Eco18 debuts today—a collective of creative writing individuals with a common goal—to live a healthier more natural lifestyle. From diverse backgrounds, cultures and interests, their combined expertise, humor and opinions will explore green and sustainable in a practical, fun way. What began with one mom’s voice has evolved into many conversations, which will include a universe of voices all looking to connect, share and learn.

And why Eco18…well, we wanted something that’s easy to remember and has embodied our purpose. Eco—that’s pretty self explanatory and 18—apart from being the age of majority in many countries (the coming of age), the Hebrew word for “life” has a numerical value of 18. There’s a lot of interesting trivia about the number 18, but the fact that life itself is totally connected to and dependent on a thriving, green, clean ecosystem was enough for us.

There’s a lot we can do together…. Join us as often as you can…We love company!

http://eco18.com

So here we have a sugary mass of junk food for the kids right? Well, not entirely! This compost cake recipe comes to you in honor of International Compost Awareness Week and can be wonderfully educational for the little greenies! As with anything green, I believe in full moderation and creating smiles. So a little bit of a treat really isn’t all that bad when you’re celebrating such an eco-fantastic cause right? (looking for reassurance).

Really though, cake can be loaded with ick or (as we have learned with our son’s food allergies), you can choose to use ingredients that might have a little nutritional edge!

Ex. white processed sugar vs Xylitol (dentist’s love this sugar substitute since it can help fight plaque and cavities), honey or agave syrup

By baking from scratch, you are in charge of the ingredients you use and have the “sneaky” opportunity to use applesauce in recipes, pureed carrots in carrot cake, raisin and dried fruits in chocolate cake etc – you get the idea! Another great cake option is one of the first brands I ever reviewed (seems like ages ago!) called Naturally Nora’s and it was really yummy.

Unfortunately our E could not eat it though due to processing in a facility that uses allergens – BOOOO! But for the rest of the non-allergic peeps, it is a great option. That said, check out this cool recipe for compost cake brought to you from Disney Family Fun!

*You can find organic gummy worms from my friends at http://www.yummyearth.com/ and read my full review here.

So have some fun, eat some “healthISH” cake and don’t forget to send me a slice!

Compost Happens!

Today is incredibly awesome – it’s Good Friday AND Earth Day!!! How totally rockin is that? So the Smiling Green Kids and I decided to show our excitement by getting jiggy and rockin it out green style YO, in celebration of this fine fine fabutastic day! Enjoy

p.s. what are you up to today for Good Friday, Easter and Earth Day???

HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!!

HAPPY EASTER!!!!

Image Credits:

http://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2011

Ya give?

The incredibly talented and adorable twin brothers, Tristin and Tyler, from New York City! These boys are supah-stars and have successfully (alongside their parents) created a highly entertaining and educational show online – teaching kids to go green!! Yep – mom’s, dad’s and kids all over the world can view these two boys from The Big Apple on their exciting adventures!

Tiffany is mom to these two little eco-leaders and launched the web show with the hope of inspiring children to make a difference for a healthier planet.

Tristin and Tyler’s fun personalities and creativity come through  in interviews that they do with local greenies, recycled crafts and all kinds of cool family friendly activities.

“Tiffany’s Toy Box is a company made up of hard-working parents who are dedicated to providing appropriate, entertaining (and really fun) content parents can watch with their children.  We have busy lives and kids to raise, but finding time to produce quality content that kids can relate to is very important to us.

Our goal is for each episode to teach children something about the busy place we call home, while informing parents about kid-friendly activities in the city. The show informs and entertains parents and children at the same time!  How cool is that?”

and in honor of Earth Day!!!!??? Check out Tristin and Tyler’s first ever, animated GREEN TOONZ!!!

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Seeds courtesy of BBBseed – organic heirloom vegetables!

http://twitter.com/bbbseed

http://www.facebook.com/BBBSeed

Disclaimer: I did receive free seeds from BBBseed and this has in now way affected my opinions. My thoughts are mine alone!

Make Stuff Monday…..

Imagine,

Create,

Have fun

and you might…..

WIN a $100 AmEx Card and 4 Free Bottles of Belly Boost!!!!

***this is the cutest contest from Vidazorb (Find out how Vidazorb’s Belly Boost changed our son’s life and helped him with his food intolerances and eczema).I love it and what an awesome prize. I wanted to share this with you and I hope you will show me all of your egg creations! Send them my way at smilinggreenmom(at)gmail(dot)com and I will feature them this Wednesday for our weekly “Wordless Wednesday” post!!!!!

You don’t have to be a kid to enter – anyone and everyone can have fun with this!!!! Do it dudes!! Send me those pics

“When picture day arrived last fall at St. Mary’s School in Walnut Creek, Calif., pre-kindergartner Isabella Forrest had an outbreak of red, flaky eczema on her cheeks.

When it came time to order prints, the 4-year-old’s mother, Carla, was relieved to see a retouching option.

“All I could say was, ‘Yay,’ ” Carla recalls. “I don’t want her to look back when she’s older and be, like, ‘Mom, why didn’t you do something about my face?’ I want people to see her, not her skin condition.”

For decades, portrait companies have offered retouching at the high school level. However, for the past five years, the service has expanded to parents of the K-5 set, and they’re using it to erase everything from cowlicks to imperfections caused by accidents” (Detroit Free Press).

But what about that little piece of hair that’s out of place?

What about a booger that might be in a nostril (gross, but happens!).

What about the red birth mark, the freckles or OH NO a ZIT!!!!

Some parents say that “children’s self-esteem is critical, and if you’re going to alter their looks, that’s truly a parent’s decision.”

Others argue that this “my child should be perfect” attitude has much larger ramifications. In a culture of small waists are more beautiful, when do we draw the line on air-brushing? (see my post on air-brushing)

I have a confession.

When I first started blogging I had been tempted a few times to take out flaws from photos I was putting online. My son had eczema, my daughter has a red mark on her cheek, I have had plenty of skin imperfections and so has my husband. There have been times that I thought, oh what’s the biggie if I make us look better?  Well, because it’s a lie. We are not perfect – not even close. So why make it seem that way? What message does this send to our children if we cannot stand back and appreciate who they are and love them for them enough to appreciate the beauty of imperfection?

I know it is a struggle. When our E had such severe eczema at two years of age, he was little but big enough to bury his red little baby face into my shoulder while holding him because he was embarrassed that people were talking about him and his skin. He was just two.

We want our kids to feel happy with themselves and excited to share their school photos with people right? Well then it seems to me that the only way to really do this is to embrace our imperfections and those around us by saying ” I will not re-touch your photo because it’s YOU. And YOU are beautiful and amazing…

“I love you with scrapes.

I love you with eczema.

I love you with a booger in your nose.

I love you with freckles, a tan and even when your pale.

I love you with pimples

and I love you when your skin looks nice.

I love everything about you all of the time.

I love you unconditionally.”

Life is not perfect. We are not perfect. But celebrating our inner beauty is one of life’s most wonderful joys. I want my children to love and respect themselves and by retouching pictures so a child’s self esteem is not impaired, I believe will do more damage in the long run. I really feel so strongly that in order for kids to grow up feeling empowered and confident – they need to know that they are loved for who they are…their imperfect little selves.

What’s your take on this? Do you think this “service” (or disservice), should be offered to parents of school-aged children? You can disagree with me – I just want to hear what you think about it! Do share! We all have our own opinions!

Image Credit:

http://evaluationcreations.blogspot.com/

Source:

http://www.freep.com

With the birth of my son on the very near horizon, I have found that “nesting” has kicked in – in more ways than one! I have been experiencing some strange sensations that I wouldn’t call labor, but perhaps an omen. This has made me rather paranoid about things around the house. (Who gets up to start laundry at 6:00 a.m.?) But the really awesome thing about this whole nesting thing is that I can project it onto other people.

This morning, I had Bean clean her room before she left for school in case I go into labor while she is at school. She looked at me like I was nuts, but I told her that I didn’t want her to trip over the clutter in her room if she has to get clothes together in a hurry to stay at Gram’s house. She still looked at me like I was nuts but just shrugged her shoulders and said, “ooookaaayyy.” Score one for the Mom team, her room is clean and her bed is made! Too bad I can’t play that card every morning!

It even works on my husband. And I wasn’t even trying! I just happened to mention that during his time off with me and the baby, it would be a great time to catch up on all of those “projects” that he just hasn’t had time for. (I never ever refer to it as the “honey-do list”!) So we spent some time yesterday at the local home improvement mecca. Yay for me! He is finally going to replace that leaky faucet in Bean’s bathroom that is wasting both water and money. Plus, he has wanted to keep up with the Jones’s and treat the lawn so that our yard is not the brownest one on the block. Well, I was able to talk him into buying an organic lawn food instead of that well-known chemical concoction that I don’t want to walk around barefoot on! If I must say so myself I am getting really good at the power of suggestion. You know, when your man thinks that the idea is his own?

So let the greening… and the cleaning…. continue! And while everybody else is working on that – I think I’ll take a nap!

Written By: Heather Latham Cottrell