Super Powers and Oreo Yogurt

My boo and Emma(dog) enjoying my awesome garage sale find!

I recently got a steal of a deal at a garage sale. A bike buggy that converts to a jogger for only $15!!! I absolutely love it! Attempted to run once: did not go so well! Have not tried it on the bike yet. Today though I broke out my rollerblades and we had a great time! The weather today is absolutely beautiful not to hot which is of utmost importance for me to be outside.

I realized today that excersising in the morning gives me superpowers that last all day long! It really is amazing! After that little trip I had an impromptu freezer cooking session. (Whole wheat chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, and 4 pans of Cheesy potatoes). Did all my laundry and dipes, vacuumed the whole house, cleaned the bathroom and kitchen, cleared off my kitchen table which is a miracle all on it's own, and still spent lots of quality time with my fam! And that's all before 5pm. Not to mention we had two sets of guests over in that time frame and have another round of guests coming soon! Whew I think I will sleep good tonite!

Super powers aside I ask myself why is it still so hard to get the motivation to exercise even when I know how much good it will do me for the day?!?!?!

I had an Aha moment this week! We love yogurt in this house but I hate to have it go bad (this doesn't happen too often since we buy organic which seems to last a lot longer!). I buy plain for my boo and don't like to buy two 32 oz. containers at once so I bought a package of oreo cookies and ground them up in the food processor...... Then I store them in a ziploc baggie in the freezer. Now I can turn my plain yogurt into a yummy late night snack! Yogurt already takes the place of ice cream in our house! It's nice to be able to buy the bigger container to save money and have less waste in the way of all those small yogurt containers. I just sprinkle a little bit of my oreo crumbs into my yogurt and voila! Yummo! :)

p.s I highly reccomend Stoneyfield Farms Yogurt. It is absolutely delicious not to mention it is organic and offsets their carbon emmissions by giving 10 percent of their profits to enviromental causes!

Protection from the sun (first guest post!)

Sunscreen is a very important but misunderstood part of sun protection for children (and adults!). It should be remembered that sunscreen is just one component in preventing overexposure, skin damage/aging, skin cancer, or sunburn. Along with an application of sunscreen one should:

• Stay out of the sun, particularly between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. when the sun’s rays are most damaging
• Seek shade
• Dress in protective/reflective clothing (available at many retail stores)
• Put on hats
• Wear sunglasses (avoid discount sunglasses that are merely tinted and do not offer UV protection)

The most effective, and safer, sunscreens are mineral based (zinc and titanium) rather than chemical based sunscreens. Mineral based sunscreens work by protecting the skin from the sun by actually deflecting or blocking the sun's rays. Nonetheless, some people find mineral sunscreens to be thick and hard to apply evenly. Some mineral sunscreens don’t offer full UVA protection either so be sure to look for broad spectrum (UVA/UVB) protection.
Conversely, chemical based sunscreens work by absorbing the sun's rays. However, chemical based sunscreens have less stability, leach into the skin, and may disrupt the body’s hormone system. Additionally, these chemical sunscreens may be less effective and cause allergic reactions, while some people find them to be irritating to skin.

But back to some basic tips on how to properly use sunscreen.
Regardless of which type of sunscreen you use, be sure and apply evenly to all exposed skin. Pay careful attention to the back of hands, top of ears and feet, and the hairline. Sunscreen should be applied 15-30 minutes BEFORE going out into the sun and then approximately every 2 hours thereafter (more often if sweating or swimming).

Year round usage is key! The sun’s rays don’t become less damaging just because the weather is cold. Remember to apply sunscreen even when there is snow on the ground. In fact, the snow reflects the rays and they can be MORE damaging in the winter than at the beach in the summer.

Finally, the FDA states that sunscreens that advertise a sun protection factor (SPF) of more than 50+ are misleading (for practical purposes 50 is the maximum SPF) and may cause people to have a false sense of security and tempt them stay in the sun longer.

The sunscreens I recommend and use on my children are: California Baby, Badger, Thinkbaby, and Alba Botanical. A makeup sponge makes application of the thicker cream easier and more even.
For more information: Environmental Working group
http://breakingnews.ewg.org/2011sunscreen/

Environmental Working Group's 2011 Sunscreen Report EWG's Skin Deep
breakingnews.ewg.org
EWG’s fifth annual Sunscreen Guide is our biggest and most fact-packed database of U.S. sun protection products ever –

The Berry Sweet Life: Guest post from *Megan Krecsmar*

************Back to the Berry Wife*************Sorry I was unable to get the link to the site to work on here (still have a lot to learn about blogging! Just copy and paste the link into your browser)

On another note: I just had the realization that we have been cloth diapering for over a year now! (our Boo is 17months) We didn't start until he was about 5 months old.

Have you seen the adds for Pampers and Huggies lately?

It seems pampers is trying to make a faux cloth diaper, are they jealous?

Don't get me started on the Huggies commercial that attempts to portray a little guy as a sex symbol in his "jeans" diaper.

These dipes are far from cute, do you know what goes into one disposable diaper?

disposables contain chemicals such as sodium polyacrylate(a chemical banned from tampons due to its link to toxic shock), and dioxin (a carcinogen). *** Info from www.ecobuns.com

Not to mention the petroleum that goes into making these babies! Do you really want to have all that on that cute little bum of yours 24/7???

Not using Cloth you will contribute over 7000 diapers to the landfill throughout your child's diapering years which will take over 200 years to decompose!

Did you know even with disposables you are supposed to dump the solids in the toilet so that they don't end up in the landfill and therefore in our water supply?

I think the biggest perk to cloth as far as the enviroment goes is that you can use the same diapers all of your children!

Talk about cute

prints and colors, here is only some of our cloth collection!! Granted I try to go the gender neutral route incase we have a girl someday, if we do though I WILL have to get some pink ones for her of course! hehe

Love my diaper caddy? It's Thirty-One Gifts and I sell it! :) you can contact me at berrysweetboutique@ hotmail.com to order one for yourself!

I purchased 90% of my diapers from www.ecobuns.com Please check out the webpage and show her facebook page some love. They are so helpful and encouraging over there. If it weren't for their help I don't know if I could have stuck through this in the beggining!

Sophie

I bought my little man a toy a couple weeks ago that I had been wanting for quite awhile. It's called Sophie the Giraffe. It's a teether toy, that honestly looks like a dog toy. It even squeaks like a dog toy lol. Anyways it is made with all natural rubber, and food grade paint. so it's perfectly safe for baby to knaw on! I am working hard to surround my baby with all natural products, food ect. Read up on plastics some day and all the harmful things found in most of them! Hopefully you already know that you want to stay with BPA free toys, bottles, cups ect. Plastics labeled #2, #4, and #5 are generally safe to stick with.

So back to sophie, I found her on ebay, and she is perfect for baby to handle and he loves to chew on her ears, and legs.. All in all totally worth the money spent!