WE have had so many neat submissions on different topics that are important to creating a healthy family…here are five that demonstrate a different value we have:
Breastfeeding
Babywearing
Babywearing on a hike
Co-sleeping
Green Living
Whole Food (and french fries!)
Night Owl eating out – nothing on the menu appealed to him, so he ordered his own smorgasbord for lunch!
I picked this title as a reminder that when you wear your Sweet Pea, one of the safety checks is that they are “close enough to kiss” <3 Read more about safe babywearing HERE from The School of Babywearing™.
So sorry that the posts that were supposed to be #wordlesswednesdays are a little late this week…I have been under the weather and being #1 for the kiddos has been my priority. Being a gentle parent is definitely a worthy goal…and letting go of other things helps me do that 🙂 I will announce this month’s submission contest winners tomorrow!
So, here are the lovely submissions for the Babywearing Theme of the Month. Be sure to check out our post on Sweet Pea Births to see this month’s Breastfeeding Theme: Lucky Charms.
Have you heard of the “Snugli”? I remember that this is what we used to call carriers “back in the day” when my brothers were babies 25 years ago!
Soft-structured carrier
Woven wrap
Ring sling
Soft-structured carrier
Woven wrap
This week’s theme focuses on the small changes we can make as individuals and as a family to green our homes and workplaces. One small shift can drastically diminish the amount of chemicals and toxins you are exposed to….some of our alumni have taken even more steps to make a big shift in their environments..
Eating out at restaurants that are committed to reducing plastic.
SPB alum family: Raising chickens: you know what they are eating and how they are cared for 0 the eggs and the meat are as safe and non-GMO as you want to feed them.
SPB alum family: Replacing typical one-use, disposable items with fabric towels, laundry soap nuts, and wool dryer balls (not pictured).
SPB alum family: DIY dish soap, All purpose orange cleaner, glass cleaner, vinegar (which cleans stainless steel!), foaming handsoap (and DIY dispenser), bath salts, deodorant, vicks-like chest rub, toothpaste, tooth powder, powder foundation, bronzer, blush, mascara, and eyeliner. Everything is in glass except the mascara, blush, foundation, and bronzer. Those are in the containers my old makeup was in.
Using dry-erase boards instead of paper in our schoolroom.
Using our home-garden for medicine: aloe is great on burns and scrapes.
Growing our greens: we know they are from organic seeds and pesticide free. Bonus: this method is low-water and chemical fertilizer-free.
Instant compost using our Vitamix: instead of throwing out rinds and peels from the produce we use to juice and make smoothies, we blend it with water in the Vitamix and pour it over our kitchen-herb container garden.
Recently started using mama-cloth to reduce the toxins our girl parts are exposed to once a month.
We have been using un-paper towels since the summer. Just added the little toilet-size cloth for use in the car for all the little clean-ups!
A mix of Vera Bradley, PBKids, and Itsy Ritzy. Since switching over to reusable containers we hardly ever use plastic baggies – don’t miss them at all!
Expecting? Read more about greening to avoid harmful substance for a healthy, low-risk pregnancy on our sister blog Sweet Pea Births
Read more about greening:
Why we made the switch to mama-cloth from Shannon’s Cloth and More HERE
Home-gardening HERE
Not pictured:
How we greened our nursery HERE
Green Nail Polish HERE
Living Green HERE
This Wordless Wednesday is not so “wordless” since I am going to share some of the benefits of each of the colors from as per Michigan State University.
Red produce contains lycopene . Lycopene helps provide the reds with their red color, as well as helps lower our chances of getting certain cancers, lowers blood pressure, reduces joint pain associated with arthritis, helps with heart health and memory functions.
Orange produce contains beta-Carotene, which helps our bodies make vitamin A. Vitamin A helps us have healthy skin, improves our vision and overall good eye health and lowers the risk of certain cancers.
Yellow produce contains antioxidants that promote wound healing, and aids in digestion, supports a healthy immune system, lowers the risk of certain cancers, improves vision health and heart health.
Green produce contains fiber, calcium and folate. Folate is essential in a healthy pregnancy, helping to reduce birth defects, as well as helps to maintain vision health, strong bones and teeth and lowers the risk of some cancers.
Fresh greens from our garden 🙂
Blue produce contains vitamin C, flavonoids and lutein. Blue produce also helps maintain urinary health, improve memory function, lower the risk of certain cancers and supports healthy aging.
Violet produce contains many of the same vitamins, nutrients and minerals as the other colors including resveratrol and zeaxanthin, which helps to boost immunity.
Some of the other produce and dried berries that we enjoy that are not pictured:
This is our last love-month-theme…a reminder that when you wear your Sweet Pea, one of the safety checks is that they are “close enough to kiss” <3 Read more about safe babywearing HERE from The School of Babywearing™.
What you will see in today’s images:
Babywearing can pretty much be done with any size infant or toddler, in pretty much any setting – enjoy! Keep scrolling down to see who won our first contest!!
Here is one of our lovely Cassandra and T:
Thank you to everyone who sent submissions for our first contest! Random.Org did our selection for us. Each featured image was numbered in the order it was received…and our winner is….
Kendra Campbell – Congratulations!
Please email me at sweetpeafamilies@gmail.com to claim your prize 🙂
I love this theme: Anyone who has breastfed knows that it is definitely a journey. It is not always easy, it is not always convenient, yet we persist because their is a core belief inside of a breastfeeding mother that it is the right thing to do. I know very few breastfeeding mothers who do it out of obligation; though they exist. No mommy wars here: I am by no means saying that mothers who went the formula route love their children any less. I am marveling at the fact that there is a proven biophysical response built into the breastfeeding relationship that makes us fall a little more in love every time we breastfeed – and I am fascinated at the way our bodies work.
With that, here is a great family picture of a mommy nursing a baby, a big sister nursing her dolly, and daddy looking on in love at his family:
Although I have shared the next two before in other posts, they went along with the heart theme in the pictures. Here are our breastfed babies, who in all, have been breastfed a total of 125 months:
Charger was my big helper on picture day – he helped brush them with melted butter, and then we sprinkled them with our cinnamon-xylitol blend.
This was a trip down memory lane! In honor of Children’s Dental Healthy Awareness Month, I thought we could kick off the month with all the melt-your-heart grins we have shared with our children. If you have some to add to our collection, please email them to me with a statement that I have permission to share your pictures on social media: sweetpeafamilies{at}gmail.com
This is a hard post to do because I am so painfully aware of copyright infringement! I want to share these books with you and images out of the pages to illustrate why we love them. At the same time, if any of the authors and/or illustrators see these images and want them taken down, please let me know and I will do so.
Here are some of our favorite books in our Christmas book basket. We just put them away so we can enjoy a fresh read of them again at the next holiday season. Some are illustrated versions of songs that we like to sing, others are heartwarming stories of the Christmas tradition and the Christmas season. And, thanks to one of our SPB families, we have a picture of a Sweet Pea enjoying his reads…mama says there is not a book he doesn’t love…that’s what we like to hear!!
What is your favorite story of the winter season?
As it turns out, living in CA and AZ we are not going to have traditional winter pictures…here’s what we have been doing without snow!
Picnics
Sand play – at the beach!
Learning about money at Chandler Museum CTown Suitcase Club
Blowing dandelion seeds and making wishes
Learning how to use castanets from Ms. Linda Machado
Jungle Jill brought some of her pets to show & tell at NatGeo Kids Club
Otter and Charger reacting to an animal visitor
The Sweet Pea Kids little prank that gets me almost every time – including today as I sat down outside to do this post!!
We have so many families celebrating first holidays with their Sweet Peas…so fun to share one of those pics with you! And here are some pics from life with our Sweet Peas this month. The energy level here is bigger than the walls of our home right now!
An SPB family enjoying first Christmas with their Sweet Pea
T. enjoying time with Grandma
The Sweet Pea Kids made this year’s teacher baskets in under an hour – all four pitched in and we were done! Now to load them into the sleigh…
Night Owl enjoying some shopping time with his uncle…has barely left his side since he arrived for his holiday visit 🙂
Best non-drug “green” cold remedy? Garlic! Drove the bad spirits away in a hurry.
Part of our luggage for the Christmas show
The three older Sweet Peas dressed and waiting to perform on show day
