I don’t think I am a judgmental person – I firmly believe that God made all of us different because we are all special.  Although I live a certain way, I don’t expect everyone to live like me.  That would be foolish!  However, I am pretty judgmental when I see someone drinking out of a […]

Last week the Breast Cancer Fund released a report about concerning levels of BPA in many prepared Thanksgiving foods.  BPA, an estrogenic chemical linked to breast cancer, is most often found in plastics (one of many reasons I try to avoid plastic altogether).  However, BPA is also found in other surprising places like grocery store […]

While pushing our kids on the swings recently, my neighborhood friends and I were talking about Costco.  They couldn’t believe I don’t have a membership to the big warehouse retailer; I couldn’t understand why their small families need to buy anything in bulk.  I asked them what they purchase from Costco, and everything they buy […]

No matter how hard I try to avoid plastic bags, they always seem to creep into my home.  Considering that nearly 1 trillion crappy plastic bags are produced worldwide every year, its no surprise that avoiding them is tough, even for an eco-freak like me who keeps a stash of re-useable bags in the car […]

As I’ve written about countless times before, I really hate plastic. And I especially hate storing food in plastic. All those questionable chemicals leeching into lovely leftovers? No thanks! I have a nice collection of glass storage containers – my favorite are Frigoverre ones that come in plenty of shapes and sizes. I also hang […]

How often do you consider a product’s packaging before you purchase it? For me, its every time. I am determined to reduce the amount of waste my family generates, so by questioning a product’s wrapping before I buy it I am trying to be a conscious consumer. Instead of just looking at the food in […]

Today marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. To celebrate, Evelyn, Mack and I took a long walk to a lovely park on the Chicago River. Even though we live in a big city I still want my kids to connect with nature. Fortunately, Chicago is a very “green” city, with more than 7 million […]

I am thrilled to see so many people bringing reusable bags into the grocery store these days. It really is so uplifting to know that people finally recognize the wasteful nature of plastic grocery store bags. According data released by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, somewhere between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags […]

I recently stumbled upon www.VBS.tv, an online broadcast network that streams free original content 24 hours a day. With eclectic, thought-provoking, and smart coverage of some of the world’s best hidden stories, it is the sort of site that will keep me coming back for more every day. I’d like to encourage you to view […]

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 […]