2 posts in one day!

Wow! Here I am again...:-) Lucky you!

I am home with a sick child (Coop) and a fussy baby (KK, after her shots...oh, to be flexible...). Spence is off playing with his cousins. They were camping all week and he missed them. So, I am procrastinating with the cleaning...in between turning on Cooper's show: Caillou and patting Kendall's belly.

Blog links: I am really liking this one: http://www.simplemom.net/ and http://www.makeandtakes.com/. If any local moms are interested, I'd love to set up an artsy playgroup this year or maybe next summer. My boys love making things and always want those art crafts they show on TV...darn commercials! Yesterday we went to Michael's and Spence found a ton of crafts he wanted...I got the threading water punch that is hard to find...fellow scrappers, you probably know what I'm talking about...and picked up another copy of my guide: Gorgeously Green. If you are at all interested in becoming green, that is the book to have. I gave my copy to Jenny in SD, so I needed a new one.

Speaking of green, we are still slowly making changes...picked up a few things at Whole Foods like Ecover dishwasher tablets, new wipes (been toying with cloth diapers lately...or perhaps G diapers), new toothpaste, new body wash...but finding that nothing is quite perfect. oh well...liking the Kiss My Face shampoo so far.
I bought reusable water bottles for me and Joe. Pink for me! Bought Spence the Kleen Kanteen sippy for school. Cooper really wants one, but trying to decide which to get him. We don't buy water bottles anymore, and bought a filter for our sink so we aren't buying water jugs for the kitchen anymore.
Trying to use less paper towels...that's a hard one. But we haven't opened a new roll in awhile. Need to buy some cloths to use instead or better yet, cut up some old t-shirts. Trying not to use plastic bags, have 4 reusable totes for the market...just need to remember to take to all the stores. I didn't even think about the plastic bags I was carrying home from Michael's until we got home! I've seen several people mention that they just carry their things they purchased if they forgot to bring in a tote bag! It helps remind them to use their bags, I guess.

One of the simplest things we did was stick a crate in the kitchen for the recycles. It fills up quick with paper, cardboard, plastics (locals: you can put plastics marked #1 through #7 in your recycle can...thanks for the update, Patti!), etc. That is easy peasy! I am noticing how much food stuff we throw out and thinking about looking into composting...so anyway, we are no where near the green blogs I surf, but making our way! Every little bit counts!

We are even eating better...gasp! :-) Spencer is on the bandwagon, and is learning to make good choices. Saw this on someone's blog, seems cool: http://www.supernoots.com/ for helping your kids make good food choices.
It's interesting, but I think about my Grandma's house in Pasadena. A lot of what is suggested we do, she and my uncle were already doing. They always had those natural products in their home (shopped at Trader Joe's), and would use towels to clean up instead of paper towels. They would do things like put a plate over a bowl in the fridge instead of using cling wrap, etc...I find myself doing things I saw my Grandma doing and remembering her. I think a lot of this green movement is just taking us back to a simpler life with less. Do we really need all the plastics and wraps and bags? Do they really make life simpler or clutter up our home and planet?

OK, I better go actually do some cleaning (with my Gorgeously Green all purpose spray, of course)...we're going to the strawberry stand today to get strawberries to make homemade fruit roll ups!

Happy Weekend! Here's a layout I did about Coop (Quirks at 20 months) using the Kit of the Month from http://www.lisabearnson.com/kotm/minisites/2008/july/ It's a great kit, still available! I also made Spencer's graduation layout, will post that later!