Monthly Archive for October, 2006

Happy Halloween!

Published
by
Lauren
on October 5, 2006
in Healthy Eating, Holidays and This n That
. 1 Comment

Halloween is drawing near and once again I feel that pit in my stomach because….. my kids are allowed traditional candy for halloween. A few years ago after a failed attempt to entice the neighborhood kids with a more healthy option, I caved and went for the popular candy.

I would like to give a natural Halloween a shot and since today there are so many more options, it might just be doable. I’ve found some links to order more healthful candy that doesn’t put a strain on the environment or one’s ethics.

 

Belgian organic milk chocolate Endangered Species Bug Bites. 64 bites are 25% off now for $33.29 at MotherNature. They are also offering a “funpak” like the other candy bar companies do at this time of year. Check your local health food supermarkets, prices range from $3.50 to over $5 for the bag.
http://www.mothernature.com/shop/detail.cfm/Sku/30496

Thompson Candy has organic halloween colored chocolate coins and halloween chocolate pops. Call to order; 1(800)648-4058They sell retail only through their retail outlet factory store.
http://thompsoncandy.com/thompsonorganics/products.htm

College Farm Organic Candies offers a nice assortment of hard candies in many flavors including; vanilla caramel, strawberry cream and their favorite “Naturepops”. Check out their site on where to buy them but try Amazon and veganessentials.
http://www.collegefarmorganic.com

Peanut Butter cats and Chocolate Bat Cookies by Dancing Deer. Great for if you’re planning on making your own little goodie bags. 28 cookies costs $25.
http://www.dancingdeer.com/…..

  Sunspire Sundrops (like M&Ms). You can get a box of 24 for $24.00.
http://www.worldpantry.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prmenbr=172832&prrfnbr=213681

You can also toss in some halloween gifts instead of candy; stickers, pencil toppers, and a variety of other halloween inspired gadgets and toys.

There are also many many other organic candies but we try to stick with plain old chocolate with a few other things for spice. You can find gummy bears and fruit roll ups and more if you do a google. We steer clear of them because of teeth issues my kids have had.

My son reacts unfavorably to food dyes, in particular red food dyes. Unfortunately, these additives are in most candy that isn’t chocolate. So since my son was little (he’s 7 1/2 now) we’ve done trades with him. Good candy (chocolate) for bad candy (processed sugars, dyes, chewy things, etc). My kids don’t really like the taste of them anyhow so there’s no argument though my older son is now wanting a “toy” trade instead of more candy. I’ll take that trade!

I hope I can get it together enough to do a fair trade organic holiday! But if not, there’s always next year.

Ants, Ants and More Ants!

Published
by
Lauren
on October 5, 2006
in Non Toxic Living and This n That
. 1 Comment

I am NOT a bug person.  Yet they seem to like me. In NJ, before we sold our house, we had a Carpenter Ant invasion (yes those HUGE ones).  It had rained for 17 days straight and apparently they were looking for dry ground INSIDE my kitchen cabinets.    I can still recall opening the cabinets and seeing only a moving blackness.  That was the first time I actually called an exterminator.  They were as non toxic as I could get (that bait stuff they drill into your cabinets…its made of borax which isn’t great but better than most poisons). 

 Now here in NC, we’re running into some ant trouble as well.  First, I’m new to dealing with fire ants and I still can’t tell if an ant is a fire ant or not.  SO…I’m afraid of all of them.  We had an ant hill right on our front walk so Liam decides to pour boiling water on them.  What happened?  The entire colony went looking for a new place to live INSIDE my house.  Given we knew the reason for the house entry I used my famous method for getting rid of ants in the house.  The vaccuum cleaner.  I just sit there and vaccuum up every ant I see.  Not very zen but hey, my rules on killing bugs are clear.  You bite me or invade my space, I’ll rack the karma points up.  You leave me alone, I leave you alone. And if you’re a spider, you get special treatment with a lift outside. 

Why bring all this up now?  Well, today I came home to hundreds of little ants climbing my counter ledge (on the backsplash) and traveling the length of my counters.  Vaccuum comes out and even my special spray that kills them dead on contact.  I should market the darn stuff but I can’t yet find a spray bottle that will stay working with this stuff.  All it is is some water, EOs and a whole lot of cayenne pepper with a touch of soap.  I just finished rubbing it into the corners with a toothbrush.  We’ll see.  I’ll keep you posted.

Lizards and spiders and frogs, OH MY!

Published
by
Lauren
on October 3, 2006
in This n That
. 0 Comments

Moving to NC has been a wonderful change of life for us.  One change that is sort of neat but in many ways frightening is the SIZE of the insects and whatnot here.  We have big french windows off our family room to our deck and our little dog is constantly in a state of frustration trying to get to the lizards scurrying across our deck at any given time.  Frogs too.  We helped a turtle cross the road this week too.  The spiders……hmm…well, we’ve always been the type to catch a spider in the house and release it outside.  BUT the spiders here are HUGE.

Though some are neat to watch.  We have a HUMONGOUS yellow orb weaver (as in Charlotte’s Web) that set up off our breakfast nook window.  She’s been there for weeks now.  Is about 6″ across.  We’ve watched her build her web, redecorate once or twice, catch and eat her prey.  One day she was gone and were were all very sad.  Apparently, she was just taking a break from her web and hanging out on our deck banister for a day.  She’s back and amusing us again.

Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides

Published
by
Lauren
on October 1, 2006
in Healthy Eating and Organics
. 0 Comments

EWG has just put out its 4th edition of the downloadable (pdf) wallet sized flyer on pesticides in produce.  In it they list the top 12 fruits/veggies with the highest and lowest pesticide loads.  Making it easier to choose when to buy conventional and when to stick with the better organic.  We can’t always buy organic all the time, but now you can feel better knowing which fruits/veggies you can more safely buy conventionally.

 http://www.foodnews.org/walletguide.php

Get Yer Signage!

Published
by
Lauren
on October 1, 2006
in EcoWarrior, Healthy Eating, Humor and This n That
. 0 Comments

Haha…found on another blog this little toy is too fun to not play with;

Here’s where you can get your own sign.

Sign the petition while you are at it. We don’t need hummers in happy meals to improve life on our planet.

09/26/2006: “Marriage Go Round!”

Published
by
Lauren
on October 1, 2006
in Our Amazing Kids and This n That
. 0 Comments

What does your kid mispronounce? Tonight, we had a cub scout meeting held next to a playground. My son wanted to go on the “marriage go round”. LOL

Also…I’m redesigning the HP site. Nothing too different…just a little more clean. HP was one of the first couple of sites I created on my own so I want a more organized look now that I know a bit more. Its nowhere near done but you can check it out here;
http://www.healthyparenting.net/siteplay/index.htm

09/20/2006: “What is it with….”

Published
by
Lauren
on October 1, 2006
in Our Amazing Kids
. 0 Comments

Seven year olds and scotch tape?

It actually started at around 5 and since then I can not keep scotch tape in the house. I buy it in bulk. I actually give several rolls at a time to my 7 year old for him to use as he wishes. I hide some in secret places and yet it always comes down to what I am doing this morning. A dash around to every corner of the house where a roll of scotch tape might possibly be hiding.

GASP…..I think I remember a small roll at the bottom of our craft containers! 

09/13/2006: “6, 8, 10, 12….Growth Spurt Alert”

Published
by
Lauren
on October 1, 2006
in Our Amazing Kids
. 0 Comments

OH MY. My 7 year old was still wearing his old size 6 PJs when we moved into our new house mid June. They were a bit tight so I tried a size 8. He liked those for a bit and then suddenly THEY were tight so we moved on to a size 10. He’s worn those the past 1 1/2 months and NOW THEY ARE TIGHT. So off to the store I go today to find size 12 PJs!!!! What the???!!!!! He’s growing too fast!!!! ;0

Lauren

09/10/2006: “I Love you 47!”

Published
by
Lauren
on October 1, 2006
in Our Amazing Kids
. 0 Comments

Cute quick story.

My older son Connor and I have a running “I love you” game. He says,
“I Love you”. I say, “I love you more”. He says “I love you more than
that”. And so on until we’re at the “I love you infinity” point. Inevitably it
turns to “I love you infinity plus 1″ and so on until it’s “infinity plus infinity
googooplex”.

So my 4 year old walks up to me yesterday and tells me, “Mom, I love
you 47″. lol. He doesn’t get the whole “infinity” game thing that Connor
and I play but knows its a number so he just picked one.

I love you 47. I just love it.

09/09/2006: “Breastfeeding Awards”

Published
by
Lauren
on October 1, 2006
in Breastfeeding
. 2 Comments

C’mon, don’t ya think we all deserve one? lol.

http://www.geocities.com/kellysb/graphics/bf-milestones.html

I’m not generally a cutsie sort of gal but I thought these were noteworthy.