October 4, 2011

Children’s Sleepwear: Avoiding Flame Retardant Chemicals

Children's Sleepwear

Written by Courtney, Contributing Writer The warm summer evenings are turning into cool autumn nights. Your children’s closets are probably all set for fall weather, an organization project most of us like to do before the start of the new school year and long before the weather starts to cool down. Where we live, the weather is just getting chilly after a long and mostly warm month of September. My children are turning in their short-sleeved pajamas for warm and cozy long-sleeved and one-piece sleepwear. [...]

Filed Under: Babies, Healthy kids, Living healthy, Natural living Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , 73 Comments
June 16, 2011

Forget the Bleach: How to Use the Sun to Whiten Your Whites

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Although I generally try to avoid buying white clothing for myself or my young children (because they look good for approximately one day until someone spills blueberry smoothie or spaghetti sauce on them), sometimes white is unavoidable. We've been given white items here and there, I fell in love with a white maternity shirt once, and then there's the white insides of our stash of pocket diapers. I have never been comfortable using bleach to get these stains out. It is harsh, toxic and corrosive, [...]

Filed Under: Going green, Homemade, Natural living Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , 67 Comments
May 12, 2011

My Frugal Beauty Routine

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A stylin' self-portrait of me in my bathroom seemed right for a post that takes you through a day-in-the-life of my frugal beauty routine. Beauty and skin care doesn't have to be complicated or expensive (or toxic, for that matter). I'm choosy about the few things I use and I like to keep things simple when it comes to the time I spend in front of the mirror. Ever wondered what products grace my bathroom counter? Wonder no more. 7:07 am - I take a [...]

Filed Under: Frugality, Living Simply Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 92 Comments
March 9, 2011

The Thoughtful Parent’s Guide to Thinking Through Vaccinations: Pro-Vaccine and Cautionary Resources

the vaccine book

Guest Post Written by Christina Over the past two weeks, we've been approaching the subject of childhood immunizations, trying to come to the issue logically and methodically in order to make the best decisions for our children: The Thoughtful Parent's Guide to Thinking Through Vaccinations (part 1) 10 Questions to Ask (part 2) Many of you have asked for resources and articles so that you can continue your own thinking and start wading through your own research. I recommend starting a three-ring notebook or folder. [...]

Filed Under: Living healthy, Natural Remedies, Vaccinations Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
March 2, 2011

The Thoughtful Parent’s Guide to Thinking Through Vaccinations: 10 Questions to Ask

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Last week we started discussing the controversial topic of vaccination.  It has been very encouraging to see the responses it has generated, and to get to discuss a topic so near to our hearts! We began by taking a look at the Foundational beliefs we can use to anchor and base our "Vaccine-Stance."  We briefly looked at two Blueprints, one being the CDC's recommended vaccination schedule, and the other being a more cautionary approach to vaccines. Today I will present 10 Tools for sifting through [...]

Filed Under: Living healthy, Natural Remedies, Vaccinations Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
February 22, 2011

The Thoughtful Parent’s Guide to Thinking Through Vaccinations

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Guest Post by Christina It's one of the big questions new parents face today, once you've gotten past "were you trying to get pregnant?" (which I still can't believe people ask...) and the less invasive "did you do it all-natural?" "are you going to breast-feed?" and even "are you using cloth-diapers?" The question with a capital Q seems to be "are you going to vaccinate?" The stakes are pretty high, or so both sides claim. Everyone says my child's life is at risk if I [...]

Filed Under: Living healthy, Natural Remedies, Vaccinations Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
November 9, 2010

Using Stoneware for Baking and Cooking

With my stone bread pans, my bread hardly ever sticks to the pan and comes out perfectly baked.

With all that I've been learning over the past few years about toxic materials in my various pots, pans and muffin tins, it has been so refreshing to find a safe alternative that I love using! I've discovered that high-quality stoneware easily meets all of my qualifications, being 100% safe, durable and effective. I have slowly been building up a collection of stoneware, for both baking and cooking, and I could not be happier with it. Just today I told my husband that another piece [...]

Filed Under: In the kitchen, Natural living Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 94 Comments
November 5, 2010

My Simple Cast Iron Care Routine

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Written by Shannon, Contributing Writer For so long I avoided cast iron because I was intimidated by the seasoning and care process that I had read about. Then my husband came home and surprised me one day with a cast iron skillet. Of course I swooned - who needs flowers when you have Ma Ingalls-style cookware? Still I procrastinated on putting it to use in my kitchen. When I finally did break down and prepare the pan for cooking I couldn't believe how easy it [...]

Filed Under: In the kitchen Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , 102 Comments