Hard Lotion: You Gotta Try This!

Sometime last summer in my bloggy reading, I came across an enthusiastic recommendation for MadeOn Hard Lotion Bars. I had never heard of hard lotion before, but I was intrigued by the all-natural ingredients and the enthusiastic testimonials. In checking out the site, I was amazed to see that the owner, Renee Harris, even posted a video to teach you how to make your own lotion bars. She believes so strongly in her product that she's willing to teach you how to make it yourself for free!

You would not believe how simple it is to make these lotion bars, as you only need 3 ingredients: beeswax, coconut oil, and shea butter. I melted the 3 together and poured it into an Altoid tin to set up. The first time I had to put it in the freezer to pop the lotion bar out of the tin, but it's so convenient to carry with me in my recycled tin. And we use this stuff for everything: chapped lips, dry skin, my kiddos' itchy toes...

With the winter weather, I've been telling so many friends about hard lotion as this has been the one thing that works for our family for both winter chapped lips and dry itchy skin. My friend Brenda was frustrated with her baby's itchy, rashy skin, so I packed up my crafting crockpot and 3 ingredients and headed over to her house to make a batch. That weekend, she let me know that her baby's skin was 90% better already!

Brenda and I made enough lotion that day that we decided to make samples for our MOPS group. I found this Wilton silicone mold at JoAnn's last month and knew it would be perfect for trial-size lotion bars:At first I packaged them in little baggies, but then I found these little plastic Valentine treat boxes at the Dollar Store and was so thrilled that the lotion bars fit:This hard lotion has become the only lotion our family uses and I can't recommend it highly enough. Renee has even put up a DIY kit for sale this week in case you'd like to get all your ingredients in one easy package. And no, she's not paying me for this post either -- we just love our hard lotion that much!

Update 3/28/11: Today Stephanie over at Keeper of the Home reviewed the DIY hard lotion kit. She gives a handy tutorial on making the lotion bars and lip balms and even calculates your savings!

Links I'm Loving...

Usually I just post links I like to my Tumblr, but I've found that I don't have a great way to organize that yet. Here are some that I don't want to get buried there:

• From Zen Family Habits, "5 Ingredients. 5 Minutes. 5 Meals" If ever there was a menu plan for me, this is it! Some day I'll get real brave and write a "My Life as a Housewife" post, but I am the world's most timid cook. A perfectionist/procrastinator who never really learned how to cook is not the most ideal person to let loose in the family kitchen, but sometimes the task falls to me. If you have any simple, can't-fail meals like these, I'd love to have them.
• Don't remember how I found this one, but here's a simple recipe for homemade powdered laundry detergent. I don't know if Borax and Fels Naptha are the most eco-friendly detergent ingredients ever, but I'm all for them if this frugal combo works. And I don't have to melt soap on the stove, so even better. If you've made this, I'd love to hear how you liked it-- I'm considering springing this on my MOPS group for a "craft" in the spring...
• From SugarDoodle, this Thanksgiving Thankful Countdown-- liked it so much I submitted it to our MOPS newsletter. I love the idea of counting down to Thanksgiving with daily deliberate gratitude rather than relegating it to the holiday we rush through between the excesses of Halloween and Christmas.
  
• If you saw my posts on the spool doll nativity, you could probably guess that I have a lot of leftover wooden spools. So when I saw these spool Advent calendars on Just Something I Made, I knew I had found my next spool project. I happen to have a bunch of green ones, so I'm tempted to put mine on a wire and have a wreath-shaped Advent calendar. Hmm, maybe there will be a photo op in that one...
• And finally, the gem of Christmas preparation posts (pass this one on to the grandparents!) would be "10 Clutter-Free Gift Ideas for Kids" by Megan (of Simple Kids) on Simple Mom. We've discussed this with my folks (and they're on board!) but haven't with the in-laws yet. Wish me luck!
  

Etsy Love: Love for Earth

In my quest for better stewardship of God's gifts and resources, I went in search of reusable produce bags on Etsy and found these little gems-- a set of 4 jumbo nylon produce bags from Etsy seller LoveForEarth. And while I purchased just 4 bags, Kara included 2 more for free-- sometimes it pays to take a chance on a new Etsy seller!

May I just say that I love these? They are super strong and rinse out and dry in no time flat. I also love that Winco gives me a nickel for each one I bring in, so I guess eventually they'll even pay for themselves. Works for me!

ISO: Economical Green Laundry Soap & Dishwasher Detergent

Since this week is a backwards edition of Works For Me Wednesday, I thought I'd ask your thoughts on green laundry soap and dishwasher detergent. We use green options for both our (top-loading) washer and dishwasher now, but I don't have any particular brand loyalty yet. Or maybe you've got a homemade option that works and you don't mind sharing the recipe.

So if it's cheap and works great, I'd love to hear about it in the comments below!

Green Links of the Week...

• This one is actually back from April 1st, but head on over to The Not Quite Crunchy Parent for this post on how to find toys that are truly green.
• "Growing Green Kids" is the title of an article in this month's issue of Parenting OC written by MC Milker, the Not Quite Crunchy Parent herself! I was thrilled to find all the local resources.
  

Turning Earth Day into Earth Week...

Looking for an ideal way to celebrate Earth Day? For The Kiddos, it would have to be spending it outside spending some time in this beautiful Creation we inhabit. (Outdoor programs we're looking forward to this Spring are listed here and here.) With that kind of celebrating, I think they'd have no complaints about turning it into Earth Week.

I'm guessing that's why the folks at the Center for SCREEN-TIME Awareness always plan their TV Turnoff Week to include Earth Day-- this year (their 14th!) TV Turnoff Week is April 21 to 27.

Besides dragging your kids outside, if you've got other great ways to help preschoolers break the TV habit, I'd love to hear them!

Earth Day Every Day

Well, it's April 1st and turning the page on the calendar has my son asking what holiday we celebrate this month. All I can tell him is "Earth Day is April 22nd." So is it on your calendar? Has “going green” become a way of life for you? I must confess, I’m more successful in some areas than others. I’m certainly no “earth mama,” but I recycle and conserve energy where I can and I drink water from my refillable metal bottle instead of buying plastic ones. But I don’t usually buy organic food and I almost always forget to take my cloth bags with me into the grocery store, so I know there’s progress to be made.

To be honest, I have some difficulties with environmentalism, as it often seems to be just another political controversy with each side using shaky science to support its claims. Along with that, there’s the whole Mother Earth idea, which doesn’t exactly give the proper place to God the Father. And finally, sometimes not buying organic is just a matter of cost—yes, I want my family to be as healthy as possible, but organic produce is usually way more expensive.

So what is my motivation for going green? It can be hard for me to describe. For example, one reason I clean with lots of vinegar is because it’s cheaper than all those chemicals, so sometimes frugality is a motive besides the health of my family. Yet it’s not just my family’s health I’m concerned with. For me, there is also the issue of limited resources. I know that the resources that God has placed on this planet are not placed here in unlimited supply, so I want to make sure that the amount I’m using up on this planet is as small as possible.

The answer for me comes in Psalm 24:1, “The earth and everything on it belong to the LORD. The world and its people belong to him.” When it comes to going green, the motivation is now much simpler: I’m using resources on loan from God. It all boils down to stewardship. If I am a good steward of God’s gifts of health and this earth, then my green decisions have much more than politics or science behind them.

And when I stop and think about it, the resources that God has given to me are much more than health and our planet. If I really want to go green, then maybe conserving financial resources is a part of it as I resist the urge to be materialistic. On the other hand, I can spend my financial resources to help others and also be a good steward. I can go green with my time by taking time away from my family to be renewed at MOPS or in personal devotions or I can go green by spending time with my family on an outing.

It's all a balancing act, isn't it? But if I remember that every gift comes from God above, then maybe I can go green in all aspects of my life. This Earth Day, I hope to celebrate the fact that this planet is just one of many gifts entrusted to me, on loan from God.

Better Birthday Goody Bags...

Head on over to this post at the Not Quite Crunchy Parent if you'd like some ideas besides the usual candy or plastic trinket goody bag filler. The comments are full of great ideas, too. Here's my contribution:

Thanks for all the great ideas as I, too, hate typical goody bag (Chuck E. Cheese) plastic landfill filler!

For our daughter's 2nd birthday, we bought a bucket of those giant chalk sticks and gave one to every kiddo to take home-- after they colored all over the sidewalk at the park, of course. We also had bubbles for the kiddos to take home as they're a big hit with this age group.

For my son's 4th birthday, we were a little more adventurous! We got those little metal buckets and filled each one with 3 bean bags we made ourselves! The 4 year olds had fun tossing their bean bags into the buckets and maybe someone will teach them to juggle some day -- so many uses for bean bags!

Forgot to mention that the chalk and bubbles had little farm animal finger puppets (since Bug had an Old MacDonald birthday party) that were supposed to fit over them, but the 2 year olds didn't care! Other Half made the bean bags from Curious George fabric to go with the theme of Mugger's birthday party...

Want to Make Your Voice Heard?

If, like me, your toy-buying habits have changed drastically over the past few months with all the news of recall after recall, then I've got just the link for you. PEM (Parents for Ethical Marketing) has a request for consumer feedback from Vision Conscious Brands. If you'd like to provide some feedback that will be heard, pop on over and answer the 3 questions.

Leaded or Unleaded?

Toys, that is. "Leaded" and "unleaded" were the signs above two toy aisles in a cartoon I saw around Christmas. After what seemed like the millionth lead toy recall last fall, I spent a lot of time at the CSPC's site looking up all our current toys, brand by brand.

My Christmas shopping then was limited to companies with no recalls for lead paint. Lots of Internet surfing led me to our new favorite toy company, Plan Toys. Not only are Plan Toys products painted with water-based, non-toxic dyes, they're also made from renewable rubberwood, as I learned from their letter posted on Moolka.com.

Moolka became our new favorite site for Christmas shopping for their quality brands like Plan Toys and Haba. (Haba's "The Orchard" has quickly become a favorite game for our 2 and 4 yo.) Our 2 favorite things about this site (besides the safe toy brands) are the reviews by parents (which earn you $1 credit at the site for each one you post) and the fact that we can keep a wishlist to share with relatives.

So what did my 2 kids get for Christmas? Well my 2 yo daughter got this fold-up toy kitchen by Alex and this set of play food by Melissa and Doug. My 4.5 yo son got this parking garage by Plan Toys and this wooden constructor set by Baufix. As easy as online shopping has become and as difficult as it is to find some of these brands in local stores, I may never wander into Target's toy aisles again!

Of course, being the cheap (make that "thrifty") shopper that I am, a lot of my online shopping still happens at Amazon since I can get free shipping if I spend $25 if it's something sold by Amazon (only the Alex and Melissa & Doug toys this round). We also did some of our Christmas shopping at KidSurplus this year, as they discount toy prices and had free shipping for purchases over $75. Like I said, goodbye Target!

This post would be incomplete if I didn't give a shout-out to The Cool Mom Picks Safer Toy Guide of 2007, as that list is what got me started in my search. I also have to link up here to The Not Quite Crunchy Parent's post on her favorite shopping sites, as reading that today got me to post this here.