Veteran’s Day is a very special day in our household. My husband was a captain in the Army and deployed to Iraq. Although he is no longer active duty military, I treat November 11 as another birthday. He worked hard to serve our country with honor, and during his deployment he never complained once. He [...]

When I was working full time away from home, most of my cleaning and general household chores were taken care of in the evening. However, I started to notice a trend on nights when I took care of the dusting: I couldn’t fall asleep. My heart would race, my nose was dry and my mind [...]

When I was growing up, which really wasn’t all that long ago, Halloween seemed to have more of a homemade aspect to it. I don’t remember my mom ever buying my siblings and me costumes. Rather, we were left to our own resourcefulness to come up with a suitable and entertaining outfit for the day. [...]

Not that Halloween isn’t already scary enough, but a new report out this week reveals that most children’s face paints contain lead, a neurotoxin, as well as nickel, cobalt and chromium, which can cause lifelong skin sensitization and contact dermatitis. In the study, 10 out of 10 children’s face paints tested by the Campaign for [...]

Seven years ago, I weighed 10-15 pounds more than I do now. It took one switch in my regular lifestyle to drop the weight without even realizing what was happening. What did I do? I cut out EVERYTHING that contained high fructose corn syrup. I now check ingredient labels on everything I buy, and if [...]

My sixteen month old little big girl has moved on from pureed baby food. Since she made the transition a couple months ago, she has been uncharacteristically picky when it comes to food. She loves eggs, string cheese, pears and apple sauce, but even I was getting bored with those. Time to get creative! In [...]

Several years ago, in an effort to reduce the number of chemicals floating around my home, I decided to stop purchasing household necessities that contained artificial fragrances. Gone were the scented soaps, lotions, candles, cleaners. Everything switched to unscented, and my life is better for it! As has been pointed out in numerous scientific studies, [...]

How often do you think about your toilet paper? If you’re using a super deluxe, ultra soft, comfy quilted brand, you’re not thinking of it often enough! According to GreenPeace and the Natural Resurces Defense Council (among other leading conservation groups) the soft, comfy, quilted toilet paper loved by so many Americans has a very [...]

We took a family trip to a charming apple orchard in Indiana the other day. It was Evie’s first taste of fall tradition and I think she loved every minute of it! The weather was perfect — sunny and high 70s, but the smell of fall was certainly in the air. Bees were furiously gathering [...]

While I LOVE all the reusable shopping bags now seen everywhere at the grocery store — Whole Foods always has such cute ones! — one thing that still irks me are the flimsy plastic produce bags people still insist on using. Its pretty humorous that we’ll buy apples that travel thousands of miles from an [...]