To buy or to not buy Organic

Are you considering going organic?? Our family has made the switch!

Price: So far we have learned that organic lemons, kale, and spinach is almost always cheaper then non-organic. Red, green and yellow peppers are almost double the price as non-organic and everything else is negotiable.

Routine: Some people say its a lot of work to find all organic foods as you need to go to one place for meat and another for fruits and veggies and another for the extras. We have also changed our routine from buying all groceries at the store to going to our local farmers market for meats, fruits and veggies and an egg lady that comes every 2 weeks to our home. We have also started the process to have a hopefully luscious garden in our backyard.

Not-So-Secret List of fruits and veggies you should buy Organic:

Apples

Celery

Peppers

Peaches

Strawberries

Nectarines

Grapes

Spinach

Lettuce

Cucumbers

Blueberries

Potatoes

Green beans

Safety: I wonder how safe or natural it is to use pesticides on foods. They spray produce during each stage of growth and in turn absorbing a toxic chemical that kills every other thing on that farm except the one growing produce. Pesticides are chemically engineered to kill everything but that one plant. There is no way that could be good for me or my family's health so we have gone organic and are purchasing many foods locally.

Environmental Impact: Buying local increases local farming which has decreased significantly within the last 20 years thanks to the large corporations and manipulation. Large companies that are Genetically Modifying foods seed spread (like normal plants do) and contaminates other natural farmers crops. Once they are found with these crops that now have the genes from the GM crops they are sewed and put out of business. The next part of environmental impact is that these foods are being picked before they are actually ripe (about 1-2 weeks) and chemicals are put on them to help them travel great distances. Pollution is also another thing to consider as many foods are put through a large corporation then travel by plane from one truck to another truck to your grocery store.

Happy natural pesticide-free eating!

DIY Glass Cozy

We have a family of 3 and no dishwasher (well except me). Family that lives downstairs, and friends and family that come over at least 5 times a week.

When people come over the most common request is a drink. We have water at our house which looks the same in all of our same looking cups. I was washing cups every day like it was going out of style. So I came up with an idea to decrease cup use!

Everyday one person is allowed one glass. How do we keep them straight? Glass Cozies!

I picked out different fabric colours and styles that I had at home, first for my family then for friends. It is a loop of fabric with an elastic band sewn inside the fabric. I just measured the width around our glasses and added some extra fabric to give the scrunchy look.

This has solved all my dishwashing problems! I no longer have to wash 6 glasses when there were only 3 people home.

Happy homemade living!

How to make a fabric advent calendar!

I know its kinda late to post this but maybe a Christmas idea for next year?

Every year as a child my momma surprised us with chocolate advent calendars. You know the ones with waxy chocolate, but as a child you think it is just the best thing ever!? Thanx to my momma we have another new tradition to use every year :)

No, it isn't the chocolate advent calendars. I made my own that suited our family!

A Christmas Felt Advent Calendar

During Christmas we get more then enough cookies and treats from friends and family (and our bakings in the home) so I wanted to come up with something that excludes daily treats. We have troubles some days thinking of things to do as a family or those lazy days, and this year we found it energized us to do what was on the tab for the day.

I started with a felt tree, then felt ornaments and christmasy things to go on or around the tree, our little family and presents (the extra present is for our pup). The ornaments are movable via velcro on the back of each one.

Next came the background. I measured how big I wanted it to be free cut out the numbers. Then came the boxes.

At the top and bottom are bamboo sticks holding it straight.

Here comes the coolest part. Each of the pockets have a felt christmas ornament to put on the tree every day as well as an activity for our little family to do together. The 24th day has the Christmas Star. Our little cookie cannot wait to put the star on her calendar tree!

This 'I love Santa' has velcro too! It goes on the pocket of the day and moves as days go on. I purchased this from the dollar store, it came in a pack of 6.

Some examples are: skating, board games, build a fort and sleep in it, watch christmas movies, bake and ice christmas cookies for friends, build a fort and read stories in it, get in pj's make hot chocolate and drive around to see christmas lights, collect toys that we don't play with and put them in a shoe box for other children.

You can add other things like traditions your family has (ie going to cut down a christmas tree). Our little girl LOVES it! The first thing she says in the morning is "I have to go see the Christmas calendar! I wonder what fun things we get to do today!" She runs back to our bed with the note of our family activity of the day and tells us what else was in the pocket.

The chocolates are gone. This is definitely coming out again next year!

This was very inexpensive to make. I used leftover felt from various other projects for the decorations, other felt was bought at the dollar store and finally at Fabricland they had the red background fleece on sale for $5!!

Merry Christmas Friends!

Christmas Traditions

Christmas time is upon us again! Shoeboxes that we save throughout the year come out for the toy and food drives.
We have the inside of our home all decorated (except the tree, that's getting chopped down on the 1st).
Every year we discuss traditions that each of our families do and what we want to keep going and traditions we want to start.
Traditions that we have continued are going out to a tree farm with my entire family and any friends that want to come along and chop down a tree. (They plant 4 trees for every one that gets cut) While we are there we roast marshmallows and hot dogs (only time I eat them) on the fire, sing Christmas carols and wear Santa hats.
My most favorite tradition is the night before Christmas we each open 1 present from mom and dad that usually contains pajamas or a housecoat that we sleep in that night.
Another tradition we have is everyone sleeps at our place the night before Christmas bed or no bed (the sleeping bags come out). We have breakfast together (generally pancakes or French toast) then open presents.
Oooo I almost forgot the night before Christmas the whole family comes over (to spend the night) but we have a very late dinner that consists of homemade buns a chicken soup with dumplings. Soooo good!
We also have an advent calendar that o made for our little cookie to see how many days until Christmas it is. Each little pocket has either a good deed to do for the day (like helping someone) or fun ideas (like going up the mountain sledding or making Christmas ornaments together). There is a little Santa that holds on to each pocket to show where we are in the month of December.

I would like to start collecting snow globes. Maybe purchase one a year!

What are your favorite family traditions?