All summer long I opted out of my weekly delivery box of farm fresh veggies and fruit. During the late spring and summer it is all too easy to make a weekly trip to the farmer’s market instead but I have missed that delivery box sitting on my step every Friday afternoon. When it arrived my kids would dive in and exclaim over everything in it. Its just food (and we pay for it) but it really feels like you got a wonderful present. We are lucky that we have this option because there are any who don’t live near good farmer’s markets and there are many who don’t have organic delivery services or CSAs.

I have heard of mail order services that provide fresh produce but I never had a reason to try them. But the lovely folks at The Fruit Guys sent me a complementary produce box to try and we were not disappointed. It arrived in a cardboard box with cardboard partitions (post consumer recycled) and printed with soy inks so it was pretty eco friendly packaging. It had some cloth ice bags that we saved for future use and a couple green bags we also saved to reuse. It gets an A+ for packaging in my book. Our local delivery service uses far too much plastic and Styrofoam.

The box was also filled yummy looking produce.  We got white peaches, red plums, nectarines, Beefsteak tomatoes, Cucumbers, sweet corn, sweet bell peppers, yellow onion, and oregano. Some recipes were also included in the box. LOVE how some CSA’s and delivery services thrown in that extra touch. All was quickly devoured by my brood. I think the fruit was the first to go. Its like candy to may kids. The bell peppers were devoured by the husband and by our three reptilian friends. The sweet corn was used in a chowder. The tomatoes we also ate straight away. I managed to get through an entire summer without eating tomatoes and mozzarella drizzled with vinaigrette. How in the heck did that happen?!?!

Well, I made up for lost time. My kids love this simple dish as much as I do and it, along with fruit, was a simple and easy dinner.

We were quite pleased with our Fruit Guys box and if I had the need in our location I would not hesitate to use them regularly. I think it is awesome that you can still get that bit of farm fresh, whole foods, goodness even when you don’t have access to a good market or CSA and they deliver fresh seasonal produce all year long. To keep it as local as possible they have hubs across the U.S. in South San Francisco, Phoenix, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Plus they support small farms and local communities. Your food is likely coming from the region surrounding the hub nearest to you and thus supporting local, small scale agriculture there. Their GoodWorks program allows them to donate more than 150,000 pounds of produce to food shelters annually. I think that is really awesome, especially after we saw so many pounds of apples at our local orchard that are just left to rot on the ground instead of being picked up and sent to food banks. I HATE it when companies allow food to go to waste instead of feeding needy people in their area.

If this is something you need in your area you can peruse their website for more info.You just choose your mix, case size and how often you want delivery and they do the rest.

Do you use a produce delivery service in your area or do you DIY and shop at local stores?

The Patagonia brand is no stranger to me. They have a reputation for being a very green and ethical company and their products are a reflection of that. They are also widely known by outdoor enthusiasts since so many of their products are geared towards fitness and outdoor play, whether it be their shoes or their clothing. I have wanted a try a pair of their hiking shoes for a long time and actually had a few of their products bookmarked in my web browser in preparation for purchasing a good pair of winter hiking shoes. My Vibram Five Fingers got me by in style and safety all spring and summer but I am not into the whole primal thing of hiking in the snow wearing minimalist footwear.

Patagonia footwear is also doing something really cool right now that caught my attention. They have teamed up with Healthy Child, Healthy World and are donating $10 for every pair of shoes sold until October 14. This is a great pairing because both companies care about chemical safety for our planet and for families. Healthy Child Healthy World obviously advocates for corporate policies and government legislation that protect children from environmental health risks. They also seek to increase consumer awareness so we can vote with our dollars and attack this issue from that angle as well. Patagonia is known for their eco awareness and their efforts to reduce harmful chemicals from the manufacturing and dying processes of their lines. They too are advocates for a healthier planet.

Their footwear can be purchased through shoe retailer OnlineShoes. They have free shipping and free returns which is important to me because I have lots of issues getting shoes to fit (wide feet and really high arches). For this promotion, OnlineShoes was kind enough to send me a pair of the Patagonia Hiking Boots. I got the Patagonia Drifter A/C Gore-Tex® in Canteen and Dark Celadron colors. Its a waterproof trail shoe which will be important for hiking in the snowy Ohio weather and it has a 20% recycled footbed. It is manufactured by ISO 14001 Approved Suppliers, which means that materials are sourced from companies that follow a strict set of environmental standards. It can be resoled if need be and the Vibram® Trail Ecostep outsole is made of 30% recycled rubber.

They fit like a dream and they are very comfy so far. I haven’t done any serious hiking in them yet but I am all set for our local winter hiking series now. Last year I hiked in regular tennis shoes and slippage was a problem so I can’t wait to break these babies in on the trail. I plan to pair these with a comfy pair of wool socks (see my Eco Friendly Hiking Gear for Women post for my top choice). My tootsies are gonna stay warm and dry.

Online Shoes is also offering a free pair of Patagonia shoes to one of my readers, along with a copy of the book Healthy Child Healthy World, which is an awesome book BTW! To enter just leave a comment telling me what shoes you think you would select and why. You can win extra entries by :

Giveaway CLOSED! The winner is Melissa H. Congrats!!

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Giveaway sponsored by OnlineShoes.com.

This is week two of the attachment parenting discussion between Green Moms Weekly… all in honor of Attachment Parenting month. The theme of AP month 2011 is Families at Play so the question this week is: What are some fun, simple, activites that you engage your children with?

I have to admit that I am not terribly great at “play”. I do lots of stuff with my kids and I am a very attentive and involved parents but actually playing with my kids has always been a struggle for me. Sure we play around often with tickling or thumb wars, little stuff like that, but kicking a ball around in the yard, playing catch, or playing dolls or dinosaurs is not really something that comes easy to me. So for me it does take some planning to make sure my kids actually see me being a playful parent. Some of the ways we play are below…

Board Games – This kinda play is a-okay with me. We have lots of games and we play pretty often. It could be UNO or could be an educational game that teaches about medicinal uses for herbs. Its all good! My husband, my two older kids, and I all play online games as well. Hubby plays with our oldest son and my daughter and I often play together as well.

Car Games – Long drives are a great time to play as well… SlugBug (with no hitting), I Spy, the license plate game. We love them, they give us an opportunity to play, and they keep kids occupied.

Nature Play- Every year we do a series of winter hikes put on by our local Metro Parks system. There are usually about a dozen or more and they are a great way to see every park in full winter glory and be together as a family. By playing nature identification games along the way and by encouraging everyone to compete against their own hike times it makes it more fun for everyone. We also go sledding a couple times a year. This year we plan to try a new adventure and go Snow Tubing at Mad River. Can’t wait!! If we can find some good, used equipment we would also like to start cross country skiing and snowboarding.

In the warmer months we play together at festivals and do other organized activities. Indoor and outdoor golf is something we all love. Mini golf as a family and the driving range with Daddy for my two oldest. My husband and son like to attend Big Game Day at a local paintball place too. Despite my aversion to be bruised from head to toe by paintballs, I have decided to attend the next one in the spring with them. It was important to my son to share his love of this game with both parents. So now I have to find some second hand fatigues and it is ON!

This past weekend we took the kids apple picking again and we had a blast running through the orchard rows and lifting the kids so they could reach the highest (and juiciest apples). It was also fun to kick errant apples out of the main walkway so no one would trip on them. This upcoming weekend we plan to push our kids around inside tractor tires at Pigeon Roost Farm.

Indoor Play – We have at least one hard core roller skate/roller blade enthusiast and it makes sense since both my husband and I skated several hours a day for most of of our childhoods and many of our dates were spent at skate parks. Taking the kids to roller rinks is fun for all. We are also lucky to have indoor water parks that can be used during any weather. Spraying each other with water, riding double on the lazy river, going down terrifying water slides and screaming, together … it is what occupied the latter half of this past weekend actually. For any Columbus locals who read, we went to Coco Key Water Resort at Cherry Valley Lodge. LOVED it! We actually live 5 minutes away from the Fort Rapids Indoor Water Park but CoCo Key has frequent specials and group buy deals. We just bought 5 more days passes to Coco Key yesterday (via a group buy site) that we will use around Christmas time.

Affordable Fun – I know some people hate group sites like Groupon and Living Social but we use these sites primarily to buy tickets for events and play opportunities. Water resort passes, tours at historic places, museum passes, mini golf, paintball 2 for 1 deals, skiing passes, etc. It makes it a lot easier to play when you can afford to do really fun stuff and these sites can make that possible for 50-60% off the normal prices.

So, that is how we get our play on… what about you? How do you play with your kids?

This post is part of Green Moms Weekly. Join yourself by blogging about the weekly question or read what other moms have to say including Rachel at Happy Green Babies (this is where you can join in), Carrie at Natural Moms Talk Radio, Terry at Green Choices for You, and Emily at The Crunchy Coach. Enjoy!

I discovered Abe’s Market sometime last year when I came across a cardboard dollhouse with furniture that I knew my 7 year old daughter would just love. It ended up being a birthday present and my daughter still plays with it quite often. Even though it is made of cardboard it is still going strong.

This store is part Etsy and part Whole Foods with a mix of posh and sustainable toys as well as some handcrafted stuff. But they also have a little Amazon, Groupon and Home Shopping Network thrown in their to to make a really well rounded online store. Abe’s Market is about combining the best things that Grandpa Abe represented – health and wellness, mom and pop, reliability, trust, honesty, community and personal connection between business owners and customers. They also have great prices IMO. I recall that dollhouse being a real steal.

Well, the folks at Abe’s Market are celebrating their new “In the Know” video series by offering my readers a kickin coupon deal. The idea behind the series is to help consumers find out where the the products they are buying come from and the story behind them. This valuable background goes beyond what can be found on a label. Who makes the product? What’s in it? Where is it made? How? I recall watching their video about the dollhouse when I purchased it. I already thought it was an amazing idea but it looks like they are taking that idea even farther and adding educational videos on all sorts of other topics. This one below talks about shopping for natural, organic, eco friendly toys.

With Christmas coming up I thought a $10 off coupon might come in handy. Enjoy!

Visit the store and use the special one-time only discount code “ENB-dk49hy” at checkout for $10 off a $30 purchase or more. Also visit @AbesMarket on Twitter and Facebook.

October is attachment parenting (AP) month. You may or may not be familiar with this style of parenting but many green, natural, crunchy, granola parenting types are. It seems to mesh really well with lots of the other things we hold dear. A group of green/natural mom bloggers have recently gotten together to form a weekly column called Green Moms Weekly and the first question that was posed to the group honors attachment parenting month. The question is “How do you balance your busy lifestyle and manage to keep a focus on attachment parenting?”

For me, AP it is about letting my mommy instincts direct my actions. As a younger mom I loved to hold my babes close to me and breastfeed. I let them do this until they were ready to stop, to honor their need for this closeness and because I knew that breastmilk was the best nourishment for them. My mommy instincts also told me to go to my babies when they cried and that is what I did, ALWAYS. I never listened to mainstream advice that babies need to be on schedules and that letting them cry alone will teach them independence. I let them sleep with me as long as they wanted because it was easier on both of us. Mainstream advice that declares you will never get kids out of your bed once you let them in is just a bunch of hogwash.  When my kidlets cried and wanted to be held when I needed to make dinner of do some other chore, wearing them on my back allowed me to meet their need for attention AND get my work done. When they misbehaved I knew that deciding I didn’t want to strike them wasn’t going to result in a brat… despite what all the “spare the rod, spoil the child” folks had to say. For me AP is all about listening to my instincts and my heart.

So why the question about how to balance a busy lifestyle and still be an attachment parent? Well, AP is “get off your butt parenting” in my mind. The contrary advice to let kids cry it out, stick them in bouncing seat when you need to do dishes, spank them when they run into the street, and give them a more convenient bottle is all a way to make parenting easier for us, but not necessarily better or easier for the child. An attached parent will likely create a family bed so that everyone can sleep together. They will wear their babies in a wrap or hold them instead of delegating that duty to a swing or bouncy seat. They breastfeed and/or pump well into the toddler years because it is important to their child and it is the best source of nutrition. They will be supervising their child closely so that the running into the street moment can be used to gently teach and coach. In fact they anticipated that moment because they have gotten good at reading their child. Because they always use their words instead of their hands… their kids respond well to reasoning. Hitting becomes a senseless and irrational choice.

Attachment parenting is very involved parenting, and for that reason it can sometimes conflict with the more hurried pace of lives today. I don’t know that what works for us will work or other attached parents but I know we have made many very conscious decisions to slow our pace of life and give our kids the attention they need and desire. Being too busy for attachment parenting isn’t an issue when you simply make sure you are never too busy. We wanted to stay attached at the heart AND live our best lives. I became a stay at home mom so that I could be the primiary caregiver for our kids. This allowed me to breastfeed exclusively and for extended periods of time. I chose natural childbirth for my last two births and we kept interventions to a minimum so that bonding and breastfeeding could happen immediately after birth. I wore two of my babies in slings and wraps and all of them slept in bed with me. My 5 year still does quite often. We decided early on to always try and use positive discipline methods and to respect our kids. We tried to find ways to meet everyone’s needs simultaneously and sometimes that was a lot of work.

Balance was much harder when our kids were young because very often we had to compromise and make sure their needs were met first and foremost. Their need to co-sleep trumped my need for not getting kicked in the stomach at night. Their inability to handle the excitement of traveling meant we had a staycation instead of a vacation. My husband’s need for a sane, well rested wife was trumped by the needs of a small infant who who used me as an all day milk buffet, which meant I was often hormonal and tired. I guess I feel that when our children are young they should be the priority. Aka breast feeding even if your dog tired or co-sleeping even when you’d rather have your husband all to yourself. As my kids get older I think they benefit more from seeing parents who love themselves, take care of themselves, and have varied interests that they actively pursue. I also think it is important for them to see that their parents prioritize each other too. As they get older they benefit less from having a shadow to meet their every need and more from seeing good examples of others doing and living for themselves. We don’t tell them how to live, we just live, and we let them watch. So in terms of priority for the first five or so years of their lives it was all about them. Now the priority list looks somewhat different but it works well because the foundation was so well laid, they are happy independent kids that are accepting of that much needed shift.

To keep things balanced and attached now, we mostly just have to listen. We listen to them daily, carving out certain times that are distraction free, and we stay attached by staying in the loop. We help with homework and we stay connected to teachers. We homeschool when or if we need to. We put our family before “things” and “stuff” so this means we work as little as we can and make do with less. Our kids may have fewer toys and electronic gadgets than the kids next door but we have more time to spend with them. We have a neighbor child who is always bragging about her toys and video games, trying to goad my children but then every weekend this same child looks at us longingly as we pull out of the drive to go apple picking, to a Pumpkin Festival, to a movie, or to some other local event that her own parents don’t have time for. I know how lucky we are and I think our kids do to. Balance is about spending time doing activities with them and yet allowing them to pursue their own independent activities when they need and want to. For us it is also about knowing which child needs a bit more attention and giving it to them. Since we have two a-typical kids… one with some severe developmental and speech delays and one with high functioning autism, it is helps greatly to be flexible and unhurried in our daily lives.

For us, life during these years of their development is less about balance and more about figuring out how to stay tuned in to them as we ALL become more independent and find new priorities and interests. I am sure it will be no less exciting than the baby and toddler years. In fact I am sure it will be even more so because with older kids it really does feel like we are all in this together… this wild and crazy journey called life.

Leave a comment to tell me how you stay connected to your kids in this fast paced life and be sure to visit the other Green Moms Weekly to read about how they answered this question. Enjoy!