Clean Eating

Okay, so there is almost nothing as both fun and messy as feeding kids. Here are a few of mom’s favorite items that have helped keep the mess controlled a bit – spill proof bibs, placemats, and cups.

As always these are this mom’s favorites, but what are some of your ways to keep the eating time mess at bay?

Happy Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day! Even though Mother’s Day has been and gone – by you can still SPOIL MOM!!! There are still nifty ideas to make mom continue to feel special.

As you will read under “moms favorite” Mother’s Day ideas, personalized photo gifts are such a unique and thoughtful way to make your mom’s heart melt.

Unique Baby Gifts

It is hard to keep finding great gifts for all of mom’s friends and family (especially when mom’s friends keep having babies!). This mom has several favorite gift items for a new baby (and a new mamma), but I also have a set of “mom’s favorite” places to buy and find unique baby gifts (does mom really need any more generic picture frames?):

One gift that many of my girlfriends have received from me, is a hand-made quilt from Quilt-Baby. Honestly, this company has some of the cutest things, and they have shipped things for us all the way to Austrailia!

Trendy Tots at http://www.trendytots.typepad.com also has handmade, and original, kids clothes and baby gear.

On E-Bay check out http://stores.ebay.com/Maternally-Posh”>Maternally Posh  for some very “cool” baby things.

Also look into Etsy who has tons of creative baby, infant, and children’s items.

Music

Movies

Of course, with a growing family we find ourselves staying in a lot! We love Blockbuster Total Access! This online service has provided my husband and I many “date nights” and “family nights.” One feature we love with Blockbuster Total Accessis the ability to either just pop movies back in the mail at no cost or swap movies that you receive in the mail with those in your local store at no charge. Now that is a deal!

If we do go to a movie theater we look for the first showing (which is usually uncrowded) and we also have found a few “mommy and me” cinemas, which sponsor an early morning showing of films for parents and babies or toddlers.

Music

Just like our movies, we find ourselves staying in more. No longer do we go to concerts, but we finally bought a decent computer where we can download recent concerts and our favorite music. We have found that Itunes continues to offer the best bet for both!

Fisher Price Favorites

Are you looking for safe and healthy toys for your kids, and your friends’ kids?

With so many toys recalled, it is hard to find safe ones! But here are three that “passed the muster.”

Healthy Lifestyle

It is no surprise that this mom and other moms find it hard to find a balance in life. Once kids arrive it is hard to find time out for mommy. It is also can be difficult to stay healthy. Like so many women I was scared to death that after kids I would forget to eat healthy, exercise, and keep up with the vitamins. Did I? Yes, of course. When I was breast-feeding I found myself eating chocolate bars (they were Lindt though) because I just knew I needed more energy.

So this mom has been trying to keep to a “Healthy Mom Manifesto.” How?

Eat & Buy Organic.I have talked elsewhere about the importance of this. There are increasing number of reasons to buy organic foods, toys, and clothing products. Really, there are. I never considered myself a “right on mom” until I started educating myself more about food production. Trust me, the more I read, the more I find reasons to buy organic foods and use organic products in our household. Why? Frankly, because we are not comfortable with the amount of chemicals, pesticides, and genetically modified ingredients in many non-organic foods. So we figure, the cost is worth it in the long run. You might be surprised how many organic companies now exist, and we have found that many of these companies produce some of the best, most reliable, dependable, and reasonable products we use. What are mom’s favorite organic products? Gerber Organic, Nature’s Path, Earthbound Farms, Amy’s, Cascadian Farm, Health Valley, Horizon, Stonyfield, and Earth’s Best, Tom’s Natural Toothpastes & Deodorants, and Seventh Generation (to name just a few).

Go Green. Seriously, do we need another documentary to realize that things are not good for mother earth? Get the kids involved and have them help you think of ways to do this. I know it sometimes is not convenient, and that might be an understatement. (We recently had our recycling left at curb because we were told they do not collect #1 and #2 plastics – which makes up 90% of what we recycle, leaving us to collect and deposit these items on are own). So we make it a priority to recycle our empty containers, even if it takes a little elbow grease to do.

We also have started to move toward using “Earth Friendly” cleaning products. This mom is very concerned with using healthy cleaning products that won’t harm the whole family. There are now a large amount of “mainstream” products which are going “green.” It is so important that moms (and dads) use these products because they are biodegradable, lack harsh chemicals, and are environmentally friendly. Some of mom’s favorite “green” cleaning brands include: Method Home, Mrs. Meyers, Seventh Generation, and even Clorox Green Brands.

Ditch the plastic bags. We recently traveled to Europe and were pleasantly surprised to see that there was a charge for plastic bags. We have tried to always remember to bring our cloth bags with us so that they are easy for us to use and we have no excuses not to use them.

Change the lightbulbs. Really, this is probably one of the easiest things to do. Conserve energy by turning off the lights and using GE Energy Smart Lightbulbs.

Educate yourself and your family. I have been really happy to see that moms are doing just that lately. But there is always room for more learning, so educate yourself on other ways to stay green by going to some many great websites out there to help you live a “green lifestyle.” Some of mom’s favorite websites include:

Find green stores: http://www.thefindgreen.com

Dr. Greene and raisng baby organic: http://www.drgreene.org/body.cfm?id=21&action=detail&ref=2154

Healthy Child for a Healthy World: http://www.healthychild.org/

Kid’s Recycle at: http://reproduct.net/index.html 

Even Oprah has done quite a few shows on this topic, giving 101 ideas for going green. http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200704/tows_past_20070420.jhtml?promocode=incl20070420TD

Support local farmers & businesses. One of the best ways to help keep up a sustainable way of living for all of us to to invest locally.  Even online there are “local shops” run by individual that make great, safe, organic products (www.etsy.com features many of these). We love farmer’s markets, because eating locally can many times be better, and cheaper, for the family than eating organically. Why? Because little fuel is used in the delivery of these items and though many local farms are organic, they can afford to be listed as such.

Get moving! Walk, walk, walk! Especially with gas prices so high, our whole family walks as much as possible. We now even walk to the grocery store because we find we buy less, use the stroller to carry things home instead of plastic bags, and get some exercise. Study after study shows that walking is indeed the best form of exericse going, so do it!

Surviving the Grocery Store

Negotiating Grocery Store Shopping

Okay, so many of us hate the grocery store, especially if you are dragging around tired and cranky kids (or spouses!). So, in our family we have found some excellent ways to mange this.

First of all, in order to get products at the best price, we buy a lot of things through Amazon.com. If you subscribe to their “subscribe and save” program you can get a large discount on tons of everyday products. We buy wipes, diapers, laundry detergent, granola bars, coffee, splenda, and toothpaste through Amazon. Two day shipping is FREE through this service if you subscribe to “Amazon Prime” (which is $70 a year, and trust me it pays for itself). In comparing prices we discovered that Amazon is cheaper than popular “superstores” such as Costco and Sam’s Club.

We also have started to use online shopping and delivery available at many stores. Stop and Shop has a very reliable and timely delivery service of groceries through PEAPOD. We were shocked that we could simply go online and have our groceries delivered the next day!

Best Grocery Products for the Whole Family

Okay, so when we do make that dreaded trip to the store, we found that being armed with a list of healthy, family friendly, and reasonable products makes a difference!

So what are good groceries?

We love organic products, and although we admit they are expensive, we feel better about eating them.

In the “fresh food aisle”

Earthbound lettuces are a must. They have a variety of good lettuces including mesclun, mache, romaine, baby leaves, etc. They are fresh, healthy, organic, and good!

Sunshine grape tomatoes are great for young children, kids, and adults alike. Either pop them in your mouth or put them whole in salads or pastas.

Organic apples, oranges, bananas, strawberries, grapes, and berries are also a must. These products are even better if you can get them from a local farmer’s market. If you want to know why, read Omnivore’s Dilemma about how and why to choose local, fresh, and if possible organic foods.

We love squashes and all sorts of potatoes, which is an easy meal with steamed brocolli and cheese.

In the Meat Aisle

If you can find gourmet sausages, organic chicken, and/or any Apple Farm products – BUY THEM. They are made without pesticides or antibotics, which is very important in this day and age.

In the Grains/Rice/Pasta/Soup Aisle

Barilla Organic Pastas, Cous Cous, Newman’s Products, and Amy’s Products (including soups and pastas) are a hit in our family.

In the Bakery Aisle

Of course we love Lindt & Ghiradelli chocolates and Hodgen’s Mill products (they have great muffin mixes and organic flours).

In the Baby Aisle

We love the baby Earth’s Best products, they are organic and taste good! Increasingly, Gerber also has a good organic line of baby foods.

In the Cereal Aisle

We like the ever increasing organic varieties of everyday cereals (including Cheerios) and Health Valley Granola and Granola Bars.

Gift Guide

Do you need an idea for a nice gift?

Who has time to think through gifts, whether they are for your husband, wife, kids, or a friend’s new baby!

Nowadays, many people take the work out of buying gifts by registering for themselves. That is nice, but I always find it hard to give a gift that someone knows they are receiving.

So what is mom’s favorite solution to finding gifts?

Finding unique, and many times personalized, gifts for people.

From where?

Believe it or not a lot of museums have great web-sites that have online gift stores. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has some wonderful items to purchase at http://www.metmuseum.org/ This site and others have a large array of interesting, and unique gifts for the whole family.

We have also found that a lot of catalogs, have some unique gifts. Go to Acorn Online for some great general gifts.

PBS also has tons of unique gifts at ShopPBS.org!

Kids Gifts

Some of mom’s favorite gifts for babies and children are also unique and come from a variety of online sources including:

“I See Me!” at www.iseeme.com has of the most unique kids’ and babies’ gifts we have ever seen. We have ordered several of their items for our friends, and they adore them! These are wonderful personalized children’s books which actually incorporate the child’s particular name into the story of the book.

For more and beautiful and safe children’s products, a couple more of mom’s favorites include:
Bella Organics – this was a store created by a mom for children – and all her products are 100% organic!

One of mom’s favorites is also handcrafted gifts which are now readily available on e-bay.

Another one of our favorites is site Etsy: “Your place to buy and sell all things homemade” at http://www.etsy.com/. They have so many cute and unique items! Similarly, check out Quilt Baby, at http://www.quilt-baby.com/ for lovely and reliable gifts for babies.

Gifts for Family and Friends

When you are really stuck, mom’s favorite tip is to think about a “gift that keeps on giving,” such as subscriptions to magazines or some sort of monthy delivery service.

Mom’s favorite tip about giving these sort of gifts is think about what the person would love to receive once a month – is it flowers, chocolates, wine, a subscription to Netflix, Blockbuster, or The NY Times? If this seems too much, think about a one time delivery, including dinner delivery – which is a very nice touch!

Another idea is to give a magazine subscription for the full year. We have given and received magazines, in and this is a fun gift that reminds you of the gift giver every month.

We also love giving gift certificates to our friends and family – especially for stores that sell a wide variety of items, such as Amazon.com

For those who prefer to give rather than receive, there are so many wonderful charities that allow donations to be given as gifts. Look at Heifer International at http://www.heifer.org/ to donate a very much needed animal for someone in need, in someone’s name.