We had a busy, busy weekend. On Saturday the husband and I dropped the kids off to spend a day and night at Grandma’s house. Then we were off for date night… or day I guess. We started out by going to hang out with Arnold Schwarzenegger at The Arnold Sports Festival. Okay so we didn’t actually hang out with Arnie but we did see him! The festival was awesome and for the most part we hung out in the CrossFit room watching the CrossFit Games but we also checked out the Fencing, Martial Arts, Boxing, Gymnastics, Weight Lifting, Fitness Modeling, and Body Building. The expo was also fun.. if you liked being squished against muscle bound men and women. And I mean squished… the expo was so packed that you were pressed body to body with other people almost at all times. When you happened to be standing next to a bikini model you got to see her up close and personal!

I honed in on some good booths though. I scored some free Lara Bars and coupons at their booth and I found another Vibram shoes wearer at the theYogaToes booth. I plan to buy one their products too, the rep really sold me. I also discovered the most insanely awesome lunchbox called the Six Pack Bag and had to get one. I will review soon but it will be perfect for summer outings when we need to bring our own food… road trips, zoo trips, picnics, hiking/camping. The top shelf has room for loose snacks like dried fruit, nuts, and bars. It also has a tray for supplements so that when you travel everyone’s fish oil pills or multi-vitamins have a safe secure place. The bag is designed for weight lifters but I saw it and thought it had “family trips” written all over it. It has three trays that can be filled with a complete meal and I have 3 kids, perfect! There is also a bigger bag with 5 trays (for all of us) but I figured the smaller bag could also double as hubby’s lunchbox during the week and the big bag would be overkill for that purpose. Alongside the middle section that holds the trays are two slits for ice bags and there are two side compartments that can hold fresh fruit, yogurt cups, reusable bottles, etc. I am not sure why but I just have this lunchbox fetish and this bag just sent me over the moon.

After The Arnold we went out to eat at a sushi bar. We totally went off our paleo diets (rice) but oooh it was good. Raw fish, wasabi, and pickled ginger… does it get any better???! Then we went to see Safe House at the movies and I loved that as well. It was a wonderful psychological thriller. Date night was a success.

On Sunday I went with the kids and my parents to see The Columbus Home and Garden Show while hubby got some work done around the house. I have wanted to go for years but I think it is geared toward people with massive amounts of disposable income they can sink into marble countertops, hot tubs, and sleek patio decks. It was fun to look but even if I had the kind of money most of this stuff cost, I wouldn’t spend it that way. So, I mostly just enjoyed walking through the gardens and seeing the spring flowers. I am a pretty simple gal with simple tastes. I did get some pretty photos though! The first is my mom with my two youngest.

What did you do this weekend?

So have you seen The Lorax yet? If so, then you know that it is fodder for lots of conversations within your family about environmentalism and how to put into practice Lessons With The Lorax. The movie is phenomenal and fun but the subject matter is serious and there is no time like the present to work together as a family to do your part and speak for the trees, and the air, and the waterways, and all things Mother Earth. The Lorax movie just brings us a fun way to launch into it with renewed vigor.

One way to gets kids interested and excited might be to give them title of Lorax for a week and alternate weekly between children. For a week they get to be the voice that speaks for the planet. They get to be the watch dog that makes sure lights get turned off and water isn’t wasted. Giving kids this bit of power makes them more aware of the issues and how to solve them. Once all of your kids have had their turn at the wheel you can ask them to look outward for more ideas and broaden their reach.  What can they do on their block, in their community, and at their school? Empowering them at home will give them the confidence that they can make a difference elsewhere.

But… back to the home. What can you do there? Letting them be the Lorax for the week might be fun enough on its own but you can also up the ante by offering rewards when certain goals are met. Mom and Dad get to be the Lorax too though, just to set the standard and let the youngins see how this game is played. Have fun!

- Teach kids to be aware of household waste and give them tips on how the family can reduce the amount of garbage that hits the curb each week. If you usually throw out two bags each week, challenge the kids to help you whittle it down to one. Trash can be reduced by recycling as much as you can, reusing what you can, buying foods with little or no packaging, composting scraps, and reducing purchases.

- Start a laundry challenge. Explain how much energy and water goes into washing clothes and how much is wasted when they can’t wear the same pair of jeans for 2 to 3 days or they change clothes multiple times a day. See if you can reduce the number of laundry loads you do and get help hanging the laundry to dry so that the dryer doesn’t have to be used as much.

- Let them audit your household. Give them the power to police water use, energy hogging, and general wastefulness. You will be surprised by all the ways those keen minds will find to help reduce your impact.

- Let your the children help research and decide on purchases. Letting them make buying decisions now will only help them be more mindful consumers later on. Let them choose which toilet paper is the greenest option or what gadget might help them conserve energy or reduce waste. Doing this is especially good for older kids because it gives them the opportunity to really research products make better choices.

- Take an eat local challenge. With your kids at your side make a list of meals you can make with all local ingredients and take them shopping with you and have them help in the food preparation. Explain how you are saving resources by buying from vendors and farms in your own hometown.

- Start a children’s garden. If you have the space, it would be beneficial to let each child have their own small garden bed and help them plant in it. Then they are responsible for weeding, watering, and harvesting. The smiles and feeling of accomplishment will be priceless.

If we want them to be the ones speaking for our planet then we have to help them find their voices…

This post is part of the “Lessons With The Lorax” Blog Tour organized by Universal Pictures for The Lorax Movie. Visit some of the other stops here:

• Feb 20 New Green Mama
• Feb 21 The Green Parent
• Feb 22 Eco Child’s Play
• Feb 23 The Smart Mama
• Feb 24 My Plastic Free Life
• Feb 27 Retro Housewife Goes Green
• Feb 28 Groovy Green Livin
• Feb 29 Mindful Momma
• Mar 1 Green and Clean Mom
• Mar 2 Moms Going Green Blog
• Mar 3 Kitchen Stewardship

Warning spoilers below!

As I mentioned previously we took the kids to an advance screening of The Lorax in 3D this past Saturday. The kids loved it of course, as did I. I went into the experience being skeptical about the depth into which the movie would go to show environmental destruction and the greed/ignorance that motivates it and allows it. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this movie didn’t pull any punches. It went there. As a movie it now rates pretty darn high on my list of animated films to love, alongside Toy Story and Despicable Me. I laughed and I cried (twice, but they were happy tears) and this is a movie we will be be picking up on DVD for sure, as soon we can. I will also likely take my kids to the theater to see it again. The 3D version was awesome but my youngest has sensory issues and refuses to wear 3D glasses so I want him to experience it again, with less blurriness. And you HAVE to see those Truffula Trees in all their glory. Ever since I first read the Lorax book when I was a kid I always thought the trees were the stuff of magic. Who wouldn’t adore trees that looked like cotton candy???! The movie trees were everything I dreamed they would be.

But I digress…

So what’s the movie about? It is centered around adorable Ted (voiced by Zac Efron), a 12-year-old young boy who lives in Thneed-Ville, a city that, aside from the citizens, is completely artificial and plastic. He has a crush on Audrey who has a fascination with something she has never had the pleasure of seeing in real life… a real tree. You see the trees in their city are all fake and they are programmed to change color with the seasons and be all that you would ever need from a tree but they aren’t real or alive. They also do not provide clean air which is why the powers that be (the mayor and his cronies), thwart any attempt to grow trees or even speak about them because the city and his empire has been built selling purified air to the masses.

Ted sets out to find the one thing that will secure Audrey’s heart, a real tree. He gets some super secret intel from his Grandmother (Betty White) and then he leaves the city to find a tree. There in the tree stump waste land outside the city he meets the reclusive Once-ler, who shares the story of how he met the Lorax, the keeper of the trees. He was just a young entrepreneur back then and he decided he needed to use beautiful Truffula Tree tufts to make a product with universal appeal and demand. This idea eventually causes a downward spiral into mass overproduction, which then leads to the depletion of all the beautiful trees. In a cool twist it was also this event that lead to the birth of Ted’s town as he now knows it since the bad air quality left the door open for another unscrupulous businessman to create the next product in demand, clean air. It also provided a motive to make sure trees stay gone.

In a very groovy musical scene the movie shows the production of the Once-ler’s product and it shows him getting physically larger and larger and also getting greener with greed. I thought the visual was amazing. He literally steps on people below him as he gets larger and tells them to worry about themselves and not what he is doing, all the while he is destroying their shared resources. The 1% versus the 99% anyone? In a hilarious scene he throws one of his products (which looks like a sweater) on top of the Lorax and just then a photo is snapped and captioned with the words “Lorax Approved!” just as the lyrics in the song chime about deceptive advertising. Priceless!

I also loved the fact that it in direct and indirect ways talked about other environmental issues beyond the trees and air quality. The effects of deforestation on animal life is well represented and you will fall in love with all the creatures who lived there. The mayor’s cronies come up with an idea to bottle air and market it much like a beverage. They gleefully tell the mayor that all the pollution caused from manufacturing the plastic bottles will create even more demand for the product. I was really surprised to see such an indictment of plastic and plastic bottles in this film. The water quality in the city is also bad and makes children glow. Their food is not real food but rather some sort of jello-like substance and yet Ted ironically called marshmallows “junk food”. They have fake food just like we do, LOL. Also one of the chief ways the mayor and his bunch keep the public from desiring real trees, vegetation, food, etc is to make it seem dirty and unsanitary. In the uber artificial and sanitary Theed-Ville they are opposed to mess and dirt.

Anyway…  back to Ted. The Once-ler gives Ted the last Truffula Seed and Ted sets out to give it to Audrey but is converged upon by the Mayor and his thugs. Ted knows he won’t win this battle without help so he sets out to remind his town of the importance of nature so that they can join together and bring back the trees.

I will stop there and not give away any ending bits and pieces but the movie was phenomenal. I know it has come under fire from some for the way in which it has been marketed and the partnership and product tie ins that have been associated with it. I cannot deny the validity of those claims but as far as the actual movie is concerned, it is pretty darn near flawless. The movie is more upbeat than the book and the Lorax is not so grouchy and judgmental, which I liked a lot. Overall I think I prefer the movie to the book. Yes, some may think that is sacrilegious but hey, it’s how I feel. I find the book to be a bit depressing and did not find the movie to be so at all. Sure it had its sad and frustrating moments but mostly it was inspirational and encouraging. It gets a definitive A+ from me.

If you area anything like me you are trying to firm up Earth Day Plans already. How do you spend the day? Do you stay home and conserve fuel and energy? Do you plant a tree or do some gardening? Do you do a community service project? Well, one idea might be to check out the DisneyNature film Chimpanzee which will be released on April 20, just in time for Earth Day festivities.

DisneyNature films are always stellar and I think this will be no exception, just like African Cats and Oceans. My youngest (6) especially would love this. He spends a fair amount of time watching Netflix animal documentaries.  The movie is a nature documentary about a young chimpanzee named Oscar who finds himself alone in the African forests until he is adopted by another chimpanzee. The film was co-produced by Disneynature and the Jane Goodall Institute. A portion of the opening week proceeds will go to the latter. Earth Day or the days immediately before would be a great time to see it for that reason alone.

View the trailer below. Oscar sure is a cutie!

A reader recently commented on this post, that she would like to know what I eat every day. Well, it varies wildly from day to day so I decided to pick a day and make a food journal with photos of everything (or almost everything) I ate that day. I chose Leap Day (yesterday). I post recipes quite often but have never done a food journal which is funny because I follow a lot of bloggers who do. For whatever reason I like to know what you had for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. ;)

Anyway, I am not a food photographer so please excuse my awful photos. I can take a decent portrait or candid but food photos… nope, I suck wax fruit. I also didn’t plan any of these meals so they were spur of the moment cooking decisions and food grabs. I think it ended up pretty decent nutritionally but when each meal is planned right then and there it is hard to know. I do usually plan a little more than I did on this day, especially dinner, but some days I am just so busy that we eat a mish mash of whatever we have.

Okay… here we go.

Breakfast was a bowl of grain free cereal with coconut milk. Yes, grain free, paleo cereal is totally possible! It was made with a blend of chopped raw almonds, chopped raw pecans, shredded coconut, and pine nuts, drenched in a half cup of yummy coconut milk. It is low carb with lots of delicious, healthy fats. I didn’t have a whole lot of it though (1/2 cup) because this was a gym day and if I eat too much I will get crampy while working out. Most mornings I just eat a cup of greek yogurt but I felt like mixing it up.

After eating my cereal I showered, put my swimsuit on, and hit the gym. After a one hour swim I rinsed off in the shower and then changed into workout clothes and Vibrams so I could lift some weights. From the gym I drove to the library to pick up some books on reserve and then I drove home to see my youngest kiddo off to school (who was being watched by Daddy). After he left, the husband and I ran some errands and picked up some local pastured eggs (three dozen). When we got home I made lunch for myself. Often times hubby and I make lunch together but he ate and precooked his dinner (for work) while I was at the gym, so I was on my own for lunch.

My lunch was:

• A pork chop
• Salad w/collards, wild arugula, spinach, mushrooms, carrots, bell pepper, and feta cheese topped w/balsamic vinegar
• A handful of yummy roasted seaweed crisps w/wasabi (not this exact brand but close enough)
• A chunk of dark chocolate
• A couple spoonfuls of Cognac Fig Goat Cheese (not pictured)
• Dark chocolate coconut water (not pictured)

My kids spied the fresh eggs in the frig so they requested tuna egg salad, carrot sticks, and apple slices with almond butter dip for dinner. That was super easy but not what I wanted so I made myself something different. I actually wanted to have grilled fish, sauteed mushrooms, and salad but due to poor planning the fish was still frozen solid. Phooey! So I decided to have breakfast for dinner:

• Uncured bacon
• Two eggs fried in coconut oil
• Half an apple topped with almond butter
• Greek yogurt

Throughout the day I also had some fish oil and spirulina as well as water to drink. After dinner we did our 15 minute clean-up and then the kids went off to their rooms to do their own thing until bed time. I gave the kitchen a deeper cleaning and baked some more coconut bars for after school snacking throughout the week. I stayed up late since the next day was/is hubby’s day to get up with the kids and hit the gym himself. Since I knew I would get to sleep in (if I wanted) I decided to catch up on some DVR’d shows… ala Justified and Lost Girl.

So that is a sampling of what I eat in a day. I can’t say that it is typical because I had more sweet stuff this day than I usually do in a week. I also ate more “packaged” food than usual I think but it’s a real look into my lacto-paleo diet. Today I had more paleo cereal and I rectified that fish craving:

Hubby had the same meal except he had a grass fed steak instead of fish. For dinner I have chicken soup (minus the noodles) stewing in the crock pot. It will be soup and salad for dinner.

What are you having?