Wednesday Weekly Check-In

This is US checkin in with YOU!!! Don't forget to take some time for yourself this week! 


We announced last week that we have started a new page, Inspire Me, which is dedicated to YOU! We want it to be an empowering, uplifting, and inspirational place for women to go when they need a little bit of sunshine! We would love to hear your inspirational stories! Whether it's about you or about someone you would like to nominate who has inspired you, we want to know! Please email us at: jennieandkim@gmail.com. We would love to add your story to our page!! We need to be there for one another and that is what Inspire Me is all about! We want to hear from you!! 


Have any topics you want to see on this blog? Please let us know! If you need to vent or have a parenting question, leave a post on our facebook page where you can get the support from other mamas who feel your pain!!! We have also added a "Mommy Chit-Chat" area on the main page where you can chat.. well, about anything! 


Take care of you!!! We are all SO worth it! 

How Do You Wash Produce??

We recently had a discussion on washing produce. If you think about all the hands that have touched that produce before it gets to your house, it kinda makes you wanna say "Gross"!!!  Is rinsing your produce under water enough? Do the fruit/veggie washes really work? How do you get your produce clean? You've got to wonder how clean your food is after the farmers have grown the produce and it passes through all those hands that have touched it to get it all the way to your table.

Well, lucky for us, we came across an article that helped us sort things out a bit! One of our fav websites,

Healthy Alter Ego, wrote an article just for us.... well, not really for us, but it seemed like it :) It is pretty interesting, so we thought we'd share a little of it! (for the full article see Healthy Alter Ego)

If your produce was conventionally grown, it was probably sprayed with pesticides. "Some pesticide residues remain, even after washing, in part because they are incorporated into the produce during the growing process itself. They are within the produce, not just on the surface. A couple points I want to highlight here. First, EWG states that you can avoid close to 80% of pesticide consumption by avoiding the produce listed in their Dirty Dozen, or opting to select organic varieties of those foods.  However, if the option is not available to you most experts agree that the health benefits of eating conventionally grown produce is far better than not eating fruits and vegetables at all." See our post on The Dirty Dozen  to see how you can reduce your pesticide consumption by 80%. You can also get a printout to take with you to the grocery store.

"Once we get past the issue of pesticides, potentially harmful microbes are good reasons to take a look at your washing routine. NPR reported some findings from the editor’s of Cook’s Illustrated. They found that a scrub brush removed 85 percent of the bacteria — a little more than the water alone." I actually use the brush that was given to me at the hospital when Cody was born. It has the soft bristles on one side and the sponge on the other. Once I am finished washing all my produce, I run it through the dishwasher with my dishes so as to cut down on the nasties that can live in sponges!

The cleaning method that worked the best was a dilute vinegar rinse (3 parts water, 1 part vinegar). It removed 98 percent of the bacteria. For smooth and harder fruits prepare a spray bottle with the rinse and use enough to coat your produce. Then rinse the produce under cold water to remove any residual vinegar flavor. For produce with crevices, like broccoli, consider soaking in a solution for a couple of minutes, then rinse well." Oh the uses of vinegar! I just bought two economy sizes at Costco!

"What about produce washes? Currently there appears to be no real research available on the efficacy of commercially available produce washes and because pesticides are incorporated into more than the surface EWG doubts their impact would be significant. The FDA also advises against their use because they haven’t evaluated the safety of the residues the washes could leave behind and there is currently no standardization to the process." Great to know, considering I have been using a produce wash for years :(

How do you wash your produce? Let us know your thoughts on the matter! 

Money Saving Monday: Ebates

We recently posted about Shop at Home, a way for you to make money on your internet purchases! Well, we found another one for you... Check out Ebates! No matter what it is you are looking for, both of these sites have it and they have great coupons and promo codes too! Their deals of the week are:

• The Childrens Place Monster Sale! Take an additional 50% off at The Children's Place! Plus 3.0%
  Cash Back! 
• Toys R Us Free shipping on orders $49+ plus shop the Hottest Toys of Summer for Kids of all ages only at Toys "R" Us! Plus 1.0%-2.0% Cash Back!
• ULTA Beauty $10 off any order at Ulta Beauty with code: EBATESJUNE10 at checkout! Plus 6.0% Cash Back!

They also have Featured Stores, Featured Coupons and a link to Ebay to get cash back on any Ebay purchases! It's free to join and definately worth checking out! You also get $5 cash just for signing up! Click here for more details.

 

If you're looking for other ways to save money, see below for a FREE tour of how to shop on a budget!

Thursday, July 1^st

Shopping on a Budget Store Tour

6:00 p.m

Cost: FREE

You don't have to break the bank to eat delicious, healthy, high quality natural and organic foods. Enjoy this informative and fun tour. Learn about our affordable product lines, and money saving shopping tips that will help you shop on a budget. Get helpful tips for shopping store sales and everyday values, Seasonal shopping suggestions and tips on how to create a weekly meal plan. Taste delicious and affordable foods from each department along the way, and all participants get a goodie bag to take home filled with money-saving coupons & treats from our store.

**I would LOVE to go to this, but I will be out of town :(  If anyone goes, please take notes and pass them along!

Registration: 
All classes are free unless otherwise noted but registration is required. To sign up for a class, contact Paula Mangold at 513-459-6131 or paula.mangold@wholefoods.com (check out your local Whole Foods to find similar activities in your area! )

Whole Foods Market Mason

5805 Deerfield Blvd.

Mason, OH 45040

*Want to save even more?! Head over to our Coupon Queen page for additional resources!**

Product Review: Nature's Garden Delivered

We had a coupon code for 50% off to Nature's Garden Delivered on our blog a few weeks ago. Kim and I both signed up and just received our first bin!

My medium bin consisted of:

• 1 Cantaloupe
• 2 Oranges
• 1 Mango
• 2 Avocados
• Carrots
• Kale
• Lettuce
• Bok Choy
• Chinese Cabbage
• Garlic 
• Sweet Peas
• 5 Kiwi
• 3 Peaches
• 3 Tomatoes

Not bad for $22 with my 50% off discount! 

I am having mine delivered to my house and Kim is doing a co-op (which is where she picks it up at a location close to her home) and saves 15% off her order. There are many things I love about the company:

• They deliver overnight so they leave less of a carbon footprint and your produce is not sitting out in the heat all day. It is ready for you to get from your doorstep first thing in the morning!
• They have essentially no waste. They deliver you produce in a box which you put out for them to pick up when they drop off your next delivery. Any waste from produce they have gets composted. 
• You can customize your box! They have a preference section you fill out when you initially sign up. If you hate tomatoes, for example, you can click that box so you never get tomatoes in your box. Then, they email you the week of your delivery to let you know what will be in your box. If you don't want or need certain items, you can substitute it with other produce that will be in your box that week. 
• You can choose to have your box delivered every week or every other and they have different box sizes to fit your needs.

The only negative thing I can say about the company is that not all the produce you get is local. I was under the impression that it was all from local farms, but some things they can't get local because they want to offer a variety to their customers and certain produce may not be available for multiple reasons. Overall, I had a great experience! Thanks Nature's Garden Delivered! 

If you are interested in Nature's Garden Delivered and are local to Cincinnati, stay tuned because we will be offering another 50% coupon code to your readers in the near future! 

TGIF!!

Happy Friday Everyone! We're so glad it's Friday and have a few fun things planned as a family this weekend. My parents were kind enough to buy the family Kings Island passes and we have yet to make it over there to get them registered and spend the day! We went last year and loved the water park area for Luke. He was only 6-9 months old this time last summer, but he still loved the zero entry little kids swimming area and I can't wait to see him splash around now that he's a little older. We are going to make a habit of going every Sunday and having "fun family time" with the three of us. We already have Luke involved in Tumble Bees at Kids First on Saturday mornings with Daddy. I usually try to stay home and let the two of them have their own quality "dad-son bonding" time together. It's a great way to start the weekend because Luke runs around so much playing on all the mats and tumbling that he comes home to eat lunch, goes straight down for a nap and we get a little time to relax and enjoy our Saturday too!

What summertime activities do your kids love and what passes do you get?? We have friends that LOVE the zoo passes, what's your favorite and why?

If you do have a pass to any area attraction in the Greater Cincinnati area here's a great limited time offer for you!

Got a Pass?
Get the Goods!
Show your season pass (to any area attraction) at the Deerfield Whole Foods Customer Service and receive a FREE Summer Survival Kit in our newly designed Reusable Bag – perfect for the beach!

Pass can be individual or family for any local attraction. Limit one per customer per pass.
Offer valid only at Whole Foods Market, Deerfield Towne Center
5805 Deerfield Blvd.
Mason, OH 45040
www.wholefoodsmarket.com/mason
offer expires August 31, 2010

**If you have any great deals in your area, please share it on our Facebook Page so others can benefit! Check out our Family Fun page for other great ideas!**

Family Fun: Name that Body Part!

Have your toddler lay down on a large piece of paper and trace their body. Play the game of  "where's your eyes? where's your toes? etc." Have fun with the drawing, get the crayons out and have them color their shirt, hair, etc. and cut it out when you're finished! We used the large post-it paper and stuck it to the wall for lasting fun!

This is a fun craft to do with your kids at any age! Check out our Family Fun page for more ideas! 

DIY Cocktails!

Ok Ladies, we know how hard it is to find a time out to yourself so this week's check in is especially for you! Throw together a quick and easy cocktail for yourself at the end of the day! My time is when the hubs takes Luke up for bath and bed and I usually start dinner for the two of us since Luke eats his dinner around 5:30pm. I love to cook so this is a great time for me to relax from the day and perhaps have a glass of wine while I cook dinner in some much needed peace and quiet! Here are a few fun cocktail recipes to try out! Please share your favorite cocktail with us!

Apricot Crush

1 Measure  Apricot Brandy

Top up with Soda

1 Teaspoon Lemon Juice

Cranberry Fizz

0.5 Measure White Rum

1 Measure De Kuyper Cranberry Liqueur

Top up with Lemonade

Seabreeze

2 Measures Russian Standard Vodka

4 Measures Cranberry Juice

2 Measures Grapefruit Juice 

Click here for more cocktail ideas! Rather have someone else make the drinks for you? Head to Whole Foods in Mason for a night out!!

Thursday, June 24^th 

Mom’s Night Out

6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Cost: FREE

Mom's Night Out is an opportunity for local mothers to get together without the kids to socialize, relax, and be pampered.  We know it’s hard being a mom - you deserve a break! Great food, goodies, giveaways & drinks – what could be better!

Friday, June 25^th 

Uncorked! A Food & Wine Experience

6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Cost:  $5.00

All classes are free unless otherwise noted but registration is required. To sign up for a class, contact Paula Mangold at 513-459-6131 or paula.mangold@wholefoods.com

Whole Foods Market Mason

5805 Deerfield Blvd.

Mason, OH 45040

Check your local Whole Foods for other activities. We have other listings for events at the Mason location in our family fun calendar.

**If one of your girlfriends or another woman in your life inspires you, please send us their story! We would love to feature them or you on our Inspire Me blog!!**

How To Cut Your Soda Consumption in Half!

This week's healthy living post is one that definitely caught my eye while I was doing some of my weekly reading over at Healthy Alter Ego's website. Thanks to Jo Wehage! She had a great way of easily cutting your soda consumption in half!


Fortunately, neither Jennie or myself are big soda drinkers but there may be an occasion or two when we've had a long day with the boys and need an ice cold Coke! Of course there are special occasions where I'll have a soda but for the most part we simply don't buy it. Although I will admit there's nothing like a root beer float on a hot summer's day! 


Here's Jo's suggestion for cutting down on your soda intake! 


Step 1: Pour soda to the ½ point of your glass.
Step 2: Add sparkling water to the second ½
Step 3: Enjoy and listen to your body rejoice in your accomplishment


All you do is water down your soda of choice with club soda (or sparkling mineral water or seltzer) and you'll be amazed at how much this will satisfy your sweet craving! Your body will thank you! I'll be off to the store this week to get my own sparkling water and try it for myself! Let us know if you try it and what you think. 


If that still doesn't hit the spot for you maybe it's time to make your own soda from the comfort of your own home! Thanks to Soda Stream you can make your own soda that tastes great with no high fructose corn syrup and diet flavors that are sweetened with Splenda brand sweetener, not aspartame. Of course, water is always best but for those sweet summertime soda hankerings this may be a good alternative! Check out the chart below to see how Soda Stream compares to regular soda. 

Calories	Carbs	Sugar	Sodium	Caffeine
Pepsi®	100	27g	27g	25mg	25mg
Coca-Cola®	100	27g	27g	35mg	23mg
SodaStream Cola	34	9g	9g	2mg	15mg
7-UP®	100	26g	26g	50mg	0mg
Sprite®	100	26g	26g	45mg	0mg
SodaStream Lemon Lime	36	9g	9g	25mg	0mg

Making carbonated water and soft drinks is simple! Turn tap water into sparkling water in under 30 seconds, with no clean-up. Enjoy the freshness and convenience of homemade soda and protect the environment at the same time. No heavy bottles to carry, store at home or throw away. Fizz to your taste and add the flavor of your choice to make your favorite drink. Simple to clean and reuse. The soda starter kit starts at only $109.95! 

If you'd like to try one for yourself, head on over to our aStore and find one for as cheap as $93!

Money Saving Monday: Freebies!

I want to save more money!!!! How many times have we told ourselves this?! Over the last several years,  I have not really used coupons because a lot of the brands of food I buy never seem to offer them. I do try and buy as much organic, natural foods & products that I can. I am also trying to do as much "from scratch" cooking as possible and less from a box. Unfortunately, most of the coupons in the Sunday newspaper seem to be for products I just don't buy. However, recently, I told you about the Live Savings Summit I attended and posted a TON of money saving advice I learned from fellow bloggers! This is what made me start thinking about additional ways I could save money since we are on a budget (who isn't right?!). Then I met up with my friend, Tiff, who is a REAL thrifty mama! She showed me one entire closet full of things she got for free or close to! I was sick!!!! So I asked Tiff, how can I do this?!!? After a little bit of wine and some good eats, she gave me some pointers! Now I can say.... I am on a mission!!

So I started thinking about how I can apply all of these money saving techniques to my life and for my family. It is pretty overwhelming, but you have to start somewhere right?! This is my plan of action:

1. I opened up a "freebie email". This is an email address you start just for your freebies you sign up for online (thanks again Tiff!!!)
2. I am making a list of money saving blogs &/or websites that I like. Kim and I started a list when we started the blog on our Coupon Queen page. There are lists to all types of sites that help you save money! Some of these include: grocery coupons, free stuff, & thrifty blogs to name just a few. Please let us know if you have any other sites you would like us to add to our list. I am going to start with this and then pick some of my favorites! Tiff says she likes to visit her fav sites daily, so I am going to try and do the same so that I can keep up on all the free stuff! 
3. When I find the freebies that I like I am going to sign up with them through my freebie email! I have not found a ton of sites that focus mostly on organic/ natural products, but I will be on the lookout. Even if I can find freebies that I may not use, I will donate them! It is easy enough to enter your email address in for a free product that you can give to a good cause. 
4. The freebies is where I am going to start. I am hoping that this will lead me to sites that have coupons that I can use on food I normally buy!

So, whether you buy organic or not, we can all use free stuff!!! I will try and post good freebies as I come across them. Become a fan on our facebook page so you can receive info that we don't put in our daily posts (we post a lot of money savers we find on there)! If I can master the freebie search like Tiff, I will move onto the coupon realm which causes me anxiety just thinking about it! 

We would love to hear your money saving tips or favorite sites you frequently visit to save money!!! I know there are people out there who save a ton of money with coupons and freebies and I need your help so I can do it too!!! 

Winner of our Photo Giveaway!

We have a winner! Congratulations to Stefanie for winning the 2 8x10 photos of your choice from Sara's Collection.  Sara does an amazing job and we were so happy to be able to offer this giveaway on our blog! She not only has photo art for sale, she does photography for all different events too! Please email her at sara_westrich27@yahoo.com for more info or check out her blog: Innovative Images by Sara! Thanks for your participation!


Stefanie, please email us to claim your gift and congrats! 

Happy Father's Day to all of our Daddy's out there! 

Hope you are enjoying your day!!! Thanks for all that you do! 

Container Gardening

Hey there! Kim and I both started gardening for the first time this year. Neither of us had ANY idea what we were doing in the beginning and we continue to try and find our way :)

Kim mentioned last week that she has started a garden in raised beds that her hubby built for her! I have also started a garden, but due to my SMALL yard and having our house on the market, I thought container gardening would be the best way for me to go.

I am completely clueless about gardening.. so I am learning right along with you! I started my hunt for containers which was a whole process in itself! Those darn things can be expensive! So here is what I found as alternatives (thanks to other mamas!) to buying them from a nursery:

• You can slice open bags of top soil or potting soil and plant your fruits and veggies right into the opening (someone also suggested doing this with bails of hay)
• Use 18 gallon rubbermaid containers and drill holes in the bottom for drainage. They sell them at home depot  for $3.50 a container. They aren't the prettiest so make some paint and have your kids decorate them!!! 
• Curb Shop! Watch on garbage day and drive around with an empty trunk! People are always looking to buy new containers for the spring so they throw out the old.
• You can use a food-grade 5 gal bucket and drill some 1/2" holes in the bottom.
• Go to your local nursery and see if they will give you some of the cheap black plastic pots they use for their plants (that is what we did and so we got our containers for FREE! )

Once I got my containers, I started making a list of what plants I wanted... this was really hard! I wanted everything, but ended up just picking a few things to start so I didn't get too overwhelmed. I ended up with strawberries, blueberries, tomatoes, kale, spinach, and banana peppers. I bought them all as established plants, except the spinach which I started from seed. I planted them all in individual containers with potting soil (this is lighter than top soil and better for containers) and mixed it with compost. Since then, some of my friends and family have donated some of their plants so I have added rosemary, thyme, chives, lemon balm (great for keeping away bugs), peppermint (which you can rub on you to prevent bug bites), and a stevia plant.  

Cody and I go out every day to water and weed (if needed). It has been pretty cool to see everything grow! Here are a few pics of my babies :)

                                         Rosemary                             Banana Peppers

 

                                      
                                         Tomatoes                              Chives

Things I have learned so far:

• A good rule of thumb is to plant after Mother's day to avoid risk of frost. If you plant before this, watch the weather for frost. All you have to do is lay a sheet over your plants
• With any vine, you need to purchase the "cages" so they can climb. (like the one in the tomato plant pic)
• From what I have, everything has been super easy to grow and has grown really fast, except for the strawberries and blueberries.  
• If your plant didn't come with an identification card, make your own out of wood paint sticks you can get for free from any store that sells paint (like the one in the chives pic)
• Critters LOVE plants! We had a family of groundhogs living under our shed. They destroyed all of my kale and spinach plants :(   We put peppermint oil on cotton balls and dropped them in their holes and haven't seen them since! 
• Containers give you a limited space that you don't get a ton of crop (which I knew, but still a little bummed...) 

That's it for now! It has been awesome to go out to my backyard and pick veggies and herbs to make with dinner and seeing Cody pick strawberries off the vine is pretty amazing too! Container gardening is a great alternative for those of you who have small spaces or need to have a "mobile" garden. You may not turn a huge crop, but the satisfaction you get from growing some of your own food and being able to teach your kids where food comes from makes it all worth it!!! 

We would love to hear about your garden adventures and any tips and tricks you have learned along the way! We will be posting Recipes with food that we have used from our garden as we make them! We would love for you to share your favorite recipes with us! 

Family Fun- Learning on the Go

If you're trying to teach your child's name to them, start early! Get a small chalk board or dry erase board and write your child's name on it and hang it on the back of the car seat facing them! This allows you to write their name, word of the day, etc. in a place they will see frequently! Every time you get them into their car seat, you can explain to them the letters of their name, the sounds they make and how to pronouce it.

We found dry erase boards and chalk boards at Michaels in the $1 bins!


**Don't forget to check our family fun page for idea, activities and websites! We also have a calendar with free local events that your family would enjoy! If you're local to Cincinnati and your kids are in love with horses, check out The Tack Trunk's Kids Week that starts next Monday, June21st! They will have special discounts and fun games including a horsey scavenger hunt! To end all the fun they will have Alex's Lemonade Stand on Saturday to help their foundation for childhood cancer! Please let us know if you have anything to add to the list!** 

Wednesday Weekly Check-In: Inspire Me!

This is our Wednesday Weekly Check-In! We know life can be crazy with kids and it is hard to even find a few minutes to go to the bathroom alone!! The day to day grind is chaotic and we are programmed to take care of everyone else before we take care of ourselves. However, if we don't give a little to ourselves, we can feel pretty empty at the end of the day. So this is our attempt to REMIND you to take care of YOU!!

With all that we do every day, our cup can run dry. I am sure we all know too well that this can cause us to feel a little down.  In the busy life of being a mom, it is hard for us to always connect with our friends and other moms when we need that support. This is why we wanted to create this blog. We wanted you to be able to reach out and find other moms when you had the time.. whether it is at 9:00am, 5:00pm, or 3:00am ...for the middle of the night feeding :) We want to create an online mothering community where moms can share and exchange info with one another and give support to each other. Although we all have different parenting styles and make different choices for our family, we all have one thing in common... we are MOMS! And for that reason, we can all relate in one way or another. We love hearing from you so please email us with anything you would like to see on the blog or with any other questions or comments. Please feel free to comment after any post with additional tips and tricks you have learned along the way! We are also hoping to use our facebook page as an open forum where we can share little "goodies" as we find them. Please feel free to share things on our page as well! We can all learn from each other along the way!

So.... we want to announce a new addition to Surviving Motherhood! It is called Inspire Me and it is a place where you can go when you need a little encouragement. A place where you can go to be inspired and uplifted with stories of other moms, other women! I am woman hear me ROAR!!!! We are opening Inspire Me with an adoption story of a personal friend of mine. We hope her story brings a little sunshine to your day! We would love to add your inspirational story to Inspire Me! Please send us an email! We would love to hear from you!

Healthy Living Guest Post!

This week's healthy living post is written by Lynn Stone who has her own website about her passion to raise green kids! Since we have been on our own healthy green journey we were so excited to come across her website with so much valuable information and couldn't wait to share it with you!

Hi friends! Wow, what a fun and informative blog motherhoodsupport is! I am so thrilled to have been invited by Jennie and Kim to add my three-cents. I know, the typical is two-cents but I usually have so much to say that I go over the allotted amount. Consider yourself warned!

I am Lynn, otherwise known on the blog-o-twitter-sphere as “Smiling Green Mom! My blog as you might be surprised to learn is yes… http://smilinggreenmom.com/ where living green is crazy fun – and sometimes just plain crazy. That’s usually how things work with busy moms like us, right? It is my personal belief, as the mom of two little ones, that we can live healthier lives with every small change we make that can have a great impact on our personal homes and the home we affectionately call Earth.


Living green to me means choosing to live a natural life by making daily choices that are good for my family and good for our planet. Some of the small choices we have made in the past year have included planting a garden, making our own laundry soap, shopping our local farmer’s market, avoiding processed foods, cooking homemade and making our own cleaners. There are so many shades of green and no two people are ever the same. But if we all started changing just a few things, avoiding over-consumption and really simplifying our daily lives, we just might see a difference.


I have always believed that we can all be green just by making small changes everyday - but I also believe that there is not at all the "perfect" shade of green. Depending on our lifestyles, we just have to be the best shade of green that we can be with every choice we make. Living green does not have to be more expensive or time-consuming. I know that as a busy mom sometimes we just go with what is convenient in our daily shuffle. But I wanted to share just a few suggestions on ways that might just save you some time and money – while saving the health of our bodies and Mama Earth at the same time – it’s a win-win lovely friends!

Here are some of the ways busy families can make some quick and simple changes to help enrich and protect our children in a toxic world.

Avoid Chemicals:

• Stop using dyer sheets that contain harsh and unnecessary chemicals and instead spritz your clothes with a refreshing essential oil! (see our post on Natural Remedies for more info on essential oils!)
• Throw out plastic containers as they can leach nasty and unhealthy chemicals such as BPA into your food. Use glass instead! I know, those cute little plastic Dora cups can be tempting, but that’s what Big Corporate is banking on.
• Do not use air freshener sprays - they contain harsh chemicals and fragrances that you are inhaling. Rather, fill a small spritzer bottle with several drops of your favorite essential oil and some water. This is a much healthier way to add a lovely scent to any room. This is especially important for those who suffer from allergies and asthma.
• Fill your cleaning bin with two simple and healthier alternatives to toxic cleaners....baking soda and vinegar. These work great and cost much less than traditional cleaners.

Exercise
Takes walks or ride bikes with the little ones! It is great exercise while avoiding carbon emissions. It's a win-win!
Hike! Take hikes through the woods, at your local parks or by a nearby pond and explore nature. Make it even more fun by creating a scavenger hunt list to encourage your kids to look for geese, nests, frogs, a stick as tall as they are. Let your kids get dirty! (see our Family Fun page for local parks)


Eat Well
Purchase fresh foods as much as possible. The second best choice is frozen since studies are showing that cans may also be leaching BPA into the foods. Support your local farmer's by purchasing your fresh goodies at your Farmer's Market. Plant a vegetable garden. Don't have the space? Plant a container garden! (see our Healthy Living post for info on Farmer's Markets and our Garden Adventures for more info on starting your own garden)


Unplug
Take some time to unplug from the wired-world they are growing up in and instead…choose a game of Scrabble, Go Fish, Memory or whatever age-appropriate game your child enjoys. They will appreciate the time they get to spend with you and it’s a great learning tool for their development.


Relax
As hard as it is to believe, relaxation is a skill (a valuable skill) that our children must learn in order to function as adults in a high-paced society. It is good for their mind, soul and body to have down-time. A great way to teach the art of relaxation is with a warm bath. Baths are a great way for children to sit quietly and rest their minds and bodies. Make sure though to choose toys that are healthy for the tub! There are some great places to look such as http://www.franklingoose.com/ and http://www.thesoftlanding.com/ for a toxic-free bath time.


Read
Reading is so healthy for a child’s development. Children as young as infants enjoy (and benefit from) the nurturing that a parent gives while they snuggle up close with a good book. Reading to and with your child can foster a life-long love of books, literature and reading.


These are just some of the things that we can do as parents and caregivers to help our children grow into healthy, Earth-loving, nature adoring, whole foods loving adults! I don’t want to hear the statistics that this generation of children are destined to NOT outlive their parents. Not in my house. That is why I want to do everything I can to ensure that our little ones have a long and healthy life – and I believe it can be done with every small change we make.


Did I go over my three cents? Shooot – probably. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Written By: Lynn Stone

http://smilinggreenmom.com/

Photo Courtesy of: http://www.webmd.com/

We would like to thank Lynn for all of the great ideas on going green! Change can be overwhelming, and we certainly can't do it all! Small changes really can make a difference!

Money Saving Monday

We all love to save our money. We found a few links that can help you save money this summer while at home or on vacation!

1. Target has partnered with 120 museums to bring you low or reduced price admissions. Can't find a location near you? Save the link for when you are going on vacation so you can enjoy the arts in a different city!
2. Wanna see how "stuff" is made? This link is for you! Over 500 tours of factories from how to make ice cream and candy to airplanes and boats. Factory Tours USA has locations all over the country with tours for free or a small fee. Great to include some education on your family vacation!
3. Going on vacation and want to find the scenic route? Check out the the most scenic route based on your destination. You can also visit America's Byways for other scenic routes.

Have any good money savers for the week? We would love to hear from you!

**Don't forget to check out our Coupon Queen for a ton of money saving links and tips!**

Our Next Special Give-A-Way!

We're always excited to annouce our next give-a-way but this one is particularly special! It is by a local photographer who has offered us two 8x10 prints to give away to one lucky winner!

Her name is Sara Westrich, and to say she is talented is an understatement! She is also Cody's Aunt and very much adored! She photographs Weddings, Senior Pictures, Family Portraits, Landscape and Abstract Art to name a few. She is also the person who photographed the prints we used for our blog! We want to give her special thanks for allowing us to do this give-a-way! Here is one of her beautiful prints:

To be entered in the drawing for two 8x10 prints from Sara's collection is simple!

Become a follower and leave us a comment on this post stating which of the prints is your favorite!

We will choose a winner through random.org on Father's Day, Sunday June 20th.

COMMENTS CLOSE SUNDAY AT NOON

Signing Safari DVD Winner!

We have a winner for the Signing Safari DVD!

Congratulations to Jasmine!!!

We are so excited for you to start signing with your little one! It has truly changed our lives with our boys! Please email us to claim your gift!



If you would like a DVD of your own go to Signing Safari today!

**All giveaways are drawn through random.org**

If you have a product you would like us to spotlight on our blog, please send us an email. For other Product Spotlights we have done in the past, please click here.

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

How To Make Raised Garden Beds

We've had a few people ask us how we made our raised beds for our vegetable garden so I've asked the hubs to take a few minutes and write a guest post on how he put them together...

Hello, huband here! Start off by deciding where you want to place the bed in relation to the how the sun crosses the sky, making sure the beds get as much light as possible during the day. Also have it accessible to your hose or your water-recovery pipe from your house gutter.

Lowes sell 2x12x12 treated planks, which are used for outside decking, for about $20 each. You will need two of those plus one 2x12x8 plank, about $15, which you'll cut in two so that you beds are 12'x4' in size. I used three timber screws at each end, two 9" ones near the top and bottom and a 6" down the middle. I also hammered in standard 9" wooden stakes every two feet down both outsides of the 12' planks. This will help keep them from bowing when you fill it with soil.

We filled the boxes 3/4 deep using mostly top soil, tilled with three bags of building sand and two bags of compost. Good Luck!

I hope this helps give you a few suggestions on how you can make your own raised beds using cost effective materials! We'd love to hear about your own gardening adventures!