Yes, I may be a little crazy...

... but I'm not the only one.

As our family has stopped buying and eating artificial colors I have been reading more and more on the adverse effects.


Healthy Child Healthy World has had numerous articles on this topic. Also here, and this one I found very interesting as it discusses each of the different dyes.

For instance, did you know that Yellow #5 and Red #40 are azo dyes and they are made from coal tar? "A Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives describes coal tar as a 'thick liquid or semisolid tar obtained from bituminous coal, it contains many constituents including benzene, xylenes, naphthalene, pyridine, quinonlineoline, phenol, and cresol'(Winter, 2009, P. 166)." Cancer causing agents.

One item that it is very difficult to avoid food dyes in is children's medicine. They almost all include a red dye of some sort. It's a bit ironic that I can avoid food dyes when he feels good but as soon as he's sick he gets them.

Oh, and don't misunderstand, it's fairly easy to avoid them now as he's so little. I know that as he gets older he'll eat them but maybe the solution is that these dyes should be banned from foods here in the US as they are in other countries. Even in Europe, there are warnings on the labels of foods that contain artificial colorings.

I know that my family thinks I am crazy and maybe that is true. Maybe this isn't the battle to be fighting but in the meantime, I'll be at Trader Joe's. :)

Baking Soda and Listening to Your Mother

My mom has been touting the benefits of cleaning for baking soda for several years now. I have always nodded and smiled and then reached for the Lysol or Method or whatever other cleaner was under my cupboard. I have no idea why I didn't pay more attention. You would think by 31 years old I would realize how very rarely she is wrong. Sigh. Anywho, I was scrubbing the kitchen (for her birthday party actually) and I went to get out my cleaning supplies and realized I was, for all intensive purposes, out. I have a small child and an even smaller window of opportunity for which to get anything done and so I reached for the baking soda. I was a bit skeptical but miracle of miracles, everything came clean with so much less work. In fact, I was so amazed, that I kept right on cleaning. I did the appliances and the counters and the sink and the faucets. It cleaned the gunk right off the knobs on the stove and it cleaned the stove top with so much less work than usual. Mr KT had made spaghetti the night before (YAY!) as I was working late (BOO!) and it had boiled over, it even took care of that! As I cleaned I just kept shaking my head and thinking, "self, let this be a lesson to you... Always Listen to Your Mother!"

Happy Birthday Mom!

Living like a tree

We had a doozy of a storm last night. The wind was blowing with force and the rain was coming down in sideways sheets. I was laying in my bed with the curtains open watching the the cottonwood tree branches whip around. Those trees are old and giant. As the wind blew and blew and blew I noticed something, many of the branches actually bent almost in half...without breaking. This may sound cliche but maybe we should live like trees. I will admit that change is not easy for me. I resist and resist and resist until I finally have to give in and bend in half before I break. Those branches held strong to the trunk and the leaves held strong to the branches and each tree remained in one piece but everything was moving with the wind. Each time a gust came up the tree flexed a bit and gave in gently to the force. I was fascinated. There were a few leaves and twigs in the yard this am but no big branches. The tree was changed by losing these small bits and pieces but despite the storm and all of the dancing and swirling the night before was still itself. Still whole. So maybe I should bend and sway with change. Allow the pieces that are not so strong to fall away. Just because things change does not mean that I am not my strong self that I have always been. If trees would have been built without the ability to be flexible they would not survive. Life lesson? I think so.

Rainbows!

As E approaches 10 months he is more and more curious about, well, pretty much everything. I had sent a quick email to a very creative friend asking if she knew where I could get (or how to make) prisms or colored sun catchers I could hang in the window. She sent over the coolest little gadget called a RainbowMaker made by Kikkerland.

This little guy is solar powered! You hang it in a window that gets direct sunlight using the suction cup. The solar panel provides the energy for the gears to turn (which E likes to watch) and then the prism twirls and sends little rainbows all over the room! E and I were both fascinated. E crawled around and tried to catch the rainbows on the floor. Pretty fun!

E watching the rainbows dance.

The only down side, the boy dog also tried to catch the light and was way past obsessed. We'll have to take it down when he comes in or he might actually go crazy.

Recycling

I receive an electronic newsletter with super cool ways to keep the earth happy! My mother-in-law pointed me towards it. It is called Earth911. In their recent issue, they have an article about things that are surprisingly recyclable.

For instance, did you know that Crayons are recyclable? The National Crayon Recycle Program has drop-off bins nationwide and a mail-back option! New crayons are made from old, broken, tired crayons. Cool!
 

How about golf balls? Dixon Golf retail locations will accept used golf balls or you can mail them in for recycling. OnlyGolfBalls.com will buy old golf balls in bulk. There are places to buy recycled golf balls including LostGolfBalls.com. I'm not so sure I ever throw these away though. Usually they get lost somewhere off the fairway and someone else probably picks them up. I consider that recycling, or at least reusing!

There are quite of few things that could go in the compost pile that I didn't know about. Things like cotton balls and Q-tips, red wine, and human and pet hair. I even learned that there is a San Francisco company that makes human hair into booms that will soak up oil in case of a spill. Who knew!?

My popcorn has hair!

And by hair I really mean silk but I think it looks like blond hair sticking out so that is what I am calling it. 

Time to plant!

Yay, yay, yay! Got the garden in today! My husband put a lot of sweat and hard work into expanding the garden and adding a beautiful wooden fence (to keep the doggies and bunnies out).

Patrick laying the ground work. 

 

Patrick and his brother, Chris, getting started.

E and I running the saw.

Grama Barb playing with E while we worked.

 

Tomatoes, snap peas, basil, strawberries, lettuce, pumpkins, yellow squash, zucchini, green and red peppers, popcorn and peanuts! The end result is so good but I have to admit that I love the process. There is something so wonderful about digging in the dirt.