The Crappy Toy Dilemma

I cringe when I walk into a child care facility or child’s bedroom and see a field of mismatched, broken, dismantled toys scatted about the room. A Playschool truck missing a wheel. A naked Barbie. A few Monopoly dollars. This scene is caused by what I call the Crappy Toy Dilemma.

The Crappy Toy Dilemma is a catch 22. We buy children toys that are poorly made from low quality material, usually plastic, because we anticipate them being lost or broken. But children loose and break toys because we do do not teach them how to take better care for them because we know their just cheap plastic.

Organic Foods and Household Items

I just read 12 Things You Should Definitely Buy Organic, and I recommend it.

The article mentions that it can be expensive to buy everything (from potatoes to sofas) organic and suggests that these items might be the most important if you have to make trade-offs. My tip is, don't rush out and buy all new glass Tupperware until your old ones wear out or get lost (unless maybe you're pregnant or have a newborn). That plastic hasn't killed you yet.

In fact, if you start choosing foods and toiletries that come in nice glass containers and saving them, you might find you don't need anything new. And check the thrift store! Forget recycle. Reduce and reuse.

Health Fads Part I: The "Truth" About Beauty

There is a streak in me that longs to put aloe vera in my smoothies and mushed banana on my face. My interest in alternative treatments took off in late high school when I bought a book called The Truth About Beauty by Kat James.
The truth, Kat tells us, is that real beauty does not come from diet cokes and low-fat, low-carb, low-flavor highly packaging, highly marketed diet products as she once thought. Nor does it come from expensive cosmetics or prescription drugs. All these things are supposedly damaging. True beauty comes from a healthy diet of natural foods supported by high doses of vitamin and mineral supplements.