Mom Goes Green

Well, it isn’t often that I have to make an update so soon… I just sent everyone to Environmental Working Group’s list and rating of sunscreen products… and it’s JUST been updated again for 2011!

We know the concern with sunscreen is the presence of some nasty chemicals (that part certainly doesn’t change) but, like our ever changing lives, products get changed too and I would be remiss if I didn’t share the latest findings with you…

So here… without further ado is THE latest listing: EWG’s 2011 List of Suncreens!  Maybe you want to head right over to their Best Suncreens list… and hope that what you’ve been using didn’t make their Hall of Shame!

Now, back to our regularly scheduled program… get your BEST suncreen and GO PLAY!

(Okay, Mom Goes Green is BACK from my little Mother’s Day hiatus, so…) I’m now thinking summer! The kids have started the countdown to the final days of school and we’re ALL thinking summer fun, the pool, beach vacations and lots of outdoor time!

But every parent knows that fun-in-the-sun also means extra precautions to make sure our precious ones (ourselves included!) don’t get fried during “the fun part”, so sunscreen is sure to be a purchase in the very near future.

The concern with sunscreen is the presence of some nasty chemicals that we really don’t want to apply to our bodies daily, or even “frequently” for that matter (since they absorb into our skin and accumulate). Many are believed to cause hormone disruption, cell damage and allergies, amongst other things. They include vitamin A (retinyl palmitate), Oxybenzone, Zinc Oxide, Titanium Dioxide, Mexoryl, Avobenzone… augh!… just a bunch of things that we could really do without!

So instead of laboring over labels and trying (sometimes in vane) to decipher the ingredients… (drumroll, please….)  Environmental Working Group has a list and rating of over 500 sunscreen products.  Believe me, it is much easier to find one on the “best” list and just know you have a good product to keep you safe from the sun AND the nasty chemicals.

You can also look-up the products you have been using to see how they rate.

Last year (via this list!) I discovered a great product:  Blue Lizard.  It was fantastic and we didn’t have a burn in the bunch (or exposure to nasty chemicals!).  Fortunately, EWG has done most of the work for us, so the answers are just a few clicks away.

(Boy, I sure have come a long way from those teen-days when my friends and I applied baby oil(!) in HOPE of sizzling and frying!… WHAT were we thinking?!?)

Now check it out, buy some, slather on the good stuff and GO PLAY… summer is almost here!

Mother’s Day is a few days away! I could give you a long list of ideas but I happen to be a mom too(!) and I’m going to go easy on myself today (yes, I’m taking some time off!).

In the past years I’ve gotten everything from a “dogtag” necklace with my children’s names and birthdates (made of silver recycled from film {from Mommy Tags}) to a stainless steel water bottle to a rain barrel!!! (Who knew a barrel could be so exciting!)  This year I’ve asked for NOTHING! I have everything I could possibly need and the thing that makes me happiest is just spending time with my kids and husband.

If you ARE still looking for ideas, I assembled a pretty decent list in my Valentine’s Day post and all are very appropriate for this holiday, so no need to reinvent the wheel.  But if you want those ideas just click here and take a gander.

For this Mother’s Day, whether you are being celebrated, celebrating your Mom or another special lady in your life, just remember to keep Mother Earth in mind too. She is quite extraordinary and she shares her gifts with us every day of the year.  Just like all other moms, she never takes a break!

And finally, I wish a very truly Happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms who constantly join me on this journey… we all “work” so hard for our families and keep Mother Earth in mind all along the way too… and THAT is quite extraordinary as well!

Enjoy & I hope you feel the love…

I hope you participated in Earth Hour! On Saturday, March 26th, 2011, from 8:30-9:30 pm, lights did dim all over the world!

The Mom Goes Green family turned off the lights for the third year and this year was no less exciting.  We started our day with a visit to The Rainforest at our beloved Cleveland Metroparks Zoo to really kick-off a day of appreciation for our planet and the wonders of nature.  For dinner we stopped off at a local Indian restaurant to feast on cuisine from yet another part of our our world.  And when we got home our kids rushed to take nice short showers (water conservation, right?) before we got started.

The lights went out, the soy candles were illuminated and our celebration began.

We were thrilled to once again look out at the Cleveland skyline from our backyard and see it mostly dark (Thank you, Cleveland!).  Our hour (which actually stretched to an hour and a half!) included venturing to every corner of the house and plenty of silliness along the way.  The kids’ flashlights (equipped with rechargeable batteries) were a great source for “The Shadow Puppet Show” and we snuggled under blankets on the floor to read stories from The Barefoot Book of Earth Tales.

This year’s Earth Hour had record participation (134 countries) and I wondered how many children from my kids’ school were participating with their families. Last week I sent home a notice with all 465 of them(!) announcing Earth Hour.  If they sign the pledge that says they participated, some of them will be randomly selected to win an eco-prize reward including BPA-free water bottles, pencils made from recycled newspapers and TerraCycle pencil bags (made from upcycled drink pouches)!

If you participated, you literally joined families from all around the globe… Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Las Vegas, Singapore, Beijing, Moscow, Sydney, Athens, Jakarta, Rio de Janeiro, Toronto, Johannesburg, Hong Kong, Mexico City, Oslo, New York City, Abu Dhabi, Bucharest, Capetown, Mumbai and Cairo (just to name a few!). When else can you imagine these cities and countries banded together in a unified cause? Earth Hour brought the world together in support of our common thread… Planet Earth!

You can still experience the magnitude of this event.  Boston.com allows you to click the images and see the lights go off in locations around the world.  BuzzFeed shows you the before and after from 40 notable cities and AolNews gives you the grand tour of the entire spectacular event.

Quite powerful, I’d say.

Now, let’s see what we can do to take this momentum and not allow this event to become just ONE hour in an entire year… what can you do to make every hour Earth Hour?

I hope you’ve circled the date on your calendar! This Saturday, March 26th, 2011, from 8:30-9:30 pm is Earth Hour!

Earth Hour started in Sydney, Australia, in 2007, with 2.2 million homes and businesses turning off their lights for one hour as a “vote” FOR the earth, and a “vote” AGAINST global warming.  By 2010, this movement had grown to hundreds of millions of people, and even darkened the Sydney Opera House, Rome’s Colosseum, The Eiffel Tower in Paris, The Parthenon in Greece, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, the Las Vegas Strip, New York City’s Times Square and landmarks around the globe.

Last year people from all around the world switched off their lights in a unified vote because, regardless of where you live, we all depend on the same planet! This is the perfect time to turn off the lights, discuss global warming and the importance of “being green” as a family.  Consider taking actions to assure that we aren’t polluting our earth and overusing resources in our everyday lives.

For more information, go to www.earthhour.org and sign-up to be “officially” counted!

Need some inspiration?

Or want to know what we did last year?… click here…

now…

Will you “vote” with me this year?

The Mom Goes Green family would like to wish everyone a very

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a wonderful New Year!

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree is the presence of a happy family        all wrapped up in each other. — Burton Hillis

This Christmas we want to wish you all of the things that bring you happiness.  Enjoy memories of the past, live in the moment, and have hope for the future.  May your New Year be filled with everything wonderful — health, happiness, laughter and especially love!

— Mom Goes Green —

To me, Thanksgiving has always felt like the holiday with the greatest “green potential”. There are no gifts, costumes, candy or extra, elaborate frills.  It’s simply about family gatherings, feasting on the bounty of the season and giving thanks for everything we have.  There are so many ways to avoid over-abundance… (well, with the exception of over-eating!)

Everything from the decorations, to the food, to the clean-up can be exceptionally green.

Here are the things to keep in mind:

1. Invitations – forgo the paper invitations and send Evites instead.  You’ve probably already handled this task, but this rule goes for any gathering!  And if you do need to mail invitations, look for those made of recycled paper.
2. Decorations – in many cases, you need only walk into your own backyard: leaves, acorns and twigs can be turned into amazing arrangements. Combine them with colorful gourds, indian corn, squash and apples and you’ve just captured the season!  Afterward, compost or add them back to nature.
3. Food – visit your local farmer’s market for all of the most amazing produce.  Go organic.  Think acorn squash, sweet potatoes, corn, green beans, apple and pumpkin pie! And seek out an organic, hormone-free, steroid-free turkey (if it will be a part of your feast).
4. Drinks – serve organic drinks or consider a local brew… or, if you’re lucky (like me!) and surrounded by local wineries, a local wine!
5. Tableware and serveware – stop saving “the good dishes” and silverware!  Use them!  Glasses, cups and stemware?  Get them out! Forget the disposable “anything”.  You can even score inexpensive cloth napkins and table coverings at any dollar store.
6. Consider the temperature – ovens heat a house quite quickly… and so do lots of people… so turn down the thermostat or, in warmer climates, keep ceiling fans circulating or windows open to keep the indoors comfortable.
7. Recycle – that should go without saying, but just remember to make it happen.  Cans, jars, containers, bottles, anything and everything possible.
8. Don’t waste leftovers – keep only what you know your family will eat.  Send the rest home with your guests.  Start thinking about containers now (no styrofoam plates or plastic-wrap, please!).  You can even ask guests to bring their own glass or ceramic dishware… why not?! And if you compost, toss in those food scraps.
9. Clean-up – use your dishwasher, but make sure you fill it first.  For the big jobs, you’ll need to use some elbow-grease, but be sure not to leave the tap running endlessly.  And get out your green cleaners.  You can get back to “shiny & clean” without harsh chemicals.
10. Although it has nothing to do with being green… give thanks. Ask everyone at your table to share a thought. It will certainly put happiness in the air, and that’s absolutely free!

Now, if you need some of those ‘leaf, acorn and twig’ decorations I mentioned, email me… and then back up a truck… I have enough in my own backyard to supply your whole neighborhood!

I’m thrilled and incredibly honored to announce that I have been asked to be a featured writer and contributor for Suze Orman’s latest and greatest online community, Money Minded Moms! I was blown away by the invitation but now, as the site launches… well, I’m even more blown away!

So, what IS Money Minded Moms, you ask?  (I knew you’d ask!)  Money Minded Moms is a place where you can interact with other moms and tackle all of our money issues, from smart saving, to investing, to tips for stretching your every dollar… and that’s where Mom Goes Green comes in!

You can read my first article, “Go green” AND “save green”: Dispelling the myth, but in a nutshell my contributions will be focused around actually showing readers all of the ways we can live green, keep our families healthy, and benefit the environment without sacrificing anything, including our money. Living green, environmental consciousness and a healthy well-being do NOT need to be a costly commitment. The only investment is taking the time to do the right thing!

The site is going to be truly spectacular.  Suze is amazing and inspiring, and to be a part of one of her projects… wow.   And she’s assembled quite a team.  You can check out all of our profiles here and see that I’m in wonderful company too!

As Mom Goes Green, this blog will continue and I will forge ahead with my mission, but Money Minded Moms will get the “money perspective” of all my greatest tips and tricks.

I hope you join me! We can have great discussions there too! And once again… that “honored” thing… oh yes… INCREDIBLY honored!

This evening my daughter and I decided to make a quick trip to the garden we’re growing in a planting area we adopted in front of her elementary school.  We’re growing our own organic veggies and knew that some lettuce was perfect to harvest for the evening’s dinner.

Well, we arrived… and … (*wide-eyed pause*) … it was already harvested! Quite neatly I might add (so we knew that it wasn’t “harvested” by animals… besides, the netting overtop prevents it from BEING harvested by animals!) and the netting was neatly put back in place as well.  (Insert my look of *SHOCK* here!)

So, THAT’S how someone is going to be, huh?  Who do they think they’re stealing from?… the garden is in front of an elementary school for pete’s sake!!!

What do I have to say about that?  Well, THIS is what I have to say about that…

Dear Organic Lettuce Thief,

I love organic lettuce, don’t you?  Oh yes.  Apparently you do.  I also love organic gardening.  You should try it sometime.  I admire your strength and bravery for being able to steal from children.  I also hope you enjoyed your organic lettuce salad this evening, however, my family DID NOT!  Oh, and by the way…

xoxo, The Mom Goes Green Family

This past weekend I had a conversation about how truly excessive we’ve all gotten in our lives… not necessarily you and me, but people as a whole.  I’m not sure where to place the blame.  Perhaps it’s because we have too many choices.  Maybe it’s because everything is so disposable, and convenience leads us to excess.  Possibly it’s fabulous product marketing and advertising… or maybe just a good… ummm, BAD dose of vanity and wanting to have the ‘latest & greatest’…

But there is one thing I know for sure… our grandparents (and especially our great-grandparents!) would be appalled! Think about the fantastic green lessons that can be learned from them:

• Minimal products – I guarantee they didn’t have an individual product for every task and need on their list.  Today, many people could fill multiple cabinets with everything we’re enticed to buy & try when, truly, the minimal would do!
• Grow your own food – my grandparents ALWAYS had gardens for growing their own food.  They were organic, chemical-free and fabulously plentiful.  Only soil, water and sun needed! And the food they had never, ever, went to waste.
• Tap water is okay – can you imagine their reaction to the amount of money we spend on bottled water?  Then tell them that the water is also likely contaminated with a chemical called BPA!
• Reusing at its finest – everything had a secondary use and nothing of value was thrown away.  I still remember my grandfather’s garage filled with cans, jars and boxes that became the most organized of storage containers.
• Hand me downs are okay too – everything from clothing to furniture, books to pans… it was passed around from family member to family member.  NOTHING was thrown away before its time.
• Mass transit & foot power – while some of them certainly had their own cars, they also made great use of mass transit or (just imagine!) they walked!
• If it’s not broken, don’t replace it! – can you also imagine their reaction to the suggestion that we replace something that still worked just because we wanted to “upgrade”…
• The world was their playground – being indoors meant you were grounded or sick.  The outdoors was everyone’s playground from dawn ‘til dusk!

I bow to our elders for being green when they didn’t even know what “being green” would eventually represent… we can learn a lot from them.

Now, what do you do that would make YOUR grandparents shudder?…