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2015 Healthy Sunscreen Guide

Summer is on our doorstep friends. Time to load up on sunscreen and today is the day for the 2015 Sunscreen Guide. Here’s your chance to see what’s new, what works and most importantly, what’s safe for you and your family. Sunscreen is a wonderful barrier to protect your skin, but educate yourself on which ones can do more harm than good.

2015 Healthy Sunscreen Guide

In this guide, I’ll be sharing with you the product, the price (and amazon affiliate links where available to make ordering easy) and also the EWG rating. For those of you unfamiliar with EWG (or Environmental Working Group), it’s a hugely educational site that helps shed light on the safety of sunscreen and other beauty products. I am only sharing products that get a 0, 1 or 2 rating. Anything lower is just too questionable for me to consider sharing it with you.

2015-SUNSCREEN-GUIDE-label

NATURE’S GATE SPORT SPF 30

  • $10.50/ 4 oz. (Amazon)
  • EWG Rating: 2
  • Great for the beach and playing outdoor sports

GODDESS GARDEN KIDS NATURAL LOTION SPF 30

  • $15.99/ 6 oz.
  • EWG Rating: 1
  • Goddess Garden can be found easily at Whole Foods or online. Note- the trigger spray option EWG rating drops down to a 3.

 NEUTRAL SKIN MINERAL SUNSCREEN

  • $11.99/ 8 oz. (great value. Amazon)
  • EWG Rating: not included (I used this last year and can vouch for it.)
  • Thinner lotion that spreads better than most.

RAW ELEMENTS ECO-STICK

  • $12.99 stick/ (Amazon)
  • EWG Rating: 1
  • The ease of a stick without the white cast. The brown tint really doesn’t look brown, just a hint of color on light skin. It’s a little sticky so it’s best for small areas like the face and top of hands.

AVA ANDERSON LOTION

  • $15.95/ 2.9 oz
  • EWG Rating: 1 (same for the sunscreen stick)
  • Friends swear by this line for its eco-friendliness. I just ordered my first batch of products.

THINKSPORT SUNSCREEN (BABY AND KIDS VERSION AVAILABLE)

  • $12.55/ 3.0 oz (Amazon)
  • EWG Rating: 1
  • Easy to apply and the whole family can use it safely. Every version has great ratings.

BADGER BALM KIDS CREAM SPF 30

  • $14.49/2.9 oz (Amazon)
  • EWG Rating: 1
  • Badger is well known as being a great choice for kids with sensitive skin.

Couple of quick notes. You will notice that the majority of these sunscreens can’t be found at your local drugstore. Those sunscreens are generally less expensive, but are using chemicals instead to create a barrier for your skin. The benefit of using a mineral based sunscreen (zinc and titanium dioxide) is they create a physical barrier against the sun immediately. No need to wait ten minutes for chemicals to sink into your skin to make the sunscreen effective. (doesn’t that just sound creepy…)

AVOBENZONE = YUCKY

QUICK SHOPPING LINKS 

 

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Merry Everything

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas holiday. Enjoy the time with your family and the little moments that make this holiday so special.

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Thank you to the talented Nikki Amara Myers for the holiday photos!

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Have You Found Your Village?

Be My Neighbor Fred Rogers

When we moved to our neighborhood eight years ago, we had no idea how important that decision was going to be to our everyday life. The day we closed on the house we met some of our neighbors. There was a group of Dads hanging out while the moms were at a movie night. Little did we know how much we would benefit from having these people in our lives.

Fast forward a few years and three kids later, our neighbors feel like extended family. We regularly use the quote, “It takes a village.” It’s a dynamic neighborhood with families with young children, school age babysitters, empty nesters and elderly citizens. Together, we have developed a network to quickly address the needs of child care, lawn care, handyman repairs, party planning and more. Emails, text and conversations at the bus stop allow us to stay connected with each other, despite our busy schedules.

Be My Neighbor

JJ loved helping out the raking team!

On one particular Saturday morning, our neighbor went out to rake and elderly neighbor’s leaves. Our family joined in to help, and then I invited some of the younger neighborhood kids to come enjoy the giant leaf pile. The morning then turning into a traveling raking team who went on to clean up two more yards. It was spontaneous and tons of fun. Now my husband is planning another neighborhood sweep of dealing with outside projects asa team before the snow starts to fall.

Have you found your village in your neighborhood? Maybe you’ve found it in your playgroup {oh yes.}, school community or church group? As Fred Rogers said,

If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.

Today you can join in to talk about finding ways to encourage being neighborly at Twitter party celebrating the launch of the new website Wont You Be My Neighbor. You can share a special story about being a good neighbor or you can recognize someone else you’ve seen demonstrate neighborliness. Your stories will be shared on the site and inspire others to do neighborly acts of their own! Join us for the #BeMyNeighbor Twitter party to learn more ways you can do good in your neighborhood and share your own ideas with others!

You can see the details and RSVP via this Invite: http://vite.io/themotherhood It’s TODAY at 2pm EST. 

Prizes: They will be giving away five prizes throughout the party for correct answers to trivia questions. Each prize pack includes a Mister Rogers quote book & t-shirt and a Daniel Tiger mini plush, book & DVD. Prizes are limited to U.S. participants only.

Hosts: @TheMotherhood, @TheMotherhood25, @CooperMunroe, @EmilyMcKhann

Today’s twitter party Co-hosts: @MoreThanMommies, @DancingHotdogs, @DonnaChaffins, @EmilyARoach, @gogrowgo, @AsCuteAsBugsEar, @EatSleepBe, @JessicaMcFadd, @JustJillyBlog, @CoconutRobot, @2kidsandacoupon, @MyBaybah, @ohMariana, @PittMommyBlog, @Tiffanyblogs

Disclosure: This story was written in partnership with The Motherhood and I was compensated for my time. All opinions and stories are my own. 

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Why Disney Planes movie will be a family favorite.

For family movie night, as part of a sponsored post for Collective Bias, we snuggled under blankets to watch Disney Planes DVD. I am pretty picky about what movies and shows I let my kids watch. They are only four and two and very impressionable. I only heard positive things about the movie when it was in the theaters, so I jumped on the opportunity to watch the Planes movie with my kids.

Disney Planes Family Movie #shop

If your kids are big fans of the Cars movies, they probably will love the Planes movie too. The characters are very similar and my kids kept asking, “Where is Lightning McQueen?” After they got over the missing character, they settled in to watch a story of courage and determination. My four year old asked a lot of questions during the movie, which is new for us. Questions about winning a race, questions about mean characters, and questions about planes being shot down. (The last part was part of a flashback…planes were safe but just a heads up.) It made me realize how important it is to choose movies that portray values we believe in.

Family movie night homemade popcorn #shop

Family movie night with homemade popcorn

The movie reminded me of both The Little Engine That Could and Disney’s Brave movie. Like Dusty the Plane, the characters believe in themselves and choose to pursue a dream. They overcome odds and continue to be courageous in the face of adversity. As my children grow, I love sharing stories like these with them. Sometimes it’s easier to use a movie, or book, to help explain a challenge they are facing in their own world.

As the holidays approach, I would happily endorse the Disney Planes movie for your next family night. Own it on Blu-ray Combo Pack and Digital HD on November 19th!  Movies are a great non-toy gift to suggest to grandparents and family members.

Get ready for family movie night by offering the kids some Planes craft projects in the afternoon. My kids colored this color-by-number worksheet. You can find lots of other ideas on the Disney Planes Pinterest Board that are age-appropriate.

Disney planes color by number

Do you have a family movie night in your house? What are some of your traditions?

 

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Minivan versus SUV? Comparing the Honda Odyssey to the Ford Explorer.

For months there has been an ongoing debate in our house about our next car: SUV or Minivan. As our family grows, I wanted to make the leap to the flexibility of having a third row. One, to give the kids some breathing room in the car. Two, to give me the space I need to carry a stroller and hit Costco at the same time. We needed to decide on buying a minivan or an SUV. The choice was not an easy one. I asked for advice on my facebook page and got a great response.

We have spent the last couple months test driving cars to decide what will work for our family. We drove the following: Ford Explorer Sport, Ford Flex, Honda Odyssey and the Toyota Sienna.

Minivan versus SUV

Are you in the minivan camp?

I have to admit I’ve been the big hold out when it comes to driving a minivan. Someone could certainly quote me on saying, “NEVER” on more than one occasion. Then I drove one and I realized there were a lot of benefits of driving a minivan for a soon to be family of 5.

Pros

  • Ease of the automatic doors
  • 7-8 passenger capacity
  • Grows with our family
  • Storage room
  • Good gas mileage
  • More room in our garage since the doors don’t swing open

Cons

  • It’s a minivan
  • Large size
  • Honda Odyssey doesn’t offer All Wheel Drive

Are you in the SUV camp?

 

Pros (Ford Explorer Sport)

  • It’s not a minivan
  • Super comfortable to drive
  • Felt very safe driving in a rainstorm
  • Cool interior and exterior design

Cons

  • Height made it difficult for my four year old to get in
  • Heavy doors were a safety concern
  • Lower gas mileage
  • 5 passenger option since we needed the middle row to be captain’s chairs
  • Less storage than the minivan

Both the Ford and the Honda had awesome back up cameras. The Toyota Sienna camera was super small in comparison. I really like this safety feature since my kids are often running around outside, and their toys/bikes/shovels/etc. tend to migrate to the driveway.

The only bummer about the Honda Odyssey is it isn’t offered with All Wheel Drive. Living in New England it would be a great option and I’m surprised they still don’t offer it.

As someone committed to living a sustainable lifestyle, some people are surprised I already drive a small SUV (Ford Escape). We love the car and plan to keep it as our second car. We walk into town often to do our shopping and neither my husband or myself use a car to commute to work. Since our cars don’t get too much use, I’m ok with driving an SUV that uses more gas than an average car. Thankfully there are so many new eco-friendly engine options for cars, including the Eco-Boost engine on the Ford models.

Ford Explorer Sport

So, have we decided? We are nearly certain it will be the Honda Odyssey for us. I think with a new baby, this will just make life a little easier. This will be our third Honda and we are just used to the brand. I would love for the Ford Explorer to be the upgrade to our Escape when the time comes that she needs to be replaced. It is an awesome car and I was sad to turn it in after I drove it for a few days. My friends were surprised when I said a Ford was “cool.” Times have changed and it really has been modernized with the technology details inside and the great driving comfort it offers.

Ford Explorer Sport Interior

I loved being able to Sync my iphone with the Ford Explorer as soon as I got in.

Which camp are you in? Camp Minivan or Camp SUV?

Disclosure: I was provided Ford vehicles to test drive. This in no way influenced my opinions shared here.

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Baby News and a Giveaway!

Baby News at Random Recycling

After a week of birthday celebrations, we feel very blessed to have two healthy children in our lives. We are excited to share the news that we will be welcoming Baby #3 to the family in late spring. A few of my local readers saw me recently without my coat on and were totally surprised about our news. Guess it’s time to share the news “officially” in the world of social media.

Before you ask, no, we are not finding out what we are having. There is just nothing better than that wonderful surprise at the end. Finding out if it’s a boy or a girl is such a major motivator to keeping pushing through delivery! Plus we would miss that phone call to the grandparents to tell them if it’s a boy or girl. We are lucky to have both already and look forward to meeting our new addition in a few months.

And now Giveaway Time! $200 value!

I’m excited about this giveaway since it’s a lot of items that I would love to receive as an expecting mom. It would also make a great gift! Thanks to the generous sponsors, you can win some gift certificates from Annee Matthew ($100 ea) and A Mother’s Boutique ($50 ea) to use toward nursing apparel as well as a nursing hat from Moboleez and breastfeeding baby apparel for your little one from One Creative Mama.
Some Favorite Things About the Prizes: 
  • Huge selection of bras and nursing apparel at A Mother’s Boutique
  • Annee Matthew nursing apparel has some of the most stylish nursing clothing on this planet!
  • One Creative Mama breastfeeding advocacy baby shirts speak for themselves and break the ice
  • Moboleez nursing hats make nursing in public so much easier and more convenient, especially helpful when you’re new to breastfeeding and a nursing cover just makes things harder
Purchase: You can shop Annee Matthew and A Mother’s Boutique for a great selection of nursing bras and nursing apparel. They carry some of our favorite brands like Cake Lingerie, Bamboobies, and Bella Materna. You may also acquire a Moboleez hat and check out the adorable baby apparel from One Creative Mama (pictured below).

Win The Package! Our sponsors are blessing two of you with the entire package as outlined above.

Special thanks to AnaB Social for hosting this giveaway. Huge thanks to all participating bloggers as well! Giveaway ends February 27th at 12:01 am, open to US residents, ages 18+. To enter please use the Rafflecopter form below. Thank you!
Disclaimer: AnaB Social, Eco-Babyz, and all participating event bloggers are not responsible for sponsor prize shipment. I did not receive anything for hosting this event, just thought some of you might like to enjoy these products.
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No Crust Apple Pie

No Crust Apple Pie

I took the kids apple picking last Friday and came home with a bag full of Macintosh apples.  I usally make apple pie, but this time I tried a new, or rather old, family recipe.  My Nana’s No Crust Apple Pie sounded perfect for my girl’s night out dinner.  Easier than a pie with two crusts rolled out, yet hopefully just as delicious.

Nana’s original recipe for No Crust Apple Pie

My guess is my friends would agree that it was pretty darn delicious.  My Nana, Priscilla Abbott, always had a dessert on hand in the house.  She was a cake baker, but she sure could turn out an amazing pie too.  She had five children so she knew a thing or two about creating a great meal in a timely manner.  This recipe is easy enough for a casual gathering, but respectable enough to follow a holiday dinner.

No Crust Apple Pie

Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Course: Dessert
Keyword: Pie

Ingredients

  • Peel and core 5-6 large apples
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 tablespoon plus 1 cup sugar separated
  • 1 1/2 sticks of butter melted
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts

Instructions

  • Fill pie plate with cut up apples. Sprinkle with cinnamon and 1 tablespoon sugar
  • Mix butter, flour, sugar and egg together.
  • Add chopped walnuts and pour over apples
  • Bake 50-60 minutes at 350 degrees
Tried this recipe?Mention @emilyroachwellness or tag #erwellness!
The finished no crust apple pie.

Enjoy!

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Eco-Friendly Camping Trips

Eco-Friendly Camping for Families

Please welcome my guest blogger Elizabeth who is sharing some great sustainable camping tips.  I have been camping once so I am happy to have someone with a lot more experience share some fun ways to stay green while camping.

 
My first camping memory is from when I was seven years old.  We lived in Fort Lewis, Washington at the time and I can still recall running down the shoreline of the Pacific Ocean with my siblings and friends.  There is a vague memory of waking up in a tent and the smell of campfires.  I love talking to my father about my first encounter with a raccoon that was stealing trash through a fence right near our camp.  It was beyond exciting.

Since I have grown up, camping has taken on a whole new interesting twist for me.  Now I have a growing interest in all things frugal, but also in trying to be sustainable and take care of the same environment I’ve grown to love spending so much time in.

Basics – Follow the Rules
First and foremost, follow these common and important rules that you’ll find in most camp areas.
  • Don’t bring firewood that isn’t from that particular area.  This creates a risk of introducing disease and pests that could wreak havoc on the beautiful place you are staying.
  • Make sure you never leave your fire or hot coals unattended.  Also, if possible try to only have fires in designated areas.
  • My mom always taught us to leave the campsite cleaner than it was when we arrived, and I think it’s one of the best pieces of advice for any camper.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
When you start packing your camping boxes, you may find yourself reaching for paper (or Styrofoam *shudder*) plates with those white plastic forks, knives, and spoons.  There will inevitably be those rolls of paper towels and paper napkins accompanying them.  My best piece of advice is to resist this urge and the illusion of convenience.
These items are garbage, no really; they are just going to be trashed.  This inevitably is negative because obviously if you care about sustainability you don’t want to contribute to our trash problem for no reason.  You may not have considered that this trash is also inconvenient for you.  The more of these papers goods you are putting in a trash bag in your campsite, the more objects there are for our favorite camping critters and friends to smell out and then toss all over your campsite.
So let’s consider some really fun options out there.
  • BPA-Free reusable plastic kitchenware comes in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and colors.  Check out the Sea To Summit X Bowl & X Plate which is collapsible so it saves you room.  They also have the Delta Plate and Delta Bowl.
  • Check out the many metal-based products out there.  The MSR Mountain Plate is stainless steel and lightweight, while still being a bit more sturdy then the cheaper aluminum plates.  Enamelware plates are also really popular choices like this GSI Metal Rim Plate.  If you are interested in a bit more of an investment, check out this Snow Peak Titanium Plate that leaves no metallic taste in your food and will not rust.
  • Sporks are not just a fun idea for kids in school, so check around for some great multipurpose reusable utensils.  The Delta Spork with Serrated Knife is BPA-Free and is ergonomically designed for easy use.  Bamboo has become known as a great sustainable resource and so I was excited to find these Bamboo RePEaT Utensil Sets that come with cute cases in various colors, but it doesn’t just stop at bamboo.  Those cases are made from recycled PET plastic! How great is that?
  • Check out local thrift stores for hand towels you can pack with you to use instead of paper towels.  The great things with these are that you can just simply rinse them out and then you hang them up to dry and they’ll be ready to go by your next meal generally.
Cook Well, Store Well, Eat Well
A great investment option for campers is cast iron that can be used both in your home and during your great outdoor adventures.  One of my favorite pages for information on cast iron is found at Sustainable Baby Steps.  You can either purchase these beauties brand new or you can keep an eye out for friend, family, or garage/yard sales looking to get rid of older pans.
Next, invest in a real cooler.  Do not be tempted by cheap coolers because the chances are you will quickly lose money in the ice that you will have to replace.  Not all of us can go for coolers like the Coleman OptiMaxx though, which rings in around $370.  The Coleman Xtreme is a much cheaper cooler that promises to keep ice for around 5 days at 90F degrees, that isn’t bad! Be sure to test your cooler out before you purchase it as well.  Sometimes coolers makes great promises but are difficult to latch or barely stay closed at all.
Lastly, remember to eat well.  Sometimes campers are bombarded by convenience foods that are packed with unnecessary fillers, preservatives, and tons of sodium.  Before you venture out into your camping trip, make a detailed list of meals for your time.  Be sure to include snacks and drinks.  Most recipes are easily translatable to a campfire, especially if you have a cast iron Dutch oven that allows you to bake.

 

  • Meet your campsite neighbors.
  • See if your campsite has fun activities for the kids (or the adults – bingo anyone?).
  • Walk trails.
  • Bring your bicycles.
  • Go swimming if you can.
  • Create traditions.
Most of all – make memories with your loved ones that will last their lifetime and enjoy the time you have together in nature.

About the Author
Elizabeth Beadles is a twenty-something stay at home mom and wife.  She loves camping, writing, and playing with her son.  She believes that we are all capable of making choices to become responsible individuals living a sustainable lifestyle.  You can find her ramblings and thoughts on life, love, and sustainability at As We Grow Green.
 

Kitchen Stewardship in the Big Woods: Family Camping Handbook

Need more Camping Food ideas? Check out the Kitchen Stewardship in the Big Woods ebook with lots of real food recipes for camping. Plus tips on how to organize your campsite and what to pack to keep the kids entertained.  (Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Kitchen Stewardship ebooks. I love her recipe books and  I get a small percentage of each book sold. Happy reading.)

photo credit: bulliver via photopin cc

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