Safer Sun Protection

via islandbreath.org 

It has been HOT and sunny around here, feeling more like mid summer than mid spring.  We've been spending a lot of time outside and it's been especially hard to keep Leif clothed out there.  We all know that it's best to cover up and to stay out of the sun during peak hours, but when you can't do that, sunscreen is obviously the next best solution to over exposure.  The latest Environmental Working Group newsletter featured this 2010 Sunscreen Guide and I urge you to check it out before stocking up for the summer season. 

If you don't want to take the time to sift through all of the information in the guide, at least check out their recommendations for the best options here. Their Hall of Shame is also worth a peek - some of their picks were pretty surprising.

Scenes From a 3rd Birthday

It's been a busy and fun week with lots of birthday preparation and celebration.  We partied for 2 days straight - on Tuesday with the friends we made up north and yesterday with family at home.  As I was up at 5:45 on Tuesday, prepping fruit for Leif's pre-museum breakfast party, I couldn't help but think back to all of the early morning preparation that my mom would do to make life special for us.  From her I've learned to start from scratch, do it myself, and that less is always more except for when it comes to food - then you want lots of variety and plenty of it. 

I was too busy to snap many photos, but here are a few highlights from our birthday festivities:

 a lemon blueberry muffin breakfast cake with banana ice cream for the party with friends

 visiting the Sesame Street stoop at the Strong Museum of Play (which we all loved)

the long requested (raw carrot) "cake shaped like a dinosaur with blueberries, lollipops in the frosting and 5 birthday candles" - the kid knew what he wanted

chasing bubbles and relaxing before dark

And We're Back!

After a couple of trips and A LOT of packing, unpacking, cleaning and re-organizing, we are finally getting settled back into our home.  Sleeping in our own beds and spreading back out is great, but the best part right now has been returning to my gardens.  I'm a frequent transplanter and am just beginning to see the blossoms I've been waiting patiently for.  Here are a few photos from past seasons (these are the ones I'd look at in Februrary thinking, "it's just a few months" and "we're almost there").  

None of these are blooming quite yet, but again, we're almost there!

Upcycled T Shirt Rugs

via the design llama 

 

If you're like us you've got drawers full of old t shirts that you don't wear but can't bear to give away because they came from this concert or that charity run or your old high school team or the dentist who did your braces or whatever (why does everything come with a t shirt?).

I got tired of looking at the sorry old t shirts stacked in my drawers and last spring I decided to do something about it.  I had seen enough rag rugs to know that there must be a way to make something useful and I was right.  This tutorial will show you everything you need to know about how to cut your t shirts, create your yarn and make a pretty rad rug.  I chose to crochet mine like the example here, but I've seen some nice ones that are knit and even some that are shaggier.  

 

 I used different colors, but ours looks a lot like this one

I wish I had a picture of ours to share, but it's at the other house and I can't find even a glimpse of it in our huge file of digital photos.  Maybe I can snap one while we're home this week and add it later.  I'll be posting less frequently for the next couple of weeks while we slowly move out of this house and back into our home home.   We're all looking forward to the move and to resuming life there.  

Raw Carrot Cake is Delicious

I know I posted a link to this the other day, but raw carrot cake deserves a post of its own.  I've been thinking about what kind of kid-friendly cake to make for Leif's birthday at the end of the month and was intrigued by this recipe the first time I saw it.  It calls for no added sweeteners and is basically just a bunch of chopped dried fruit and carrot.  The best part about it (and the clincher, really) is that it can be easily formed into just about any shape you can come up with.  Leif has been asking for months if his birthday cake could be made in the shape of a dinosaur.  He also wants blueberries and 5 candles on top, which he will happily tell you if you ask how old he is.  Oh, and a present with two blue bows on top - they're simple requests and I'm working on making them happen.

We loved our trial run with this recipe and only made one adjustment - the frosting.  Jodi and I both agreed that carrot cake needs cream cheese frosting, so I left out the cashews and used cream cheese, agave syrup and a little bit of orange juice to make a just-sweet-enough frosting instead.  

Mmmmm...

Motherhood

Making the decision to have a child -- it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.  -Elizabeth Stone

 Japanese Rose - a gift from my guys

Yesterday, while Leif was napping, I read this sweet tribute to mothering and had a good cry.  Many of us share these thoughts but few of us have the time or talent to put them into words.  Check it out. 

Mother's Day Weekend

Mother's Day, 2009
Two grandmas and the kid who doesn't know how lucky he is to have this

It's my 3rd Mother's Day and I'm finally starting to feel like a real mom and not just a 29-year-old girl who's pretending to be one.  Jodi's final day of classes is today so all of his final projects have to be wrapped up by 4:00 this afternoon.  He still has a few exams, but it looks like we just might have a weekend spent together.  This comes just in time for Mother's Day.  Now I just have to decide what I want to do.  Normally I'd enjoy a great breakfast followed by time spent out of doors but they're calling for snow on Sunday.  

Hmmm....

What are your Mother's Day plans looking like this year?

Not Your Grandma's Chocolate Pudding*

I don't know much about the raw food movement, but I do know that I love to try new recipes and am a sucker for hidden ingredients.  Last year I had a small obsession with trying recipes from the Deceptively Delicious cookbook.  Friends and family were treated to meals or desserts and then asked, "Can you guess what the secret ingredient is?".  I was hiding sweet potatoes in hot chocolate, spinach in brownies and cauliflower in just about everything.  Eventually I ran out of home made purees and haven't done much deceptive cooking or baking since (though my family is still wonders what I've got up my sleeve when they eat with me).  

 via a similar recipe at the sweet blog,  Lovely Morning

I've been very straight forward with my cooking lately, but last night I couldn't help myself.  I was reading my new issue of Mothering Magazine and came upon a recipe for something called raw choconana pudding.  I'm not normally a pudding lover, but when I saw a whole avocado and half a banana in the recipe I was hooked.  I quickly whipped up a batch and it was DELICIOUS.  Leif loved the stuff and even Jodi, who is a pudding lover with a very sensitive sense of smell, didn't notice anything but the coconut as being different.  I followed the recipe's recommendation to serve the pudding in layers with plain yogurt and nuts and it was yummy with and yummy without.  Here's the simple recipe:

Raw Choconana Pudding

1 avacado

1/2 a ripe banana

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/4 cup honey or agave syrup

1 Tbsp coconut oil

1 tsp. vanilla 

Combine in a food processor or blender and serve.

That's it - super simple, fairly healthy and a great intro to raw "cooking".  I've been meaning to try this recipe for raw carrot cake and thought it would be a winner on Leif's birthday at the end of the month.  Maybe I should give it a trial run this afternoon...

Find more raw food recipes (with photos) here.

* Actually, this is the kind of recipe my grandma would have enjoyed.  She too was a lover of avocados and a sucker for secret ingredients. 

Keeping our Planet and our Souls Intact

Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul

-Edward Abbey*

via Environment Canada 

Lately I've been seeing a lot of products claiming to be biodegradable and compostable.  I am thrilled that so many industries are feeling pressured to offer more earth friendly products, but I can't ignore the false understanding that these products can bring to consumers.  Biodegradable and compostable products only break down appropriately under the right conditions.  They usually need exposure to oxygen and microbes, two important elements that are lacking in today's landfills.  Buying certified biodegradable or compostable plates, diapers, plastic cups or sneakers only helps if you can send them off to a large scale composting facility. Sending them off to the same old landfills isn't completing the cycle and doesn't yield the intended outcomes.  You can learn more about this issue as it pertains to plastics here.

 So what can a regular person do to contribute to the solution rather than the problem?  Here are some tips and ideas that we try to keep in mind.  I'd love to hear your comments, ideas and suggestions too.

- Forget about disposable convenience products and re-discover the not-so-inconvenient originals

- Donate or sell stuff that you no longer want through freecycle, ebay or your local domestic violence shelter

- Remember that even old stained and ripped fabric is accepted at your local SPCA where they turn it into bedding for homeless pets

- Support your local thrift shops and find unique treasures that someone else was kind enough to donate

- Before making any new purchases, ask yourself, "How long with this last, and what will become of it when it's finished?".  If the answers disturb you, consider finding an alternative.

- Challenge your family to reduce the amount of trash you produce through re-use, composting and recycling (remember that if you don't buy that packaging, you won't have to dispose of it later)
- Reduce first, reuse next and then recycle

I've found that striving for a sustainable life means living a less expensive and more fulfilling one. We can't do everything all at once, but we can all make informed decisions and take deliberate steps in the right direction. 

*I lifted this great quote from a Vermont based business that is committed to educating the public about the principles of cradle to cradle purchasing and appropriate "disposal" (with this model nothing is actually wasted).  Check them out here.  Read more about the cradle to cradle principles straight from their source here. 

Sand Art

We're all running on empty with colds and a nasty case of finalsitis, so a trip down vacation memory lane seemed like a good idea.  Looking at old pictures is a great reminder when I'm feeling sick, broke and tired that life wasn't always and won't always feel this way!

These cute photos are Jodi's artistic interpretation of my 21 week pregnant belly 3 1/2 years ago.  We were honeymooning on Maui and I was actually wearing that bikini.  I'm 21 weeks in now and am dreading my first step back into a bathing suit.  The water I'm looking forward to, but the bathing suit?  Not so much.

It's May Day!

As a child this meant a visit from the May Fairy and lots of flower picking and crafting for Mom, Grandma and others.  I'm going to introduce Leif to that magical little family tradition today.  

Find a pretty May Day flower basket tutorial on Design*Sponge (these are the kinds of things my mom would whip up).