Amendment One in NC

I was under the impression that the first amendment was for the FREEDOM of religion, speech, press, and gathering.  I know it's been a few years since I studied the US Constitution but I do know that it is what makes our country great is that we have FREEDOM.  Which is why so many people use to come here. 
I know each amendment goes deeper than is seen and stated, which you can dive into and read all about in the links above.  What I'd like to address is some post and information I've seen that I really can't agree with.  I use to live in NC and still have friends who live there so this is how I learned about the new proposed bill, one of my friends shared the photo:

This really aggravates me that such a beautiful state could think to take away a person's rights.  It doesn't matter if what your status is, what your religion is, if you're gay, straight, bi, dress conservatively or "inappropriately" if someone says NO it means NO.  Abuse of all kinds can happen to anyone and everyone should be able to get help.

Not only would this take away domestic violence protections but it would ban all types of civil unions and partnership which is not between one man and one woman.  Learn about the ballot.

Please let's open our eyes to how this will be taking away peoples rights.  How can we think that it is OK to say that only if you're married that you will be involved in domestic violence?  And why is there such hate towards gay people?

If you know anyone living in NC please share this with them so they can know what's going on in their state.

You won't see many post from me about voting but this is something I feel strongly about.  I don't get into politics much because I don't have a "side" and usually I don't vote but if I were in NC or something like this was going on in my state I'd be registering to vote right away.

Green week 4

I can't believe April is over.  What a busy month it was.  I figured since I've been busy talking about educating ourselfs about toxic chemicals in our cleaners at Earth Day Events I'd use that as some of my green tips.

Green Tips:

** Educate yourself and your kids.  Learning about the ways to go green is one of the most important things you can do, and as I saw over the last 2 weekends there are many interactive activities at Earth Day Events for kids to learn.  When I was in school they also had activities for use, find out if there's something going on in your area where you can take your kids out to.
**One great way to go green and include your kids is to have your own garden, you and your family will enjoy watching the plants grow and eating the fruits of your labor :)  I look forward to planting our own garden this year although we're still deciding on where we're going to place the garden.
 **  Hang up your laundry to dry instead of using the dryer and reduce the amount of electricity you use.  Also with laundry wait until you have a full load instead of doing mini loads.  You can also use a green laundry detergent, softer, and dryer sheets.  These dryer sheets go right in your paper recycling when you're done.  And this stain remover and laundry booster can double as a toilet bowl cleaner and is safe enough that it won't hurt your pets if they accidentally drink it.

Green website/paper: www.worldwatch.org 

This site talks about why going green is important and ways to do so and also gives you resources to buy about sustainable living.

Green Person: The Late Wangari Maathai

Wangari Maathai won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her work in planting trees in her home country of Kenya, Africa.  She founded the Green Belt Movement which has planted over 30million trees in Africa!
I learned of her because she is very well respected in the Shaklee community this year I learned about the I am the Humming Bird  campaign where this year Shaklee has a goal of planting 1 billion trees world wide in honor of the late Wangari Maathai.

Green week 3

HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!

Quite a bit has been going on this week.  I had a BBQ on Sunday celebrating my birthday and my new business.  I tried to make it a green event and found a few tips I'll share.  I also went to an Earth Day event where I got to talk to people about toxic chemicals in their cleaners.  It was a great week.  I love how many kids came out to the event it really shows that there is hope for a brighter future.

 Here is a photo of Lisa Alexander and I at our booth: 

Tips:  Small changes for a party that everyone is sure to enjoy and the planet will like more as well.

I know that we always try to do things the easy way when it comes to hosting a party or event at our house.  We want less dishes so we use paper and plastic everything, we buy soda, bottled water, and make burgers and hot dogs.

What I planned on doing was having everyone use our plates and dishes but once we counted out how many people were going to come out we found we had to use something else, but I wanted to try to be more green so we found recycled paper plates and used them.  We also instead of getting plastic forks, knives, and spoons we sent out our real forks for people to use.

I made homemade sweet tea and filled an already empty plastic jug with my tea and a glass pitcher (which is what I used to serve it in. (pictured below)

The great benefit to this was that there was less sugar than store bough ice tea, and it was much cheaper!  And everyone commented on how great it was (score!)

I asked guest to BYOB so we didn't have the added cost of supplying beer for everyone.

I did not find a way around buying plastic cups.  

We helped minimize clean up by setting out a bin for everyone to put their cans in.

For food everyone asked what they could bring and told us what they were bringing so we didn't have to cook a whole lot and made some kabobs, fruit salad, and homemade dip.  Everything turned out great!  To our surprise we only had a few meat dishes and lots of choices for everyone!

A BBQ almost always requires a fire.  I love sitting or standing around a campfire with friends.  This year a friend of ours found a great way to reduce the amount of wood you use when having a fire, contain the fire well, and it makes the perfect way to cook when camping.  Check out the photos below and if you're interested in one for your next camping trip please send an email asking for more info.

I also sent out the invite over Facebook instead of sending out written invites to everyone.  I did snail mails some to people who aren't on facebook.  So I saved myself an added cost of prints, cards, and postage. And reduced the amount of paper we used.

Website: Earth Day Organizer's Guide 

Here's a great site for ways to celebrate Earth Day today and everyday by yourself and as an event.

People: The volunteers at Lacawac Sanctuary

Lacawac Sanctuary is a great place to learn about our ecosystem and enjoy the outdoors.  They offer many educational programs.  If you're in their area check out what they have going on or just stop in for a visit.

Green week 2

Tip: Filter your water.

Instead of buying cases of bottled water, get a water purification system and use that.  We like Get Clean Water, but there are many others for you to chose from.  I use to buy a lot of water (I did recycle the bottles) but I'm really happy to have found a water purifier that I trust and now will be getting less BPA, lead, and other contaminates in my drinking water :)

Website/Newspaper: Natural Awakenings Magazine

I stumbled across this for FREE at a local store I went to this week and picked it up.  It was great, it told me about Green Businesses in the area, and gave me more green tips, tricks, and reasons.

Photo by Little Deer Photography 

Person: YOU

Yes, I say YOU.  As in every one that reads this you that you tell, you, me, our kids, everyone can be green.  It doesn't take much, make one change and make a difference, make 5 small changes and make an impact, change your life and become an activist.  What you do is up to you.
Every one of us wants to live in a beautiful land, and weather you make a change to save yourself some money or because you want a better world for our kids we are all helping.
I'm far from perfect when it comes to going green.  I've driven my fair share of cars that get 8miles to the gallon and leak oil like crazy, I love to have a warm house and I take long showers, but I'm making small changes in other areas and that helps.  I feel better making these changes and knowing that I'm doing something good.
Don't be unhappy when you're going green and making these changes because that won't give you satisfaction.  By all mean if you get a water purification system and you don't like it, then go ahead and send it back in, get your refund, and buy your bottled water, but recycle the bottle when you're done with them.
Learn how to become an Earth Day Advocate and spread your passion.

Here is a photo of my husband, daughter, and myself.  Hope you all had a Happy Easter.  Would love to hear some ways YOU are Green!  Please post them below!

Realized I've over booked myself

Today should be Day 5 of my Green living tips.
I've realized that I don't have enough time in a day to write a Green living tip every day. I would like to and I think it's still a great idea but I just don't have enough time to devote to writing a blog everyday.  I'm sorry.  I will still continue to put up at least one or two Green living tip blogs each week for the month of April.

I've also overbooked myself with BOOKS!  I had gone to the library and put in a request for 3 books they didn't have and they all showed up and have to be back in 2weeks, so I have a lot of reading to be doing.
I've gotten: Peas and Thank-You, The-Face-Your-Plate, and Death by Medicine.

I'm also planning Earth Day events, I want to write the other blog I mentioned about overcoming a bad past, and I have a newsletter to write and send out to my family and friends...slightly misjudged how much time is in a day.

Hope you all have a great Easter!

Green Day 4

Tip: Plant a Tree

I remember in school a couple years we were given trees to plant...if you're kid brings home a tree plant it...if you live somewhere where you can't...find a big pot to keep it in.
This year Shaklee has a goal to plant 1billion trees around the world!!! I'm very happy to say I will be a part of that!  I'll be planting one in our yard!  I love weeping cherry trees and would love to plant one of them.



I just love this photo of the CEO of Shaklee planting trees for his A Million Trees. A Million Dreams™, environmental campaign that raised awareness of global climate change and initiates efforts to plant trees in North America and Africa which in 2009 Shaklee commemorated the planting of the 1 millionth tree, a culmination of a three year campaign with program Ambassador and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. Wangari Maathai and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.


Trees breath life back into our atmosphere.  They are a home to birds, and animals, they provide natural shade (I know you can go inside or put up an umbrella or whatever but it's not the same as sitting under a tree and enjoying some lemonade), they also filter polloution from the air and prevent soil loss.  Plant a tree this year with your kids

Movie: FernGully: The Last Rainforest

Here's another great family movie about how important trees are.  Again my husband picked out this movie because he watched it as a kid and still loves it (now that I've seen it I love it too)  If you haven't seen it pick it up and watch it tonight with your family, if you have seen it be sure to share it with your kids as well :)

Person: Roger Barnett

Since I've already put a photo of him up I figured now is a great time to share about Roger.  He is the CEO of Shaklee.  He spent $20million researching Shaklee to make sure they were the greenest company he could find before he then bought it!  Since he took over he's invested even more of his money into research and development and international expansion and improving the compensation plan!
So where did Roger come from that he had 20million to spend doing research??  You might know the name of two of the other companies that he was the CEO of...arcade inc and beauty.com.  When Roger's son became sick and developed Asthma with no family history of breathing issues Roger and his wife began doing research on why he was sick.  (I shared this in The Truth about our Cleaning Products) Once he found Shaklee he then invested money and wanted to know how green they were and everything about the company.  We're very glad he did his homework and loved the company so much that he decided to buy it! We love have the World Economic Forum selected "Global Leader for Tomorrow" as the guy in charge.

Green Day 3

Tip: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

This one is self explanatory...Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle to cut down on how much trash is going into landfills.

Website:kidsrgreen.org

A site for kids to play jigsaw puzzles, unscramble words, and take quizzes about Earth, endangered animals and more

Person: Will Steger

If you haven't heard of him, you probably still know who he is, click on his name and check out his site which has some of his photography work, books he's written and all about the expeditions he's gone on.  He's long been an active environmentalist having even gone in front of Congress to talk about issues with our environment especially the poles.  He is just an amazing man who has done so much in some very harsh conditions!  Thanks Will Steger for all the knowledge and experience you've brought to us about how we're effecting our world!!