My boys are five and three years old.  Until two months ago, neither had ever had a “proper” bed.  When our big one finally agreed to sleep in a bed other than ours, we put him in an old futon. Our littlest one slept in a hand-me down crib and then a hand-me down toddler bed, but mostly he slept in our bed.

We just moved, and we wanted to splurge for real beds for the boys. We decided on bunk beds, which are currently separated into two beds since our five-year isn’t quite ready to sleep on top. As we were placing the order for the beds, we were all set to order the inexpensive foam mattresses.

Then I remembered reading a discussion on an online message board about the danger of fire retardants in mattresses. So I started googling.  After a few hours, I had convinced not only myself, but also my husband, that we needed to get organic mattresses for the boys. [Read more →]

Everybody is going green these days, it seems.  From restaurants touting their “green” paper products to little old ladies toting their cloth bags to the grocery store.  Green is most definitely the new black.

On the one hand, I think “Great! This planet can use all the help it can get!”  On the other hand, I’m starting to think that going green has become window dressing. Two parts marketing ploy, one part environmental movement.

Case in point: I just got home from my sons’ preschool Back-to-School night. The director gleefully announced that, “the preschool is going green!” And just how is the school doing this? By installing a paper recycling bin at the front door.  Parents who don’t have curbside pick up (we don’t) are invited to bring their paper to the school.

It’s a nice idea, right? An opportunity to increase recycling rates while teaching our kids about recycling. And yet something about her ebullient announcement seemed empty.  Empty, perhaps, because on any given day, I receive at least three handouts from the kids’ teacher and four more from the school administration. [Read more →]

I was drumming my fingers nervously on the keyboard, willing myself to come up with something genius to say, when it hit me: Just get the first post over with.  It doesn’t matter what you say, largely because no one is reading yet anyway. So, here it is: The Obligatory First Post.

I’ve been mulling over the idea of starting a for-public-consumption blog for a long time.  As a freelance writer, I blog for hire (currently about finding the perfect job and financing your college education). As a mom, I blog in relative seclusion (and with increasing infrequency) about raising my kids.

About six months ago, a friend (and blogging smartypants) told me I should write a blog.  I took his advice to heart, especially the part where he told me I needed a niche.  That niche part really stumped me. [Read more →]