Y'all Ready For This?!?

It's Here! The new Green Mommy Guide has arrived!

Check it our for an all new design, tons of great giveaways, and even a kids book club! Its been a ton of hard work to get the site to this point and I hope you love it. More to come soon!

Power Hour!

What will you be doing tomorrow night at 8:00? Hopefully you can do it in the dark so you can be a part of Earth Hour!

From 8:00-9:00pm your local time, please turn off your lights to be a part of this global movement sending a powerful national and global message that it's possible to take action on global warming.

Need some suggestions on what to do when the lights are out? How about a romantic candle-lit dinner with a loved one! Or a "camp out" in the living room with the kids, complete with flashlight shadow puppets and a pillow fort. Or go outside and actually look at the stars. At the very least, you could take that hour to switch the light bulbs in your house to energy saving compact fluorescent. To get more information about Earth Hour, check out the video below, then head over to http://www.earthhour.org/ and add your name to the list of people who have pledged to spend their Saturday nights with the lights off!

Even Elmo Has Gone Green!

Getting kids to to eat healthy is tough, especially when the non-organic brands have familiar and colorful characters promoting them. How can "natural and organic" compete with that?

But its a different game now that Earth's Best Organic has partnered with Seasame Street for their line of organic baby, toddler, and kids products. Check out the lable of the "Organic Elmo Tomato Soup":

Fun, right?

The soups have a full serving of vegetables and the Organic stamp of approval from the USDA. Check out Earth's Best other Seasame Street products, including cereals, frozen entres, snacks, baby food, and more!

Green 'n Greedy

When doing research for Green Mommy Guide to find green and fubulous products, I have noticed myself muttering one phrase over and over and over: "I want that!" Here are a few particularly craveable items that I've been drooling over recently:

• The Rose Hip Necklace from BTC Elements: made from bamboo (super sustainable) in the United States and well, just plain pretty.






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  - Organic Cotton "Love Dress" from Pursuit of Harmony (they have it at Greenloop ): makes me feel like its summer is oh-so-close!





• A fabulous Sigg water bottle. It seems every hip green lady (and man...and kid) has one except me. And I'm going to need it for all the running I'd have to do to look good in the aformentioned "Love Dress"! I think I like the "Spring has Sprung" pattern the best.



• Sol Recycled Glass Dinnerware from Viva Terra- They're eco-friendly, attractive, and a conversation piece for a dinner party.
  
  

The Other Kind of Green Beer

I attended college at a certain Big 10 School, where, I'm assuming like many other colleges, we found glee in paying triple the price for a keg of beer dyed green every March the 17th (or a quarter of the price on March the 18th). But if you're interested in going a different kind of green, there are many beer options to choose from. This makes sense, since many breweries pride themselves on using the very best ingredients for their product. But most of the barley and hops that go into traditional beer is pumped full of pesticides, insecticides, and because hops is a fungus-attracting plant, lots of fungicide (who knew that was a word?!). However, switching to organic means thinking long term, here, people. There aren't a lot of organic hops available and US breweries need to import them from New Zealand. This means the use of fossil fuels for transportation. BUT, if the demand for organic libations continues to rise as it has been (up 40% in 2005 alone!), its an incentive for farmers to grow organic barley and hops in the US- so drink up!

Perhaps while you are reveling today or getting ready for the insane amount of college basketball there is to be watched this week, you could give some of these organically made beers a try. For scientific and environmental purposes, of course!

• Peak Organic Beer- they're way ahead of the curve on this one. They have a Pale Ale, a Nut Brown Ale, and an Amber Ale, and they claim they've been perfected in the 10 years they've been brewing them.


• Butte Creek Brewing Co - Their Organic Revolution Imperial IPA rates pretty well among beer lovers. They are based in California but sales have grown to 25 states as demand has increased.


• Wild Hop Lager -this one's made by Anheuser-Busch, marking the start of "big players" entering the oragnic beer market. There are concerns that they will try to lower the Organic Certification standards, but so far, it hasn't happened.


• The Caledonian Brewery- if you need your imported beer fix, this company is based in England and is famous for their Golden Promise and EcoWarrior organic beers.

Plus, you can check out beertown.org to find local micro-brews who might be brewing up something green near you. Happy St. Patrick's Day to Ya!

Thinking Globally and Eating Locally

Now that Spring is coming, I'm starting to get excited about heading down to our local market on weekend mornings to get fresh fruits, veggies, and meat. In Cincinnati, we have a large and really well organized market with musical entertainment and treats for all ages. My beagle loves that dogs are allowed to come too! In all the fun, and cost savings, of buying food at the local market, it honestly hadn't really occured to me that we were doing something Green.

Its a simple concept that many people don't think about: eat food grown locally, even if seasonally. Its eco-friendly because it cuts down on the gas needed to transport the food from national distributors. Its better for you because there tend to be less pesticides and preservatives used. PLUS you get your Karma points for supporting your local farmers.

On the radio this morning, I heard about the Locavore Nation experiment. They are challenging 15 people from around the country to try to get 80 percent of their food from local, organic, seasonal sources and then incorporate it into tasty, healthy meals. And then they're blogging about it! Check it out at: http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/locavore_nation/ and for more info on organic eating, see the Food section of Green Mommy Guide.

I can't believe its not meat!

I'm not a vegetarian, but I do love a good veggie burger once in a while. And since I'm trying to eat more healthy foods, I love finding good ways to sneak veggies into my diet. I was excited to find the "Smart" line by LightLife in the refrigerated section of my grocery store this week:

The vegetarian chili was microwavable, tasted great, and had almost no fat (only 4 WW points for those of you ladies who track that kind of thing). The soy "meat" was so convincing, my husband forgot that it wasn't regular chili, so I'm willing to bet kids wouldn't notice either. But what sets this company apart is their commitment to being Earth friendly. They refuse to use any bio-engineered soy beans in the making of their products. They have several initiatives to make them a greener company, including water conservation, composting waste (which is then sent as fertilizers to local farmers), and more. In addition, they donate 5% of all profits to charities that support causes of human dignity, the environment and good health.

After loving the chili, I'm next going to try the Smart BBQ and Smart Ground, and maybe get super ambitious and work my way into their Organic line. Very Smart, indeed!

Sidenote: Thanks to all who stopped by during the blog party, I had a blast! Congratualtions to Kathleen from Katydid and Kid who won the Eggling Flower. If you want more giveaways, be sure to check out Green Mommy Guide and sign up for the newsletter- we just love giving away Green Stuff!

Ladies and Gentlleman, we have logo!

Part of the upcoming re-vamp of Green Mommy Guide involves a shiny new logo, and here it is:

I, personally think it's fabulous, and hope you like it, too! (Oh, and any of you Blog Party Animals who do blog design: if you feel like redesigning this blog around the logo in exchange for some publicity or something, let me know.)

Blog Party, w00t!

Green Mommy Musings is jumping on into the Ultimate Blog part hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom. Since we're a brand new site, we thought we'd make our post a house-warming party of sorts...and hopefully Miss Manners won't be too appalled that we are throwing our own house-warming!

For those of you bloggers making your way here for the first time, welcome! At Green Mommy Musings, along with our partner site, Green Mommy Guide we are dedicated to helping moms go green and stay fabulous! With all due respect to Al Gore, we don't believe that going green has to be "inconvenient", and we are dedicated to showing moms the many options that are out there that are kinder to the environment and to their babies than conventional products, without being condescending or intimidating. To see our origins, scroll down to our first post from not-so-long-ago (we're new, remember?) called Here We Go (Green)! Or if you're feelin' lazy just click.

Oh, and what's a housewarming without a plant for a gift? We're giving away an adorable Eggling crack & grow Blooming Flower! If you want one, leave a comment with your email address so I can contact you.

There are so many cool prizes to be won at this year’s Ultimate Blog Party, but my top three picks would be:

1) The Blog Makeover from Shauna from See My Designs

2) The 12X12 Custom Wall Canvas offered by Ju JuBeane Boutique

3) The Wrap-N-Mat and Chico shopping bag from Nature Moms

And if my top three picks are already chosen, I’d love any of the following (in order of preference):71, 45, 117, 137, or anything else related to babies (I have 3 month old), going green, or online business, as I have my own blog (obviously) and website.

(Baby)Legs for Days!

While I was pregnant, I heard a lot about BabyLegs. They look like little legwarmers that go on (duh!) your baby's legs to cover them from ankle to hip without pants, and mommies everywhere are freakin' nuts about them! I oscillated between thinking that they were cute and thinking that they were weird-looking (as I saw one girl on a message board say, "They look like colorful leg casts!").

When I decided to order an adorable flowery pair for the daughter of a friend, I found myself tossing in a boyish striped pair for my son, just to check them out. They arrived last week, and let me tell you, they have been life changing. When I first put them on the little guy, my husband raised an eyebrow, making some comment about how he looked like he was an extra from Flashdance. "Just wait until the first diaper change," I told him.

Sure enough, when it came time to change the next diaper, the hubby was an instant convert. Something about going straight to unsnapping the onesie and skipping the wrestling match that comes with removing and replacing little pants won him (and me) over. He even asked how soon we could get more pairs. Which brings me (albeit the long way) to the purpose of today's post: I found that Babylegs now come in an organic flavor! So now you can cover those little legs and be Green at the same time! Check 'em out at the BabyLegs store.

The Dorkiest Post Ever

Green Mommy Guide will soon be getting a facelift!
Since I've been splashing around in the shallow end of website development by using Microsoft Publisher (I can hear the laughter from those of you who know anything about building websites), I decided to jump on into the deep end and upgrade to Expression Web. No, its not Dreamweaver, so I guess its like being in the deep end with floaties on.
At any rate, I am currently buried in an Expression Web for Dummies book and will hopefully be unveiling a newer, even more fabulous GMG very soon, so stay tuned!

They Might Be Awesome

This blog is sort of a catch-all for some musings that may someday become a GMG article, some that are just personal green experiences, and then posts like this one that don't necessarily have so much to do with going green, but that discuss something fabulous that I think other moms might appreciate.

When I think about the kinds of kids music that my siblings and I listened to, I think that my parents might just have been saints. I was a Raffi girl, myself, and my mom indulged my countless requests for repeat playings of "Baby Beluga". One of my sisters lived to listen to "The Little Mermaid" soundtrack, and for what must have been a particularly long-feeling period for the adults in our lives, my younger sisters went through a "Barney" phase that had "The Clean-Up Song" and "I Love You, You Love Me...." relentlessly running though our heads.

So I think I might be dodging the Karmic bullet with the kid's music CDs that are out today. I actually like the music! The best example of this is "Here Come the 123s" by They Might Be Giants. Every silly and oh-so-singable song has an educational purpose, whether it's teaching counting, days of the week, or the multiple styles of giving a "high 5". But the music is something you would actually want to listen to in you pk (pre-kids) life, and TMBG is kind enough to include jokes in the lyrics that are meant just for the grown-ups. One warning: you will be humming the tune to "The Number 2" in the office the next day!

So why don't you go ahead and download it- it'll save more plastic and packaging waste than buying the CD. (See, don't say I didn't give you any eco-advice!)

The Green that Surrounds Us

On a trip to Target today, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they are now selling reusable canvas bags. They even offer a cute little one that can fold up to fit in your purse (or diaper bag!). I made a mental note to pick one up on my next trip, pushing aside the nagging thought that I might be switching my addiction to purses to one for reusable shopping bags. But with the adorable options that are available today, the modern Green Mommy can work a shopping bag like its part of her outfit! But I digress...

My next retail stop was to Old Navy to look for an Easter outfit for Baby Drew. And what did I find there, but some ridiculously cute organic cotton onesies and body suits. While I knew that the movement towards cotton-alternative fabrics in kid's clothes has been gathering steam, you somehow just expect the big corporations to be clueless. But when it comes to going green, it seems that everyone's starting to get on board. Sephoria sells Smashbox's new line of eco-friendly makeup in biodegradable packaging. Our local grocery chain now has their own store-band organic offerings (a far cry from the days when the expensive organic foods were relegated to the dark and scary health food corner in the back of the store). Clorox has introduced a green line of cleaning products...I could go on and on.

The good news? Nobody has an excuse to not take simple steps towards reducing their carbon footprint (she said in the least soap-boxy way possible). The worrisome part? We will have to work very hard to make sure that going green goes beyond being trendy. The movement towards natural and sustainable products itself needs to also be sustainable.

*Sigh* Another lead toy recall...

I guess a Boppy isn't technically a toy, but its something that gets very close to babies. When my mom asked what on Earth a Boppy was, I explained that it was like a "lapdesk for breastfeeding". I could see her restraining herself so that she wouldn't roll her eyes as she commented something that so many of us hear our mothers say:
"Back when I was nursing, we just used a pillow."

At the time, I was annoyed that she didn't see the brilliance and the beauty of the Boppy- its so much more than a pillow! The way it hugs you just right, and supports your arm and the baby... what's not to love. Nothing wrong with a little progress, that's what I say!

But when a family member passed this recall on to me, I couldn't help but think that maybe Mom was right. I'm not anti-technology or even anti-Boppy, in general. But, had I just been using a pillow, I probably wouldn't be scrambling to check the serial number to make sure the zipper on the cover wasn't one of the ones with dagerous levels of lead in it. I suppose the lesson to be learned here, is that "going green" can sometimes mean not "going" anywhere. Sometimes, the old tried and true meathod will work, even without all the bells and whistles.

Here We Go (Green)!

Green Mommy Guide is up and running! Its been a lot of hard work and research to go from a new mom who knows nothing about starting a website to a new mom who knows nothing about running a website…with a website!

The idea came about when I wanted to find eco-friendly and natural options for products I use with my new baby boy. Something about seeing (and smelling!) his new baby skin made me go a little crazy with trying to keep it as pure as possible. It wasn’t long before I figured out that organic and chemical-free was the way to go. Good. Decision Made. The End…right?

Nope! After what seemed like 5,000 Google searches into the topics of homemade organic baby food, cloth diapers, green and organic baby clothes, and natural cleaning products, I rubbed my bloodshot eyes, and went to bed, muttering something to my husband about how there should be a website that had all of this info in one place.

I woke up in the middle of the night with a crazy thought: I should start that website! And so began this crazy journey. I am so proud of the finished product, and I only hope other people enjoy it and find it useful, too!