ⓒ iStockPhoto - diane555

When I think of winter and the holidays I envision roaring fires, evergreen trees, snow flakes and cups of cocoa. I try not to think of hectic shopping, gift giving stress and plastic garbage.

I love old fashioned things and times when life was simpler. I have always encouraged my children to make handmade cards, ornaments and gifts every year. In fact we have family traditions that include our annual card making night and our annual cookie making night. The tree decorating is always done as a family. Tradition is an important part of the holidays.

If you are looking for ways to incorporate tradition, old fashioned ways of holiday celebrating while going green here are three green holiday books that offer a wealth of information on celebrating the holidays in green style. They offer ideas for food, decorating, DIY projects, handmade gifts, even green gift ideas. (continue reading…)

ⓒ iStockPhoto - szefei

In Coconut Oil, Friend or Foe Part 1, I discussed some of the unique properties of coconut oil.  In Part Two of this series, I have chosen to review some of my own personal experiences relating to the effects of what is being touted as nature’s “miracle” oil.

As a brief review, unrefined, virgin coconut oil, also called coconut butter, comes from processing the meat of the mature brown coconut.  Even though coconut oil is 92% saturated, it has no trans-fats and contains no cholesterol.  The fatty acids in coconut oil are medium chain fatty acids (MCFA’s).  These fatty acids are shorter than large chain fatty acids/triglycerides found in other fats and oils that are responsible for raising one’s cholesterol.  Large chain fatty acids take longer to digest and tend to be stored as stubborn fat, while MCFA’s are broken down very quickly and burned as fuel before they can be stored as fat.  Coconut oil contains a high concentration of lauric acid, which plays a key role in protecting the digestive tract by killing bacteria and viruses and is a potent anti-microbial agent.  Its health advantages further vary from metabolic miracle to a healing skin and beauty aid.

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I know that the nine-year-old can be difficult and moody, but when mine wrote “2008—another year to live through” in his journal, it got me to thinking: those teenage years are going to be bad, bad, bad. Sure, there’s no way to guarantee your kid isn’t going to be miserable or get into trouble, but there’s got to be some way to help inoculate them against the troubles of life.

What I really wanted to know was how to tell whether my child is depressed, or just has a really bad attitude. If you’ve got a phlegmatic child who by nature complains a lot and will always comment that the glass is half-empty, what can you do to help that child survive his middle-school and teenage years, never mind the trials of adulthood? How would you even know when this kind of child is actually depressed as opposed to just constantly negative? (continue reading…)