Easy Steps for a Healthy & Safe Nursery: a Fantastic Free Resource from HCHW

Healthy Child Healthy World, one of my favorite and most trusted sources, has just released an invaluable resource to help parents and other adults keep children safe from toxins: Easy Steps for a Healthy & Safe Nursery. This interactive eBook is 40+ pages and packed with user-friendly information and tips.

I love that the Easy Steps eBook begins with a section entitled "How to Use This Guide" which directly addresses the toxic information overload that so many parents encounter when they first discover the number of toxins in our everyday environment. Next, the eBook briefly discusses why we need to pay attention to chemicals in the environment, including a discussion of childhood diseases that are on the rise -- a great section to share with partners and other caregivers who might need a little convincing that baby products can be unsafe.

The bulk of this eBook, though, is all about solutions. Here are some features you'll find within Easy Steps for a Healthy & Safe Nursery:

Read More

Favorite Sources for Play Food and Dishes

One of my favorite classic toys is a wooden play kitchen, along with the accompanying play dishes and play food. I wrote about our wood play kitchen earlier. We still love it. My only regret is not buying it sooner. I bought it just last year, when I should have purchased it when my first child was a year old. My one-year-old plays with the kitchen the most of all my kids. She is endlessly fascinated by opening and closing the doors, by putting things inside and taking them back out, by dropping things through the sink hole and then opening the door to find them inside.

Here are some of our favorite sources for play food and play dishes.

Read More

Hummus from Dried Beans in 5 Minutes

I used to make hummus from canned beans.
Then I made hummus from garbanzo flour, but I didn't quite like the consistency.
Now I make hummus from dried beans in 5 minutes.

Here's how.

Read More

Holiday Reflections

We did it! We made gingerbread cookies!

The holidays have come and gone again. Our decorations are still up, but the parties and gift-opening and cookie-making are over. Now that I have children old enough to remember their Christmases, I am trying to make them more memorable, more filled with meaningful traditions. Here are some traditions we enjoyed doing this year, as well as some traditions I aspire to doing in the years to come:

Continue reading at The Green Phone Booth

For more great ideas on being green and saving green during the holidays, 

visit my Green Holidays page (continually updated).

Read More

Eco-novice's 10 Most Viewed Posts of 2012

Yesterday I posted the 10 most popular posts that were published during 2012. Here are the posts (published at any time) that were viewed the most often during 2012.

In reverse order for dramatic effect:

10. Stainless Steel Drinking Straws by The Mulled Mind (Giveaway and Review)
  9. The Perfect Child's Cup
  8. Avoiding Toxins in Baby Products
  7. Natural Nursing Pillows
  6. Green Cleaning - DIY Cleaning Recipes
  5. Surprise! Why It's Better to Not Know Your Baby's Gender Until Birth
  4. Goodbye, Teflon. Hello, Le Creuset.
  3. Non-toxic Crib Mattresses
  2. Homemade 100% Whole Wheat Honey Bread (without a bread machine)

And the most popular post of 2012 was:

  1. In Search of the Affordable Natural Bed

Happy New Year!

Read More