Day 350: The Skinny on Sunscreen

Summer officially begins for us next week, as the last day of school is Tuesday.  Yeah, that’s right…Tuesday – the day after Memorial Day.  Welcome to my world.

Since most of you either have already begun summer (luuuuuuucky!) or will begin it very soon, I figured this would be a good time to bring up sunscreen.  Long before this healthy change took place in my home, I had issues with sunscreen.  And for this generally-too-white girl, that was already a red flag.

About two years ago my mom was getting ready to take the kids to a neighborhood park and was protecting them with sunscreen before they left the house.  You know how kids are, so you can imagine the scene: this was RIGHT before they left the house in unbridled excitement, meaning that the sunscreen application happened just inches from the door in a hurry-up-and-stand-still-so-I-can-spray-you fashion.  I had purchased a common name-brand spray sunscreen, waterproof and 70 SPF, to make sure that my babies’ precious skin was protected.  Mom sprayed brisk swipes to the skin not covered by shorts and tee shirts.  The exterior door is in her utility room, so they were standing right next to her brand new front-loading washing machine.  An excited flailing arm wiped against the machine door, and when Mom went to wipe off the resulting smudge, it had ALREADY ETCHED INTO THE SEE-THRU DOOR!!! As in, permanent damage!!  In under two minutes!!

Have you ever spilled nail polish remover on acrylic?  Suffice it to say that I have.  (On accident, of course.  Plus, I was like, 14, so no judging, K?)  Anyhoo…the acetone in the remover made a permanent white etch-mark into the acrylic face of my alarm clock.  Mom and I both recalled this fact as we gazed at the damage to her washing machine door and wondered how in the heck we were gonna explain this to my dad.

Ooops??

Immediately after realizing that we could just let Dad deal with the door, our next thoughts echoed each other’s:  If sunscreen can do that to the washing machine door, what is it doing to our skin????  We stopped using spray sunscreens altogether, and opted only for lotions – messy as they are.

Now  that I have begun to avoid parabens, petrochemicals, and propellants in my skin care products, how in the name of Jiminy Christmas do you find an acceptable  sunscreen? One that is not going to actually do more damage to you than the sun itself??

You turn to the Environmental Working Group, of course!  They have produced the Sunscreen Guide iPhone app, which lists the safest sunscreens and gives you the 4-1-1 on sunscreen claims – the good and the bad!  It tells you what ingredients are best and what ingredients to avoid.  Over 1,700 sun-care products are reviewed and rated in this app.  I downloaded the app at the end of last summer.  They just updated it last Monday for 2011, so go check it out.  It’s free!!

So what am I using on my kids this summer?  Badger brand Waterproof Unscented 30 SPF sunscreen.  It’s $13/bottle at Sunshine Health Foods, and I’m hoping it rocks.  But, other than keeping my kids from getting burned, it really doesn’t need to do a whole lot more to impress me.  With none of the chemical ingredients that I am working so hard to avoid, plus having earned a nod from the EWG, it had me at hello.

SafeMama reviewed the Badger sunscreen and liked it, so I think I’m probably on the right track.  They also have a sunscreen guide “cheat sheet” on their website that you might want to check out.  It’s labeled 2010, but I’m sure they will be updating soon since I noticed that they had offered the guide in 2009 as well.

What are your favorite safe sunscreen products?  Help spread the word for a safe, happy and Purpose-Driven Summer!!!

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Day 257: Manna from the Amazon Rainforest

I believe we have reached the point where Victoria is determined to NOT like that which has Omega-3s in it, and JUST because she knows I want her to like them.

I guess it goes like that sometimes.

I’m trying to allow her some space in this. I mean, we would never have begun all this change were it not for her issues, and even though I am grateful for the chance to learn and improve our lives, I have to be a little less of a bulldog about it all when she is feeling less than grateful.

I always love finding something new that is organic and that actually stands a chance of impressing the kids. Two weeks ago I was checking out at Sunshine Health Foods when I spied a box of tiny packets on display at the counter. Savi Seeds. Hmmm. I read the back of the packet and just about did a cartwheel right there in the store. This new snack comes from the sacha inchi seed, a nut-like seed found in the Amazon Rainforest. Ounce for ounce, they pack an impressive 13 times MORE Omega-3s than wild-caught salmon. The best part of all? They are covered in organic dark chocolate.

{Happy Dance}

Vic took one look at the packet and announced, “I don’t like dark chocolate.”

Party pooper!

Fortunately, Aaron likes dark chocolate and was willing to help me finish the tiny packet while Vic sputtered and gagged on the one tiny piece she agreed to try. And despite the fact that she detested it, she willingly came to the store last weekend to buy another flavor.

The seeds have a very nutty, almost smoky taste, and I can’t figure out what they remind me of. But they come in three varieties: Cocoa Kissed, Karmalized, and Oh Natural. They are all good!! The chocolate makes them like chocolate covered almonds; the caramelized ones remind me of honey roasted peanuts, and the natural ones are plain jane and show more of their true flavor.

This morning Vic admitted to preferring the Karmalized version. I smelled victory at last. “Finally! Was that really so hard???”

She held her chin up and replied, “Yes, as a matter of fact, it was.”

Looks like I have my work cut out for me…still.

Day 216: The Oolong and Short of It…

I love tea.  Almost as much as I love coffee.  I can drink tea just about any time of day at just about any temperature.  Tea is a happy drink, and perfect for sharing.  So I was thrilled when I learned from George about the health benefits of Green Tea. 

Except that it’s hard for me to feel like green tea is real tea.  I mean, it’s so… weak.

Suffice it to say that I prefer my tea strong.  It’s gotta have some flavor, some body.  I can’t stand to get a glass of iced tea at a restaurant and be able to see straight through the tea enough to count the French fries on a plate across the table.  As any Southern lady will tell you, weak tea is for pansies…(and poppies and begonias… you get the picture.)

Howevah, a strong black tea or orange pekoe tea is right up my alley.  And while tea is known for a few health benefits, strong black teas have not gotten their true due.  Until now.

My friend Jill pointed out that Dr. Oz (of Oprah fame) suggested that drinking Oolong tea (which is an entire class of tea, as well as a specific taste) provides several health benefits.  And to my sweet surprise, it is suggested that drinking the tea three times a day (say, after meals) provides the most benefit. 

What might these benefits be, you ask…?  Check THIS out:

• Oolong tea is supposed to be beneficial in our efforts to lose weight.  Um, can I get an Amen?!
• Oolong tea is also strong in antioxidants, fighting those free radicals we get smothered by each and every day.  (I have to make this side comment since we’ve ventured into the subject of free radicals.  On his website, George addresses the misuse of light oils in cooking…to be more specific, olive oil should not be used as a sauté oil.  You know how it starts to smoke rather quickly as the pan gets hot when you’re cooking with olive oil?  That’s because the oil is too light and burns at a much lower temp.  The smoke you see rising from the pan is full of harmful free radicals. Blech, right?!  I have made a conscious effort to sauté with chicken broth or vegetable broth ever since I learned this.  Save the olive oil for your salad dressing.)  Now back to our tea…
• Skin problems like eczema can be fought with oolong tea. One source says drinking oolong tea three times a day can improve skin condition within a week.  I don’t have skin issues, but I can imagine this might be a welcome suggestion for anyone who does. 
• Bones and teeth can actually grow healthier thanks to the antioxidants found in the tea. 
• I read in a few places (though I can’t remember all the sites I visited) that oolong tea is used in treatment and (sometimes) prevention of Type 2 diabetes. 
• Natural polyphenols in oolong tea help reduce stress.  Sign me up for that one!

So where do we get this stuff?  Good question.  I cannot find oolong tea at any of my regular chain grocery stores.  I do know both Drug Emporium/Vitamins Plus and Sunshine Health Foods in Shreveport sell various brands of organic oolong teabags, and I have learned that oolong can be purchased in bulk through Amazon.com.  If you’re looking for a ready-to-go drink, Honest Tea makes a peach oolong. I think I need, like, a case of that! 

I just love it when my vices find justification!!  Cheers!

Day 174: Still Canning, Still Smiling

Tags

canning, tomatoes

After a long and tiring day of shopping with Victoria, for Victoria, I finally got to do what I had been waiting all weekend to do…stew and can tomatoes. 

Earlier this week when I was at Sunshine Health Foods I bought nearly 6 pounds of organic tomatoes for half their regular price.  I think they were teetering on being too ripe.  They weren’t pretty, but they were still firm and I knew I’d have to can them soon.  I borrowed a mill/grinder/smasher thing from Mickey and I was all set!  And finally, at 9:30 p.m. on Sunday I found the time I needed to stew them and store them. 

I’m lovin’ this!

Day 159: Sniffle Season

The past week has been filled with sniffles and sinus trouble for my children.  Fortunately no fever, but still yucky enough to make them want to stay in bed all day.  Friday night when Victoria came home it sounded like she was crying.  But it was just an overload of sniffles.  I say again, O. VER. LOAD. 

We have taken Zyrtec for our sniffles, allergies, and what-not for quite some time.  I like the convenience of the 24-hour tablet, and it works on my icky allergies, fast.  One of the things I have noticed about my kiddos is that Aaron shares most of my allergies.  Victoria is more like Dom in that there’s no specific trigger that can be counted on consistently.  At any rate, the Zyrtec has always worked for us.  Except that since this week’s trouble likely is more attributable to the change in weather and the fact that most kids are sneezing and coughing, an antihistamine was probably not what we needed.

Now, since all this dietary change has come about I make a point to read the ingredients on EVERYTHING.  I headed to the nearest pharmacy last night in hopes of finding something that I could give Vic this morning, once I was sure the Zyrtec was out of her system.  I read every label for children’s runny nose medicines.  And every label had something I was already trying to avoid.  Red 40.  Yellow 6.  Propylene glycol. Saccharin. 

Is nothing sacred?????

As I scanned the pharmacy wall for any medicine that might work without cheesy chemicals, I saw a homeopathic remedy for allergies.  I pulled the box off of the shelf and proceeded to read the label where I learned that this same manufacturer also offers a sniffly-sneezy fix, but that particular variety was not on the shelf at this pharmacy.  I made a mental note that since Vic couldn’t take any meds until the next morning anyway, I’d head to Sunshine Health Foods in the morning and get a homeopathic medicine for her then. 

I wasn’t sure what to think about homeopathic medicines.  I mean, they sound so intriguing.  But I don’t know squat about them, so I’m a little concerned about testing them out on my kids.  I’d much rather test things out on me where I can understand the reactions first.  But I researched a bit and learned that homeopathic medicines don’t guarantee a fast cure and they don’t fight the cold directly, rather they strengthen the immune system and help give the body what it needs to do the fighting on its own. Most of what I read said that homeopathic treatment could reduce the duration of the cold by half.  And with the benefit of no artificial colors or synthetic chemicals, that sounded pretty good to me.     

But I also have to report that some claimed most homeopathic remedies are effective as placebo, and basically indicated that the remedies would be completely useless because of this dilution process that is used.  Yet between all the pluses and minuses of homeopathy, the one constant from both sides was that they do no harm.  So I figured, what the heck?

Fast forward to this morning.  I stood at Sunshine looking through their plethora of homeopathic remedies.  What I found was Hyland’s Sniffles and Sneezes, which are tiny little tablets that dissolve under the tongue.  Super easy.  And super fast, too, despite the fact that I didn’t think it would “work” right away.  Vic, who went through a brand new box of Kleenexes in under an hour last night, might have used three tissues this afternoon. 

Placebo effect? Maybe.  Maybe not.  Maybe she just finally ran out of snot, bless her heart.  I just know she’s fine as wine again and there are no longer piles of Kleenexes following her around.  And just to see if I can prevent any colds, I’ll probably start treating both kids with sesame oil, but that’s another post for another day…

Day 95: Laundry List

Last night when I returned home from a meeting I fiddled around on the computer for a while, trying to design a cartoon Me and Kim for the masthead of another blog. So, I didn’t get around to making sure that whatever I was going to wear this morning was clean.

Naturally, the only jeans that fit were stuffed into a laundry basket under dirty towels. Grrreat. I huffed as I gathered all the jeans and some stray towels and rushed back downstairs to toss them in the washer. And then it hit me.

Mama’s got a brand new detergent!

Suddenly, this late night laundry idea had some potential. I tried out a new eco-friendly and skin-safe liquid detergent called Ecos. Bought it yesterday on one of the many grocery runs. Kroger on Youree sells it, as does Sunshine Health Foods. I bought the Magnolia and Lily scent. I will keep you posted on the family reaction.

In other news, today Miss Mabelline celebrates her second Barkday (that’s Birthday in dog-speak). So, without further adieu:

Haaaaaapy Birthday to Youuuuuuu
Haaaaaapy Birthday to Youuuuuuu
Haaaaaapy Birthday deeeeeeeear mischievous-evil-doer-yet-totally-adorable-when-she’s-sleepy-and-repentantly-puppy-faced Maaaaaaabel.
Haaaaaaaaaaaappy Birthdaaaaaaaaay to youuuuuuuuuuu

And many more!

Woof-Woof!! (That’s from Mason.)  😉

Day 69: Doin’ Dishes

I finally changed my dishwashing detergent. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go, since I have been a Cascade fan since childhood. There were a lot of considerations to make in changing my dishwasher detergent. Remember, I make mountains out of molehills all the time!

First, I really wanted to go back to the individual packets of detergent where all you do is plop this tidy little plastic packet into the soap holder in the dishwasher door and you never have to wonder if you used too much or not enough. But, I had been told that the packets were not completely biodegradable, and the remaining plastic would clog up the dishwasher drain lines and cause mucho problemos. So, I stopped using the cute little packets when I got a brand new dishwasher. I didn’t want to gunk-up my pretty new machine quite so fast.

Second, I wanted to be sure that if I switched to another brand that it was actually going to get my dishes clean. I CANNOT STAND to see streaks and such on my dishes as I’m putting them back into the cabinet.

And, as a natural result of my research, in the last couple of months I’ve felt the need to use something friendlier. We run our dishwasher every-other-day at minimum, twice a day if we’re home for any length of time (like our lovely stay-cation in June). At that rate, if I’m using a product that is essentially poisoning the water supply or leaving any kind of soap behind on my dishes, then I consider that to be problematic. (This excessive use of the dishwasher is on the list of things to be addressed, by the way.)  And I may be only one household who is willing to change in favor of an earth-friendly option, but I am one household who is willing to change, nonetheless.

Once again, I turned to Mrs. Meyers Clean Day products for my solution, the largest selection of which is found at Sunshine Health Foods. And no, I don’t get paid for this unabashed promotion of the two, in case you were wondering. I just love the store and the products! Mrs. Meyer’s has BOTH the dishwasher packets and a dishwasher liquid in practically any of their wonderfully herby fragrances. I bought the basil scented packets for the dishwasher. And guess what…they work!!! They’re great! My dishes are squeaky-clean and I’m using a product that is safe and natural. And the basil scent in the products is very mild.

I scoped out the safety of their products on their website. They are very direct about their ingredients and their philosophy in manufacturing them. Aside from being completely biodegradable, “Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day products are safe to use in the presence of children, pets, and expectant women.” What’s not to love?

To quote one of my favorite early ‘90s movies, “Dishes are DONE, man!”

Day 58: Every Hand Shall Scrub

It’s not enough that I’m constantly seeing and looking for things to change; my kids are doing it too. This weekend Aaron emerged from the downstairs bathroom with the pump bottle of Softsoap in his hand and asked, “Mommy, are you planning to replace this? It has Yellow 6 in it.”

On one hand I am befuddled by the fact that these ingredients are almost inescapable. I tell you, that crap is everywhere! On the other hand, I am so proud of my kids for 1) taking interest, 2) accepting the change, and 3) expecting more change. What troopers they are!

So yesterday on my lunchtime jaunt to Sunshine Health Foods, where they now know me on sight and can predict my lunch order, I wandered down the cleaning products aisle to price-compare on the countertop spray I wrote about the other day. (Brief side note: I used that spray on my stovetop, an antiquated blast from the past pull-out drawer that contributes to my oven being the bane of my existence. Anyhoo, I sprayed it and then assisted Dom at the sink for a minute or so, grabbed some paper towels and expected to just make the crud on the stovetop a little less nasty. OMG!!! I got the stovetop AS CLEAN as if I had used an SOS pad! And I did this with a PAPER TOWEL, people. Granted, it took a few paper towels because my stovetop was due for a good cleaning. Hey, it’s a 40-year old pull out drawer, okay? I’m sure it looked great in the late 60’s when they built my house around it! All this to say that Mrs. Meyers Clean Day countertop spray ROCKED my oven cleaning!!!!)

Back to Sunshine’s cleaning aisle. See? I’ll get us back on track…

While I was snapping pics of all the products and their corresponding prices so I can enter them into my phone’s grocery app (did I just tip you off to my OCD?) I noticed that Mrs. Meyers has a liquid hand soap in a pump bottle in several scent choices – all natural! Voila!!!! It’s a lot of soap, too. 12.5 ounces for a bargain price of $3.59. I filled one decorative soap dispenser and put the Meyers bottle at the kitchen sink. Now the kids can scrub up with complete confidence.

Day 56: A Lean, Mean Kind of Clean

Once all this natural stuff started infiltrating my brain, I knew I was going to have to do something about my household cleaning products. I had NO idea where to even begin, but I did notice that Sunshine Health Foods had a selection of household products. And then when Jessica turned me on to Kroger’s natural and organic section, I found similar products there. The first one I settled on was Mrs. Meyers Clean Day countertop cleaner. We simply HAVE to have a good countertop cleaner for our kitchen area, since coffee and numerous PB&J’s are made there.

So far I really like the Clean Day cleaner. I have used it for more than just the kitchen. What I like most about it is that you can easily dilute it if necessary without losing any of the cleaning power, AND it’s all natural. (Although the lemon smell is a tad strong at times; I am going to get the lavender refill.) Also, I won’t hesitate to have the kids using these products too. Whenever they grimace at my request for their manual labor, I remind them that they will need to know how to do all this on their own before they go off to college. In the back of my mind I know that when the time comes for them to leave home, they’re going to wonder: If she prepared me so well for this adventure, then why is she crying her eyes out? 

Anyhoo, the countertop cleaner is a good purchase.