Mother Earth Cards

Hello friends,

I've been meaning to write on here for quite some time but I've had some issues with my blogger account/ domain/ accessing emails etc. I'm in the process of getting it all sorted and having everything worked out. My apologies if I have been MIA or not getting back to you. Hopefully I'll be up again running smoothly and have all my photos and old linky parties working again. Please be patient with me.


 
In the meantime, I've had some time on my hands and the creative juices have been flowing. So I'll be adding some new products to my Etsy shop over the next little while as well. Since Spring is in the air and Earth day is just around the corner I want to share with you my Mother Earth cards!

I am an advocate of green living and try my best to teach and teach my son how to care for the Earth. I believe that the Earth is in crisis because of how we have treated it for years. As a mother of a young son I believe it is my responsibility to teach him how to do better. I thought it would be fun to make a set of Mother Earth cards with questions, crafts, activities and acts of service that we can do together to learn about gratitude for our Earth and to help others in our community do the same. In total I came up with sixty things that we can do as a family. 

I typed them up, cut them out, laminated them and attached them with a ring.The cards are very versatile and there are plenty of ideas that you can use with toddlers through to adults. You can use them as an activity a day countdown calendar for Earth day, in a Mother Earth themed gratitude jar or as I have by laminating and binding them together to use on their own. They are perfect for use in families and schools and suitable for toddlers to adults.  

Mother Earth Cards are now available as a pdf download in my Etsy Shop.


How do you teach your family about Earth day and green living?

I'm linking to some of these great parties.

Tips On "Going Green" With Young Kids

Here's some great tips that you can do with young children to celebrate Earth day and to teach your children how to be "Green":

(Source)

For Toddlers & Preschoolers

• Let them practice turning off the lights whenever you leave a room and teach them vocabulary such as "light" & "turn off the lights"
• Let them practice turning the taps off after they brush their teeth and show them how not to waste water. Again, a good chance to teach vocabulary here
• Put them in charge of making sure you turn the TV etc. off whenever you aren't using it. They love having tasks to do, especially when they are put in charge!
• Let them help you hang clothes on the line instead of using a dryer
• Kids as young as toddlers can help sort recycling and even place items into bins
• Decorate reusable bags together that you can use when you go shopping
• Teach them how to pick out ripe/ seasonal fruit and vegetables whenever you go grocery shopping. K loves smelling all the produce and feeling it which is a great sensory activity.
• Start a compost. My son loves taking out the garbage and taking out food scraps is just as exciting!
• Let your child help dust the house with a microfiber cloth instead of using harmful sprays
• Start your own garden and work on it together
• Help them draw pictures or take photos of what they find during outdoor activities
• Watch movies or TV shows that teach about the environment and make sure to talk about what you learned afterwards
• Plant a tree and watch it grow
• Pick some flowers together and make a bouquet, or dry them and press them to make a picture
• Feed the birds and watch them with binoculars
• Help make a birds nest
• Read books about nature
• Make crafts using recycled materials
• Clean up the park together by picking up litter
• Reuse junk mail by letting your child colour on it or make art
• Make your own playdough
• Collect and sort nature items

For All Ages:

• Reuse bath water. Give your toddler or preschooler a watering can and they'll love watering the plants
• Go on a bike ride or pack up a stroller with essentials and walk places together instead of driving. Why not stop and have a picnic while your at it?
• Try to make less of an environmental impact by buying used toys and clothes or repurposing the ones you have
• Do a toy or clothes swap with friends or donate items to a charity
• Buy natural toys and products instead of plastic
• Try and have waste free lunches for school by investing in a lunch set with reusable containers
• Ditch the bottled water and juice boxes. Opt for a stainless steel water bottle instead
• If possible wear the same clothes all day and only wash them when necessary
• Try to use cloth diapers instead of disposible ones or use biodegradable disposible ones whenever possible
• Go on nature hunts, hiking, apple picking or sledding and teach them to care for nature by nurturing their love of the natural world
• Adopt an endangered animal through a charity
• Use cloth napkins instead of paper napkins

Do you have any other ideas? How are you celebrating Earth Day this year?

Cleaning Naturally For Our Children from House of Grace

Hi Delicious Ambiguity readers, 

I am Bonnie from the blog,  HOUSE OF GRACE.

First off,  Happy Mother’s Day!!!! Second, I feel so honored to be a guest blogger here on Yummy Mummy Week! In honor of Mother’s Day, Jenn asked me to write about mothers and cleaning naturally for our children. This is one of my favorite topics, so I would love this opportunity to talk to you. As mothers, I feel that it is our responsibility to keep our children as safe as we can.

Go to your cupboard right now. Pick a cleaner, any cleaner.

Does it contain sodium hydroxide, phenol, ammonia or formaldehyde? These–and more–may be toxic. Toxic as in dangerous, as in hurtful, as in not very clean at all. 

Home is no place for stuff like that.

So start by getting rid of those troublemakers.

According to the book, The Safe Shoppers Bible, here is a list of common household products that contain known carcinogens and/or neurotoxins. Carcinogens are chemicals that cause cancer. Neurotoxins are chemicals that adversely affect the nervous system reducing emotional well being, mental alertness, coordination and other functions associated with intelligence.

-Lysol disinfectant (all scents)

-Renuzit Air Deodorizer

-Bon Ami Foam Cleaner

-Citri-Solv

-Fantastik All-Purpose Cleaner

-Formula 409

-Pine-Sol Multi-Action Spray

-Pledge Household Cleaner

-Simple Green

-Spic & Span Cleaner

-Scotts Liquid Gold

-Lemon Pledge

-Tilex Soap Scum Remover

-Glass Plus

-Ajax Cleaner

-Gillette Foamy Skin Conditioning

-Speed Stick Deodorant

-Soft Soap

-Secret Deodorant

-Johnson's Baby Shampoo

-S.O.S. Ammonia Glass Cleaner

-Dawn Sureshot

-S.O.S. Vinegar Cleaner

-Joy Dishwashing Liquid

-Windex Glass Cleaner

-Palmolive Dishwashing Liquid

-Shout Aerosol & Stick

-Sunlight Dishwashing Liquid

-Spray & Wash Stain Remover

-Kleen King Aluminum & Copper Cleaner

-KR2 Spot Lifter

-Behold Furniture Wax

-Depend-o Blue Toilet Cleaner

-Endust

-3M Aerosol Spot Remover

-Formby's Lemon & Almond Spray

-Most Home & Garden Pesticides

-Right Guard Deodorant

-Ponds Dry Skin Bar

-Palmolive Skin Bar

-Lady Speed Stick

-Lever 2000

-Irish Spring Deodorant

-Lifebouy Soap

-Jergens Liquid Soap

-English Leather

-Deodorant

-Ban Roll-on

-Caress Body Bar

-Camay

-Ultra Brite Toothpaste

-Cepacol Mouthwash

-Crest Tartar Control

-Listerine Original & Cool Mint

-Arm & Hammer Toothpaste

-Colgate toothpaste

-Scope Mouthwash

-Old English Furniture Spray

-Dove Soap Bars

Begin by thinking of your home as a toxic waste dump!!!

TOXIC ALERT:

The average home today contains 62 toxic chemicals — more than a chemistry lab at the turn of the century.

More than 72,000 synthetic chemicals have been produced since WW II.

Less than 2% of synthetic chemicals have been tested for toxicity, mutagenic and carcinogenic effects, or birth defects.

The majority of chemicals have never been tested for long-term effects.

Over 90% of poison exposures happen at home.

Common chlorine bleach is the #1 household chemical involved in poisoning.

Organic pollutants, found in many common cleaners and even air fresheners, are found at levels 2 to 5 times higher inside your home than out.

A person who spends 15 minutes cleaning off shower walls could inhale 3 times the “acute one-hour exposure limit” for glycol ether-containing products set by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.

Now that you know what dangers might be hiding under your sink, what is important when you choose cleaning products?

I always look for products that are…..

-Nontoxic and safe

-High performance cleaners

-Biodegradable surfactants

-Free of harsh fumes

-Earth friendly

-100% guaranteed

-Economical

-Fragrance free

-Hypoallergenic

-Easy to use

-No animal testing

-Recyclable

-Natural

My personal favorite cleaners are Shaklee’s Get Clean products. I have been using these products since my mother made me in high school, lol.  I didn’t see the benefits of “safe” cleaning until after I had my own children.  I was just buying these because they were cheaper and being a newly wed, I wanted something cheap that worked too!  Now,  I am really glad that my mother “made me” use Shaklee’s cleaners.  I love knowing that I do not have harsh chemicals or air borne toxins in my house.  Get Clean products also help me keep my house clean.

Here are some before and afters:

 

Read about how I get off grass stains here.

Read about how I clean my oven here. 

You can read more about my cleaning schedule and how I clean on this post. And you can read more about my favorite cleaner, Basic H, here.

I use Basic H for just about everything in my WHOLE house!!! Even Oprah loves GET CLEAN products!

(Click HERE to watch video)

I mix Basic H with water. I can make a gallon of a general purpose cleaner with Basic H for only 21 cents!!!   21 CENTS LADIES!!!! A gallon of Seventh Generation general purpose solution costs $21.96 and 409 Original and Fantastic costs $11.16 a gallon. 

I can also make a gallon of window cleaner with Basic H for LESS than 1 cent!!!!Windex cost $12.56 a gallon and Seventh Generation costs $21.96. So you can see another reason why I love these!

Now it is your turn, take out all of the chemicals in your house and replace them with safer products for our children.

Please visit my Shaklee website to buy or read more about these products.

Thank you so much for having me today as your guest blogger! I love sharing information and love meeting new people. Feel free to check out my blog for cleaning tip, recipes decorating ideas and more!

Have a WONDERFUL MOTHER’S DAY!!!!!

Bonnie :)