toothpastefordinner.com It’s hard to believe that sweatshops could possibly exist today. But they do. And if you buy stuff without paying attention to where it comes from, you may unknowingly be supporting the cycle that causes them. In an effort to make cheap stuff even cheaper, sweatshops exploit workers with long hours, unfair pay, and…
Category Archives: Activism
I Bet You Can’t Do This!
Remember when someone would dare you? Taunt you. Tell you, you can’t do something. You wanted to prove them wrong. Well, that’s sort of my theory behind this post. I’m going to dare you. Taunt you. I want you to prove me wrong and join the EnviroMom Challenge of reducing your waste. I’m bet you…
Is Walking Becoming Obsolete?
While I walked 20 miles each day for the Michigan Breast Cancer 3 day this weekend, I had a lot of time to look around and just think. One of my big realizations over the weekend was that we were the only ones walking around in the downtown, neighborhood and nature areas along our path. Coming from living in downtown Chicago…
Becoming Part of Your Child’s Classroom
It’s a month into school, and the opportunities to become involved in my daughter’s classrooms are plentiful. There’s lunchroom monitoring, Gala planning, helping with art projects, holiday planning…the possibilities are endless. Anyway, Jessica’s post from last week about the benefits of volunteering coupled with this week’s activities got me thinking about how you can volunteer…
When Fresh Water Becomes the New Oil
I was shocked last week to learn about the Great Lakes Compact legislation that was sent to Congress two weeks ago. Now trust me, I am not the hip news gal that can quote the NY Times or tell you what is what with the NASDAQ so this was huge news to me. Although, since my…
Go Green and Get Happy!
What is the key to happiness? Does happiness correlate with wealth, demographics, reputation, attitude, etc.? One quote, attributed to the Buddha, regarding how to improve one’s own happiness says that “Happiness comes when your work and words are of benefit to yourself and others.” Based on this idea, that when our words and deeds are…
Walking the Talk
When I realized I was ready to take the next step in my journey going green, I signed up for the Chicago Conservation Corps (C3) Leadership Program. Their mission is to recruit, train and support a network of volunteers who improve their surrounding communities and schools through environmental service projects protecting our water, cleaning the air, restoring the land and…
Winter Gardening in My Favorite City
Earlier this week, some friends and I were talking about how to continue our weekly gardening play dates into winter. Throughout spring and summer we have been relishing the benefits of planting, tending and harvesting without looking past fall. Now that Labor Day approaches and autumn lurks around the corner, how do we relinquish this simple pleasure we share…
No Idling!
I can vividly recall riding the school bus when I was a kid. I remember the ride as being very long, very boring, and very stinky. And while I was probably exaggerating the long and boring parts (my ride lasted about 15 minutes) I now know that I wasn’t imagining the stink… A recent Yale University…
Save Money and the Earth at the Supermarket
Recently I had the opportunity to attend a Mommy Blogger luncheon hosted by Stop and Shop/Giant. It is Andrea Astrachan’s job as VP of Consumer Affairs to listen to customer feedback. She shared with us some of the ways that they are trying to meet the needs of earth-conscious consumers (and to encourage others in…
