This weekend I threw my third birthday party at my home for my daughter. I have refined my approach throughout the years and learned a lot from this years party I can apply to future parties. I need to fully disclose that some of my advice is based on lessons of things I have not done but know I need to do.

The ideal time to start planning a green children’s birthday party is 2 to 3 months before the date you want to throw the party. This gives you the most flexibility to do the most you can to be green.

Theme: I have always talked to my daughter for a long time about what kinds of party she wants. I prefer to throw parties at home and so far she has enjoyed that. I feel like parties at home are more fun but it also allows me to reduce the waste created. I guarantee you can find a green tie in to any theme.

Invites: Many parents opt for an electronic invite but I rarely know the emails of all the parents of the kids we want to invite. I like going to Etsy and getting one of the amazingly talented people there to create an invite for the theme that I print out myself. When I print the invites out myself I save thousands of miles of trucks driving to get printed invites to me (even ones your purchase at a store and write the info on).

Decorations

Never use balloons! They may look pretty but mylar and other plastic balloons pollute our environment and kill our wildlife for the fleeting moment you use them leaves decades of danger to the environment behind.

Make a pennant banner from old fabric or paper scraps. If you are not crafty and do not have any scraps to use ask your friends, chances are you have a friend who is able to help out. Worst case go to a thrift shop and get some t-shirts that are the colors you want to use in the party. You can make a scrap fabric decorations by using this tutorial.

Get reusable decorations. The “welcome” sign we hang on our door is from my daughters first birthday party and the “Happy Birthday” sign we hang somewhere on her birthday is also from her first party.

Flowers, Flowers, Flowers. When having an outdoor party make an investment in your garden that is the best decoration you can buy in because it will last when the party is over. Every year we get a few new hanging plants and hang them on the shepherds hooks in our yard, we make sure we care for our plants that come back every year and try our best to plant new ones at least two weeks prior to a party so they can fill out the garden area. Indoor party? get some flowering houseplants (some are fragrant so be sure to get ones that will not upset your allergic guests) the investment in making your house look nice stays for months if not years after the party.

Food and Drink

Nothing individually packaged. Do not get goldfish in individual bags get them in a large box and either put a bowl out for the kids to help themselves or get small paper cups and put the snacks in the cups. You can recycle the cups afterwards, it is not perfect but it is better than tons of packaging. If you are having a small enough party you can probably find enough cups or bowls around the house the kids can use instead.

Pizza is not the worst thing to get for a party. I admit I got pizza for all the birthday parties I planned. I thought about making homemade chicken fingers and then heating them up but each kid has their own idea of what a chicken finger should look or taste like. Want to make sandwiches? Some kids are gluten-free or nut free. It just gets tough. If you are able to know what the kids would eat then I strongly encourage you to make a homemade version of it.

Get as much local, natural, and organic food as possible. For the parents I made homemade sandwiches, I got fresh bread from the bakery around the corner, fresh local mozzarella and tomatoes, and made fresh pesto to put on the bread. It was hit, probably because it was fresh, real, and not what anyone expected. A few really good fresh snacks or meal options and you will have your guest drooling.

Rent plates. I confess I did not do this one but I am 100% sure this year is the last year I am buying silly paper plates. I spent $70 on plates that matched the theme of the party. I could have rented plates for less than that and had less of an environmental footprint. As the kids get older I think this is a much more viable solution. If you are like me and still need to buy disposable plates because of the age of the kids get ones made of bamboo or recycled materials.

Juice boxes are a staple at birthday parties. I had them as well, I got juice boxes with 100% organic juice and I recycled the pouches (another advantage to having a home party you can control the recycling). When the kids get a little older they will all get their own covered mason jars but right now this is the safest option. We have juice boxes in our house exactly once a year so I feel like we make up for our shortcoming here by not doing it any other time of the year.

No water bottles. When did water bottles get so popular at parties? There is no reason for a small child to run around with a small bottle of water. I set up my huge water dispenser put a tiara decoration in the bottom pedestal part and put paper cups next to it for the kids to use. They loved serving themselves water, it was a warm day and I ended up filling up the container 4 times. I cannot even imagine how many plastic bottles I kept out of a landfill by using my filtered water.

Favors: I have never given a plastic favor and everyone has always commented on how clever my favors have been so it proves you do not need plastic to be cool. Last year, with our Octonaut themed party, I gave out fabric snack bags, I figured it was my way to keep plastic baggies from finding their way into the ocean (which is the location of the show the party was themed on). This year we had a princess and super hero party and I made each child a cape to wear for the party and taken home with them. I heard from some parents the capes stayed on all day and were wrestled off at night. Was it hard work sewing all the capes? Not really, time-consuming, but not hard. I recommend that as soon as you pick your theme you go to Etsy and see what you can find that would be a good plastic free favor (and do not kid yourself those plastic favors are expensive)!

Other things:

• Towels in the bathroom rather than paper towels.
• All natural non-nut flavored soap in the bathroom.
• Clean the bathroom in non-toxic cleaner, you never know what children may have sensitivities to harsh chemicals.
• The first birthday party your throw either at 1 or 2 years old pick a generic theme, you will use the decorations for years to come. My daughters first party was basically flower themed and there were pastel colored decorations. My sons party this year will have a primary color theme so I can use his decorations in the future. Keep them all in a box and see what you can use each year.

What other green birthday party tips do you have?

If you follow me on social media you might have noticed that I have been a little quiet lately and it is because I am busy saving the world. Well not really that sounds weird. I have been working with a group that is fighting a natural gas compressor station we have had several meetings in the last few weeks and it has taken a lot of time. All of the time spent on that project has been worthwhile but it has cut into some of my time to write and interact with you on social media.

What has really been taking up my time is creating as green a birthday party as I possibly can. I have fallen short on a few things and next week I will give you the complete breakdown of my success and areas that need improvement. In an effort to be as plastic free as possible I never give out favors, I give the kids something as a thank you but I never give favors and NEVER plastic favors. Last year we had an Octonauts themed birthday party, which is a preschooler show that takes place in the ocean where our characters Explore, Rescue, and Protect so I gave all the kids fabric snack bags to help keep plastic out of the ocean. I almost posted a sign over the “goodie bag” area with facts about ocean pollution but I thought that might be to much.

This year I made each kid a cape to wear at the party and take home with them! I did everything from buying the fabric, making the pattern, cutting and sewing. I did pink and purple reversible for the girls and red and blue reversible for the boys! I hope the kids like them because I am so tired from making them.

But it is just the beginning of sewing tutorials. I already know what my next 5 are going to be… stay tuned.

Any green thing you want to learn how to sew?

As World Environment Day worked to make all of us understand around the world food gets wasted everyday. I am starting a new series here of recipes you make to reduce your food waste. American waste about 40% of the food they purchase per year. I am going work to help us reduce that waste. Here is the first of a series of recipes I am going to post on how to reduce your food waste.

I started with my son and my favorite Honey Banana Bread. We love bananas in our house and we have them here all the time but sometimes the temperature or the environment in the house otherwise makes the bananas ripen to fast so I have a need to make something else with them. The other thing we love in our house in yogurt. This recipe also calls for yogurt so it helps us reduce our waste by being able to use two common but perishable ingredients our house to make a great snack or breakfast item (yes, I have had it for breakfast, there are healthier options but….)

Ingredients

1/2 cup of organic salted butter

3/4 cup of local honey (not the store bought stuff in the plastic bear)

1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/4 cup of unbleached flour

3 very ripe organic bananas

2 organic eggs

1/2 cup of yogurt (can be vanilla or even apple cinnamon do not use fat free or greek yogurt)

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Mash the bananas in bowl with a fork until there are no large lumps. Melt the butter in a saucepan on the stove on low heat add the melted and slightly cooled butter to the mashed bananas. Add eggs yogurt, vanilla and honey and stir till well mixed. In a large measuring cup measure the flour, salt, and baking soda. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture, stire together with a spoon.

Grease and flour two loaf pans and pour the mixture evenly in each loaf pan

Bake at 325 degrees for 35-40 mins. It is a very wet mixture so it takes a long time to bake, do not increase the tempertature to cook faster it will brown on the edges and not cook all the way through. Honey also carmelizes at a lower temperature than sugar so it is better to bake with honey at a lower temp.

So what did you save from the landfill: Old bananas, yogurt that is about expire, and eggs that are going to go bad. Not bad for one batch.

This recipe freezes very well… if you do not eat it all first!

Even before I was a Mom I always wonder: What is in the air I breathe? The water I drink? The food I eat? Even the things I put on my skin? When I was a child I had a friend who had to be home schooled with a tutor after the chemicals they started spraying in school made her so ill she could not walk into the building. Film maker Ed Brown asked many of these same things after his wife suffered two miscarriages (they now have two beautiful children). He traveled around the country with his video camera to interview top minds in the fields of science, advocacy and law and learned there are unacceptable levels of chemicals in so many things including our bodies.

Approximately 200 synthetic industrial chemicals interact with our cells every single day. Ed’s documentary titled Unacceptable Levels dissects the ways chemicals saturate our homes and environment amida backdrop of a glaring lack of regulation. It chronicles the results of the post-WWII chemical boom and details common avenues of exposure, from food to fluoride to toxic sludge.

This award-winning documentary film brings together 47 non-profit organizations and 91 companies to support the overwhelming need for chemical reform in the United States. Unacceptable Levels opens the door to conversations about the chemical burden our bodies carry so that we can make informed decisions now and in the future. The film poses challenges to our companies, our government, and our society to do something about a nearly-unseen threat with the inspired knowledge that small changes can generate a massive impact. It is an amazing look at what is going on in our bodies and our environment and what we can do about it.

Ed is touring the country this summer (see schedule here), with a bicoastal premiere Wednesday, June 12 at the ArcLight Hollywood in California and at the Avon Theatre in Stamford, Connecticut. He’ll be joined in Hollywood by Mariel Hemingway, Gary Hirschberg, Christopher Gavigan and other passionate environmentalists to inspire others to take action.

The L.A. World Premiere is invite only. But, the first 50 to show without an invitation will get in free! Tickets for the Connecticut premiere can be purchased at the door.Premiere screenings in several other key cities: Austin (August 3rd), Boulder (July 16th), Chicago (July 24th), San Francisco (July 10th- 11th), and Washington DC (June 20th). To find a screening in your area, visit UnacceptableLevels.com. New screenings will be added, so be sure to check back often.Connect with Unacceptable Levels on Facebook and Twitter @UnacceptableLev.

What others are saying about Unacceptable Levels:

“Unacceptable Levels is a hugely important film… Sadly, most Americans are misinformed or not informed at all about how many toxic chemicals we are being exposed to 24 hours a day. These toxins are making us sick and quite simply our lives are being threatened. We need to stand up and speak out. We must demand a healthy environment for ourselves and for our children. Unacceptable Levels poignantly reveals how chemicals have invaded our lives.” —Mariel Hemingway Actress, Author, Healthy Living Advocate

“This movie lives the Healthy Child motto: No one can do everything, everyone can do something. Ed Brown has done something by creating an amazing, powerful experience that moves all of us to realize how important it is to know how our system works and what we can do to fix it.”
—Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff Former Executive Director/CEO Healthy Child, Healthy World

“This film is a huge eye-opener! Once a parent sees this, they thankfully won’t ever approach their child’s health & future the same way ever again!” —Jessica Capshaw Gavigan Environmental Advocate and Actress

Have you seen it yet? When you have let me know what you think!

See the trailer

There has been a ton of controversy in our neck of the wood about wildlife this week. The local on-line news source has been posting many stories about coyote sightings within a few miles of my home including an injury to one local dog by the coyote. The coyote sightings were quickly replaced with black bear sightings. Facebook updates with pictures and local Twitter trends have paralyzed local residents as we watch for the bear.

On Tuesday, the young cub seen all around town was visiting the local art museum and even past the local Whole Foods on his way to one of the many train stations taking us locals to New York City for work. Many commuters saw the bear in a tree when they boarded their elevated rail trains and tweeted his exact location. The cops arrived and scared the bear into staying in the tree till animal control can arrive.

The second bear seen this afternoon

In a dangerous move a crowd forms close by, very close by, while they wait to tranquillize the bear and catch him. Once he is tranquilized they tagged him and took a blood a tissue sample. He will be taken to the western part of the state and released back into the wild.

You would think that was the end of the story… nope, less than 10 hours later another bear was sighted in town. Right now it is not clear if the other bear is the mother of the young cub found. Schools were placed on lock down due to the fact that this bear is playing in a park near the school. As of right now this bear has not be “captured” there is just updated sightings on social media.

This point in the story brings me to my house last night. I got home with the kids and I noticed a black dot on my sons arm and upon closer examination I saw it was a tick. I removed the tick and put it in a plastic bag and saved it in case my son develops any symptoms they can test the tick for tick borne illnesses.

When I told daycare as a FYI today they were very upset and said there was no way the tick came from playing in the yard at school. I reminded them that there are several wild animals seen in the area lately so this will be a new issue in our area now. I reminded them that I was just letting them know so if they saw anything out of the ordinary on any of the kids they would know.

As urban sprawl spreads wild animal sightings will grow and the tick population will take over in areas that did not have the problem before. There is not much more we can do than be informed.

Here are some tick tips and facts

• Removing the tick (using tweezers not your hands), save the whole tick in a sealed Ziploc bag and store in the freezer in case you develop symptoms,  and wash the site of the bite.
• While these methods are not recommend: Do not try to smother a tick that is attached to your skin with petroleum jelly, nail polish, gasoline, or rubbing alcohol. This may increase your risk of infection. Do not try to burn the tick while it is attached to your skin.
• Many of the diseases ticks carry cause flu-like symptoms, such as fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, and muscle aches. Symptoms may begin from 1 day to 3 weeks after the tick bite. Sometimes a rash or sore appears along with the flu-like symptoms.
• Most ticks do NOT carry illness causing dieses so be careful but do not freak out.
• If you develop symptoms like irritation around the bite, a rash anywhere on your body, or difficulty breathing or flu-like symptoms (up to 6 weeks after the bite) call your doctor immediately he will likely want to see you.

Photos from Baristanet.com 

For those of you who do not live in NYC you may not have heard about the controversy about Citi Bikes in NY. Everywhere I go I hear people talking about it. Most of the people are against it, who are talking about it anyway. I am surprised since it is such an amazing green initiative.

How does it work?

Get a membership for a year, a week, or a day and ride any of the 6,000 bikes located in Manhattan (midtown and lower Manhattan) and Brooklyn. If you are an annual member you will receive your own key that gives you access to all the bikes. Visitors or non-annual members get a code at the kiosk (at every station).

How much does it cost?

You can sign up for a year long membership for $95 or if you are visiting the city for a week you can join for $25 for 7 days or $9.95 per day. A $101 security hold is placed on your card when you take a bike.

Who should sign up?

This program does not replace bike rentals for sightseeing. This bike share program is made to help riders get from one point to another that maybe is not connected with public transportation. You are only allowed to have a bike out for 45 minutes if your are an annual member and 30 minutes for other users. This is also great for a typical New Yorker with a small apartment who just cannot own their own bike.

So what is the controversy?

Many people feel that it is unsafe to ride a bike in NYC and they are hazard on the road for motor vehicles. If you have been to NYC or even seen movies with bike messengers you know that many people who ride bikes professionally in NYC are wreckless. Many people  I spoken to feel that there will be more bike accidents. The other major controversy that was even covered on the new is where the bikes are going. Thebikes are located near subway and bust stops to help connect people to public transportation. Unfortunately, a few of the locations that the bike racks were placed were public spaces that were used for art exhibits or space for people to enjoy the outdoors. Many locals feel the bike rack, with their Citi logo all over it, are an eye sore.

Has it been successful?

There have been 65,803 trips in the first week with 166,507 miles covered. 27,678 people have signed up for annual memberships and 2,765 people signed up for 24 subscriptions and 182 for 7 day subscriptions (from NYC DOT). Sounds like good numbers in my opinion.

How do plan your routes?

If you are in NYC and you are going to try it out here are four things you should check out and load on to your phone.

Citi Bike Station Map - Find directions between Citi Bike stations, landmarks, businesses or addresses. The Citi Bike station map uses Google Maps bike directions, which automatically suggests routes with the highest proportion of bike lanes.

NYC Cycling Map - Download the NYC Cycling Map, published annually by NYC DOT, for a detailed look at bike lanes throughout the five boroughs. Call 311 or visit any bike shop in NYC for your own free paper copy.

Citi Bike App - The official Citi Bike app is the perfect copilot for your biking adventures around the city. Featuring a full-station map, up-to-date bike and space availability for each station, search and routing functionality and much more, it will be available soon to download in the Apple iTunes and Google Play stores.

Ride the City - Ride the City offers an interactive route planning service for New York City bicyclists, which allows you to save locations and routes if you create a (free) profile.

If I lived in New York City I would become a member. I admit that I would be a little scared to ride the city streets but it is such a green way to move around when you cannot take the subway so it is worth the membership. I really hope the program becomes wildly successful and that more people take the bikes out for ride.

Would you ride a bike in NYC?

Ok so I made up a word, I think, in the title but this weekend was filled with tons of fun and I am going to share it with you because I think you are going to benefit from some of it!

I got to see my whole extended family. I have a niece that is a few months old and we have not seen her enough since she was born so getting to see her two days in a row this weekend was a highlight for me and my kids. My son is only a year older than her and while their age difference now seems huge it will seem like nothing soon enough.

I went to the gym and had an excellent self-directed workout. I have been working out with a trainer once a month for a year and half now. I am just started to feel comfortable remembering our workouts together and doing them completely on my own. I am kind of uncoordinated, I am pretty sure my trainer laughs at me when I leave because I over think every move. I ask questions like should my hands be here or here? Do I exhale moving up or down? These questions have shown my trainer that things like making me jump rope will probably not be the best move for me. I feel particularly intimated when I do my self-directed workouts when he is training other clients, I feel like he is critiquing me (which I am sure is not the case). I still felt good while I was there and was sufficiently sore afterwards so I count that as win!

My final awesome event of the weekend was getting a new sewing machine. Here is the background: on Tuesday night I sat down to make 23 super hero capes for my daughter’s birthday party and my sewing machine broke on the first stitch! I Googled the issue and learned that the sewing machine I had is actually pretty terrible and this is the way it breaks. I watched a 20 min YouTube video on how to repair the machine. Let just say it involved taking almost the entire machine apart. I then embarked on researching options, sewing them at the local sewing store, renting a machine or purchasing. Thankfully, my local sewing supply store (that does not sell machines) gave me some great advice.

This is where the story gets really interesting… I called the store recommended to me to see if they had to two models that were recommended. He said he had both, ironically the store is close to my husbands office so I asked him to go there to purchase the machine for me. Every person I have told this story over the weekend were stunned most comments revolved around “you love to sew how could you not get your own machine” and “wasn’t the last machine one you did not pick out, you are going to let that happen again?” I knew that I could trust him I gave him the model numbers and called ahead.

I received the text “only the best for you” I quickly said “what does that mean” and saw “sewing machine.” I knew right then he had been upsold at the store and the machine that was coming home was NOT the one I requested. Needless to say that I was only half nervous.

When I saw it and opened it I did not know what to expect but when I sat down to start working on it I was in love. This machine reminded me of my first sewing machine. It threaded so easily and was so easy to use! I made 5 super hero capes in no time! It was amazing.

So why do you care about my sewing machine? I am going to start a DIY series where I am going to show how to sew eco-friendly things. Upcycling tutorials and step-by-step how to’s to create things that will help you have a more eco-friendly life. So stay tuned.

Also, the great state of Connecticut passed GMO labeling legislation. This is the first state to require GMO labeling. There have been state fights for this like California’s proposition 37 that did not pass in November after big business agriculture pumped millions of dollars to fight it. To read more about Connecticut’s historic move read Right To Know’s post about it here.

Finally, if you have not entered the Albion 26.2 jacket give away or the Stonyfield YoKids Smoothie give away (with 15 great ideas on fun things to do with your kids) there is only a day or two left to enter both and I would hate to have you miss out!

What did you do this weekend? 

As I child I remember smelling the milk every-time I opened it to make sure it was still good. I remember my Mom or Dad running out mid-week to get more milk because we needed it for our cereal. I remember bread getting moldy. I have noticed those things do not happen anymore and when they eventually do it is long after I thought it would.

Milk is ultra pasteurized and lasts forever (ok that is dramatic but much longer than it really should). There is milk on the shelves right now at my grocery store that will not go bad till after school is out or even close to July 4th! Why? Because it is ultra pasturized which basically means it is dead, it is heated beyond boiling in a process called ultra heating where it is heated up to 280 degrees killing all bacteria.

Bread from the packaged bread aisle in the grocery store also seems to last for much longer than I remember. Why is that? Our bread is infused with chemicals to preserve it so it can travel to the grocery store, sit on the shelf, wait for you to buy it and then live at your house longer.

Can you image a loaf of bread from the bakery down the street lasting even 4 days? It struck me when my local Trader Joes opened a few months ago. They have “real” english muffins and I was so excited to purchase them. I had a few the weekend I got them and then went use them the following weekend and they were completely moldy… I mean covered. Ironically, I had an english muffin from a popular brand that we are all familiar with from at least two weeks earlier and it looked like I had just purchased it. Accounting for the same situations they were stored in the same place and at the same temperature they had turned out differently.

This made me pause and think about all the things that are not the same as when we were kids. All to often I hear people say “I ate that when I was a kid and I turned out fine” but the reality is the same things are very different now than they were when we were kids.

I decided after seeing those english muffins that I had to make a change to eat more real food. Less prepackaged, less in a can or a jar (though jars are better). I cannot make the commitment that most people are making in this real food revolution. I will make our meals as much from scratch as I can but there will be some processed items in our life.

Here are some things I am trying to cut out immediately to help reduce our consumption of processed foods:

Homemade cookies: Great idea right who does not love homemade cookies. My daughter takes one cookie in her lunch to school for a snack and who ever finishes their dinner gets a cookie too. We usually eat Newman’s Own Organic cookies which are great and still in our rotation but I am trying to make a fresh batch of cookies per weekend to help give a healthier unprocessed option. This one is hard for me as I am not the best baker.

Refried bean: they are the most consumed canned item in our house (mostly by me) so this past weekend I made my first batch. I am still working to perfect the recipe but I was pleased with the first batch.

Creamed spinach: one of my favorites and it always comes in a plastic bag in the freezer section. This past weekend I made my first batch on my own and it was great. I am refining the recipe a bit and will share with you soon but no more packaged spinach for me!

Chicken nuggets/fingers: Often times I would purchase the Perdue chicken nuggets in the meat section. I figured a lesser of many evils right. Now I make tons of chicken fingers at once in the oven and freeze them. Fresher and healthier but definitely more time consuming.

Next round of changes:

English muffins: I had read they are quite easy to make and they freeze well… it is on my experiment list. If I fail I know the Trader Joes ones will do.

Ice cream: I have made it before, many times actually, but I have a habit of breaking my ice cream makers so I am doing something wrong. Once I can figure it out I think my kids and I will enjoy experimenting with it. I think this is a great summer activity and will taste great too.

Sausage: not exactly making it from scratch but my son loves it so I am going to get the saugage fresh from the meat counter and make him the varieties he has learned to love from the packaged sausage he has tried like apple and sage.

What I do not think we can ever switch is bread. We do not eat it that often so for me to make a fresh batch of bread for it to go bad in a day is just more wasteful than it is worth. My solution to it is to purchase small loaves at bakery occasionally and meal plan around that. Possibly even make bread crumbs or croutons out of the leftovers.

These kinds of changes help us eat healthy, consume less, and reduce our food waste.

What kinds of real foods do you make rather than buy?

As we all know plastic is bad for you, the chemicals in plastic are bad for your health and the fact that plastic does not breakdown makes it bad for the planet (more on why plastic is bad here).

The safest way to store your food is in glass containers. We all know about mason jars and all the different sizes you can buy but you also have a tons of glass containers come through your kitchen every year. The pickle jars, pasta sauce and salsa containers are all great glass jars to store your food in.

So instead of tossing those glass jars into the recycling bin here is the easiest way to remove the labels  (all you need is a good piece of steel wool).

Step 1: Take your jars and put them in your sink or a pot with warm/hot water in it. Let the jars soak. I am always advocating for water conservation so do not just fill up your sink to soak the jars. You can leave them in the sink while you wash your pots and pans or have them soak in a pot and then use the water to water your house plants.

Step 2: After the labels are fully soaked they are ready to be peeled off. Some labels are easy to peel off in one pull and others are attached with a large amount of adhesive. If the label does not come off easily or if you have a lot of glue left on the jar use steel wool to scrap it off. I recommend using a real piece of steel wool, you can get it at hardware store or even Target and Walmart. Do not get SOS pads or anything like that the steel wool is to fine you need a coarser grade, it makes things much easier.

Step 3: Once the label is off put the glass jar in your dishwasher to clean it out. Be sure to wash the lid too.

Some tips on you need to know about your “new” glass jars:

• These jars are not suitable for canning. You must use jars that are made specifically for that purpose like mason jars.
• These jars are not suitable for freezing they could break or crack.
• Do not fill the jars up to the top, most of the tops to the jars have BPA plastic lining which is not a problem unless your food touches it.
• The key to making the most of the jars is use them in the fridge or in your cabinet. I like to use them to store my rice, granola, dry beans, or other items I purchase at the bulk section of the supermarket. That allows me to use my reusable bags for the next shopping trip!
• Leftovers do well in these containers, my favorite thing to use them for in the fridge is chicken stock that I do not want to freeze because I am going to use it soon.

How would you use your containers? Do you already save them?

For many of us here in the United State who were lucky enough to be off  enjoyed a three-day weekend. Usually one of two things happens: people do tons and tons of work around their house or people go away or attend parties. My husband and I sat down and wrote out a to-do list that was three months long and set out to see what we could do. It was a crazy weekend but we accomplished a lot and now writing it out I see how many of the things we did show our green lifestyle.

Here is what we accomplished

• Mowed the lawn, we had a lot of rain in the last week so we were in need of a good mow… we would have lost our littlest in the grass this week if we did not.
• I worked out. I have had some back pain unrelated to working out so I have not worked out as much as I had hoped. This weekend was the beginning of my re-commitment to going to the gym more often and it was successful, I got a good workout in and I was sore the next day.
• Made some new food. I am on a mission to eat more real food which I am going to write more about later this week. So I set out to make some food that I could freeze so we could eat less pre-made or processed food.
• Set up our guest room again. I mentioned a while back that we had a very small fire in our house when I pregnant with our youngest. Our guest room became a bit of a dumping ground when we moved back in. We finally put together the bookshelf we had and I put all the books from my grandparents that I have had in a suitcase since my grandmother went into a nursing home several years ago.
• Attended the town Memorial Day Parade. We got to celebrate with our neighbors and see all our heroes including those of the superhero kind. We are lucky the parade is only one block from our house so we got to walk there and put down a blanket and enjoy.
• Playdates and fun times in the yard. We got to play with our outdoor toys and enjoy the weather once it got nice the first few days of the weekend we cold and wet so it was even more special when the weather improved.
• Clean out my daughter’s room of clothes that are to small for her to give to her cousin next weekend. It occurred to me when I was packing up her clothes that I bought her almost none of the clothes there and that she gets a lot of clothes as gifts! I hope her cousin can use all the clothes because we could cloth a small family of girls!
• Got my little guy a haircut, he was looking kinda bushy with that hair and we knew it was going to get warm soon so we owed it to him.
• Made chocolate chip cookies which were eventually used to bribe my children into not crying at one point in the weekend because they were out of control!
• Got some new books. We read a lot at our house and my poor son is reading a lot of princess books with my daughter and I so we used some gift cards we got for Christmas to get some new books for the collection. Our children’s library is lack luster I am looking into what towns have reciprocal agreements with my library card so we can get some books that were not printed before I was born and are not missing pages.

Here is what we did not do

• Plant our garden. No small feat right, well I dreamed of getting it done this weekend but my plans for the garden are way to big so I am not sure I am going to accomplish it ever!
• Wash all our cloth napkins, the basket in the dining room is getting full.
• Making 23 super hero capes… wait what? You must think I am insane, you are probably correct. My daughter’s birthday party is a princess and superhero themed party and rather than giving out plastic crap I am making each child a superhero cape to take home. Girls get a pink and purple reversible cape and the boys get a blue and red one. Prototype construction begins this evening. Posts may be slightly less frequent as I sew my heart out! I got the fabric and other parts I need I just need to do it… sadly the fabric is not organic but at least it is not plastic junk right.
• We did not get to the Rose Garden by my childhood home for a picnic but we have all summer to do that right?
• Did not make all the recipes I had planned on making but there is still time! Just writing this post made me realize I did a lot more than I felt like I had done!

I would have liked to have relaxed more or accomplished more on the to-do list but I think I did the best I could have under the circumstances and still got to spend a lot of great time with my kids which is all that matters right.

How was your weekend was it relaxing? Busy?