Trying To Be Greener

Safer eco-living, one day at a time

A healthier and safer New Year! January 1, 2010

Filed under: green web sites — Kirstin @ 6:32 pm
Tags: ,

Happy New Year everyone! Wishing you the very best for the upcoming year! Here’s a few sites to help you  throughout the year in buying local, safer food and items:

Discovery Health’s Farmer’s Market Map – Find where your closest farmer’s market is.

HealthyStuff.org – See listings of common toys and how they tested for harmful chemicals.

Cosmetic Database Skin Deep – Environmental Working Group’s listings of many common cosmetics and personal care products with ratings on how safe their ingredients are.

What’s On My Food – This site has a searchable database that allows you to see residue data from pesticides on food and information about each of the chemicals. You can check a list of 89 foods or search by pesticide name.

Environmental Defense Fund – Visit this site for a handy card to keep in your wallet showing which fish are safest to choose when you’re deciding on dinner at a restaurant or supermarket.

Photo from Flickr by Optical Illusion

 

Great parent web sources July 10, 2009

Filed under: baby,BPA,children,green web sites,health — Kirstin @ 12:17 pm
Tags:

Head on over to Eco Women today where I’ve written about some great sites for parents.

Green Mommy

Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.
 

Thank you, thank you very much! February 18, 2009

Filed under: green web sites — Kirstin @ 7:54 pm
Tags:

lemonadeaward

When I first started this blog last July, I did it to organize all the new, “green” information I was learning and to then make it available to others who might be interested. The former teacher in me just always wants to help others. So when I found out yesterday from Lena at Over Coffee that she nominated me for a Lemonade Award, well, I was tickled pink! An award? For me?!!!!! I have to say that’s it’s pretty nice to be recognized and appreciated. Thank you Lena!

Over Coffee

Over Coffee

Here is what it said to do after-

1. Thank the person who was so thoughtful for giving you this award by linking their blog to this post.
2. Put the logo on your blog or post.
3. Nominate 10 blogs which show great attitude/gratitude.
4. Link your nominee to your post.
5. Comment them to tell them about the award they’ve won.

So I’d like to nominate sites that I mention often and provide readers with a great deal of very important “green” information (OK, so I only have 9, not 10, but that just shows you that I’m not choosing just anyone – these sites are ones you should really check out):

Eco Women: Protectors of the Planet

Safe Mama

The Soft Landing

Green and Clean Mom

Green Baby Guide

Green Mom Finds

Non-toxic Kids

SAF Baby (Safe Alternatives for Baby and Child)

Z Recommends

Keep up the good work everyone!

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Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.
 

Great Eco-site for Kids December 9, 2008

Filed under: children,green web sites,recycling — Kirstin @ 9:13 am
Tags: , ,

When I was a fifth grade Special Education teacher, I taught “Internet” class to my students once a week. I had a small class so we were able to share and sit around the four computers in my classroom. We’d look up information on topics we’d been covering in class that week in Science, Social Studies, or current events.

For the last 7 minutes of the period, I would always give my students “free time” on the Internet. However, it was always highly supervised and in a way, it wasn’t totally “free”. They could only choose from sites that I suggested. But I always had a great list of educational “cool” places to visit so there were never any arguments.

One site I wish I knew about was EcoKids Online. There’s many educational games about recycling, food chains, pollution, and more. There’s even an area for teachers with lesson plans and reprintables – all free (a word all teachers LOVE to hear!). Take a look and if you don’t have school aged children yourself, pass it along to parents who do. They’ll appreciate the suggestion.

ecokids

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Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.
 

Need help “greening” your home? December 8, 2008

So many of us these days are interested in making our home and lives safer and eco-friendly. But sometimes it can seem overwhelming on where to start. You could do the research yourself, but many don’t have the time to do so. “Couldn’t someone just help to get me started?”, you think. Well yes, actually, someone can.

I recently found out about a company called Green Irene. Green Irene can provide a trained and certified local Eco-Consultant to come to your home and help take the guess work out of reducing your carbon footprint and choosing safer and healthier lifestyle.

They offer a $99.00 Green Home Makeover where a consultant can help you with recommendations on energy conservation improvements, water conservation and purity tools, improving indoor air quality, reducing harmful chemicals in use in your home, and tax Credits, rebates and other financial incentives available in your area to name a few.

Green Irene also offers people the opportunity for them to own their own business of becoming an Eco-Consultant themselves to help others make going “green” simple.

green-irene-2

Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.
 

Your daily dose of eco-mommy tips November 21, 2008

Filed under: green web sites — Kirstin @ 8:35 am
Tags: , , ,

If you haven’t heard about The Daily Bite yet, you really need to. Each day, an email can be sent to you with great tid-bits on all things “green”. You can even get additional specific information for your area if you live near a city.

As of today, Mom’s can now get “green” information delivered each day to their inbox too. Check it out – you’ll thank yourself afterwards.

Ideal Bite

Ideal Bite

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Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.
 

For the holidays choose safer, natural toys November 14, 2008

Recently, I wrote about introducing my daughter to toys made of safer, natural materials. My desire has been to try to limit her exposure to lead, BPA, and phthalates, all of which are extremely harmful but even more so to small bodies.

This isn’t an easy thing to do. You can’t always rely on safe toys being sold in conventional places. Many of the products sold there contain the harmful components mentioned above. I’ve always just ended up doing research myself on individual toys and just searched for them all over the internet.

I used to feel uncomfortable about well meaning relatives and friends purchasing toys for my daughter that may not be the safest choices and with the holidays coming up, this could be a time of “plastic overload”. I found, though, that there’s an easy way around this. When asked what they can get for my daughter, I just suggest a store that has a variety of choices with a high standard for safety.

One of those stores is Natural Pod. Natural Pod is a Canadian company that was started by individuals who were just interested in finding safer toys for their own children. Their site has a variety of beautiful toys for babies, toddlers, and young children. These are toys that you’ll want to hang onto for generations to come – how often have you been able to say that about typical toys you come in contact with?

They have lovely toys for babies:

Organic Soft Block Set

Organic Soft Block Set

Stacking toys for toddlers:

Nesting Birds

Nesting Birds

Toys that inspire imagination:

Chef's Kitchen and Hutch

Chef's Kitchen and Hutch

And toys that keep your child active:

LikeaBike Forest

LikeaBike Forest

Not to mention others, like musical instruments, bath toys, arts and crafts, and dolls just to name a few.

Lucky you: Get 10% off your first order at Natural Pod when you use the code “GCM08″ through December 31st. Be sure to pass this information along to any family members who may interested in purchasing holiday toys for your little ones.

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Copyright © 2008. Trying To Be Greener. All rights reserved.
 

“Green” Consumer Reports October 8, 2008

Filed under: green web sites — Kirstin @ 7:43 am
Tags: ,

Consumer Reports has a great web site called Greener Choices that lists appliances, electronics, cars, food and beverages, and home and garden information. Each category gives you useful “green” material and “Green Ratings” for specific items, such as dishwashers, garbage disposers, washers/dryers, cell phones, and televisions to name a few.

Greener Choices also can help you with understanding eco-labels, energy calculators, and how different items around your home can expose you to toxins.

I really love when a web sites give you so much in just one place!

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