Monthly Archives: July 2009
Back To School: Homeschooling Edition
| July 30, 2009 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
One way to green your homeschooling is to buy your curriculum used. Most homeschool groups and co-ops will have book sales often. This is more affordable, greener and you can ask the family that used it what they thought of it.
A lot of homeschooling can be done on the computer, which will cut down on paper. You can use junk mail as scratch paper. And art projects can often come from the recycle bin as well.
Recycling is easier with homeschooling as if you already do so in your home your kids will know what to do and it will be seamless.
You are already at school when you wake up so not transportation issues. When going on field trip try and carpool with other homeschool families.
Lunch can easily be waste free. By making home cooked meals, using real dishes and cloth napkins. Kids can also learn to compost food scraps.
Things like worm composting, visiting a recycling center, starting a garden and so much more can be great ways for your kids to learn science and also learn how to be more eco-friendly.
Most homeschool families are members of homeschool groups or co-ops. You can help green those by recycling at events, having green workshops for the kids, going on eco-friendly field trips, and more, there are countless ideas.
What are your green homeschooling tips?
This post is part of the August edition of the Green Moms’ Carnival hosted by Organicmania.
Pictures are all credited to Summer at Wired For Noise.
Back To School Giveaway: EcoGear Backpack
| July 30, 2009 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
The awesome people over at EcoGear is offering one reader one of their Snow Leopard backpacks. While I don’t own this backpack I do own one of the other styles and gave a friend two of the kids backpacks and they are all awesome.
You can always read a review of the Snow Leopard backpack from my friend Lena over at her blog Over Coffee.
All of EcoGear’s bags are free of PVC, chlorine, dioxin, phthalates, heavy metals, and ozone depleting chemicals.
This is a great bag to send your kid to school with or to use for yourself!
And now for the rules-
1. Post your e-mail!!!!! Every time people forget, you can’t win if you don’t leave an e-mail address. (if you have a blogger account that has your e-mail that works as well, or if you fill it out in the info, just somewhere please!)
2. Go to EcoGear and tell me which other bag is your favorite or something neat you learned about the bags and leave a comment telling me about it.
3. Enter by August 5th at 11:59 p.m.
Extra Entries (post comment for each):
1. Blog about the giveaway, post link.
2. Post on Twitter, post link.
3. Add me on Twitter @retrohousewife5, leave username in comment.
4. Follow me, let me know which way you are following.
5. Add my Back To School button to your blog, post telling me where you posted it.
Back To School Posts
| July 28, 2009 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
The back to school posts are over. Here is a list of all the ones I posted.
Waste-Free Lunch
Backpacks
Homeschooling Edition
Project Green Dorm
Kids Konserve Waste-Free Lunch Challege
TerraCycle School Supplies Review
CHEJ’s PVC Free School Supplies Guide
Back To School: Backpacks
| July 28, 2009 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
Most backpacks contain PVC which off-gases. Don’t want your kids having to breath those toxic fumes all day. Thankfully Ecogear has come up with a great line of eco-friendly backpacks without any PVC!
They have bags that are great for your little kids.
Bags for the little bit older kids.
And bags for the teenagers and college students.
I have one of the Bighorn bags and it’s great. It can hold a ton and is much better on your back than other backpacks I have used.
I also gave a friend one of the Gorilla bags and a Panda bag. She uses the Gorilla bag herself and loves it. Her daughter claimed the Panda bag the moment she saw it. They are both very cute!
So check out Ecogear and send your kids to school in style without nasty chemicals.
Back To School: Waste-Free Lunch
| July 27, 2009 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
School will be here soon. My husband is not happy with this fact, he is a public school teacher and has been enjoying his summer break.
But we can’t stop it from coming so it’s time to start getting ready. Getting ready now can help make it easier to stay green this year.
A great way to green the school year is a waste-free lunch. With some many wonderful products out there it’s not hard to make a waste-free lunch kit.
The first item is a lunch box or bag. A great place to look for one is Etsy.com. My favorite comes from eLRBe’s shop. It’s not just a simple fabric bag that fits what I normal need.
Another great bag comes from New Wave Enviro. It’s 100% bamboo. It’s a good size and easy to wash.
If you need a more insulated bag ReusableBags.com carries Built bags which are free of PVC. They have many great styles and sizes.
After you have your bag you need the items to go in it. Buying reusable containers will save you money on plastic sandwich bags and you can buy items in bulk.
Options for sandwiches include Wrap-N-Mats or stainless steel containers like Lunchbots.
Lunchbots can be used for snacks as well. To-Go-Ware also makes little stainless steel containers that are a great size for your kids snacks.
For those days your kids need utensil you can turn to To-Go-Ware for some great sets of reusable utensils.
You can send you kids with super cute cloth napkins from Fabkins. They are the perfect size and come in lots of cute designs.
The only thing left is a reusable water bottle. Sigg is my favorite and they have all sizes and designs. They also hold up very well and are BPA free and totally safe.
If you don’t want to put your own kit together Mama Goes Green has a complete Laptop Lunch set that is BPA free and has all the stuff you will need.
You can also find kits and products to use in your own kit at Kids Konserve. Kids Konserve has also offered a coupon for my readers.
Be sure to talk to your kids about why they take a waste-free lunch so they can tell there friends and hopefully it will spread through the school.
Bring Peace
| July 25, 2009 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
“Keep your fears to yourself, but share your inspiration with others.” -Robert Louis Stevenson
Stop and think about what you have brought to the world today. Have you inspired others, made others fear, brought peace, or something else?
These days it’s so easy to get wrapped up in fear. So much is going on with the US government and governments around the world.
Most of us are having to learn to live with less. Some look at this as a sad and depressing thing and are bring that to the world. But what if we looked at it as a way to get back to a simpler time? If you are trying to “go green” then it’s a great way to consume less. If you are religious, doesn’t stuff often just get in the way of your spiritual life?
Is your family fed? Do you have a bed to sleep on tonight? Is there a roof over your head? Then be grateful. Remember the difference of needs and wants. Learn to enjoy the little things in life.
Play board games with your family, bake some cookies with your kids, go for a walk at your local park, or just listen to some uplifting music.
And remember what you say and do effects those around you. Let your effect be a positive one!
Here is some music to lift your spirits!
Feeling A Bit Better
| July 25, 2009 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
So I’m still pouting a bit at both the fact that I didn’t get to go to BlogHer this year and that I won’t be going to BlogHer10. I was not happy when I found out it is in NYC because it will cost more plus that is a 24 hour drive from here! Which means not only a hotel for BlogHer, the cost of BlogHer, and food, but also hotel rooms on the way there and back! It would be a long trip also.
So I’m going to hope for BlissDom this coming year or next. It’s sooner and closer. Maybe I can get sponsors once I know when it is. 
But anyway I’m feeling better after “going to” the Twitter party and the Stickam party. I even won a tote at the Stickam party. And my wonderful husband got me a chocolate malt.
So anyone going to go to BlissDom??? Oh and I so think there should be a green blogger conference. Don’t you guys? And I say Oklahoma City or Dallas for the first one. I will help plan!
*I keep getting spam on this so closing the comments*
I’m Pouting…
| July 24, 2009 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
If you are a woman blogger and you are home right now you likely are pouting with me haha. Most of you know BlogHer is this weekend. So many of my wonderful blog friends are there and I have been watching twitter and pictures and it’s making me sad that I’m not there.
My husband talked about taking me but they were already sold out. I’m crossing my fingers (and toes) that I can go next year and maybe to BlissDom as well.
For you not at BlogHer there are two blog parties online tomorrow-
And a twitter party.
So join in! If anyone reading is at BlogHer take tons of pictures for me!!!
Detoxing
| July 20, 2009 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
Even when you eat organically a good detox can be helpful. I have quite the sweet tooth and I need to lose weight so seemed like a good thing to do. This all just kind of my own made up thing but hopefully it helps.
I’m only eating a small amount of organic yogurt (fruit and veggies if I need more), drinking tons of water, and drinking iced tea made with way less sugar than I normally do and it’s 1/2 black and 1/2 green which is more green than I normal do as well. (this is only for today!)
I’m hungry but not as bad as I thought I would be. I’m peeing all the time which I guess is good right?
I weighed myself this morning and I’m hoping tomorrow when I weigh again at most of my water weight will be gone and hopefully this will help kick start me being healthier.
The Dirt On Greenwashing
| July 15, 2009 | Posted by Lisa Sharp under Uncategorized |
Going green is the in thing now so of course companies are jumping on board. But there are a few problems with that. One is that it’s cheaper and easier for them to just make up reasons why their product is already green and throw a label on it, than change the product. And the other is the fact that being sustainable is greener than being green.
We rush out to buy green products without stopping to think if we need them. Come on we are all guilty of this, yes me as well! Sure we need to replace some products if we want to get away from toxins but we all over buy at some point.
Some examples of this are-
The Dawn Saving Wildlife campaign. While I love animals and the fact that each bottle donates $1 to helping them, something is wrong with the fact that the very soap you are buying contains chemicals like Tricolsan, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, synthetic dyes and synthetic fragrances.
All of those things are harmful to you and the wildlife Dawn says it’s saving. If they care about the wildlife shouldn’t they take out those chemicals?
Even gas companies are jumping on the “green bandwagon.” Companies like BP like to run ads like this one-
I can just see someone sitting in a board office saying “if we add wind turbines people will think it’s the “greener” gas station.”
And what about the mother of all greenwashing, “clean coal.” A technology that doesn’t exist and even if it did it doesn’t fix the problems of how we get the coal, leaving this so called “clean coal” very dirty.
So how do we keep from falling for greenwashing?
TerraChoice.com has information on the “sins of greenwashing.” You can learn what “green” labels really mean and what to watch for. So what “green” products have you found to be greenwashed?
