In the spirit of Valentine’s Day I thought I would highlight some ways to keep date night a green affair. Date night is something I hope that all couples are able to take advantage of at least once a month. It is so easy to lose your identity as a lover and partner when you have kids, home, work, bills, and all that other stuff that takes over our lives. I know I certainly let myself forget how important it was to stay connected to my husband over the years. Heck we didn’t even celebrate our anniversaries anymore. My husband and I have always been best friends but we had lost sight of putting time together first and foremost. We forgot how to be a champion for each other and be that soft landing place when things got tough. We re-committed to making sure we had couples time as much as possible and it has been amazing for us. Just before I sat down to write this post I was on the phone planning date night for the month.

Like a lot folks though we have to keep in mind things like budget and time. We have to get creative. As a family seeking greener pastures and healthier lives we also have to keep in mind our impact on our bodies and planet. Here are some ideas in that regard.

The Main Event

Share the Shower – Okay so this might occur before the date but it’s a great way to start nonetheless. Conserve resources by showering together. If you get er… sidetracked, with some other stuff while in there, just turn the water off for a spell and then resume. We have a nifty showerhead that actually comes in handy in that regard… it has a pause control built in. ;)

In House Date Night – Due to time, money, or lack of childcare it may be necessary to stay in for the night and that is a great green option. Stream a movie via Netflix or rent one from RedBox. Send the kids to bed, grab some blankets, and lounge on the couch or floor as you watch. You could also have a late dinner together with soy candles and music. Cook a pizza shaped like a heart or grill some steaks while you sip wine. If the weather is nice you could take it outside even. Find ways to take the ordinary and change it up a bit to make it special.

Take a Couples Class - Many cities and towns offer special classes for adults through their parks and recreation department. You could take a class on cooking, bread baking, painting, dance, ceramics, martial arts, a foreign language, or even a sport. Many of these classes can be done on the weekends when childcare might be easier to arrange. You better yourself, you have fun, and you spend time together, it’s a win-win. Bonus points for staying close to home and perhaps carpooling with another couple.

Get Active Together – Many of us talk about how we want to get back to playing tennis, go jogging more, or perhaps take up a sport. Why not do it together? Buy or rent bicycles or roller blades and start exploring your immediate neighborhood together. You won’t feel so embarrassed to fall on your tush if your partner is there next to you falling on theirs. Spend an evening at a local skate rink. Play Frisbee or croquet in the yard. Think about those active things your younger self would have loved to do on a date and do those!

Go Shopping – Ethically – If you want to exchange gifts or wear something special for date night check out local thrift stores. My husband and I also enjoy thrifting together and will often make a date to go thrift shopping when the kids are all in school. You can find great, high quality stuff at second hands stores! We also like to hit up natural grocers and farmer’s markets together. We walk the isles chatting, reading food labels, and finding new foods that are local to our area. You could also spend an afternoon hitting up yard sales or go to an estate sale. You spend time together and you keep your impact low by shopping green.

House Tours – For weekend fun spend an afternoon touring Open Houses. Try to keep it within 5-10 miles of your house. This is more fun if you don’t currently own a home or if you plan to buy another soon. That way you get to think about, and dream about, your future nest.

Go Organic and Local – Scout out smaller restaurants and cafes that use local foods. Bonus points for organic and/or pastured. It is fun finding these little local gems and also trying them. You are supporting your local economy when you do. Though it may not be local you can also buy organic liquor.

The After Party

Greener Bedroom Decor – The bedroom area might need a little ambiance. LED twinkle lights are perfect for bedrooms and they are a greener option. If you can find red ones, even better. That is what I have. These heart shaped lights run on batteries, so remember to use rechargeable ones. Just remember to unplug them before you go to sleep. Candles are another nice option but they do contribute to indoor air pollution. If you want to forgo them try flameless LED candle lights. We love these. For sheets go with organic cotton or bamboo.

Planet Friendly Birth Control – The greenest birth control method if NFP, followed by sterilization probably. If you want to avoid pregnancy and do not feel comfortable with either of those options check out this post for other options.

Greener Sex Aids/Toys – You can get organic personal lubricants from Good Clean Love. They also make love oils using essential oils. Sliquid Organics Silk is another good one. For sex toys just say no to phthalates. They can cause cancer, impair fertility, and damage our reproductive organs. You can find plastic or silicone ones that vibrate and have no phthalates. If you don’t need battery power then go for wood or glass. The glass ones are beautiful! In fact check out all the green sex stuff at Eden Fantasies. Good stuff!

Eco Lingerie – Each year I see more and more organic and sustainable lingerie options. The go to place in my mind is Etsy. You get high quality lingerie and you support small business.

Are you ready for date night yet?

When I attended the Auto Show in Detroit last week I met lots of interesting business people and bloggers that is a large part of why it was so much fun. As I was standing in line to get into the Ford press conference I met Jonathan Marshall of Parks By Nature and we chatted for quite awhile about the company and their mobile apps. I just got a smart phone a couple months ago and my main reason for upgrading was to have access to apps that would make it easier to geocache and explore our city and state parks. Parks By Nature offers an app close to my heart, though sadly they do not have one for my state just yet. Even so, I wanted to recommend it for anyone who lives in a state where they have an app and also so you can keep an eye out for your state to become available, if they don’t have it yet.

Basically, it is a mobile tour guide of your state parks. It has maps of the trails and campgrounds, weather info, event info, and lots more. You can make reservations and plan your visit using the app as well as use it to navigate if you get a little lost. From what I can tell it is very well done (ie user friendly) and very attractive to the eye as well. The rep that I met was also very excited and passionate about what they do and how it can benefit families.

If it is one of your New Year’s goals to get out and do some local exploring or take a Staycation in your own state check out Parks By Nature and @PocketRanger on Twitter. Enjoy!

For adults you have the monthly Conscious Box (of which I am a huge fan) but I also recently came across a similar concept for kids, the BabbaBox. If you subscribe then you get a new box every month especially for kids with crafts and activities to keep them entertained and engaged for a few afternoons, and not glued to a TV screen. I like the concept for the obvious reasons… it encourages play, crafting, creativity, TV free play, ect. But I also like it because it gives busy moms, and moms who don’t identify as creative or crafty, an easy way to encourage these activities in their kids without too much brain power. Having such an inventive idea at your disposal during the winter months when the weather may drive kids indoors… bonus.

And the lack of parental brain power required part, it’s no small thing. When you decide to do some crafts with kids you have to plan it out, scour the Internet for ideas that are fun yet doable, buy the stuff you need, and go to a specialty stores many times to get them. Then you try to clean the house a bit so you actually have clean work surfaces. Even so, you could end up with a big fat mess at the end, with crafts requiring massive space and time for paint to dry and you may wonder why in the heck you even decided to do this in the first place. Some of us are just not overly crafty and the work it takes to provide those experiences for your kids can be daunting.

BabbaCo, the company behind the box, set us up with a sample box to test out recently. As soon as you open the box you get an inventory of what is inside. Each activity or craft comes in a separate bag with corresponding instructions so you don’t have to worry that your kids will just dive in and lose pieces that you may need for later. It is all very organized. Our box had a Thanksgiving/Gratitude theme and like all boxes it had 4 components: Create, Explore, Story Tell, Digital. The Create part gives them 3-4 activities where they can craft and/or create. Explore seeks to engage your kids with the world and nature. Story Tell is accomplished with a story or book. Digital hooks you up with interactive learning opportunities and BabbaCo approved downloads.

In our box we got 3 gratitude projects… a serving tray to paint and decorate, a trivet/hotpad to personalize and decorate, and a DIY thank you cards. I liked that all 3 of the crafts could be used as gifts. I thought that was really timely for the season. It also came with an empty journal and a disposable camera so that a child can take pictures of all the things they are grateful for and then after they are processed, put them inside the journal. The storytelling part came into play with a copy of the book Giving Thanks. It was an excellent book that fit the theme but also incorporated a great message about wildlife and nature. It was our fave part about the box actually and got me wondering if there is a good book of the month subscription opportunity out there.

The last part was digital. You can either scan a QR code found inside the box or visit the link they give to access the corresponding digital content. There you find video and pdf files with step by step instructions for each activity (if you need it). It also links to iPad/iPhone apps. In this case it was a Dora Thanksgiving online activity (free) and a decorating cookies app. If you have one of these devices then you get the app free with a code from the box. I have an Android phone so if I wanted the app I would have had to pay. I am one of those uncool mommies who does not let my kids play with my phone and they will not get a smartphone of their own OR a tablet until they are old enough to pay for them I suspect. So, we didn’t do the app part.

The best part of the box IMO is that it also has a little gift for mom in it. Woot! This is a very clever idea! My gift was a stainless steel Tea Infuser and two bags of premium, caffeine free herbal tea. I am not a tea drinker so I will be re-gifting it but it is the thought that counts.

In the end we had fun with the box and I know my youngest would love to keep getting them. He is almost 6 and the suggested age range is 3-6. The camera/journal was a bit beyond him but I also suspect that he is on the autism spectrum like his older brother, so that could be a factor. I really like the idea and the presentation but I also think that the box could use some greening. The plastic bags that house each activity have to go, in favor of paper ones or comparable. The crafts themselves could also use some help in this regard but I do realize this product is designed to cater to eco conscious families.

If you are interested in ordering  you can use code: ZB2367U for 20% off. Does this box look like something your kids would enjoy?

When the weather is warm and I am not in the mood for a green smoothie I make the next best thing… a milkshake. Nosh on some chocolate on the side and I am heaven sent. Yum!

This is a raw, vegan “mylkshake” made from unsweetened almond milk. I added a bit of Thai coconut sugar, a ripe banana, some vanilla, and ice cubes. It is frothy and delicious. I think the Ball jar and glass straw just add a little something too.

In the bowl is handful of Nativas Naturals Cacao Goji Power Snacks. I have long liked the brand for their raw, vegan, organic offerings. They sent me this bag and and a bag of Citrus Chia snacks. The chocolate ones are killer. The Chia Citrus ones tasted like soap. I did not like them at all. My husband, however, devoured the whole bag in about 30 minutes. Guess they don’t taste like soap to everyone.

Now I am powered up for errands and laundry!

What are you snacking on?

Summertime may be winding down but most of us have a few weeks to go. Now is the time that parents run rampant trying to think of things to do as a family while you still have sunshine and an open schedule. There are many great things to do with the kids; they just take consideration, cooperation and planning and all the summer activity thus far might have left you with a little brain fry. One great thing to do with the kids that also involves getting away and into nature… is camping. This can be a wonderful outdoor adventure; keeping in mind your children’s ages, with a little planning that can be hugely successful. We are hoping to take a little camping adventure in the next several weeks… but we actually want to wait for the cooler weather of Fall.

Naturally a large part of the camping experience happens before you leave. Make sure you have all the appropriate clothing, especially for the cooler nights, swimming, and sleeping. Then you are on your way. Let the children help. Its camping, so things do not need to be perfect by any means. Let them help with the tent, food, getting wood all of it. By helping they will keep busy and feel included. You can also spend your pre-trip days getting gear from thrift stores, yard sales, friends, or Freecycle. My son bought a 6 person tent last week at a yard sale for $2.00. This is actually the second nice yard sale tent he has bought.

Planning activities while at the camp site is important too. One of the neat things to do is a nature walk. We all know kids love that stuff. Make it a long one its great exercise and it will help with sleeping later in the night. Let them touch and explore, they can gather stuff to make craft projects as well. Bring a shovel with you and let them dig. Bring a pail as well and you will have hours of contentment. Ask then to build something by the campsite and they will be occupied for a long time.

It’s a great idea to bring some outdoor toys as well. Balls, Frisbee etc are great ideas. Chances are kids won’t get bored of all the nature stuff, but if they do you are prepared. Make sure you also pack a rainy day bag. Paper, crayons and such if the weather turns bad. A couple good children’s books are also nice. Hopefully you won’t have to use it but if you do it will be much appreciated. Another tip is to keep the food simple. You can still have nutritious food just simplify it. Lots of finger foods are best and again something the kids can help with is better.

Certainly one huge thing as well is to check the campsite out before you go. You need to do this to make sure it has everything that you will need. Everyone’s idea of camping is different. Some may want to completely rough it and others will not do without certain things. So take the time to check a few places out. You will find some have activities as well for the children or hay rides at night, that would be a great extra.

The most important thing is to remember to have fun. If it’s your first time with the kids there might be a bit of stress. Just relax and remember it’s camping and just about anything goes. Let the kids have fun and explore and be creative. For the most part let the rules relax and the kids will look after themselves. Try to find the fine line between being organized to provide structure, yet not be too regimented. All in all it will be a wonderful experience and one I am sure you will do again.