What is The Green Sisterhood and #greensisters?

If you follow me on Twitter, you might have noticed an avalanche of tweets this weekend with the hashtag #greensisters. I do apologize for the volume of grouped tweets, it should only have happened once. When you see tweets or shares with the hashtag #greensisters, you can know that I am sharing something from another blogger who is a member of The Green Sisterhood with me. You might be asking, "what is The Green Sisterhood?". The short answer is that we're a group of bloggers who blog about green living, the environment, various forms of low impact living, handmade and DIY, and who are all passionate about making positive changes for our future.

What does The Green Sisterhood do?

If you are a blog reader or someone interested in green living, climate change, or environmental advocacy, The Green Sisterhood is a great place to learn! Subscribe to our weekly email to receive summaries of what each sister is blogging about this week. Or, visit the main GS blog on Fridays for a weekly reading list of the best of the sisters' posts each week.

If you are a blogger (green or not), The Green Sisterhood hosts free blogging-related webinars regularly. Today at 12pm CST we'll be hosting Lara Galloway for a webinar entitled "Blogging is NOT a business".

If you are a business or PR professional, The Green Sisterhood is a great way to reach people who are interested in your product, service, or book. With a combined 2 million page views per month, all the green sisters function as a unit to reach a relevant audience through our individual blog voices and social media channels. You can contact us for rates and options by emailing info {at} greensisterhood {dot} com!

What does The Green Sisterhood mean to me?

On a personal level, I feel really privileged to be a part of this group of women. I would not be tweeting out links to these ladies' posts if I wasn't truly interested in what they have to say. They encourage me daily to keep up a greener lifestyle and to advocate for change when I might otherwise be silent. I've found that The Green Sisterhood encourages me when I get discouraged about blogging or making positive changes in my own life and the lives of others. It can be difficult to "be green" when no one around you is doing it. I don't know how many times I've had friends ask me a question about green living that I can answer by passing on a link to a post from one of my green sisters. Some of us are greener than others in various areas. Together, we have experience in nearly every area of sustainable living, or we know someone who does.

I feel like we also serve as sounding boards for each other when it comes to blogging decisions. For example, if I have a question about how to handle the business end of blogging, I ask these ladies. We had a great discussion just last week on working with PR reps, the points which we discussed will likely come up when I speak at BlogHer in Chicago in July. When Google shut it's RSS reader shut down, there was Karen Lee with a post about alternatives to Google Reader. They've recently encouraged me to (reluctantly, awkwardly) embrace Google Plus.

I hope that you love The Green Sisterhood as much as I do and that you'll follow along with us as we move forward for a greener future!

Eco-friendly skin care without phthlates: K6 Skin Care

I'm super excited to tell you all about how I solved my conundrum when it comes to finding eco-friendly skin care without phthalates and toxins! I have been searching for a skin care line that does not contain phthalates, parabens, SLS, artificial colors, chemical fillers, etc., but also keeps my (aging) skin moisturized and blemish-free.

I'm sad to say that all the handmade products or kitchen recipes that I've tried in the past have been terrible for my skin. They have left my skin too dry, too oily, or caused me to break out. I've tried washing with oil, washing with honey, moisturizing with coconut oil, toning with hydrogen peroxide...all of it has been a terrible failure.

The products I've found that work best are, shall we say, usually less than ideal in their ingredients. I've been doing the best I could by at least buying from companies like The Body Shop and Whole Foods who have good fair trade and ethical practices and "probably" don't contain phthalates, but I've let a few other standards slip just to have nice skin.

Recently I met the wife of one of my husbands' coworkers who is a local naturopath. It is all I can do not to ask her 100 questions about that at the dinner parties we have attended! In fact, she has graciously offered to write a guest post for us soon to tell us all about naturopath practice and I can't wait! Aside from that fascinating fact (or perhaps because of it), she has also formulated her very own skin care line. I'll quote her here to explain why:

Early in my practice, I relied on "recipes" [for my clients skin care needs] I developed while working with herbs. I made recommendations to clients that had them in their kitchens throwing together various ingredients to make their own lotions and cleansers. Human error abounded, and the results were less than satisfactory

(sounds like my failed efforts!)

And here is my favorite part and, in my opinion, why K6 products work as well and BETTER than their non-green, non-natural conventional counterparts:

...As an ND, I am dedicated to practicing natural healing modalities, but I am not afraid to use technology safely where it will enhance the action of a natural element. I use this philosophy in every facet of my practice, and it permeates my skin care line as well.

This is a very good point. I don't think it's wrong to use technology to assist natural ingredients. The problem with a lot of the natural products I had been trying was the lack of preservatives, meaning that the containers became breeding grounds for bacteria. Sharon gave me a detailed ingredients sheet for each of the 3 products in the K6 line which explains, line by line, what each ingredient is and it's function in the product (including preservatives and why they were chosen). 

And did you catch that? Only 3 products in the line! Here they are:

Clean

For, um, cleaning. The best feature of this cleanser is that it also removes eye makeup! Yep, no more purchasing an additional product to clean your eyes. I find that it works best to rub a small amount on the closed eye, rinse, and then wash the entire face as usual.

Reveal

A powerful enzyme peel that leaves skin refreshed, not raw. It's extremely gentle but you'll also be amazed to see the amount of dead skin cells it removes (if you are fascinated by peeling things...this might be fun for you!). Never once made my skin raw or irritated. It is actually gentle enough to use on rosacea without exacerbating the condition.

Preserve

Anti-aging moisturizer that is extremely luxurious - you don't need much! Slows the breakdown of collagen, invigorates the production of more collagen, and inhibits the production of melanin.

Ever since I started using the K6 skin care line, I have actually felt guilty for not yet telling my readers about how much I love this skin care system. I wanted to be impartial because -- full disclosure -- they are also an advertiser on my blog. But I also do not advertise anything on this blog that I have not tried for myself or do not believe in. If I had tried this line and it hadn't worked, I wouldn't be writing this post.

A note on cost: you need very little of each of these products. For Clean, probably the size of a pencil eraser for eyes and the size of a dime for the whole face. For Reveal, you only use it once a day and maybe not even every day, I probably use about a quarter size squeeze for my entire face. For Preserve, less than dime size. So you can imagine how long each product will last. I'll probably buy Clean most frequently.

So, there you have it. It's what I am using right now, and I think I'll probably be using it for quite some time in the future. I hope that K6 helps you as much as it helps me. And remember, if you do choose to try the product line, you are supporting this blog!

Green My Routine: cleaning

It's been a while since I did my first Green My Routine, and I admit I've been reluctant to do Part 2 of the series just because it is so labor intensive! There are a lot of links involved and can be a lot of picture taking to illustrate. I solved this reluctance by taking on something that seems like a fairly simple part of my daily routine: cleaning.

It's simple because I really rely on only a few products to get most of my cleaning done. I admit up front and remind you that I do sell Young Living essential oils and products so you will see them featured heavily in my arsenal. I believe in them because they are powerful and effective, and I signed up with them, well, basically to get a discount because I don't make ton of money off of it. I think I break even. That said, you are welcome to buy any of these product from me on my Young Living page if you are so inclined to do so. If not, just read for information!

My cleaning products:

Young Living Thieves household cleaner - Disinfectant that I use on everything: in the kitchen on the counters, the dining table, the kids toys, the kids potty seats, diaper pails, and also in our bathrooms for any surface my son pees on as well as the bathtub and shower. I also put it in my reusable microfiber mop sprayer and mop the floors with it. Ingredients are: Thieves oil and surfactants to allow oil to mix with water. That's it!

White Vinegar - Use this mostly on our microfiber couches for milk spills, but I also clean the windows with it. I often make orange vinegar to mitigate the smell, which my husband hates.

Shaklee Basic H2 Organic Super Cleaning Concentrate - Use this almost exclusively in the kitchen for greasy things like our glass stovetop. I also use it sometimes on the dining table.


Bon Ami Cleanser Powder - this is a simple, natural version of Comet. No bleach.

Baking soda - use this for anything that needs abrasive action, mostly in the kitchen and with dishes, but I have been known to scrub all sorts of things with baking soda!

Steam cleaner - for floor, no cleaning fluid necessary -- just water!

Homemade Lysol alternative - For disinfecting trash cans, large groups of toys, and larger surface areas.

Hydrogen Peroxide - Food-grade version that I bought from a health food store, I dilute at a 1:11 ratio with water to make the diluted strength we are accustomed to buying in a drug store. I spray hydrogen peroxide on my fabric shower curtain to remove mold stains. I also use hydrogen peroxide to remove pretty much any stains on tile, grout, or even fabric. It does a great job with blood! Often used in lieu of bleach.

I think that pretty much covers my entire cleaning arsenal for the whole house! Not a lot of products, I just keep some of each in every major location on both floors of the house.

Have I missed anything? If you have a question about how I clean various things with these 8 products, please leave it in the comments, on my Facebook page, or tweet me and I'd be happy to answer!

Women in the U.S. and China work together for #green consumer impact

Have you ever stopped to consider the impact that living an ever-greener lifestyle has on our economy? If you have followed this blog for long, I hope that you do consider the impact that your personal consumer behavior has on what kind of products are offered in the marketplace. I hope that you remain aware that each product you buy (or refuse to buy!) is sending a message about what kinds of products we want companies to make (or stop making) in the future.

Since women influence at least 80% of all consumer purchases in the U.S., we are in a position to really influence change in our country. Beyond our own country, the #1 largest importer of goods into the United States is China. It might surprise you to know that women in China, who contribute about half of all household income and influence and make more than half of all purchasing decisions, are equally concerned about consumer decisions and how they impact our shared climate.

It is for this reason that The U.S. - China Greener Consumption Forum is taking place on March 22 in Washington, D.C. Through my membership with the Green Sisterhood, I have met Diane MacEachern of Big Green Purse, a leading green consumer advocate and an award-winning entrepreneur who is both organizing the event and speaking. Together, we are urging all women to get involved in this forum by attending, listening in via social media, and spreading the word.

Why join in?

At first it might all sound very distant and far away, but did you know that you, too, can listen, participate, and benefit from this international forum on conscientious consumerism? If you choose to follow along, whether by attending in person or from home (see "How can you join in?", below), you will learn from the speakers:

• why our purses have so much power to make a difference
• how McMansions, meat-based agriculture, and toxic chemicals in common household problems affect our health (agenda item "The impacts of consumption on the environment and human health") 
• how lack of equality between women and men undermines sustainability
• obstacles that make it difficult for people to shift their spending and habits to greener products and services
• strategies to reduce consumption (focusing on the sharing economy, a really interesting project in China to help communities come up with a mission and vision around sustainable consumption, and energy efficiency)

The afternoon workshops will focus on new green products and services that have been introduced to meet the demand of women and mothers. In the behavior change set, we'll be highlighting campaigns to reduce the use of plastic, helping people to become more energy efficient, and reduce consumption.

The product innovation set will include a group on home renovation and cleaning products, food and drink featuring the VP of Honest Tea, MOM's organic market, Green America, and the CEOs of an organic cosmetics company and an organic skin lotion company (full speaker list).

How can you join in?

If you live in D.C., you might actually consider registering to attend the event. There are fabulous speakers and practical consumer tips throughout the event that will be particularly engaging in person. There will be simultaneous translation for all of the plenary sessions, and on-site translators in the workshops. There will be opportunities throughout the day for Q&A between the audience and presenters, but also among all attendees.

Follow along on Twitter. All of The Green Sisterhood bloggers will be re-tweeting segments and links from the forum with the official hashtag #USChinaGreenForum, but specifically be sure to follow @dianemaceachern and @biggreenpurse. Our Green Sisterhood hashtag for this event is #GSGF13 if you want to follow only Green Sisters tweeting about the forum. Make a special list or stream on Hootsuite for those hashtags in preparation for the day!

Make sure you are following The Green Sisterhood Facebook page and The U.S. - China Greener Consumption Facebook page. If you hover over "Like" and check "Notifications", you'll be sure to get links to great content on the day of the event, allowing you to follow along.

Help us spread the word!

Since you already follow me on Twitter (of course you do, right? Cause you really want to hear about how many times my kids wake up at night or see Instagram photos of my food...), you can just retweet my messages from the forum, or you can click here to tweet a pre-formatted message about the forum! You can also share the things you learn from the Facebook page posts with your Facebook friends.

Most of all, just tell someone one thing you learned about the forum or from the forum!

For today: learn more about how pollution in China affects us here (thanks to ecokaren for the link!).

Handmade fair trade empowering women: Amani ya Juu

You might not want to get out of bed early enough to work out today, but what if you had to get out of bed to carry water from a well to your house before you go to work in the morning or you wouldn't have water for bathing and cooking all day? Here is what a day is like for Esther in Liberia:

Esther, a 39-year-old mother and grandmother, wakes up at 5:30am each morning. “I carry the bucket to the pump. If you cannot carry the bucket soon, you will not get water!” she shares with wide eyes that giving the impression that this lady has had to deal with a dry pump on more than one occasion, and doesn’t plan on letting it happen again.

Esther prepares food for her family and sends her children off to school. Then, she sometimes goes to the market to buy food for her family or her bucket. She runs a micro business from her head---she sells pepper, spices, candies, ground pea candy (peanut brittle), and other treats out of a plastic bucket she carries all over the community.

At [work], Esther cuts cloth or learns to sew. She has only been at Amani for about a month but already feels intense community amongst her coworkers. “We are here together, friendly...if I am not here, I am missing these people,” she says, looking about the room.

After work, Esther often goes to night school, where she is currently completing 9th grade. Her favorite part about school is reading “They got some good stories in it!” she says of her school books, then rattles off the plot of a story she is reading this week about some farmers with a car---“their own car!”---she exclaims.

Esther works during the day at Amani ya Juu (“peace from above” in Swahili). Amani is a sewing and training program for marginalized women based in East Africa. Women from many African nations and cultures are learning to work together through faith in God who provides a higher peace that transcends cultural and ethnic differences. Amani is committed to holistic development. Women gain experience in purchasing, bookkeeping, stitching, quality control, management, and design. As new women enter the program they are mentored in quality workmanship. Emphasis is placed on ethical business practices and harmonious relationships with people of different backgrounds. Amani’s wide selection of high-quality handbags, home and kitchen décor, jewelry, and children’s items are made out of local African materials. The sale of products sold by volunteers and in Amani shops enables each woman to earn consistent income.

I learned about Amani ya Juu from a blog reader here in Dallas -- what a small world! She knew about my heart for empowering women to succeed through hard work and based on an inner peace. When she contacted me, I took a look at the Amani site and there is a little collage of my favorite products from Amani:

Clockwise, starting with the grey bag:

Safari On The Go Bag - $72
Ruffled Glove and Spoon Set - $28
Stuffed Zebra - $10
Kikoy Elephant Mobile - $44
Monrovia Wristlet - $18

I hope these cute products will appeal to you, but most of all that you will consider supporting the ladies of Amani ya Juu with your purchases. I've had a chance to sample one of the Amani cosmetic bags, and I can attest that it is very well-made. The ladies of Amani put care and love into their work.

To help spread the word, I'd like to give away a small cosmetic bag made by Sandra in Uganda:

Please help me spread the word about Amani ya Juu by entering the giveaway, tweeting about Amani and their mission, and following them on Facebook.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Twitter parties: etiquette and unfollowing

It's time to talk internets. Lately, I've seen more and more Twitter parties in my small(ish) group of followers and Twitter friends. Just last night, Dallas Moms Blog hosted one with the hashtag #DMBmoms. Last week, Green Sisterhood co-hosted with Holistic Moms Network, #holisticmoms. On Wednesday nights, Working Mom Journal hosts #workingmomchat. On Monday nights, #clothdiapers talks about, uh...cloth diapers! I used to follow one about essential oils whose hashtag I have now forgotten. These are just the ones that I know about regularly. There are literally thousands of others going on at any given time.

While the essential oils weekly Twitter party was 6 months ago, and #clothdiapers has been going on for at least 2 years,  it seems like only recently that Twitter parties have gotten really popular.

What are Twitter parties?

The most basic form is when a group of people tweet during a set time period (usually 1 hour) with the same hashtag. You use a third party app like Tweetgrid, Tweetdeck, or Hootsuite to track all the tweets with that hashtag so that you can see what everyone is saying and tweet back to them using the party hashtag and sometimes the @ reply to specific participants. Remember that if you reply to an individual using the "@username" as the first word in your tweet, your tweet will not be visible to your Twitter followers in their general Twitter stream. So if you are just @'ing people, your followers will not see those tweets in their Twitter streams.

In more formal Twitter parties -- usually the ones involving prizes and corporate or celebrity hosts -- you have to RSVP to the host separately beforehand. In the course of these parties, participants who registered ahead of time will win prizes, with prize and winners being announced during the course of the party. The host will direct the Twitter party by asking questions that everyone following the hashtag will answer. Answers and questions will be tweeted and retweeted, sometimes with reply @ and sometimes just to the participants' regular Twitter streams.

A problem

This is where it gets annoying for the participants' followers who are not interested in joining the party. Let's say this is my usual Twitter timeline over the course of 2 days (it is):

Random tweets throughout the day, in fairly evenly spaced intervals (around 10 tweets in 2 days). That's fine if you follow me, I'm mixed in with everyone else in your Twitter stream throughout the day with all of us talking and looking like this:

But what if I am currently attending a Twitter party? Here is my timeline less than a full hour:

And here is what you see in YOUR Twitter feed when when you go to check what's up on Twitter right now:

Yep. JUST ME. Like you really want to see that much of me. This party was for Dallas moms. A lot of my Twitter followers don't live in Dallas and are not moms. What do they do?
UNFOLLOW.

Or do they?

More and more of my friends are attending Twitter parties. Just today at noon, my Twitter feed was completely taken over by a party that two of my friends attended. I don't unfollow them because, well, they are my friends in real life! I can't unfollow them!

Then my husband comes home later tonight and says something like, "Did you see that funny thing I tweeted?". And I have to answer no, I didn't, because it got lost in the Twitter party. Especially depressing when he's home with the kids tweeting cute pics while I'm out somewhere and I miss the cute pictures entirely due to someone's Twitter party (this has happened to me).

Two solutions

One is to open a new Twitter account specifically for Twitter parties with a different email address, in order to avoid annoying my regular followers. Unfortunately, some of the Twitter parties I attend are to represent myself as a blogger. In those cases, I want to use my blogging persona, which is @_conscientious.

The other is to attend Twitter parties but always just @ reply the host or another participant, thereby hiding the majority of my tweets during the hour from my Twitter followers as a whole. I had picked up just from attending parties that this is not a very professional practice because it kind of slams the host with Mentions. I Googled all over for "Twitter party etiquette" and came up with no answer to this question.

So I'd like to ask you: What do you think about Twitter parties? What do you think when someone in your Twitter stream is attending one -- do you Unfollow? How do you attend parties without annoying your own followers?

7 Quick Takes Friday #48

--- 1 ---

The weather last week was warm and sunny for a few days, so of course I started planting things. Because I have such a great record of success with gardens. Of course, this week it's been in the 30's at night. So I've probably already killed everything.

--- 2 ---

I almost did an "All the Drama on the Internets" about Marissa Meyer eliminating working from home at Yahoo, but there wasn't much drama in that there weren't many differences of opinion, that I could tell. Everyone was pretty united in thinking that what she did was a bad idea and sets us all back as women in the workplace.

--- 3---

You might have noticed that I frequently run advertising for ThredUp, which is a way to buy used children's clothing online that is similar to a consignment sale or shop, only online so you don't have to leave your house. You can also sell your used children's clothing the same way, they send a bag to your house and you fill it up and get credit for clothing in the future. It is a very green thing to do, and you know I love consignment sales. I've heard really good feedback from others, but I'd actually never tried it myself. Last night I placed my first order. I'll be letting you know how it goes, I am excited to receive my first box!

--- 4 ---

Speaking of advertising, now is the time to purchase advertising on this blog! If you purchase an ad now, you can get 10% off the cost by purchasing 3 months at a time using the promo code 3MonthsOfFun. If you are a fellow blogger, consider purchasing a 125x125 spot to run during Blissdom! Here's the size of a 125x125:

--- 5 ---

Are you on Vine yet? I am, but let me tell you: I am terrible at it. Terrible. I like the people who do stop-animation with Vine. Super cool!

--- 6 ---

Blissdom is next month but I'm probably not going to conference because it costs money. However, I do live 45 minutes away so if you're a blogger who is attending and would like to get together at a local restaurant, I bet we could get a group together! Email me!

--- 7 ---

I have noticed that Facebook click through rates for this blog are pretty terrible. I'm not going to close down the FB page, but if you're looking for me, I'm mostly on Twitter. Or you can subscribe to receive my blog posts via email or RSS.

~~~
Well that's all for this week, be sure to visit Conversion Diary for links to more 7 Quick Takes Fridays.

Low Toxin, more eco-friendly hair color

Obviously, I dye my hair. No one is born with pink hair.

You might be thinking: what about the chemicals in hair dye? Is there a toxin free way to bleach and dye hair? The answer is: there is no chemical free way to bleach or dye your hair but there are ways to reduce your exposure to specific toxins and hair color systems that are more eco-friendly.

Henna - An ancient form of hair coloring based on the henna plant, henna is moisturizing and provides some pigment upon one application. You can re-apply over and over to build the shade up. Henna can lighten a few shades, but not much. Pure henna is almost always some form of red. I have found henna-based dyes in bright colors like pink, blue, and purple but I've also read that since the henna plant leaves obviously do not grow in those colors, those products are really mostly chemical dyes like any other chemical dye. The metallic components added to henna to produce these unusual colors can also react with traditional hair dyes, so be very careful mixing henna with other forms of dyeing or bleaching.

Highlighting - In general, highlighting with any type of product exposes your body to less direct contact with the dye because it doesn't sit on your scalp like all-over haircolor would -- it is typically applied with foils. At least, it doesn't cover all of your scalp when it does touch at the roots. Be aware of what bleaching agents are used in highlighting formula you use. My stylist did some research on ammonia in bleaching and found that some of the low-fume ammonia dyes contained just as much ammonia (or more) than the stronger-smelling ammonias, they were just more difficult to detect by smell. He prefers to use a low-ammonia version of bleaching rather than conventional ammonia disguised with extra chemicals to hide the smell.

Botanical and lower-toxin brands of professional color - The two main brands I found are Aveda and Pravana. Both are professional salon color systems and have a large spectrum of colors, traditional (browns, blondes, gingers) and alternative (pink, purple, blue, green, etc.). While these brands do utilize chemicals that are found in traditional color systems, they make a point to avoid phthalates, formaldehyde, and parabens. Both brands specifically avoid the use of petrochemicals or animal ingredients and do not do animal testing. Most of their product packaging is recycled and/or biodegradable.

What I have on my hair in the pictures you'll find on Instagram and Twitter is the Pravana VIVIDS for the pink, and their low-ammonia bleaching system for the base blonde. Did I have to bleach the crap out of my scalp for that light blonde? Yes, yes I did. Is that probably great for my hair? Probably not. At my last appointment, my stylist did a deep conditioning treatment and I do a weekly coconut oil treatment. I'll have to post more on that later. Overall, I am happy with my choice and plan to keep it up for as long as possible. I expect that 6 months is probably the longest I can do this before my hair becomes damaged.

Do you dye your hair? If so, have you tried lower-toxin alternatives or henna? What have been your results?


NOTE: I was not compensated in any way for the mention of these product lines, information is based on my own research and I pay for my pink hair out of my own pocket!

Sponsors and new ad spaces open!

It's the weekend, which means it's time to do some blog business. If you haven't visited my #1 sponsor, Healthy Feet, Happy Body on Etsy for some locally made (but nationally shipped!) aromatherapy bath and body products made with high quality essential oils, please visit today! She has just added Himalayan Bath Salts in refillable bottles for as low as $4.

These therapeutic bath salts help tremendously with aches and pains, as well as soreness from working out. If you take classes at my studio, you need these! They make great gifts for that Cross Fit addict in your life as well.

As for the blog, I'm in the (slow) process of moving from the Blogger platform to Wordpress. If you aren't a blogger, this probably means nothing, but in the end it should provide a better usability experience for you, the reader. It will also mean some new design, which I'm excited about.

With this design will come new opportunities for advertising! Right now you can see in the right column where I have several large square spots. These are particularly eye-catching in their size and right in line with the middle of a typical post. If you have a business of any kind, or would like to advertise your own blog in that area, I have monthly rates for the Large Right Column in my ad shop right now!

If you are considering purchasing multiple months, I can give you a discount beyond the stated rates, please feel free to contact me directly.

Thanks for putting up with my housekeeping, and hope you've had a great weekend!

On conventional and natural ear fluid treatment

A few months ago, I began to suspect that my 3 year old son, Little Sir, might have some hearing issues. It wasn't his language development, that was on target or ahead, but he just seemed to be missing a lot of things I said to him in a normal tone.

Another odd coincidence: every time since he was 1 year old when he'd had the standard hearing-machine tests at the pediatrician, the machine "hadn't been able to get a reading" due to "fluid in the ears". Never an infection -- he hasn't had an ear infection since he was 16 months old -- but always "some fluid in the way".

Our pediatrician referred us to a pediatric Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) specialist that practiced at a private hospital. Pricey, for someone as under-insured as we are. At this ENT, they did auditory testing with a machine and by playing sounds for him in headphones and allowing him to respond by throwing blocks into a bucket. He thought that was a pretty fun game! The results of these tests: significant hearing loss. He actually could not hear anything at a conversation level. They bypassed the ear drum and testing the capacity of the actual sound conducting parts of his head (?) and he does have the capacity to hear, the fluid was just keeping the ear drums from vibrating at all. This ENT suggested both ear tubes and removal of adenoid fluid. When we got the estimated cost of surgery from this private pediatric facility, we nearly had a heart attack.

We decided to get a second opinion, and while we were waiting for the second appointment, try holistic and chiropractic methods to help reduce the fluid in his ears. Some things we did to help alleviate the fluid between appointments:

1. pediatric chiropractic adjustment of the spine (twice)
2. specific adjustment of the ears themselves, both by the doctor and then she showed us how to do it at home
3. essential oil blend (thyme, lavender, melaleuca) targeted to prevent ear infections, applied behind the ear

Despite these treatments, when we went to the second ENT appointment and all the auditory and throwing-blocks tests were re-done, he came back with the exact same hearing loss and the exact same recommended treatment: ear tubes and possible removal of adenoid tissue.

At the first diagnosis, I was not enthusiastic about putting Little Sir under anesthesia. All the work we do to reduce our childrens' exposure to toxins, and we were just going to fill him up with crazy sedatives! Still, after inquiring among the "green" blogger community, I could find no alternative treatments that we had not already tried. In fact, I found several "green" bloggers who attested to having tubes in their own ears as children (I did, too) and having tubes put in their childrens' ears with great improvement.

In the end, we went with the conventional treatment. We are OK with taking some unconventional or alternative routes but, in the end, his hearing is not something we were willing to risk. He had the surgery this Tuesday and is doing great. He says that he can hear much better. 

Has anyone else faced this decision with their children? Did you go with conventional or alternative treatment?

My green smoothie recipe (sort of)

I posted this photo yesterday of a green smoothie I created that contained 5 fruits and veggies (peaches, blueberries, kale, avocado, and bananas) plus probiotics, because I used my homemade kombucha in it:

I've been doing green smoothies a lot recently to increase my antioxidant intake during cold and flu season. If I start to feel a little worn out, I try a green smoothie and quick nap during the kids' nap rather than caffeine.

I'd like to post a single green smoothie recipe but honestly, my recipe changes every time based on what I have in my refrigerator and freezer. What I'll do instead is post a list of things that are in almost every smoothie and the ingredients that vary, to give a kind of formula for green smoothies that can be altered to fit your needs.

Every smoothie:

2 cups dark, leafy greens - Usually kale, but sometimes swiss chard, spinach, or even arugula.
Yogurt - Now that my son is dairy-free, I use cultured coconut milk yogurt. Leave out the yogurt if you are using kombucha for the liquid, those don't play well together!
1/2 cup frozen bananas - I buy "day old" bananas in a bag at the grocery store, slice them up, and keep them in the freezer so I can just grab a few. Because they are frozen, they work well in lieu of ice cubes, which helps the smoothie be creamier rather than watery. I wouldn't go much above 3/4 cup of bananas because using too many can make the smoothie too thick.
1/2 - 1 cup Frozen organic berries - Berries have great antioxidants, but since they aren't available year-round, I stock up during the summer months and freeze them. Blueberries freeze the best and are most cost effective for our area.
1 cup+ unsweetened fruit juice - Since I don't use ice cubes, I have to add a liquid. Most of the time, I use apple juice because it is the most cost effective. As I've mentioned, I have used kombucha in lieu of juice but you definitely have to add honey and/or peanut butter to balance out the tart-ness of kombucha.
Food grade lemon essential oil - The original recipe I started using for my green smoothies used lemon juice, but sometimes I don't have lemon juice. I always have lemon essential oil, and it's a lot more concentrated. I usually use 2-3 drops. Again, have to leave this out if you use kombucha because that would make the smoothie way too acidic/tart.

Optional/varying ingredients:

1 scoop flax powder - for protein
honey - when I'm using a more tart green, like arugula, or when I use kombucha instead of juice, it needs sweetening
peanut butter - if I end up with too many watery or tart ingredients, I'll need peanut butter to balance out the acidity
fresh fruit - most of the time I eat fresh fruit plain!
veggies - I particularly like to add celery to a kale and apple smoothie
different juices - I've used carrot juice, kombucha, cranberry juice, orange juice...
raw ginger - or other herbs/spices, but this is the main one that I use to settle my stomach
soaked cashews - I blame Stephanie for the fact that I frequently have this raw vegan staple on hand!

Here's an example of a typical smoothie without kombucha:

1/2 cup bananas
1/2 cup yogurt (or cultured coconut milk)
2 cups kale
1 scoop flax powder
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1 cup apple juice
3 drops lemon essential oil
1 scoop flax powder
2 tbsp honey

I have a pretty good Black & Decker blender, so I just throw everything in and blend it all at once. I usually have to blend for around 2 minutes total.

Kids love to participate in making smoothies! I unplug the blender and let my toddlers throw the ingredients into the blender container. Then we sit down with our cups and drink the smoothies. If I have leftover, I pour it into silicon popsicle molds for special "treats" later.

What are your favorite green smoothie ingredients? Anything I'm missing?

How I make kombucha

Have you heard of kombucha? It's a fermented drink made from tea and a live organism called a scoby, which is a bacteria or fungus. It sounds gross, and I'm not going to lie, it looks kinda gross too...but it tastes good! And the resulting tea is full of good bacteria (probiotics) that can help balance your stomach and strengthen your immune system.

My husband thinks I am a little crazy because this is what the scoby looks like the jar:

So while it is brewing I make sure the cloth I cover it with is long enough to hang over the edge and cover the organism.

How do I make kombucha?

1. Get a scoby and at least 1/2 a cup of the kombucha it created from someone. If you are interested in making your own and live in the Dallas area, let me know -- my scoby makes a baby each time I brew, so I should almost always have one available.

2. Brew black or green tea with at least 1/2 cup of sugar per 1/2 gallon. I have seen people say use only white, processed sugar, but I didn't know about that until after I brewed my 2nd batch and I used organic raw sugar both times. I think the white sugar keeps the possibility of contamination lower so I will use that going forward.

3. Put the tea into a glass jar and it sit out overnight to reach room temperature.

4. Wash your hands with apple cider vinegar. If you wash using traditional soap, even soap made with essential oils, the germ-killing properties of the soap can also kill the scoby!

5. Gently place the scoby into the jar and cover with a cloth or towel secured with a rubber band. You want it to get plenty of air but keep bugs out.

6. Put the jar in a warm (70 degrees or above) place out of direct sunlight. A friend of mine keeps hers in the pantry, but I have no room in my pantry and my cupboards are all colder than the rest of the house, so I keep mine on the counter because it is not in the sunlight.

7. Allow the kombucha to ferment until it reaches your desired strength or taste. It is ready when it has formed a baby scoby on top of the jar, but you can let it sit longer if you'd like.

When you are ready to drink it, you can refrigerate the kombucha if you want or drink it room temperature. I have noticed that it gets bitter fast when refrigerated, and I don't like the way it tastes, but some people do.

Things that can go wrong.
I killed my first scoby, I think because I forgot to add the sugar and tried to add it later. Either bacteria from the spoon I stirred it with or the stirring motion itself must have killed the scoby. You can tell that you have failed if your jar grows any kind of mold. Mold is NOT what you want. You will have to throw everything out and start over with clean jars and new tea. The good news is, you can compost the scoby.

I recently read an article on WebMD that claimed homemade kombucha is rather dangerous. I had actually not heard anything about this before and, as you might have noticed from my Instagram and Twitter, I have allowed my children to drink it. I do dilute what they get with water (because fermentation can create alcohol in the beverage, the equivalent to what you'd get with any fermenting fruit), so they get a very small amount. But they looooove it and ask for it. Little Lady goes so far as to try and take the jar down from the counter sometimes.

Basically, kombucha is one of those weird things that crunchy people do because it might be healthy or not. I don't know how long I'll keep it up, but it's nice for now. For more info on kombucha, my fellow Green Sister Tiffany Washko posted on NatureMoms about making kombucha also.

What do you think about kombucha? Yes or no?

A relaxing day with cheese

Since going dairy-free with my son almost 4 months ago, there is one thing that I miss a lot: CHEESE.
There was a time in my life when I could not imagine living without cheese. I used to buy fancy cheese and just eat it with crackers, all day long. Oh, glorious cheese.

So when some of us Dallas Moms Blog contributors were invited by Cabot to sample some cheese recipes and relax with a little yoga at Central Market, I said YES, PLEASE!

Check out the amazing food they served us:





Since we met in the Central Market Cooking School space, we each got to make our own cheese-inspired snacks. My favorite was these little strawberry bunnies sitting on top of cheese. My kids loved them!





Then we took a little time for yoga...

Thanks to Valerie of Charmed Valerie for taking the pictures of me and Cassidy Phan, fellow Dallas Moms Blog contributor, doing our yoga moves!

We were also given some Cabot cheeses to take home as well as a cutting board and two mini cheese cleavers. And flowers from Central Market!

It was a great time of mingling and relaxing, reminding us all that being healthy doesn't have to be a huge effort. In the spirit of simplicity and health, I'm including a simple recipe from Cabot for a "Munch Bowl", which is actually a great snack to put in a reusable snack bag and take with you for a quick lift any time of the day:

Munch Bowl

Ingredients:
1/3 cup red or green grapes
1/2 ounce Cabot Mild Lactose-Free Cheddar or Monterey Jack, cubed*
Heaping tablespoon roasted almonds

Directions:
Combine in small bowl or take "to go" in a reusable snack bag.

~~~~

For more pictures of the event, check out Regan Jones' Google+ album of the Dallas #CabotRNR Event!

Indoor play at Kidville: a giveaway!

Here in the Dallas area, we're starting to see warmer weather already, but do you know what that means? Rain! Where are you planning on taking your kids to get their energy out when it's too wet to play outside? I recently wrote a post with 7 Days of Indoor Play in Dallas and my #1 suggestion is Kidville, with their Play Village and Big Muscles Gym (which I've written about before). When you purchase a semester of classes at Kidville, you are a member with access to both play spaces. If you're not a member, you might be looking for an opportunity to try out the play spaces before you commit. Now is your chance!

Kidville is turning 2 years old this Thursday, February 7!

To celebrate, they are giving one of my lucky readers a package of 5 playspace passes!
That's 5 great days of play for your kids on rainy days, and a chance to check out Kidville for free.



Just enter using the Rafflecopter form below. You must live in the Dallas area and be over 18 years of age to enter the giveaway. Extra entries by also entering this giveaway on The T-Shirt Mama's blog!

But what if you don't win? Don't cry!

On their birthday, Thursday, February 7, Kidville will be holding an open house event from 9:00am-5:00pm. They will be raffling off several items for people that come in that day, so you can still be a winner!

Spring Break is just around the corner and Kidville is offering 2 different Spring Break Camps this year.

• Superhero – Fairy Princess Camp (ages 3,4,5) from 9:00am – 12:00am


• Sizzlin’ Science Camp (ages 4,5,6) from 1:00pm – 4:00pm

Summer camps are always popular at Kidville! Camps are available or children 18 months – 6 years in 2, 8, 12, or 16 week sessions.

This giveaway has ended, thanks for participating!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Essential oils and cold/flu symptoms

I was offline for a while this weekend with the suspicion that I might have contracted the flu, since this year is supposedly an epidemic and I forgot to get my flu shot. I was just sure that someone in our family was going to get sick since I just published this post about Natural Cold and Flu Prevention and Treatment on Dallas Moms Blog. The minute I tell the whole internets that neither of my children has had anything more severe than a cough this season, I am just sure we'll be waiting in a doctor's office for some Tamiflu within the week.

Friday morning I did a more hardcore workout than usual -- the heat wasn't working in our studio, so I constructed a routine that would keep us warmed up and sweating throughout. Friday night I started to feel "off". Quick side note: the more often you work out, the faster you can tell when your body is off balance because you know you usually feel during and after workouts, and you can tell when you feel differently. That afternoon I had a green smoothie and took a nap. I immediately had my husband help me with Anna from Green Talk's hydrogen peroxide treatment! I went to bed with Thyme oil on my feet as well. Thyme is very effective in causing your body to sweat and purge out anything that might be starting to take hold.

I actually felt pretty good Saturday morning but quickly started to ache all over and I felt exhausted. I started to panic that I had the flu, but there was no fever. I took a warm shower and rubbed my neck and back muscles with lavender and peppermint oil, putting Thieves oil on my feet. I had another green smoothie and napped again (shout out to my husband who played with the kids while I treated my symptoms!). That evening, I took Young Living's Inner Defense, a supplement that makes me nauseated if I take it when I'm not sick but is good for warding off sickness if there is truly an immunity threat present. I took a bath with epsom salts, eucalyptus, and lavender oils. Epsom salt is great at soothing sore muscles and pulling out toxins, and the oils facilitate that effect. I again treated my feet with Thieves oil before bed. I have found that Thyme is so potent that it isn't wise to use it 2 nights in a row, I alternate it with another oil depending on my symptoms.

While I felt the worst on Saturday, by Sunday morning I was more or less normal! Which was good because I got a text at 7am saying that the instructor who usually teaches the 9am and 10:15am classes had a fever and I ended up teaching 3 Pilates classes on Sunday. By this time, I had no more achiness and I felt pretty good except for a pretty severe sinus headache. Unfortunately, I was in Plano all day and my essential oils were at home in Richardson.

By this time, I had identified that my symptoms were definitely seasonal allergies. Fortunately, I know what essential oils to use for allergies, so when I got home that afternoon I used my lavender and melaleuca (tea tree) oils. I also took another bath in epsom salts with eucalyptus and lavender to counter the achiness that was setting in from teaching three classes in a row. Again, I went to bed with Thieves on my feet.

It's Monday morning and I woke up (at 5am! to teach another class!) with a dry throat but absolutely no other symptoms. Did I cure myself of the flu? Probably not. Most likely, my workout Friday caused the achiness on Saturday, which means I did not have the flu. But it's clear that my immune system was compromised in some way, at some point, and I do think I was able to alleviate my symptoms and clear them up using my essential oils.

While this is definitely not a tutorial for how to cure yourself from the flu using essential oils, I hope it's at least a testimonial to how symptoms can be treated without conventional medications and how helpful and beneficial essential oils can be. Thanks, also, to Anna of Green Talk for her hydrogen peroxide treatment!

Exciting news: I'm speaking at BlogHer 2013!

I'm so excited to officially announce that I've been invited to speak at BlogHer 2013 in Chicago this year!



The panel I will be part of is the Beginner Marketing & Monetization Track, the title of the session is "Perfect Pitch":

From your stats to your ‘special sauce’, learn what to include in a pitch to catch a potential partner/client’s attention and earn their business.

As you know, this will be my 4th year at BlogHer, and I am super excited and honored to be speaking! I will be representing not only this blog, but also The Green Sisterhood, offering insight and experience from our collective niche blogging perspectives over the years.

If you are planning to be at BlogHer this year, please make sure you stay in touch via email or Twitter so that we can plan to meet up. I've never been to Chicago, so this is going to be an adventure!

Bloggers: Green Sisterhood hosting free webinar today!

Today at 1:00 pm CST, The Green Sisterhood is proud to present Amy Lynn Andrews in a webinar critiquing some of our blogs in a special webinar:

Learn How to Simplify and Organize Your Blog for More traffic and Lower Bounce Rate!

Register here

If you register online now, even if you cannot attend, you will have access to the recorded call.
While my blog was not selected for review, I am very interested to hear her suggestions.

Who else thinks she's going to suggest everyone moving to WordPress? * cowers in fear *

Wine n cheese with "the girls", if you know what I mean

I had the opportunity this week to spend an evening at the fabulous Hotel ZaZa in uptown Dallas with a few fellow contributors to Dallas Moms Blog. The suite was decorated with old school Hollywood pinup photos, dark paint, leopard couches, and luxe touches. While we were there, we had wine and cheese and other snacks that I don't get to see much of in my house full of dairy-intolerant toddlers.

Other things that we just don't see a lot of in our house...

...Wacoal's line of bras and lingerie!

Yep, we were there for what was, in my case, a much need bra fitting!

I knew I was overdue for this fitting. Heather from CottonBabies wrote a great post about why we need to stop and take time to get refitted after having children, and just this past fall, Amber wrote about her fitting in NYC while attending BlogHer. After breastfeeding two babies in 3 years, I had very little idea what size I actually am anymore, and honestly I was a bit afraid to find out. This is why they gave us wine.

When I got back into the fitting room, the super hip New York bra fitting expert took one look at me and declared me a 30 band size. This was not a surprise, since I typically get 28 or 30 when I measure myself (at which point I give up). If you are familiar with ladies' undergarment shopping, you will recognize this as an extremely difficult band size to find. You cannot, for instance, just go to Target or even Victoria's Secret. Most brands don't go below 32.

Here's where I learned something, though: did you know that the cup size alters a bit for smaller band sizes? For example, a D cup for a 30 band size is smaller than a D cup for a 40 band size. Makes sense, proportionately. This news made me super excited, because I turned out to be a "larger" size than I thought I would be. All is not lost!

Fortunately, Wacoal bras come in band sizes from 28-46 and cup sizes from AA to HH. Their b.tempt'd line has some super cute styles, with a slightly smaller size range. Both lines are conveniently available at Macy's, Dillards, Nordstrom, and Neiman Marcus.

And now, I will leave you with some compelling facts from Wacoal's Bra Expert, Liz Smith:

Bra Facts

• 8 out of 10 women wear the wrong sized bra 
• A woman should be fitted once a year 
• If you gain 5 – 7 lbs, your bra size will change 
• It only takes 15 minutes to be fitted for a bra 
• Most women wear their bras 1 – 1 ½ inches too big in the band and 1 cup size too small
• The average woman has 27 bras in her lingerie draw and wears the same 2 bras repeatedly 
• A bra should be worn once and then washed to extend her life
• After washing and wearing a bra 100 times she needs to be replaced

Well, if that doesn't make you want to go out and get fitted, I don't know what does...
Good luck and good fitting to you!


NOTE: I was given a free fitting and bra from Wacoal at this event, but I was not obligated in any way to write about them or my experience. Opinions are my own. I just felt like you really hadn't had enough TMI posts from me lately. You're welcome.