Back to School... and germs

The Back to School season has come and gone, but have the germs? It is a given that kids will come home from school, daycare and other public places with more germs and viruses this time of year, especially if their bodies are not immune to the new strains that they come across!

Here is a few tips to keep the viruses at bay:

1] washing hands regularly with a toxin free hand soap. Try our Delish Naturals Simply Soap Washing Solution. It is hyper concentrated for longevity. 
2] teach kids & adults to cover the coughs and sneezes! Proper technique is to cover the mouth with your inside elbow. I need to often remind my kids & husband to do that but eventually they catch on again and start reminding others to do so as well.
3] eating healthy! We have taken steps to eliminate 90% of the processed foods normally found in our household. That's right! No more Kraft Dinner - Mac & Cheese for us, we can do homemade though. We have also been buying local produce and meat as well. Only occasionally will we have drinks like pop, iced tea and the like. It is mostly water or milk!

And when they do get sick there are a few natural methods you can take before turning to the cough medicine's and other over the counter remedies.

1] Raspy Rub in the Tin or To Go Stick - Its Vicks without the ick! Pure, therapeutic grade essential oils break up chest congestion, calm coughs, and soothes yucky noses while organic cocoa and shea butters absorb quickly. No stickiness or residue. Simply smooth over the chest, back, throat, or under the nose to provide relief of your cold symptoms. Recommended on 6 months and up, effective for the entire family! For the remainder of the month, the Raspy Rub is also on SALE so be sure to take advantage of that before it's too late.
2] Sore, tired & aching muscles? Leave the *other brand* on the shelf and turn to the Delish Naturals Be Knotty Muscle Rub. Full of organic and essential oils that work to unite your knots the natural made way! For adult use only.
3] Fluids and a LOT of rest! Livestrong.com suggests a wide variety of fruit & vegetables, also probiotics and protein when you are sick. "Fluids help flush the toxins from your body and support hydration while recovering from illness," the Livestrong article says. Choose warm fluids like broth, chicken soup and herbal teas. Click the link to read more about the food they recommend.

We understand that many people like to DIY [Do-It-Yourself] often, thinking it will be cheaper for them in the long run to make their own products, but keep in mind that Krystal and Terry of Delish Naturals research and bring in the best of the best products to use in their line. Making your own will not be of the same high quality as the Delish Naturals line of products! Leave it to the pros!! We are proud to support Made in Canada and you can visit our full line of Delish products on our website www.tinytreehuggerdiapers.com.

The Bag Lady

I can see myself very quickly turning into what some might call "The Bag Lady." I'm talking re-usable snack & sandwich bags.

I have had my eye on these bad-boys for over a year now but to be honest wasn't quite sure I wanted to spend the money when I was having to buy saran wrap and zip-lock bags anyway for other things. 

But oh my...when I finally took the plunge this summer prepping for back-to-school, once I actually had my hands on my very own collection of said bags? I could not stop looking at them and yes, even touching them over and over. They were so pretty!

[Side note: I am also considered a bit of a "Bag Lady" when it comes to purses, as I love to co-ordinate fun colors with my outfits...so this seems to be sort of a branch-off of that obsession!]

The bold solid colors of the Kanga Sac collection are great as well, but for my first purchase I chose to go with some fun prints from The Sling Sisters variety. The options are endless - patterns for young children [boys, girls and unisex], ones for older kids [such as bicycles, skateboards, big flowers, etc.] and then there are some that are more than suitable for adults [like the prints pictured here from my own personal collection].

Now, so I make my girls [ages almost 7 and almost 9] make their own school lunches and let me tell you, these bags make it extra easy for them to pack their lunches. Last year I was having to often help my youngest one battle with the saran wrap, and many times the amount of saran wrap she had already ripped off the roll was far too much than what was needed for her small sandwich. Talk about waste!!

But with these bags, they just place the sandwich in the bag and zip it up.  Done! Same thing with snacks - like crackers or snap peas or grapes. No fiddling with zip-locks [especially on the no-name cheaper brands with can often be finicky], just place the goods inside and zip it up.

Some of you  may be wondering [as I was] about the size of the sandwich bags. I don't know about your kids, but mine don't take full sandwiches yet. They take a half sandwich which is just a smidge too big to squish into one of the snack bags yet it doesn't nearly fill up the sandwich bag. I was worried that the sandwich would slide all around in the bag and have completely fallen apart by the time lunch came around. But this hasn't been a problem at all. They put the sandwich in the bag and simply fold over the remaining material before placing it in their lunch bags. Easy peasy!

If you're still not convinced, get this: You can use them yourselves too! And I don't mean just for lunches. I'm talking about sticking them in your purse. As someone who has a lot of purses, like I mentioned earlier, I am constantly switching over my load from one purse to the next. Now this task has gotten a lot simpler since I have a sandwich-size bag that I keep all of my toiletries in [lotion, hand sanitizer, deoderant, etc.]. I also use one of the snack-size ones for a few smaller items [like an extra hair tie, a couple of bobby pins and those feminine products]. Not only does it make things simpler to transfer, but it's also so convenient to locate an item now in my purse. No more digging around through everything to find what I'm looking for!

So there you have it. Thoughts from The Bag Lady!  :)

Worth It For One

When I had my first baby, I wasn't ready. She had threatened to come early from 29 weeks on, keeping me off my feet for six weeks, and finally came at 35 weeks. She was healthy, and home in four days, but what every normal mom does in the final weeks of pregnancy was lost to me. No nursery prep, no washing clothes, no begging for the pregnancy to be over.

I was so glad she was healthy, but I had been so afraid of her arrival that I didn't feel ready for her to be here. But she was. And as any mom of a preemie knows - - heck, EVERY mom knows - - those new babies are demanding. And your first, doubly so, because you are pretty much in shock of the lifestyle change. Pretty much, you do what works. In short, cloth diapers never even entered my mind.

When I saw Pam's cloth diapering demo at a local mom's group, I was impressed with the diapers, but I wasn't ready to take on anything new. I had just gotten a grasp of our new family routine, baby was over six months old, and I just didn't have any brain space to make the switch to cloth diapers.

Two years later, when Baby 2.0 was on her way, I knew that I wanted to try cloth diapering. I had seen the amount of diapers and plastic and packaging and wipes traipsing out to the garbage via my household and I knew I didn't want to contribute another child's worth of garbage to the environment. Also, we knew that I was likely not returning to work for some time after the new baby, so cost was certainly a factor. When you look at the numbers, there is no comparison!

We waited until our new baby girl was 10 lbs (around 6 or 8 weeks) and then we dove in and bought our diaper set, the one-size AMP pocket duos. We opted for the microfibre inserts, intending to lay them 'on top' of the cover (as opposed to actually inserting them into the pocket), so as to make use of each cover twice, decreasing on washing. We also use the Applecheeks disposable liners.

Baby Alice in her AMP Diaper

And I love the lifestyle change. I love not carrying poop-smeared garbage bags to my bin twice a week. I don't mind rinsing a poopy diaper here and there - really, it's NOT that bad. And my peace of mind more than makes up for it.

Plus, baby seems happy. And her bottom is SO cute. 

A couple of people have asked us, since we are openly thinking that this will be our last baby, 'Why spend the money and take on the hassle of cloth diapering for only one child?' Well, aside from knowing I'm doing a good deed for the environment, did I mention I'm going to make at least half of my money back when I sell them after I'm done with them? I'm saving over $2000! 

And if you'll excuse me, I'm off to contemplate what to spend it on...

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Thanks for sharing your cloth diapering journey with us Sara! Every cloth-diapered bottom makes a difference to the environment!

Sara is a work-from-home mom who does PR and graphic design while caring for a three-year-old and seven-month-old. Between spending time with her sword-collecting addictions-counselling husband and generally trying to keep the house from falling apart, she enjoys running a community group for young moms, furniture refinishing, cooking, and sitting down for coffee as often as possible.

How Can You Go Green?

Hey everybody...it's Andi here. Today I want to talk about different ways that we can "go green." Cloth diapering is of course a huge way to benefit the environment [and your wallet!] but what about for those of us [myself included] who are past the cloth diapering stage? What other ways can we be green?

Believe it or not, there are several ways to help the environment without having to first buy something [even though in the long run it typically WILL save you money $$]. It's true. We believe in being green, even if it doesn't involve selling you something from the shop!

Of course there is the obvious: RECYCLING! One of the simplest ways to help the environment with those oh-so-handy blue bins. Plastic bottles, tin cans, magazines and fliers...and even some things you might not even think of! Here is a list you can check if you want to see what can actually be recycled. It's as simple as putting something in your blue box instead of your garbage can. And it can make a world of difference!

And the RE-USE factor is something that can be simple too, once you get your mind trained to think of it! Toilet paper rolls can be used for crafts, kids can draw/color on BOTH sides of a piece of paper, old magazines can be used for kids making collages. And after a games night the other day, I discovered there are MANY uses for a newspaper once you are finished reading it.  :) What are some other things you can think of that you can re-use?

We can't forget about the final "R" in that trio: REDUCE! Without even listing things from the Tiny TreeHugger shop, there are many ways we can reduce waste. Investing a little bit of money in shopping bins and re-usable cloth bags is just one small way. Most stores have the option of purchasing cloth bags that are sturdy to hold most kind of shopping items and actually are a fair size too. You could also always try making your own too {you know, from some old material instead of throwing it away...hey! That's reducing AND re-using all at once!}. This way you can make it a fun color or pattern which is just an added bonus!

And how about composting? Do any of you do that? You can compost grass clippings, fruit & vegetable peels and cores...my husband even composts his used coffee grounds!

My almost 7-year-old, Malia

I'm sure you all have your own ideas of how you are green on a day-to-day basis. It doesn't have to be a BIG thing to make a BIG difference. Every small thing adds up and contributes to a greener earth!

I'd love it if you would all share one thing that you do to be kind to the environment. My girls have an idea of how we can save trees...   ;)