I haven't been working of Caiden's scrapbook too much lately. Learning how to knit, decorating for Fall, and making some new crafts have kept me busy. But if you are interested, here's a few of the pages I've finished since I posted them last. Lots more to do!
One documenting my obsession with taking pictures.
One month photo shoot. This is one of my favorites but the colors just did not scan well!
I'm pretty proud of this one- even with my dorky poem!
Meeting Aunt Jenny, Uncle Rusty & cousins Addison and Ethan
Last week we made our first trip of the year to the pumpkin patch. We actually visited 2 in one day! We're gonna have to go back though because Caiden was a little out of sorts and didn't want to cooperate with pictures.
In the morning we hit the Flower Mound Pumpkin Village. He wanted to check out a bounce house for the first time, although he wasn't too sure about it.
Here is a good picture that my friend, Kate, snapped.
In the afternoon, we went to Hall's Pumpkin Farm. Caiden was in a little better mood after his nap.
Check out the cute shirt my friend, Ashley, made for him. She makes really cute stuff- you should check out her site Shaw Swag. This picture was as close as I could get him to take a picture with the pumpkins :)
He loved riding in the wagon.
And playing on the slide (of course).
They have a full size corn maze, but we didn't do that. Instead Caiden mastered the hale-bale maze.
And he absolutely LOVED playing in the old truck they have there.
Last week, I went to a mom's night to learn about this great organization. Healthy Child Healthy World is an organization that is igniting the movement that empowers parents to protect children from harmful chemicals. You can find out more about it at www.healthy child.org. They made this great video that really got my attention. Please watch it It's only 3 1/2 minutes.
So i got to thinking and I know I could be healthier. I don't want to go crazy, but this organization really stresses that you can make small changes a little at a time to make a difference. I've made a list of what we do well right now, and made some goals. Kinda like new years resolutions but I'm not gonna wait until January. I've divided it up into categories Food, Personal products, Household products, and Environmental.
Here's what we do well now: Food -we are a part of an organic produce co-op, so most of our fruits and veggies are organic. -for the meats we feed Caiden, we buy hormone-free etc. -I have been making most of Caiden's food, so we know what is in it.
Personal products -I've started this with the products we use on Caiden. I mainly use the Episencial brand which is a great product line designed for moms and babies (but anyone can use it). It is free from the bad stuff (parabens, phthalates, and fragrances) and full of organic stuff and natural fruit extracts. This company is also eco-friendly in that the products are packaged in recycled materials and it's manufactured using solar power.
Environmental -recycle. fortunately our town offers a wonderful recycling program and we can do it easily. We recycle almost all of our paper, plastic and glass. -use reusable bags occasionally (you'll see this as a goal too.) -I like to shop at children's consignment or resale shops for toys and clothes for Caiden. Not only does this save money but it also saves what could be going in a landfill.
Household -we use a "green" cleaner on the bathtub -the floor cleaner we use is "baby-safe" or naturally non toxic with plant based cleaning agents -we buy BPA free cups, bowls etc for Caiden to use.
Here are my goals:
Food: -continue to choose organics for the foods we eat the most of and for the "dirty dozen" -look more closely at the ingredients of products. The less ingredients the healthier it is.
Personal products -begin to change our some products. I'm going to do this as I finish a product I currently have so that I am not wasting. I will use the cosmetics database to find some products that are safer- especially with hand soap and hand sanitizer since we use it so much.
Household products - we need to change our the rest of our "tupperware" and use only glass. We have switched some of it out, but still use some plastic. -I'm going to try to use some more natural cleaners. At this event, we made our own all-purpose cleaner with water, Borax (a natural anti-bacterial, anti fungal) and castile soap. I also got some samples of a laundry detergent, dish soap and all-purpose cleaner.
Environmental -we need to STOP buying plastic water bottles. We go through these like crazy and it is terrible. I have some reusable bottles that I will use more and I'm going to get Eric and more manly one to use. -try to use reusable shopping bags more
This is just a start, i know there is tons more we can do. But once we get started on this, we can add to it! I'd love to hear other ideas or what you and your family do to stay healthy and help the environment. Please leave a comment if you have any questions or suggestions for me!
