Like so many holidays and community celebrations, Halloween becomes another opportunity for commerce. I see a lot of parents struggling to find the best way to instill in their children deeper meanings for holidays.
Four inches of snow have definitively killed my pumpkin vines. These hearty pumpkins are my last harvest of [...]
Sunday, after the potential excesses of Halloween treats on Saturday, you may be looking for a way to fill your children up with a nutritious meal—and get rid of the Halloween pumpkin while you are at it.
This soup is very easy to make, and it leaves everyone warm and full.
2 cups pumpkin, cubed [...]
Awareness of lowering impact of holidays has been growing. There are several years of eco Halloween tips available online, so I’ve gathered some of the best I’ve seen.
Treats
I’m not that impressed by the idea of organic candy. The problem isn’t so much the organic or the fair trade (good issues, but not the [...]
In the U.S., baby formula and organic milk can include ingredients that result in their formula making some babies sick, even while the manufacturers claim that their formula makes babies smarter. The fatty acids in question are extracted with the neurotoxin hexane.
Given this and Nestle’s attempt to re-program bloggers who continue to boycott Nestle products, [...]
A couple of years ago my family put ourselves through a serious budgeting process. We lined up our financial budget and our energy/waste budget to ask where each was leaking. The two processes blended well, since we needed to get out several years of utility bills to check what our energy and water [...]
Creative babywearers incorporate their babies into excellent Halloween costumes. After seeing so many great costumes, I wish I had a baby to wear this year.
I passed up several great baby costumes (the jack-in-the-box) in favor of great thing-on-thing themed costumes.
8. Baby Dorothy being worn by a big rainbow.
Wear in any carry as [...]
Has the costume parade started in your neighborhood yet? My kids have been trying on costumes for at least a month, and each has settled on a final masterpiece. They settled weeks ago. Truthfully, they’ve probably been planning for a year, but I have “Don’t talk to me about Halloween until September” [...]
Do you worry about your environmental impact?
As an exercise in awareness and a check-in with his own values, Colin Beavan (the No Impact Man) attempted to have no environmental impact for a full year—and he dragged his somewhat reluctant wife and daughter along for a year of no impact. If you have [...]
A year ago my children carved pumpkins on our sidewalk. They didn’t really clean up very well. Can you see where this story is going?
We were surprised in the spring to have little pumpkin plants pop up in our flower garden (you can see our poor flowers struggling to reach [...]
Reduce Reuse Recycle
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and most municipal waste agencies focus on recycling. Understandable, since they deal with the waste when it leaves us, the consumers. Before you arrive at the recycling phase, consider whether you can avoid getting there at all. If your goal is to reduce the impact [...]