Have you guys used the Good Guide? I recently came across it as I was looking up the ingredients in some of my baby’s bath products. The Good Guide is this great online resource that rates the best products for baby, home, pets, food, apparel, electronics, appliances and cars based on the health, environmental and social footprint they leave. It’s been so helpful for us in choosing products for our baby and home.

Just today I was having a conversation with a friend about real foods. The conversation started when we got to talking about how we plan to feed our kids as they grow and just how much food has changed in the last 50 years. Our bodies are designed to eat real, natural foods from the earth but today we are almost “forced” to eat an abundance of sugars, salt, preservatives and an array of chemical additives. As much as we try to eat whole, organic, natural foods you still never know if the food your buying deemed “organic” truly is. It’s a scary realization that our society has gone down the path of eating this way. Don’t you wish we all had the time and know how to grow our own food? I know I do. What’s alarming to me is that most people are just okay with the way our food is grown today. Chicken’s pumped with hormones so large they can’t walk, strawberry’s grown double their natural size because of the chemicals used to fertilize them. Scary, isn’t it? So how can we change the way we eat? What are some of the things you and your family do to eat in a more natural way?

A clean kitchen: The kitchen, the heart of the house.  It seems like it’s always dirty, right? Just as the dishes are cleaned and put away the sink is somehow full again. Clean the kitchen for that special mama in your life.

Pick some wildflowers: Nothing says you’re appreciated and loved more than a fresh bouquet of flowers. Walk your neighborhood and you’re bound to come across some flowers that would be perfect in that mason jar you have laying around the house.

Get her morning started off right: I know if I can smell the coffee brewing before Im out of bed, the smile is hard to wipe off my face. There’s just something about the thoughtfulness of your first cup of coffee waiting for you.

Homemade cards: Is there anything better than a home made card from your little ones? It really is true- something made from the heart always trumps a store bought gift.

This pretty much sounds like the perfect day to me! (hint hint, husband ) Here’s to hoping all the mama’s out there have an amazing mother’s day coming up!

After I had my baby, I expected to be back at the gym or out in the park exercising just a couple weeks (at most) postpartum.  The unexpected C-Section I had put a bit of a damper on these plans and the first time I stepped out for a walk 3 weeks after Ruthie was born left me short of breath and feeling extremely out of shape. I tired quickly and my belly hurt- I told myself I’d try again in another couple days.  Slowly but surely I began walking regularly and at a decent pace again but almost 3 months later I’ve yet to do much more.  Running (something I used to do in the past) seems impossible given the fact that I’m breastfeeding (ps, are there tips for this? maybe a super supportive sports bra?) and anything super intense like weight training just does not interest me which leaves me with yoga. Oh yoga, the lifesaver of exercise if there ever was one.  I feel amazing during and after practice and feel like I’m finally getting toned- Yay! Hot yoga is especially my favorite. There’s just something about leaving a workout dripping wet, don’t you think? Do you lovely folks have any other wonderful postpartum exercise ideas?

Throughout all of this I’ve learned that not having the perfect post baby body is okay.  I’m happy with how I look and know that my body changed / is changing because I grew a human inside of it. That fact alone is worth any amount of “body imperfections” there are.

With Mother’s Day just around the corner we wanted to take the opportunity to talk a little bit about maternal health and this beautiful print you can purchase to help the women of the Edna Adan University Hospital in Somaliland, Africa.  We so often take for granted how lucky we are to have a wonderful maternal healthcare system available to us when most women around the world do not. Here’s a little blurb from the hospitals website: ”The health of the people of Somaliland is among the worst in Africa, with one of the highest Maternal and Infant Mortality rates in the world. Every year, one baby in eight dies in infancy while nearly 4000 Somali women die in childbirth. This tragedy can be attributed in large part to the long civil war which brought about the death or departure of nearly all of the country’s trained health care professionals.”

You can  help by purchasing this print, (great mothers day gift! spreading the word on your own social networks or by donating money directly to Edna Adan. Every woman deserves proper maternal healthcare so lets do our part.

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I admit, I really don’t have much of a green thumb…Strange right? As someone who writes the blog for an organic, eco company this seems like it should be a prerequisite but unfortunately It just does not come naturally to me.  Since owning our home for almost three years now I continue to try each spring to plant the right things in my flower boxes and around the yard- It always starts good then bam, I wake up one morning and it’s all dead. I am beyond determined this year to not kill anything! Our yard is kind of wonky and we don’t have much direct sunlight which makes things a bit tricky. Our garage is built into a hill so you are able to walk on top of it which is the place that gets the most sunlight.  Because of this set up I’ve been dreaming of raised bed gardening this season and since we’re huge supporters of organic produce we thought we’d try growing some of our own!

Raised beds are manmade gardening areas where the soil is formed in 3-4 foot wide area’s with the soil above ground, in any shape or design.  There are definite benefits to raised bed gardening: they extend the planting season, they can reduce weeds if designed and planted properly and reduce the need to use poor native soil. I also really love the idea of constructing the beds from repurposed wood pallets or metal tubs.

I’ll keep you all posted on how it goes as the season really starts to stick around (we’re still having 40 degree days!) Any experienced raised bed gardeners have any advice?

I’m no expert on attachment parenting but certainly feel like bits of my style would fall into this category- I wear my two month old often, breastfeed and she sleeps in our room.  She’s still tiny and I don’t see harm in practicing these things for any reason anytime soon.  On the flip side, I’m also a Montessori preschool and kindergarten teacher and as a huge advocate of independence in young children, I hope to be able to encourage my daughter to go off and do things on her own once she hits toddlerhood – explore, play with friends, spend the night with grandparents etc.  Is there such a thing as balanced attachment parenting? That sounds like a parenting style I could totally get on board with.

As for the Time magazine cover shot- What do you guys think about it? The little boy, I believe, is about 4 years old and still breast feeding (obviously.)