Another eMeals Groupon deal

In case you missed it the first time I posted and regretted it, eMeals is offering another Groupon deal.  You can use my referral link here or visit the Groupon site and view the featured deals.  eMeals offers a variety of meal plans for couples or families, including Clean Eating, Gluten Free, Low Carb, Low Fat, Portion Control, Vegetarian, and Natural & Organic.  We are going to try out the Natural & Organic meal plan when we return from our trip to Singapore next month.

Make your own wipe off sheets

Staples has heavy duty plastic page protectors on Back to School sale for $5 for a package of 80 this week.  I get very excited about school supplies, I don't know why.  I don't teach and I don't have anyone in my house in school.  What could I do with things, I asked myself... reusable worksheets I answered!  I'm super excited about this!  Worksheets, checklists, etc - slide them into a page protector and use a dry or wet erase marker to mark them up, then wipe with a piece of felt (and a little water for wet erase markers) and reuse. If you don't have a Staples, they are $4 for a package of 50 at Walmart, and dry erase markers can be found at the Dollar Tree. 

My first use - Eliana's "because you are a part of our family chore chart" pictured below.  We are teaching her that some work you do to contribute to the family and some work you do to get paid.  The chart above it is Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Junior chore chart that we are using to list and track extra jobs she can do to earn money.

Page protectors will come in handy for reusing future homeschool worksheets!

eMeals Natural and Organic and Clean Eating Menus

eMeals appeared on Groupon today for $29, half of the normal $58 a year fee.  I had always wanted to try this Dave Ramsey recommended online meal planner, but the sample menus never looked like they fit our lifestyle (or tastes).  When I saw the Groupon, I revisited the eMeals site and found that they now offer a family Natural and Organic meal plan and a family Clean Eating meal plan, both complete with shopping list.  Both plans can be used when shopping at any store, but the Natural and Organic plan can be customized for shopping at Whole Foods.  I nabbed the Groupon and will put it to use when we return from a trip to Singapore this Fall.

If you like what you see and want to purchase the eMeals Groupon, you better hurry.  There are only a limited number available!

Eco-corner

I have lovingly nicknamed this corner of our new backyard the eco-corner.  I wish we could take credit for it all, but the only green idea that we contributed is the pop-up compost bin (from Target).  It's my first time composting and I'm not even sure it's going to work.

I just hung Sweet Son's diapers to dry (sans clothespins since I have yet to find good ones at the store) and judging by the insane heat and harsh sun, they should be dry by the time I finish this post!  Oh, and yes, I had a new addition since the last time I posted, along with a cross country move and many other family changes.

Homemade deodorant

I absolutely would have never thought about making my own deodorant!  But since I am currently paying a pretty hefty price for my Jason brand Tea Tree oil deodorant, I'd love to find an cheaper homemade alternative that would work just as good.  I found this recipe on Passionate Homemaking tonight and wanted to share it.

Ingredients:

5-6 Tbsp Coconut oil
1/4 cup baking soda
1/4 cup arrowroot powder or cornstarch

Combine equal portions of baking soda & arrowroot powder. Then slowly add coconut oil and work it in with a spoon until it maintains the substance you desire. It should be about the same texture as the store bought kind, solid but able to be applied easily. You can either scoop this into your old dispensers or place in a small container with lid and apply with fingers with each use. After applying the product, you can just rub the remains into your hands as a lotion! This recipe lasts about 3 months for two people with regular daily use.

I already have all these ingredients in my pantry.  I can't wait to make up a small test batch and try it out!

Success!

Last week, I made my own dishwasher detergent. This week, I use it for the fist time. Sweet success came in the form of beautifully washed dishes with only a tiny hint of white residue in the dried water spots. I'd say that's pretty good when you consider we had been using Electrosol tabs with Jet Dry Powerballs! So, go ahead and try it yourself, and let me know if it works for you! 

Hint - make only a half batch of the detergent at first... just in case you end up hating it and throwing it out.

Made my own dishwasher detergent today

I have been wanting to do this for so long, but was waiting until we ran out of the Electrosol Tabs that we bought at Costco a year ago.  I finally used the last one (well, maybe regretfully used the last one, we'll see how this experiment goes)!

I found this recipe for homemade dishwasher detergent at the frugally green blog a while back:

• 2 cups of Borax
• 2 cups of Baking Soda
• 4 small packets of sugar freelemonade Kool-Aid (you can also use 4 tablespoons of citric acid - which I did since I had ordered it from LuckyVitamin.com with my last order)
• White Vinegar (for rinse aid - fill your rinse cup to the line)

Mix the first 3 ingredients and store in a container.  Use 2 tablespoons per load; 1 tablespoon in the open cup and 1 in the closed locking cup (or sprinkled on the inside of the dishwasher door if you are having cleaning issues). Pour the White Vinegar into your rinse aid compartment.  If you are left with a white residue after your first try, it is suggested that you need to experiment with the amount of Borax or add a little salt to the mix.  It is also suggested to try LemiShine in place of the kool-aid/citric acid.

It will be a few more days before I get to try out my new mix, but I'll let you know how it goes!

A visit to our farm

No, we did not give up life in suburbia life for the farm life, but we do own 2/3 of a summer fruit and veggie share of a local farm. I only learned of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) last year and, at that point, it was too late to become a member of one.  I was reminded of it this year when we were at a dinner party a couple months ago.  I immediately jumped online and searched for local farms in the area that sold CSA shares.

Many were already sold out, so we are very excited to have invested in the livelihood of Gazy Brothers Farm in Oxford, CT.  We were a little disappointed that the produce is not organic, however, it is grown using an integrated pest management program, which reduces the amount of pesticides, fertilizers, and other chemicals to ensure healthy plants and flavorful produce (from the Gazy Brothers website).

We aren't totally sure what to expect being a part of a CSA, so we are testing the waters with two other families from our moms group (hence the 2/3 share - we have two shares that we are splitting 3 ways). We will begin picking up our 2 boxes of mixed vegetables, herbs, and greens and our 2 boxes of mixed fruits and berries on July 1. The farm will bring them to a nearby farmer's market, one of us will pick them up, and then we will divide the boxes 3 ways the best we can.  Our summer program runs for 12 + weeks.

This past Sunday, the farm hosted a CSA open house. It was so much fun getting to meet the farmer and his wife and daughter and getting to see the fields and greenhouses.

The kids planted beans to make a bean house for them to play in later in the season.

Eliana enjoyed planting the beans and watering them.

The farmer took us on a hayride tour of the fields.

Here we are waiting for the hayride to begin.

Here are tomato plantings covered with black plastic (to prevent weeds and keep the plants warm). In the back there are leeks, and there are berries on the hill.

Here is broccoli and other greens growing with the greenhouses in the background.

I can't remember what this is.

Here is corn in the foreground with lettuces and strawberries and the greenhouses in the background.

Here Jimbo and Eliana are checking out the tomato plants in the greenhouse. They don't usually show the greenhouses because they are very susceptible to disease.

The farmer's wife gave the tour of the greenhouses.  She said that this year, for the first time, they had crop yields throughout the winter.  This winter she believes they will have enough to have CSA boxes every other week!  How awesome would it be to get fresh local produce through the winter IN NEW ENGLAND!

They also had a farm stand set up with leftover produce from the Spring program CSA shares.  I bought a bunch of dandelion greens, a bunch of Arugula, a bunch of leeks, and a tomato (all for $1 each). They also provided some yummy refreshments.  All in all, a very good day.  We look forward to getting our boxes, and getting to try some new produce and recipes.

Happy Earth Day!

I know I've been quite absent from this blog in the last several months.  On this Earth Day, I'm going to make a commitment.  I am going to do everything within my power to add a new green post at least Thursday of each week until Earth Day 2011.  I have so many things to share, but have just not made it a priority.  So here's to a green year!

What did you do to celebrate Earth Day? We have been working on our herb garden.  Today I will post to Freecycle to see if I can get some terra cotta pots to make this awesome structure to house my back deck herb garden.  My in-loves made this one based off something my mother-in-love saw at a recent flower show.

Simple Organic

I just have to share this great new blog the Simple Media has launched.  It's called Simple Organic and can be found by clicking here.  We have been doing a lot around here to go greener and save money, but I just haven't set aside the time to blog about it.  It's on my to do list, I promise :o)  Stick with me please.  In the meantime, I hope you enjoy Simple Organic as much as I have been!

More info on my Naturopathic visit

I've had questions and comments on this post so I wanted to give some more information and an update on things. During the one hour + visit, the doctor said that nothing stuck out to her as far as the cause of the acne. But she did have some things that she wanted me to do to see if there were any changes. These things were mostly things she came up with for another issue I spoke to her about (irregular cycles). She said the two are linked so she is treating the cause of the irregular cycles to see how it affects the acne.

1. Take a good multivitamin (the ones you get from the natural grocery stores) in addition to extra Zinc, Vitamin C with Rosehips, Vitamin B Complex, and Vitamin E supplements.
2. Take Milk Thistle (a liver cleansing herb). Note - I had tried Burdock Root with a slightly negative side affect, so she recommended Milk Thistle instead.
3. Do a Castor Oil pack 1 to 3 times a week (DO NOT put castor oil in the washing machine).
4. Eat as many bitter greens as I can (liver cleansing).
5. Eat as many Omega Fatty Acids as possible (for skin).
6. Take Chaste Tree herb for hormone regulation (specifically for irregular cycles).

Because of all the traveling we've been doing, it's been a little difficult to do these things consistently.

One huge thing that I didn't mention before was that she requested a hormone test for me - a full panel. Now, I have been to three different doctors since we started trying to conceive a few years ago and while I was pregnant with Eliana - not to mention that I had extreme issues when I was in high school that should have warranted a hormone test - and NONE of these doctors ever so much a suggested a hormone test. They just prescribed birth control pills or Clomid. How crazy is that?!? The results came back and my hormones are way out of balance!

Here's the update. I've been doing these things as much as I can and there hasn't been too much change so far. The only thing that I could see an immediate result with is the Chaste Tree. I think it would take more than a month of half-doing what she prescribed, though, to see results. I go in for a follow up next Friday. I will be talking with her about my hormone test results during that visit.

Recycle your old clothing

My husband, Jimbo, recently purchased a new uniform wardrobe for work. All his old uniforms were getting too worn to wear to work, but everything is still very usable. He tossed everything into the trash!! What?! I rescued it all in hopes that I could find somewhere in the area collects old clothing for recycling. After a little research I found these two links that I wanted to share:

Recycling Worn Out Clothing (an article about recycling clothing)

Goodwill Clothes Recycling (a short video documenting what Goodwill does with unsold and unsellable donated clothing)

Enjoy and be green!

Homeopathic adventures

Ok, so Eliana is finally starting to play a little more independently throughout the day and I am starting to feel like I have some free time! So back to blogging.

I came across a card at Ellie's gym for a pediatrician that is board certified, but practices homeopathy in addition to conventional medicine. I was thrilled! I would so much rather go more natural in our medical treatments if I can. I scheduled a "meet the doctor" appointment to talk to her about the possibility of becoming a network provider for our insurance. She was awesome - and said it would be no problem. In the meantime, she told me I could email her with any treatment questions I have.

Several weeks ago, Eliana started showing signs of a cold or respiratory infection coming on. I emailed the doctor to find out what homeopathic remedies she suggested for this. Elderberry and Echinacea syrup and Rose Hips tea was her response. We followed the treatment and the symptoms never developed into anything worse, and they only lasted about three days.

This past week, she started showing signs of another cold coming on (and two of our friends that she had recently interacted with had gotten colds) so we started treatment again. Since we are going on vacation in a few days, I also started treatment. We've had mild-ish symptoms for a couple of days, but are not feeling nearly as bad as we did last year when we got colds. I'm a believer in natural treatments over treating the symptoms with chemical-filled cold medicine and pain relievers!

More about Echinacea
More about Elderberry

Those of you who know me well know that I have struggled with adult acne for several years. I have tried everything to treat it from store treatments to dermatologist prescriptions to Proactive to Murad to nothing. Nothing has worked - it's very frustrating and very embarrassing.

I decided to finally schedule an appointment with a Naturopathic doctor to see what she suggested. The appointment was very in depth and lasted for over an hour. She asked question after question about my medical history and my emotional state. She came up with a treatment plan that I am working on now. I know many are curious and tentative about visiting a doctor that practices homeopathic and naturopathic medicine, so I will let you know later what the treatments were and how they worked out.

Top produce to buy organic

I know, it's been so long since I last posted. Eliana and I took a two week Spring Break to Alabama that turned into four weeks!! It was so nice!! I wanted to post something great for Earth Day, but unfortunately I was traveling back home that day. I hope to make up for that over the next few weeks now that I am refreshed and ready to get into some blogging and other projects.

I hope everyone had a very green Earth Day! Did anyone make any new green-olutions that they'd like to share? I was disappointed that I couldn't be home to watch all the great "green" shows on Discovery and HGTV, but I did get them recorded so I could watch them later and share some tips with you.

I want to start with one tip that I find helpful when trying to eat organic. It gets so overwhelming when trying to find organic food products and produce. I often feel guilty for eating something that isn't organic... or worse, feeding it to Eliana! I was watching the Earth Day episode of Get Fresh with Sara Snow "Top Earth Tips." There was a doctor on there talking about the pesticides and fertilizers in non-organic produce being linked to cancer, ADHD, and other illnesses in adults and children. His wife had cancer and started eating organically and detoxed and got better!

The doctor suggested trying to eat organic whenever possible. At the very least, he gave a top 12 list that you should always eat organic:

1. Peaches
2. Strawberries
3. Apples
4. Spinach
5. Nectarines
6. Celery
7. Pears
8. Cherries
9. Potatoes
10. Bell Peppers
11. Raspberries
12. Grapes

You better believe we will be following this list in our household now. If it's not available organic, then we will just have to eat something else (which has been very hard this winter with grapes!!).

Free Organix hair care

Upon the recommendations of some money saving blogs that I follow, I went to Target in search of Organix hair care products. I read that they were being sold with a hang tag for a rebate (mail-in) of the purchase price up to $6.99.

Organix makes a large variety of scents, though our Target only carried about 5 of them:

• Coconut Milk
• Mandarin Olive Oil
• Teatree Mint
• Shea Butter
• Vanilla Silk
• Whitetea Grapeseed
• Mocha Espresso
• Cucumber Yogurt
• Pomegranate Green Tea
• Lavender Soymilk
• Grapefruit Mango Butter
• Passionfruit Guava

I really liked the Vanilla Silk and the Teatree Mint, but settled on the Teatree Mint because mint is so invigorating!

After three days of using it, I like it okay. The shampoo is thicker than the off-brand Pantene comparable I was using. It doesn't lather as much, probably due to the fact that it doesn't contain the irritating sodium laurel sulfate. I can't tell a whole lot of difference in my hair - but then again, all I do is put it in a pony tail right now. It does feel a little softer - but that could just be in my head, ha!

At $6.99 for 23 ozs, I don't think that I would continue to buy it without a coupon, but overall I like it. Keep in mind that this is the first organic hair care product I have used. If you have a store nearby that sells natural and organic products, stop by and see if they carry Organix. I encourage you to take advantage of this 'try for free' promotion!

New Year's Green-olutions

This year I made several New Year's resolutions, and several of them pertain to my goal of helping our family live greener cheaply. I have termed these green resolutions "green-olutions." So far, my green-olutions have just been floating around in my head. I figure that if I truly want to be serious about them, I need to put them in writing. Without further ado, here they are:

1. Stop using the microwave. By the end of 2009, the microwave and toaster oven will be replaced with a Hamilton Beach 31199R countertop convection oven.
2. Do not bring home any new plastic shopping bags. This means that both Jimbo and myself must remember to take reusable bags into stores with us EVERY time.
3. Take our own carryout containers to restaurants for leftovers.
4. Replace all chemical based cleaners and disinfectants with natural cleaners and disinfectants. This includes our Clean Shower shower cleaner that we love so much!
5. As our hygiene products run out (shampoos, soaps, toothpastes, etc) replace with natural/organic products.
6. Increase our stash of rechargeable batteries. We are going to try Sanyo Eneloop AA NiMH Pre-Charged rechargeable batteries this time. They have great reviews on Amazon.
7. Unplug appliances and electronics when not in use and when going out of town.
8. Turn off lights and TV when leaving the room.
9. Make our family meals as organic as possible. Eliana is now eating what we are eating and this is a big concern of mine. Our bodies are already full of chemicals, un-necessary hormones, and pesticides, but hers is not - and I'd like to keep it that way. And I'm not going to prepare two meals each meal time.
10. When at all possible, buy used or find on Freecycle.
    

A speaking engagement and a new site

Today I had the honor of speaking about blogging and living green at the group for new moms that Eliana and I used to be a part of. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but felt very inadequate.

I have so many new things that I've wanted to post, but just haven't been able to carve out the time!! But I wanted to quickly share a website that I discovered today. It's called Success Through Play. It's an online magazine that performs product reviews focusing on eco-friendly products. I've added the link to the side-bar so we can find it in the future :o)

More coupons for organic products

Today I discovered a list of links to organic coupons on Affluent Paper. Some you can get right now and some you can get later by mail or email. Enjoy!

Coupons for organic products

Today I discovered DeliciousLivingMag.com. It is an amazing site devoted to real food, natural health and a green planet. I followed a link to their coupons for organic products, but ended up finding much, much more. In browsing around, I found some neat recipes, some great natural cleaning alternatives, and some companies that sell safe toys. I can't wait to spend a little more time there to see what other things I can find. I am going to add it to the green links on the side of this page.

An earth-friendly stroller

We have been in the market for a stroller. The one that I picked out and received at our shower (Kolcraft Contours Lite) just isn't working out for us. We also have an older model Kelty Convertible Backpack Carrier and Stroller, which we LOVE, but we got it mainly for trips. So I set out to find a new lightweight stroller.

It was difficult to come up with our list of requirements. Things I like about our current stroller: weighs only 15 pounds, has a super large storage basket, looks great, has a child tray. Things I don't like about our current stroller: does not fold up compactly, is difficult to maneuver, child is too reclined, child tray is a little high, tippy when bags are hanging on back. What we will use the stroller for: walks around the neighborhood, shopping trips, trips to parks.

We visited BRU to test some strollers, and I decided I liked the Combi Cosmo. But we purchased the Baby Trend Trendsport because it was on a sale that was ending that day and I wanted to get it in case I couldn't find anything I liked better. After hearing some advice from other moms, doing a little research, and going back to BRU to test the Combi a second time, I decided against it. The Combi seems very rickety. The Baby Trend, though it is light, has a large storage basket, and has great parent and child trays, seems to get run down very quickly. Even though it is easy on the pocket book, it sounded like it wouldn't last past one child, if even that!

Through research and advice (I looked at and tested Zooper, Joovy, Quinny, Mia Moda, and Uppababy strollers), I narrowed down my choices to the Maclaren Quest Sport and the Baby Planet Solo Sport. I was able to test the Mac Quest at BRU. I really like the weight and the maneuverability, but a common complaint is that it it tippy, something that I hate about umbrella strollers. It also has a small basket and sun shade. I was not able to personally test the Baby Planet, but I read countless reviews and watched a demo video.

I had a hard time deciding between the high-praised Maclaren and the Baby Planet. But the deciding factor was ultimately that Baby Planet is a green company, which fits into my desire to go as green as possible. I love that! And at 17 pounds, it's only about 5 pounds heavier than the Mac Quest, and only 2 pounds heavier than our current stroller. It has a large storage basket and a substantial sun shade. Many reviews said that it is not tippy like the Mac Quest. AND several online sites currently have it at a closeout price between $90 to $100 (regularly $149 - $189)!! So we ordered it in the Charcoal color last night from mystrollers.com for $99 with no tax and free shipping. If we find it cheaper in the next 14 days, they will match the price!

We are tight with our money, but we don't mind spending a little extra money to get a much better quality stroller that will last. I am also happy that our investment is going to a company that cares about the environment.