• Last updated 1/25/13 by Melanie Mayo

Thank you to Rachel Jonat from Minimalist Mom for this guest post. This is part three of her three part series for us on minimalist living. Read post one and two. Check out her site for even more great information. Radical minimalism, counting everything you own and moving into the smallest living space you can find, isn’t for everyone. When I first approached simplifying what we own I felt intimidated by the more extreme approaches. We love where we live, I do like my espresso machine and our 1100 square foot condominium – small for North American standards... read more

• Last updated 1/25/13 by Melanie Mayo

Thank you to food expert and Edible Living blogger Sarah Copeland for this guest blog. Keep an eye out for her forthcoming book “The Newlywed Cookbook: Fresh Ideas and Modern Recipes for Cooking With and For Each Other.” Babies learn to enjoy and prefer nutrient rich foods not just from tasting the foods you eat as parents, but also by interacting with the taste, textures and colors of food at their source. Even before they are ready for solid foods, babies can begin relating positively to healthy foods by picking, touching, and eventually tasting fresh... read more

• Last updated 1/25/13 by Melanie Mayo

On the drive home this evening, my three year old was feeling a little grumpy. ‘Don’t ask me about my day, Mama,’ he warned with a growl as I buckled him into his seat after I picked him up at day care. So I didn’t, and silence filled the car until the moment I rounded the corner onto our street, at which point Gabriel nearly broke out of his five-point harness for pure joy, shouting, ‘Look, Mama! It’s the MAIL TRUCK!’ Sure, he likes trucks. But the excitement that melted away his bad mood was all about the mail. If anyone happens to notice when Miss... read more

• Last updated 1/17/13 by Melanie Mayo

The red peppers and onions dangled overhead. The hams and the venison hung in their paper wrappings, and all the bunches of dried herbs, the spicy herbs for cooking and the bitter herbs for medicine, gave the place a dusty-spicy smell. Do you remember that description of the attic from Little House in the Big Woods, where Laura and Mary would play house with pumpkins for furniture and a corncob for a doll when the late autumn chill drove them indoors? Maybe, if you’re lucky, you’ve re-visited the world that Ma and Pa worked so hard to sustain with your own... read more

• Last updated 1/17/13 by Melanie Mayo

A Special Message from Jan Hunt of The Natural Child Project. The Natural Child Project has promoted compassionate parenting and natural learning since 1996. We are grateful for the opportunity we’ve had to provide information, advice and encouragement to thousands of families around the world. However, the current economy is making it difficult for us to continue. In fourteen years, we have only needed to ask for special help once before. Our current situation is critical. We are sending this message to our readers to ask for a small donation. If... read more

• Last updated 1/17/13 by Melanie Mayo

I imagine many Mothering families can relate to The Healthy Home author Dave Wentz when he says that having a child made healthy living more of a priority for his family than before.  That was how the book began.  Wentz, with his father biologist Dr. Myron Wentz, “set out to prove that you don’t have to be a scientist–or even a cave-dwelling technophobe–to protect your family from the toxic influences found in modern society” in The Healthy Home. The Wentz’s focus is on health, not necessarily “green living” (though the two certainly overlap significantly),... read more

• Last updated 1/11/13 by Melanie Mayo

For many small nonprofits, affording something as basic as a vehicle to carry out their work can be a near impossibility. Whether it is delivering meals to an elderly person, moving injured animals to a safe shelter, or transporting a sick child to and from a doctor’s appointment—a car is a necessity that many causes cannot live without. Toyota, who has a long history of corporate philanthropy, is recognizing the importance of filling this need with their 100 Cars for Good campaign, launched earlier this year. The 100 Cars for Good campaign is Toyota’s... read more

• Last updated 1/7/13 by Cynthia Mosher

This giveaway has ended. The randomly chosen winner is Amy, comment #331. Congrats! You will be emailed. If you didn’t win you can still grab up some great LunchBots on their website! – Win a set of 4 LunchBots stainless steel lunch containers! One each of our most popular items including: -Blue Uno – The perfect container for packing a sandwich, sushi, burrito — your favorite lunch to go. -Orange Duo – The ideal container for snacks. It has a divider for crackers and cheese, fruit and nuts, and more. -Yellow... read more

• Last updated 1/7/13 by Melanie Mayo

This was originally posted on the Holistic Moms Network blog in August. This month the Holistic Moms Network took a huge step in support of working-class mothers that could ultimately mean the financial ruin of the organization. They moved their Natural Living Conference from a boycotted hotel (the Hilton Long Beach) to the Irvine Marriott. In 2008, the workers at the Hilton Long Beach signed union cards and joined UNITE HERE Local 11, the union that represents workers in the hospitality industry in the U.S. and Canada. With poverty level wages (average... read more

• Last updated 1/7/13 by Melanie Mayo

www.HollyHawk.com Digging Dirt Going Green By Jessica Williams, www.LoveParentingLA.com My friend is a landscape artist. She brings green things to life, beautifying everything in her path. I have had aspirations for our backyard but busy with three children and L.O.V.E. Parenting, I had yet to follow through. One Saturday, my friend took the reigns and decided to involve our children and work together to transform a portion of our yard into an edible garden. The children, five total between the ages of two and seven,... read more