This was my reaction several months ago as I was reading the ingredients on the label of my favorite sunscreen. The one that doesn’t feel heavy and gooey on my skin and doesn’t run into my eyes faster than I can run to the corner and back. The one I slather on almost daily. The one that has parabens in it. Oh, #$&*. It wasn’t until recently I learned the reason behind the “no parabens” claim on a variety of skin care products. Parabens are used in personal care items (certain cosmetics, sunscreen, and toothpaste, to name a few) as…

Last week’s post Does It Matter What We Put On Our Skin? took to task the lax U.S. standards for personal care products and recommended, for the benefit of our health and our children’s, investing in cleaner body care that adheres to the stricter European standards. Transitioning to this safer body care can be pricey, especially when throwing out partially-used sunscreen, conditioner and cosmetics. But there are several ways to get that money back with smart and some oh-so-slightly-neurotic ways of extending those cleaner, healthier products: Use the right amount. Many of us are guilty (count me in!) of overusing…

A few years ago I was enjoying savasana during another yoga session in Kohler, Wisconsin. Our instructor was giving departing words of wisdom. As I sunk into my mat, eyes closed so I wouldn’t become distracted by the beautiful lake on full display through the wall of windows, my meditation was still thrown by Yogi J’s words: Women apply a (big number) of chemicals to their skin every day. I don’t recall the full context of her words, and I don’t remember the exact figure J quoted,* but it was enough to make my mind swirl and keep a fully…

We decided they were ready, old enough. So as part of our New Year’s Eve movie marathon, Dad and I added The Hunger Games to our cinematic lineup. Two of our kids gave the movie a thumbs up. But not twenty minutes in, our oldest was appalled. His not-so-inner-dialogue for the next two hours went something like this: This movie is horrible. This is not entertainment. We’re supposed to enjoy this? I knew we were taking a chance on a dystopian movie, especially with our sensitive, vividly-imaginative son. But I also knew he would respond to my agreeing with him….

My husband drank a gallon of it a day during his teenage growth spurts. I drank it three meals a day (and never missed Chocolate Milk Wednesdays at school). My son can drink a big carton of Fairlife chocolate milk in no time flat. But do our kids really need to drink milk? Milk does have the calcium that children and adolescents need for developing strong bones, and is fortified with the vitamin D to get that calcium where it needs to go. On the other hand, parents worry about the hormones milk may contain and read labels carefully for…

“So our teacher asked us, ‘What is something others may not know about you?’” my older son told me. He, at nearly fourteen, doesn’t burst forth about his day at shared school, but drips information over the rest of the week. We had just finished our homeschool day, and he was ready to share. My son is not the “sharing” type, so I was more than curious how he handled this request. “What did you tell your class?” “I told them I was made in a lab.” Talk about a big reveal. I’m sure he had his beginnings on the…

Decision making is crucial because the decisions your children make dictate the path that their lives take. They need to judge the risks and rewards of their decisions in the short run and the long term. ~Psychologist Jim Taylor, Ph.D. The car shirt or the train shirt? Pasta or stir fry? Inside or out? (The last question uttered by moms the world over who are sick and tired of doors slamming and flies whizzing into the house.) Fortunately, whether to involve our children in making decisions is one decision we as parents don’t have to make because the answer is…

It was a why didn’t I think of this before? moment. My husband and I have had our kids for over a decade now, and it didn’t occur to me until a couple months ago to actually be prepared for cold and flu season. Instead of a rushed trip to the grocery store for soup and Powerade, why not have a stash ready to go in case of fever, runny nose or vomiting? This viral season I’ve been especially grateful to be prepared. First there was my husband’s bad luck with bad eggnog (not a virus but it sure acted…

I remember in college a particular room down the hall from mine. The two girls living there used what I’ll call the Floor Organizational System for everything and I mean for everything, they owned. It was impressive. I often wondered what lurked beneath the jumbled layer of wrinkled clothes that floated like an oil spill on the ocean. I held the opposite, more retentive perspective on organization, preferring a fully visible floor in case of a wasp attack. Then I could drop my organic chemistry book on top of those suckers without getting too close, a strategy that was really…