Bluffton Farmers Market

Don't forget to stop by the Bluffton Farmers market tomorrow (Thursday) on Calhoun Street from 2-7pm!!!

I am giving myself $10.00 budget to buy items to make dinner. Yup $10.00. Wonder if I can do it??????

Were still here!

Kelly and I have been extremely busy the last couple weeks with out of town family and travel etc. We promise we will be updating the blog in the near future.

My next project that I will undertake is trying to cut down on our trash. Any ideas? What are you doing to limit your waste?

Homecoming!

The reason I call this post "homecoming" is because I feel like we've created a forum where I can pour my heart and soul. A place where I can exercise my passion for simplifying life for our babies in this incredibly complex world and doing it all while saving the environment. This is exactly what I've been hoping for, so in a way, I hope it becomes a place for us and for you that feels just like home.

As all women united, I hope that this can be an honest place to learn and to share...a place where one thing we all have in common is that we're trying our best to navigate the world as mothers (or as fathers!) and to do it as best as we can. A big part of coming up with conclusions about the honest truth involved in raising babies is sharing with each other as we learn. This is very simple reason why I'm here, the most recent (and still just the 2nd!) addition to Lightly Toasted Mamas.

I became the mother to an incredible baby girl, Cloveleigh Mildred, in January. Seeing her slowly open her big huge blue eyes each morning and happen upon the world for another waking adventure is amazing, heartwarming, fulfilling and indescribable. I made a commitment upon discovering that I was pregnant to protect and to teach this child every single thing that I know how. Until she was born did I fully recognize what this promise to myself really meant.

Ending up as the part of this blog is only one small portion of the life I'm committed to leading, and to teaching this beautiful baby girl.

Here is a place that we can come, share our trials and our errors, our woes and our discoveries. A place where we can honor a commitment to make life for these precious children simple, wonderful and kind to this dear planet of ours. Treating the earth with respect is a lesson we should teach our children from the very beginning of their little lives. I want to share my own trials and tribulations regarding green/nontoxic cleaning, my unfaltering commitment to breastfeeding (yes, gasp! in public...and sometimes without even a cover!), cloth diapering, homemade baby food, natural first aid products, baby psychology lit, infant massage, my strict belief in rubber pacifiers, great ways to recycle childrens clothing, etc. Sometimes we laugh, sometimes we cry, but every single day as a new mama includes a boatload of brand new discoveries.

I am thrilled and honored to part of this Internet movement where we can teach lessons, learn lessons and share stories about how to be efficient, effective mothers and families. I've been romping around with co-blogger Brittney since we were a ripe young age of 4 and I hope we can invite you into our own lives as we are lucky enough to watch our children do the same (in a very, very green and lightly treading way!).

So...this is my homecoming. Thank you for having me. I look forward to being here.

Kelly Anderson

Don't be afraid of Green

A lot of us are under the impression that "Going Green" is a completely life altering commitment that requires lots of time, money and energy (and hemp, lots and lots of hemp). But you don't have to stop shaving your legs or live on a commune and bathe only during full moons. There is no dotted line where you sign your comfortable lifestyle away.

As consumers we are also convinced that it costs money to be eco-friendly. Regularly we are bombarded with the message that you have to own high efficiency appliances, solar panels and hybrid cars to fit into the Green community. We are to think that it "costs green to go green" and its this exclusive club with steep membership fees. That doesn't have to be true. I want to make this process as budget friendly as it is Mother Nature friendly.

Have you ever told yourself "there is no way I will ever be able to go green because I can't even remember to turn off the light when I leave the room!" The first step isn't confined to a rigid "You must conserve energy before moving on to step 2." There are a variety of simple steps we can take to start our journey. For me, it was beginning to cloth diaper that opened the door to a staircase of change. It felt good to take a step in that direction, which encouraged me to take another, and another and another. You may decide that one step is enough for you, and thats OK. In the big picture, one step is better than no steps, right?

We aren't lacking the motivation as much as we are lacking the information. If more of us became aware that there are alternatives to things(and easy ones at that), we would be more willing to make that change for the better.

~Brittney

The Gadget Diaries

My mom used to laugh when I would show her my newest expensive cleaning gadget. See, I had this habit of buying every new awesome invention under the sun in the hopes it would help me be the next Heloise. Electric mop, check. Electric dust pan (yah Im just as confused as you are), chhhheck. Dust buster, check. She would tell me "you know buying these things doesn't magically make you clean, you actually have to use them and CLEAN". Mom was right. I actually had to turn ON my super charged scrubber dohicky thingy and clean my tub. It didn't just do it FOR me (though if you find one that does, email me!). I came to find out a good old fashioned sponge, brillow pad or rag was just easier in the end. I ended up having to clean the super charged scrubber doohicky thingy after I was done cleaning the tub. Too complicated! I ended cleaning even less. Mission fail.

The key to cleaning success is to just keep it simple. My adventures of the "BUY NOW" button sadly ended with these gadgets cluttering my poor utility room and taking up precious space in my condo.

~Brittney

Reusable Shopping Bag Reminder

Reusable shopping bags are a great idea to help cut down on the use of disposable grocery bags that clog our landfills (not to mention the trees that are cut down to produce paper bags). Please take note that you DO need to take proper care of these by washing them regularly to help fend off the growth of bacteria. People have been forgetting this minor detail!

~Brittney

Have a great Toasty Idea?

Email it to me at lightlytoastedmama@yahoo.com

Each month I will pick a winner from the entries and will feature it!
I am also looking into a giveaway for this idea as well....to be determined....

~Brittney