Category Archives: Environmentally Friendly

Getting the Kids Ready for the Holidays

Children look forward to the holiday season, especially (for those who celebrate it) Christmas. For many kids it’s a time to get a ton of new toys, many of which will only be used a few times.

There are a lot of things I intend to do with my kids to get them ready for the holiday season. Some of it is to just plain clear things out, the rest to help them to understand what they should and should not be expecting from Christmas.

christmas presents

Step one, to be implemented within the next few weeks, is to agree on the toys we will be getting rid of. Due to the sheer range of stuff they receive for birthdays and prior Christmases I expect to be disposing of at least half.

My kids are unusually good about this. The last time we did a toy cleanout my daughter was delighted by the thought that poorer kids could get to use her toys that didn’t interest her anymore. She kept that up when we cleaned out her old clothes a month or two back. It may be a bit more difficult to deal with my son, who hasn’t had to do this himself before, but I think he can start to get the idea.

Step two is somewhat ongoing, due to my daughter’s current phase of wanting everything she sees a commercial for. Pretty much all parents know this phase, I think.

But I’ll be stepping it up pretty soon, as we update last year’s Christmas list. I have a website for my daughter, and one of the things it has is her Christmas wish list. Last year she couldn’t read, so I could get away with making comments on the things she was asking for, and let people know which things I really didn’t want her to have. It was the simple way of dealing with the fact that kids generally want much more than they ought to have.

But this year she’s just starting to read, and I think she’s old enough to understand why I won’t be putting everything she wants on her list. Of course if I did that, it would be pretty much the entire store.

I don’t expect my kids to want all the environmentally friendly stuff, but when I see something along those lines that appeals to them, I encourage it. I also encourage toys that require more creativity, and so avoid toys that are more set in what you’re supposed to do with them, as well as most television character toys.

Another thing I encourage them to ask for is craft supplies. I love to have a lot of things around the house that requires my kids to think, do and be creative. My kids have a box of supplies ready for all their whims. It can leave a mess but is so much fun to see.

I know some families get very picky about the toys their kids get and try to avoid plastic ones. That has always sounded pretty challenging to me, considering what is available these days. But I do want to be pickier about the plastic toys allowed. I find it hard to give up the idea of my kids playing with Legos, for one. It’s a tough decision sometimes.

Talking about what Christmas is and what it should be is very important to me. There are a lot of ideals beyond “gimme, gimme” that need to be taught. Sharing, giving to the less fortunate, for example. Appreciating what we do have. It takes time and patience to instill those values, but I hope to do well at it.

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Simplifying Gift Giving

Now that Halloween has passed, many people will be going into full blown holiday shopping mode. It no longer waits until after Thanksgiving for many.

Christmas is of course the big holiday for many families, and it means a lot of gift giving. Unfortunately, it also means a lot of trash and so forth generated, as well as useless gifts bought because people didn’t know what else to do.

Especially between adults, I think it makes a lot more sense to simplify holiday gift giving. Really, as an adult, how many gifts from how many people do you really need? Are there better ways you can handle it?

In my family we do name drawings. This helps matters in a lot of ways.

First of all, we each have to shop for fewer people. It also means that no one has to go over budget trying to shop for everyone, as gift ranges are predetermined, and the list only semi-random (I handle it myself). The lower a family’s budget, the less their responsibility.

This also has the advantage that better gifts can be given. It’s not buying a little something just to have something to give, it’s finding something wanted because you have a set price range, and that’s what that person will be getting from family members for Christmas.

This may well not work for a lot of families. My sisters and I have always gotten along well, and so we don’t mind making things a little easier on those with lower budgets.

Another idea is to give to favorite charities in someone’s name. It’s a gift that you have to know the person well to be sure they will appreciate, but it’s much better than adding to the clutter in their home.

Time is another great gift. It’s especially good if you’re always complaining that you never get to see your family or they’re complaining about not seeing you. Alternatively, do something for them that needs doing. This was the idea when we painted my mother’s house for her birthday.

Many of these ideas to simplify gift giving require some discussion with the recipients beforehand to be certain that they will be welcome.

If none of those ideas are sufficiently welcome, think about memberships that may be in the budget. Every year, for example, my inlaws get us zoo memberships. The kids just love it. Pretty much any area will have a place you can get a gift membership to, whether it be a zoo, museum or other place.

Changing your family’s view of gift giving from something purely consumeristic to something more considered may not happen overnight. It may take a few years. However, as you and your family get used to it, it will get easier for all concerned.

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A Natural Beauty?

I’m not much into makeup and the like. A lot of it comes from my own trust that I look all right with or without, combined with a dislike for using chemicals on myself unnecessarily.

But there are a lot of products out there that claim to be natural or organic. The challenge is figuring out who really means it.

Green Options had a really great post on this topic a while ago, going into the things you want to look out for when you check the ingredients. Many people who want organic or natural products would prefer to avoid parabens, SLS and similar chemicals in their personal care products. But they aren’t too easy to avoid. Cosmetic Database has a Skin Deep section that covers the potential hazards present in a wide variety of products, and looks to be quite useful.

Out of curiosity I checked their listings for Arbonne products, as a friend of mine has recently started selling these, and is quite delighted with them. They come out reasonably well, I suppose, although most of their line are in the middle, yellow range, with a few in the green range and only one, old, formulation in the red zone.

This was better than Neutrogena, which while it had a number of products in the red zone, still had more than 3/4 of its products in the green and yellow zone. So really not as much better as one might hope in terms of what Skin Deep rates them.

This is a great site to check out if you’re wondering about the safety of some of the products you use.

I do have to share one of my favorite natural products – jojoba oil. I have very long hair, and it’s wonderful for that. Just a little on the ends really does wonderfully.

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Nonstick, Cast Iron and Other Cooking Gear

I’ve been happily making the switch from the nonstick frying pans my husband and I got as wedding presents to cast iron frying pans. I have a small one and a large one now. The large one really makes me happy because while it’s lightweight for a cast iron pan, it used to belong to my grandmother.

I also got some of her cooking pots. I think they’re stainless steel over aluminum or some such. But still a great improvement over my nonstick ones.

I’ve just come to mistrust nonstick of late. They say it’s safe when used correctly, but you know it wears off, meaning the Teflon does get into food, just a little. I don’t like that, especially since it means that you have to replace them when it wears off.

I got a bit of teasing for being so interested in such practical things when we went through Grandma’s house, but it allowed me to replace things I had been waiting to replace. It’s the usual conumdrum you face when you don’t want to consume more, but don’t like what you have. This was a chance to get things I knew I wanted without shopping.

I must say, I love how cast iron cooks. It’s a bit of extra work to care for, and you don’t put it in the dishwasher, but it’s worth it to me. When you need to get new frying pans, I do recommend it.

For other cookware, there are a lot of options beyond nonstick if you look around. Silicone is all over the place, but I don’t know enough about it to want to use it for muffin pans or other baking supplies. On the other hand, those rare occasions where I make muffins or cupcakes I use the paper liners anyhow. Nonstick seems kind of redundant with that. I’m rather fond of Pyrex baking sets for other purposes, although I understand that they can impact baking time.

My suggestion when you need to get cookware is to look for pieces that are safe to use and will last just about forever. Cast iron is good, high quality stainless steel can be good. Try to avoid anything with a nonstick coating that will wear off over time or has questionable safety. It can be a real pleasure owning thing that will last a lifetime.

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Charged Up and Ready for Christmas?

Christmas is coming all too soon, and with it often comes a ton of new toys and gadgets. It’s probably time to start thinking about your battery situation.

I find that even with kids I don’t go through too many batteries. I have this little habit of not letting them know about all of a toy’s capabilities if it doesn’t really need the batteries in order to be enjoyed. There are a number of toys like this in my experience, and I much prefer the noises that come from the kids using their imaginations.

But there are plenty of things that do need batteries, and I think now is a very good time to look at getting a good rechargeable battery set. This way you can be ready in time for Christmas.

You can get rechargeable batteries locally, although sometimes it can be hard to find a good selection. There are also sites such as Responsible Energy Corporation which have a large selection. They even have solar powered chargers.

Of course, batteries should be properly disposed of in any case. This isn’t always easy, even in states where you are not supposed to throw them in the trash. Call 2 Recycle has resources to help you find out how to dispose of rechargeable batteries correctly.

There’s no easy way to drop the use of batteries completely for most people. There are just too many little uses for them. But if you can start your switch over to rechargeable batteries now you can greatly reduce the impact of the batteries you do use.

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