Juice Beauty.  My friend, Stephanie, told me about Juice Beauty, an organic cosmetic line that she had recently discovered.  I loved the idea of it, and wrote a blog about it, just never got around to actually buying some to try.  SO almost a year later, I'm blogging that I did, in fact, give Juice Beauty a try and so far, so good!  I only bought the eyeliner, which required a TON of self control on my part, but it's really nice.  I was expecting it to be significantly different from conventional cosmetics, since I tried a brand in the past that was natural and I was really unhappy with it.  It was $16, which is literally 4x as much as I was spending on the cheap Cover Girl eyeliner I used previously, but I KNOW it will last longer than the CG and it's better for me and the planet.  I'm going to go back to Ulta and try a different Juice Beauty product next time I need cosmetics.  This time I will leave my girls at home and I'm sure it will be a much faster, less expensive trip.

Dryer Balls

I sat here and stared at a blank page for a long time, trying to come up with something to blog.  So I fell back to my Christmas gifts.  Every year I get something "green" for Christmas and this year I got dryer balls.  I've used dryer balls before, even blogged about them, but these new ones are different.  My old ones were bumpy plastic things that would crack after repeated use.  These new ones are wool.  Let me back up.  What's a dryer ball, you ask?  It's a ball that goes in the dryer, or course!  Why you use it is the interesting part.  They're supposed to reduce drying time and help soften clothes, reduce wrinkles and static.  The wool variety will also absorb some of the moisture to help decrease the drying time even more.  Tennis balls are sometimes used as dryer balls as well.

The dryer balls I got for Christmas from my mom were from The Sitting Tree.  (Pictured above) I like the idea of dryer balls.  I like not needing to buy dryer sheets (although they work WONDERS to stop static hair in the winter-only an issue for Ellie now that mine is so short) and I like that they're all natural as opposed to the plastic (what was I just saying about heating plastics?!), but in reality, I'm not sure I LOVE them.  These wool ones really do absorb the moisture, I can tell when I pull them out of the dryer that they're still a little damp.  You can even add a drop of essential oils to them before you toss them in the dryer and voila, naturally scented clothes!  (Actually, I was just rereading the directions on their Etsy page and you need to let the oil dry overnight before tossing them in with clothes to prevent spotting.)

Drinks All Around!

Birthday season is fast approaching.  Ellie's is February 12th followed by mine on the 18th then Caden on March 10th and Uncle Rob on the 22nd.  This means lots of family parties, which means lots of entertaining and lots of food.  The food part is usually pretty easy.  I ask the kids what they like and then go from there.  Where I run into trouble is the beverages.  Evan insists that we serve pop (I realize that the rest of the US calls it soda, but I'm from northeastern Ohio and it's pop up here.)  but I HATE to buy all those two liters which are opened for maybe one glass for one guest.  It's a guessing game about what everyone's drink is.  Coke or Pepsi? Regular, diet or zero? How many "other" kinds do we get?  Rooter, 7-up, ginger ale...I hate it!  It's such a pain for me and it's so expensive to buy all that CRAP that I don't want to drink, don't want my kids to drink and feel guilty serving my guests.  "Welcome to my home!  Can I interest you in a beverage that literally eats through iron nails?  Perhaps something with more sugar in one serving than a human should consume in one day?"

The Plastic Purge

Ahh, it's SO nice to be back to blogging!  Simply writing each day and thinking about what my next post will be is keeping me in a greener mindset.  I was doing just that as I emptied the dishwasher the other day and realized, I have TONS of plastic.  Plastic cups, plates, containers...wasn't I trying to decrease the number of these items not that long ago?  If you know me, you know I have obsessions (did I mention that I started running?!?) and although they're often short-lived (remember when I was going to get backyard chickens?) they often times help me in the long run.  I've selected decreasing the amount of plastic in my house as my next mini-obsession. (So you can relax.  I'll still talk about running all the time and continue to blog.)

Why get rid of plastic?  There's bad stuff in there.  And that's not just hippie me saying that. ( *I read an article from Pinterest yesterday about running and in the comments, someone had written "Where's the scientific proof for the information in this article?"  I realized that I do that a lot on here.  I make a comment, but don't show evidence to back it up.  Mrs Abrashoff, Ms Palmer, Mrs Barthel and Mrs. Klase would be horrified.  So out of respect for the Hoover High School English Department I'm siting my sources.  Sorry folks, no APA though.  You just get linked to the original article.* )  The Breast Cancer Fund states, "Three plastics have been shown to leach toxic chemicals when heated, worn or put under pressure: polycarbonate, which leaches bisphenol A; polystyrene, which leaches styrene; and PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, which break down into vinyl chloride and sometimes contains phthalates that can leach."  I've blogged before about the harmful effects of bisphenol A (also called BPA) and phthalates but I'll give you a quick refresher here.  BPA is found in water bottle and lots of plastic cups (you've seen the BPA-free label on sippy cups and baby bottles and increasingly more and more plastic bottles)  the bisphenol A leaches from the plastic into the food it's touching, either the liquid or also, the food from the can it's touching. (BPA is also found in the linings of cans.  Look for canned food that says BPA free.  As if you didn't have enough going on at the grocery store!)  WebMD states that 90% of us have detectable levels of BPA in our bodies.  As for the phthalates,  it seems they're everywhere!  They're in cosmetics and they're used to make plastics soft so things like teethers and pacifiers may contain phthalates.  They also leach into the food or liquid they touch, but in the case of things like pacifiers, they can even leach directly into the body.  Styrene, also a know carcinogen, is found in styrofoam and #6 plastic.  

OK, so enough scientific stuff.  It's bad for you.  So what am I going to do?  While I'd love to grab a bag and walk around the house tossing everything plastic, that's not really realistic or necessary.  So first, I'm just going to focus on the kitchen.  I'm going to decrease the number of plastic cups and plastic plates and work (again) on tossing those plastic food storage containers in favor of glass.  In the past the thought of getting rid of the plastic, unbreakable, kid plates and cups seemed a little scary, but I think the bigger kids are fine "real" plates and cups.  Olivia is still a spiller, but I'm hoping the sturdier glass cups might actually help her with that.  I'm also going to look for some stainless steel water bottles.   The only issue with that is the spouts are almost always plastic!  But, as always, I'm just going to do the best that I can.  I'm going to head over to World Market and have the kids pick some fun cups.  They have such a big selection and most of the cups are around $1 each.  When we got married we actually has a full set of salad plates (aka kid sized) but over the years we've broken so many we're down to 4.  I'll be honest, I'm actually REALLY excited to get rid of the leaning tower of Pisa in my cupboard.  Those dumb plastic plates don't stack and they're always falling over!  I'll grab a few more fun ones when I'm at World Market, but there's not really a good reason the little kids can't use a big plate.  The only thing I need to watch is portion size.  That big plate makes a normal kid-sized portion look super tiny.  

While I work on that, I'll also try to think about plastics in other parts of our house.  Keep reading those bottles for phthalates and BPA. Look at the bottom of plastic bottles for the safer plastics, 2, 4 and 5 and stay away from those really bad guys, 3 and 6.  I found this cute chart on babygreenthumb.com. 

With birthdays coming up (Ellie and Caden) I'm going to try and think about the number of plastics coming into our home in toys.  I'll check out Magic Cabin and Nova Naturals before I look at Toys R Us.  I'll also try to think about eliminating some of the crap toys we have downstairs that no one ever plays with.  Many of them are made of cheap plastic.  It's a big job, but it doesn't have to be completed right now.  It'll be a work in progress for a long time, but like everything else I do to green this house and family.  That's why I say I'm doing the best I can.  Sometimes it's really a lot and sometimes it just throwing out a few cups and plates. 

Recipe Friday: Baked Ziti and Carrot Ginger Sauce

Lazy today!  Kids are off school (except for Vince) and we've been running errands and trying to keep my weekday schedule on a weekend feel.  SO, you get two quick recipes from Weelicious.  The first I SWEAR I've posted before, but if I haven't TRY IT!  I love this one!  Evan loves it too--despite the lack of meat.  The second I hesitate to even post because it's not a crowd pleaser.  I liked it and Vince and Olivia did too, but it has ginger and therefore I automatically like it.  A word of warning: it's not like a pasta sauce.  Think pesto if your'e tossing it with pasta (I used soba noodles).  Here you go: Baked Ziti and Carrot Ginger Sauce compliment of Catherine McCord of Weelicious.

Christmas For My Dad

My dad is horribly hard to buy for.  He doesn't have a ton of little hobbies, he's not that into sports and he doesn't wear ties to work.  There goes he traditional golf balls, sports team gear and the generic tie gifts.  PLUS the buys whatever he wants as soon as he wants it.  So what's the one gift that he can't buy for himself?  Good health.  And it also happens to be something that he's always in need of, especially at this time of year.  So today I'm going to blog about my Christmas gift that I got my dad this year.  The theme was "Good Health and Good Cheer" since that's what all the holiday cards wish you.

First, my dad may or may not read my blog, but he only does it to support me.  He's not buying into all my green stuff.  That's my mom.  I talk her into trying all kinds of crazy stuff, but not my dad.  So when I bought him most of these things, I did it realizing that he was probably not going to use them, but it was worth a shot.

Second, my sister will attest that my gifts all come with directions. (My in-laws will tell you that my meals also come with directions- how are you supposed to know what everything is and what toppings go with what if I don't explain it!?!?) I like to think that the directions are my way of explaining that I put a lot of thought into the gift.  So much thought sometimes, that it needs a little explanation.  My dad's gift went a little beyond that.  Many of the gifts were actually wrapped with directions  and explanations attached.

Third, child on my lap is making this SO HARD TO WRITE!!!!!!

OK, so the actual gifts I gave.  They were all individually wrapped and then packaged in a large cardboard box.  I (very greenly, I may add) padded each layer of gifts with beach towels instead of tissue paper to reduce the amount of packaging we threw out.