This is Day 2 of the Green in 365 series! I want to encourage you as we begin this year of making green changes, to start small. I'll be posting tips and ideas every day, but please don't feel like you have to do them all! Pick just a few changes that will work the best for you and your family, and make those changes into a habit before you move on to the next thing. Slow and steady wins the race, right?! Our family has been on our green journey for around five years now, and we still have a … [Read more...]
Cloth Diapering a Newborn – Prefolds, Fitteds and Covers
So your ready to start cloth diapering your newborn babe using the tips and suggestions I gave you last week, but now you're wondering what styles and types of diapers you should use. This week, I'm going to tell you about my favorites, and what I used on my new babies. Newborn size prefolds Prefolds might seem a little scary because they are the type of diaper that you think about when you picture our moms using cloth diapers. I didn't try prefolds until my oldest daughter was about five or … [Read more...]
6 Tips for Surviving the Newborn Stage — Part 2
Yesterday I gave you my first three tips for surviving the newborn baby stage, and today I have the next three for you. As always, this is what I have found to work for me, my babies, and my family, and it doesn't necessarily mean that you can or should do all of them too. I'm a firm believer that you have to find what works best for you and your baby, but I hope that some of these tips can be helpful to you in figuring that out. Tips for Surviving the Newborn Stage Lay Your Baby Down to … [Read more...]
Simple Steps – Green Spring Cleaning
The snow is melting, birds are chirruping, the first spring flowers have pushed their way through the frozen ground. It's that time of year again - spring cleaning time! I am definitely ready to get my green spring cleaning and organizing on this month because I know once the weather gets warmer (which really won't happen regularly here until at least April) I won't want to be spending my time indoors cleaning! We've already talked a lot about green homemade cleaners here at Live … [Read more...]
My Frugally Green Journey – Taking Baby Steps To Where We Are Today
So it's been more than a few weeks since I last wrote about my family's journey toward living frugally green. I left you hanging just as my husband finally found a new job, and my family was figuring out that saving money and saving earthly resources go hand in hand. The Next Steps A lot happened over the next year of our lives. I became pregnant with our second child, and we finally sold our house after 7 months of it being on the market. We moved out of our house and into Jer's … [Read more...]
At Simple Organic – 10 Changes To Make To Your Personal Care Routine
Photo by payalnic We've been talking a lot about personal care products, and making changes in the products we use, this month here at Live Renewed. I think this is one of the most important areas to make changes, along with green and natural cleaning, because of the way we can be exposed to hundreds of toxic chemicals in conventional personal care products on a daily basis. It's also relatively easy to start making changes to our personal care routines. It doesn't require a lot of … [Read more...]
Everyday Toxins
I came across this segment of CBS's show The Talk on another blog and I just really felt like I needed to share it. The most poignant moment for me was when they show the audience and they all just have this "deer in the headlights" kind of look, some are shaking their heads, and they just look shocked. It is shocking when you start to learn about all of the things in our environment that could be, and probably are, harmful to us and our children. The thing that just floors me is that so … [Read more...]
My Frugally Green Journey – How It All Began
For the past 3 ½ years, or so, my family and I have been on a journey toward living green and living frugally, learning to be a good steward of all of the resources that God has provided us with. I wanted to take the opportunity to share my story with you over the next few weeks, because I think that telling our stories is so important, and so that you can learn a little about where I came from, and how I came to the place I am today. I want to start out by emphasizing that this is a … [Read more...]
Question of the Day – How Did You Begin Your Journey Toward Green Living?
Photo by prakhar Since we've been talking about setting green goals and making green changes, I've been thinking a lot about the journey that we take when moving toward living a more green, natural, simple lifestyle. A while ago, my friend Jenica, who is one of my greatest supports and role models for living a green and natural lifestyle, and I were talking about how we started down this path toward green living. We both shared our stories, and it was interesting how similar they … [Read more...]
Using Safe and Natural Personal Care Products
Would you eat your soap? How about your shampoo, your makeup, or your body lotion? Sometimes some of the products we use smell good enough to eat, but what's really lurking in the stuff that we use to wash our hair, our faces, our bodies, our hands, moisturize our skin, or tame our tresses? Basically, the personal care products we use have a similar effect on our bodies as the things that we eat. They are absorbed and enter into our bodies, and even our bloodstreams. The reality is that … [Read more...]