Sunscreen

People are much more aware of the dangers of direct exposure to UV rays without protection these days...or so you'd think.

According to the Journal of Investigative Dermatology (and reported by bloomburg.com) melanoma rates among young women in the U.S. has gone up 50% since the 80s.

While my family and I are at the beach, we're making sure we have enough sunscreen on.

Many sunscreens, though, contain ingredients that may not be so healthy. I did a little research on the Skin Deep cosmetics database to find out which sunscreens were safest and most effective.

The Skin Deep site rates products on a scale of 0-10 on safety, with 0 being the safest. They have a list of 28 products that have tested effective with low hazards. Some of the names that fall in this category are California Baby and Badger products. I wanted to buy the California Baby sunscreen, but it was sold out EVERYWHERE...on line and in store. Guess everyone had my idea at the same time!

I did a little more digging at the Skin Deep site and was able to find that Aveeno Baby was rated a 3 (not bad) and I knew that was carried pretty much every place. So I bought that for the beach. So far it's worked great- no burns here!

Hope you're enjoying your summer and using your sunscreen :)

Keeping Oceans Clean

After spending a little time here at the beach (and a little break from the blog), I thought it would be important to mention something about the ocean.

Whenever I visit the ocean, I am amazed at how HUGE it is- just from my vantage point. Standing at the edge of the water, it's truly hard for me to comprehend its size. While I'm not a big sun worshipper (I'm the one under the umbrella wearing SPF 700), I love the ocean- the smell, the sound, the sand. And the kids love it too- I think of the ocean as a natural playground for the kids.

While much of the general environmental concern deals with implementing better ways of living our everyday lives, I think we also need to think about places, like the ocean, that might not be part of our everyday life, but are important to our planet and are a beautiful thing in our own lives.

The Ad Council has collaborated with a number of companies (including Disney) and agencies to create an ad that promotes awareness of this. There's a great, fun site for kids at keepoceansclean.org, and below is one of the ads for keeping the oceans clean.

Independence Day

Happy 4th of July!

Woo-hoo!

Just got this email from Earthbound Farms:

Update for winners of Earthbound Farm reusable tote bags
Congratulations on winning a reusable tote bag in our Earth Day promotion!

Because the response to our promotion was so much larger than we anticipated, we’ve had to order more bags from our manufacturer. Those of you who have not yet received your bag will receive yours this month.

That package will include:

• Your Earthbound Farm reusable tote

• Our newsletter with $1.75 in Earthbound Farm coupons

• And our 2008 Pocket Guide to Choosing Organic

We hope that once you get your bag in hand, you’ll be inspired to use it every time you shop. If every household in America used their own shopping tote instead of the store’s paper bag on just one shopping trip this year, we would save 60,000 trees!

In the meantime, we keep updating our home on the web with new features, so we hope you’ll drop in and visit us at www.ebfarm.com when you get a chance.
Thank you for choosing Earthbound Farm organic produce!

Real World Green

It's been busy around the living cheap and green household, so not much of a post today, but I would like to share a site that I think is informative and enjoyable!

Real World Green has a guy who makes short videos about everyday environmental concerns. Enjoy!

Today's a mixed bag!

No big topic today, but a few snippets:

SHAMPOO: I tried some new shampoo! You may remember from a few posts back that I wanted to change to a more earth-friendly (and health friendly) shampoo. So I tried Kiss My Face Green Tea and Lime Everyday shampoo. Overall, I liked it. It cleaned my hair well and doesn't make it feel limp or heavy. It even lathered, which I thought it wouldn't since it leaves out the ingredient SLS. The only drawbacks: the price ($6-8) and I wasn't that into the smell. It wasn't bad, just not my kind of smell, but not so bad that I wouldn't use it.

SPICES: I was reading about buying in bulk and how that not only can save money but also lessen the packing waste in your household. I'm a little wary of bulk purchases because if it's not used in time, it can go to waste. So before I buy something in bulk that may go bad, I need to be sure I'd use it. Spices are one thing I know we use A LOT of...so I did a quick search on bulk spices and came up with something that looks really good: The Monterey Bay Spice Company. Now I haven't ordered from them yet, but they are certified organic and sell spices, herbs, teas, essential oils and more. There prices look fairly reasonable. I'll let you know if/when I order from them.

Living intentionally

Living intentionally? What that have to do with being cheap or green? Well, I am cheap with time. This sounds cliche, but really, all we do have is time. I guard mine fiercely! I don't want to spend any of it frivolously or wastefully.

I read a lot of "mom" blogs and so frequently there are complaints of not having enough time and drowning in a multitude of chores. When I am in my last minutes of my life, I don't want to regret spending time on unending chores and errands...I want to remember time well spent with family and loved ones and moments of my own quiet solitude.

There is a sort of mental trap in which you feel like a hamster on a wheel and you can't get off. It's important to realize that you do have a choice in the matter. The key word here is CHOICE. You really have to look at your life and stop thinking about the day when you'll eventually have less to do. It's not going to "just happen"; you have to CHOOSE to do less.

Think about what you really value...I mean, if you don't do laundry today, are you really going to remember that 10 years down the line? But if you choose to do something lovely with your kids today, you will remember that. So why put so much importance on the unimportant?

A year or two ago, I found a book called "Take Your Time: Finding Balance in a Hurried World"by Eknath Easwaran. This, for me, was a life changing book. The author talks about slowing down, focusing on one thing at a time and doing it with real intention. He also talks about choosing what you do wisely. Here's an excerpt that really made an impression on me:

"...I have written [this book] for those who want to get the most of life by gaining freedom from the forces that hurry and hassle them through each day. The Buddha called this intentional living. It is the opposite of reflex living, which is scarcely living at all.

Over many years, I have found that for most of us the first step toward living intentionally is to slow down...and gain the capacity to make wise choices every day- choices of how we use our time, of where we place our resources and love."

Here's how to be cheap with your time:
Realize you don't have to do it all. Really.