Treating Lice Naturally (No Chemical Lice Shampoo)

This is the one post I hope you'll never have to use.

Last winter my daughter was distraught. She caught lice. And a couple of the girls were ruthless.

We went through not one but two rounds of the chemical lice shampoo in stores with no breakthrough. The darn things eluded us. And her scalp was the only thing affected. She cried whenever I'd pick her hair, as her scalp was raw.

That's when I wondered, Could we do better? Did we have to use a chemical shampoo that only seemed to hurt rather than help?

We sprung for a metal, professional-use lice comb online, as the plastic ones that came in lice kits didn't seem to help - in fact, they kept breaking. It was the best $10 we could spend.

We also treated her sensitive scalp and hair with essential oils. After doing some research, we ended up creating a blend of coconut oil with tea tree oil, lavender essential oil, euchalyptus essential oil and rosemary essential oil. We diluted it with the coconut oil and rubbed into her scalp and hair, then combed out any nits. We continued this every other day for a week, and we finally broke through!

Even now, we periodically do a check as a precaution - particularly after overnights and camping!

Surviving sunburn with our essential oils

Easter Sunday, the kids played baseball. And gardened. And visited two neighbors. And jumped on their trampolines.

All without sun protection.

Did I mention the tank top?

My daughter returned home near bedtime, beet-red shoulders. In pain already. I felt terrible, but the damage had already happened.  I'm grateful that I could do more than say "You should have..." though.

Luckily I still had a bottle of sunburn blend I had made up last summer. We've been rubbing it on her shoulders and back a few times a day, and the pain and redness has really made a difference. (We did add some lavender essential oil, which helps soothe burns, along with the mix of coconut oil and tea tree oil.) But the pain quickly subsided, and the redness will as well.


Looking for a resource for essential oils? You can shop my doTERRA affiliate online. Send me an email at goinggreenmama at gmail if you'd like to learn how you can save 25% off your orders.

5 baby products you can make from home

I was well into child #2 when I realized that many of the products I'd been scrambling to find discounts on - not to mention keep up with the ingredients on the labels - could easily be made at home. We easily made the move from cloth diapers to cloth wipes, using a homemade solution when needed. But it wasn't until I got more and more into the use of essential oils that I realized all the opportunities I'd missed to potentially save money and use greener options for our babies.

Here are five baby products you can easily make at home:

Infant Massage Blend 

Mix:
2 drops Lavender essential oil
1 drop Melaleuca essential oil
1 drop Roman Chamomile essential oil
2 Tablespoons doTerra Fractionated Coconut Oil 4 Ounces

Diaper Cream 

¼ cup coconut oil
15 drops dōTERRA Lavender essential oil
Glass measuring cup
Saucepan
Glass storage container

Pour coconut oil into glass jar. Put 1 inch of water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Once boiling, put the glass jar with coconut oil into the saucepan until completely melted. Remove from saucepan and let rest for 5 minutes. Add essential oils and stir until combined.

Pour into glass storage container and allow to cool. Just apply a small amount when needed.

Talc-Free Baby Powder 

½ c corn starch
½ c Arrowroot powder
1 drop Roman chamomile essential oil
1 drop Lavender essential oil
¼ c finely ground oats

Mix well and place in a shaker-style bottle.

Baby Wipes 

1 roll premium paper towels (use cloth for reusable wipes Our family used flannel.)
2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons doTerra Fractionated Coconut Oil 4 Ounces
3 drops Lavender essential oil
3 drops Melaleuca essential oil
An airtight storage container/empty wipe container/wet bag

Cut paper towel roll in half. Use half the roll now, and half later.
Combine water, fractionated coconut oil, and essential oils in a small bowl.
Pour the mixture over the paper towels and then cover with the airtight lid letting the mixture absorb for 10 minutes. Turn the container over and let sit for another 10 minutes.

Remove and discard the cardboard middle. Just pull the wipes from the center when you are ready to use. Store in container of your choice.

Air Freshener 

1 small Mason jar with a lid and band
1/4 cup baking soda
5-6 drops of your favorite essential oil
Hammer
Small screwdriver or nail

Put 1/4 cup baking soda into your small Mason jar. Add 5-6 drops of your favorite essential oil or blend.
Recommended Essential Oils: Balance, Cassia, Geranium, Eucalyptus, Lavender, Lemon, On Guard, Purify, or Wild Orange.

If you do need a resource for essential oils, please consider using my referral link for doTERRA products. My family uses them and loves them. (You can also save 25% off of retail prices by becoming a wholesale member or independent consultant - even if you just "consult" to yourself. Please email me if you have any questions about that option.) 

Note: This post contains affiliate links to Amazon.com.

Jessica Alba's essential oil chest rub

An essential oil chest rub for allergies or cold season - tried and touted by Jessica Alba in her new book The Honest Life: Living Naturally and True to You. I am putting this to work this week!

Chest Rub Recipe

Blend a few drops of euchalyptus, ginger, peppermint and tea tree (melaleuca) essential oils with a body oil (ie fractionated cocoonut oil) or balm. Rub on chest back, under nose and on bottoms of the feet.

I love, love, love that someone who has so many resources at her disposal chooses simple home remedies to help heal her children at home!

Honest: A review of Jessica Alba's "The Honest Life"

Trying to do the right thing for your kids is pressure enough. But sometimes you do the best you can.

That's the overriding theme of Jessica Alba's recent book, The Honest Life: Living Naturally and True to You Being natural shouldn't come at the expense of insanity. It can come in small steps and simple ways.

Unlike a lot of green living books, "The Honest Life" has a very conversational, non-doomsday approach. I appreciate Alba's honesty in the fact that trying to live a green and organic lifestyle can lead a parent to questioning and requestioning whether they are making the right choices for their child. But that decisions can be made in little ways: from choosing hand-me-down clothes or seasonal foods or making your homemade body scrub.

Alba's book is a quick read and a great starter resource for a number of affordable choices for healthy, organic living - from pregnancy and early motherhood to cooking, clothing and home decor. I appreciated that many of these options were achievable for the everyday person who was concerned about natural living without sacrificing your budget in the process.

Earn Brownie badges at the farmer's market

Taking your Brownie troop (or just your scout for starters) to the farmer's market is a great, practically free way to meet Brownie badge requirements this fall or spring.

Budget-friendly and a great way to connect with your community, not to mention local, farmer's markets are a great resource to look into if you're trying to creatively wrap up some badge requirements.

I never thought about using farmer's markets in that regard, until my daughter decided she wanted to earn the Money Manager Brownie badge was on my daughter's wish list of badges to earn this year. Trouble was, other girls didn't agree, so we decided we'd work on it from home. We were able to complete requirements one and two - shopping for items (practicing making change) and grocery shopping - in our weekly trip to our local farmer's market.

I gave my daughter my weekly budget and let her determine what we'd be buying. Noting the cantaloupe and watermelons as we walked in, I told her to mark the price and she'd have to make sure she'd have it at the end of the shopping trip, as I wasn't about to carry both melons around the booths! We talked as we went about differences in prices and what was better deals, etc. She actually enjoyed taking charge of the shopping list - and to be honest, the money - and I was so happy that the vendors were so patient with her as she made her choices.

Other Brownie badges you can work on at the farmer's market - or after you've completed your shopping:

My Best Self: 

• Activity #2 - Try three new foods that are good for you. 

Senses:

• Activity #3: Try sniffing out three different foods. 
• Activity #4: Do a taste test with salty, sweet, bitter and sour foods.

Snacks:

• Activity #1: What's in that snack - talk with vendors about what's in their jams, salsas, breads or granolas.
• Activity #2: Make a veggie face.
• Activity #3: Create a snack for a group - like fruit kebabs!

If I can give one tip though, plan your trip for the last hour of the farmer's market, as shoppers are often fewer. It's easier to track your girls and the vendors may be able to help your girls more.

What local resources have you tapped into for creatively meeting badge requirements for your troop?

The hardest part is letting go

One of the hardest parts of parenting is letting your children blossom into whom they are meant to be. And that process of letting go is painful.

Those baby steps of watching your child not following through on something or not holding to your ideals can make you crazy. But it's worth the wait.

Case in point: As part of my daughter's Brownie troop's Household Elf badge and Wonders of Water journey (and admittedly inspired by Beth Terry's My Plastic-Free Life), we are bridging the themes into a small community service project: collecting  lids for plastic bottles to recycle at an Evansville company that specializes in it, For the next month, the girls are challenged to collect as many plastic lids as they can; the winner receiving a prize (a small water-related science kit).

But while my daughter is interested on the surface in saving plastic, the reality is it's harder to follow through. While mom dutifully washes lids to milk jugs, orange juice, and (admittedly) Diet Coke 2-liters, the lids rarely if ever make it to her collection. They languish on the kitchen table for days, until mom, frustrated, tosses them in the trash.

Does my daughter care about the environment? Absolutely. She's into gardening and composting, learning about saving electricity. But her heart is less into America's needs as it is in Haiti's, a result of her experiences in school.

The toughest lesson is that while our journeys interconnect, they are not one in the same. And my daughter's green journey, while started earlier in life, will weave the way it wants to.

Fighting fever naturally

The school's number flashes on my phone and I cringe. I know what it means this time of day: Someone is sick.

Yes, my little guy wasn't feeling well, the after-school care staff reported. And after getting him home, we confirmed the worst: a temperature of 100.2.

Interestingly, he wanted nothing to do with taking Tylenol. Instead he asked me for oils: Pizza feet and peppermint oil.

The peppermint essential oil, which is cooling, especially for a fever, went on his neck and belly per his request. The "Pizza Feet" is our adaptation of what's known as a flu protocol. For my kids who are feeling "off" and on their way to the flu, rather than have them take oils internally, I will rub oregano essential oil (hence the "pizza feet") on the soles of their feet, along with doTerra OnGuard Essential Oil Blend and lemon essential oil. The great thing is they can use it as needed, rather than wait for four to six hours for them to be able to take ibuprofen again.

While I'm still working with my husband on raising his comfort level with using the oils on sick days, it just amazes me what the kids know their body needs. My son came to me first and requested what he wanted to help his body feel better.

For other tips on fighting the flu and cold naturally, visit Good Girl Gone Green's recent post.

Plastic-Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too: A Review

My family could be using 400 pounds of plastic a year. A pound per day in our household alone.

It's a statistic that's shocking but not exactly surprising. When you factor in toys and my husband's creamer containers and toothpaste containers and everything else we use on a daily basis, you can see how quickly consumption adds up. Even if you consider yourself on the more environmentally friendlier side of the equation.

I recently read Beth Terry's Plastic-Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too I've followed Beth's blog for years and was thrilled to get a chance to read her book that was just released.
Admittedly in one of my more lax phases as a parent and environmentalist (hampered by bad work schedules and led astray by back to school and store closure sales), I know I also have a responsibility to my children and to future generations. We've been having family conversations lately about reducing our consumption - from turning down the lights and water to whether we want to buy "things" or "do things" for Christmas. (I'm paving that path now.) But Beth's book gives me great discussion starters and family project ideas that even young gradeschoolers and preschoolers can tackle:

• Tallying up your recyclable and non-recyclable items to see how much you add up in a week's time. It's a natural extension for our kids - who fight over who gets to take out the recycling - and has the added benefit of a quiet lesson about addition and charts.
• Collecting all those plastic bottle lids from prescription bottles, milk jugs and soda bottles - those that I've tossed for years - and send them to Evansville's Caps N Cups. (This may actually end up being a Brownie scout service activity during our Wonders of Water badge journey this year!)
• Choosing fresh, more waste-free ideas for school lunches. (I confess: Though we use reusable bags and containers for school lunches, I'm not perfect on this. My son's spacer and his troubles chewing means I've stocked up on fruit cups and other soft options until this brief phase is over. Then we'll be back to his much-missed apples!)
• Cook a little - whether it's crackers, bread or even nut milk or yogurt. (It's healthier, and a great way to spend the afternoon with your children.) 
• Make your own sugar scrub and other toiletries. I love the variety of recipes and tips in this section, and I'm anxious to try them out once my work project passes!

Wherever you are in the journey towards lighter living, whether you're a young child or have hours to devote to a cause, Beth's book has a new idea for you. Check it out!

A Million Tiny Things Book Review

Today at the Green Phone Booth, I'm reviewing and giving away a copy of A Million Tiny Things: One mother's desperate search for hope in a changing climate. The book comes out on Mother's Day, but here's your chance to check it out early.

Bunny "baskets" for the garden

Baskets from the Easter Bunny have been something I've struggled with since becoming a parent. I don't want the kids overrun with trinkets, or worse, drowning in sugar, but there's something fun to the tradition of a little treat on Easter morning.

In recent years especially I've worked to simplify the kids' baskets, adding a small religious book or item or a toy that they can enjoy. Last year, The Bunny brought "harvest baskets" - large baskets that the kids have since used to harvest their beans and tomatoes from the garden.

This year, we're taking a different spin on it. Noting my kids' love of (OK, fights over) watering our plants with the hose, we're investing in cute watering cans which will be used as the "baskets" this year from The Bunny. Keeping with the theme, my little guy will get his own pint-size gardening tools, and my daughter will get a flower ring she pined over at the Girl Scout shop.

You could easily add seeds or other fun items to the mix, but in our home, we're well stocked-up.

Are you doing any alternate Easter basket ideas this year?

Living my 80/20 rule

It's easy to get swept up into a green lifestyle, or any lifestyle for that matter. But keeping that momentum up and letting it be a blessing, not a curse, is not the easiest thing to do.

Bake your bread. Grow your garden. Drink organic milk. Make your laundry soap. The list goes on and on--and if Itracked and tried every little green thing I could do, I might go insane.

There are only so many hours in the day. About 10 are lost to work, driving my children to school, and my commute. Another eight to sleep. If my math serves me right, I'm left to cram the most living in my life in a meager six hours a day. That's six hours of making meals, of playing with my kids, of doing laundry, of trying to have a great relationship with my husband, of making time for prayer.

Six hours to squeeze in any other green bits that might possibly extend my stewardship of God's resources.

I can certainly devote my day to breadmaking, or gardening, or learning to make soap, which I still think would be fun to try. But I don't have the time resources or the financial investment to try all things. And if I focused on that, then I might miss out on those magical moments making trash trucks and giraffes out of Legos, going for walks in the park with my family, sharing moments with my daughter as a Girl Scout leader or simply sitting in solitude early in the morning.

So these days, I make more careful investments. I buy laundry soap from the man at our farmers market. I grow what I can and buy locally next. I've just resigned for a produce delivery service, as our city's primary winter farmers market is 30 minutes away and packed most weekends, tough to take children to. And I'm left in the day with a few mninutes to savor the miracles of the season.

As Stephanie at Simple Organic writes:

There will always be ways that I could be healthier and greener, and much as I may want to, I simply won’t be able to make all of those changes. No one can do it all and live the “perfect green life” because I’m pretty sure it doesn’t exist (and if it does, I don’t think I want to know
about it).
Letting go of perfectionism in natural living is one of the things that has most freed me to continue to do what I do, without guilt, without obligation, and with a whole lot less stress.

The no-so-active activist me

I have my mom hat. My employee hat. My wife hat. My faith hat. My friend hat. My blogger hat. And in my mess, I probably have a few more. Do I still have room on my shelf for the activist hat?

Time is always a premium in my life. My mom schedule keeps me hopping for two hours before I walk out the door until nearly 9:30 or 10 each night, and by then,our bedtime battles leave us worn out. My husband's work schedules and our budget mean I don't have leeway for sitters to attend events or volunteer outside the home without helpers. Does that make me no longer an activist?

I'm certainly not alone. Today at the Green Phone Booth, Abbie shared her concerns about how motherwood and work often took priority over being an environmental activist.

The truth is, while I may no longer be a card-carrying member of the Sierra Club or out on a visible level, I am an environmental activist. It's just that my audience is much smaller. But much more influential.

My pint-size audience knows we recycle and reuse and whenever possible buy resale. My pint-size audience loves to enjoy nature, to hike, to check out bugs and birds. My pint-size audience reads books from the library about nature and soaks them up like a sponge.

My audience of two may be small, but they will grow. And so will their influence. And I'm OK with that.

Greener giving and the preschooler: Is it possible?

This weekend marks the first of a series of birthday parties my oldest is invited to. And each party, while an excuse for a play date, brings the problem of present shopping.

In our family, smart shopping is the way we do things. We watch prices. We watch the plastic and the pieces. We pay attention to our kids' likes and dislikes. We try to buy responsibly. I confess that even Santa shopped a few times at the kids resale shop this year. But what happens when your kid is presenting the present? Do the rules change?

What do you do when your child, with all the love in her heart, announces she wants to wrap up her Care Bear for her friend because "she just loves blue"? Tell her no, that some people don't want hand-me-down gifts? Present the gift, but quietly explain to the mom the reason why her daughter's getting a used toy? Steer her to something different, like a nice book?

I'll leave it to you all: What would you do? I'm open to any ideas on how to approach this.

Mom, Will This Chicken Give Me Man Boobs?: A review

Sometimes, a book on the library shelf just screams to be picked up.

This time, it was a subtle pink one that just wanted to be green. And the title was too good not to read: Mom, Will This Chicken Give Me Man Boobs?: My Confused, Guilt-Ridden and Stressful Struggle to Raise a Green Family? by Robyn Harding.

Have mommy guilt? Have green guilt? Harding makes you feel better about your life. She chronciles suburban mommy life in ultra-green Vancouver, where parents are out to save their children and the trees simultaneously, trying to out-sustain each other in the process. I couldn't stop laughing through the book -- and my husband kept fighting me to read the copy.

Maybe Harding's book just hit a little too close to home. Do you buy local or organic or simply the best price? Drink from milk organic, conventional or cooped-up cows? Send out a stack of Christmas cards to long-lost relatives? Buy birthday presents for every kid in the class or go "low-impact?" Avoid that glass of wine after a stressful day just because it's "Buy-nothing day?" Or just say forget it, and enjoy that steak for once, because if we eat the cow, it can't fart methane gas anymore? When one news article seems to contradict the next, where does it all end?

Harding tries to strike that balance between education and just being smart, something that's tough to do and even tougher to impart on the next generation. Her children stress about polar bears and pesticides, sweat the small stuff and realize that not-organic food may actually be OK sometimes - especially when it comes in the form of cake.

We have a lot to stress about in this world, and weighing the environmental impact of every single choice we make can be painful. Harding reminds us that we don't have to worry each moment of the day and that sometimes, it's OK to breathe and live - and laugh - a little.

Mildew the Clean-Up Fairy

I love Mildew.

It’s not what you think.

The last few weeks, my kids have taken trashing the house to a new level. Being home five days a week, they tend to scatter toys, laundry, recycling, whatever they can get their hands on all over the house. It’s a parent’s nightmare trying to keep the house cleaned up.

Enter Mildew.

Mildew became my new friend Tuesday night, after 20 frustrating minutes of trying to get my kids to help pick up anything. I finally sighed and looked up at my husband. “I think we’re just going to have to call the Clean-Up Fairy,” I said.

My daughter’s ears perked up. “A fairy?”

“Oh yes, the Clean-Up Fairy comes to kids’ houses when they don’t pick up their toys,” I rambled. “She gives the toys to kids who don’t have any.”

She was intrigued. “What’s her name?”

Name? “Um, Mildew,” I said.

“What does she drive?”

“She doesn’t drive, she flies.”

“Can I see her?”

“Oh no, she comes when we’re asleep, kind of like Santa.”

She thought for a minute, and then agreed to help pick up her toys. It was a relatively smooth process; even her 19-month-old brother toddled around, picking up his Legos and proudly dropping them in a box.

That night, Mildew did stop by and left her a postcard, thanking them for the great work they did cleaning up the toy room.

I figured Mildew would become my little trick to pull out occasionally. Little did I know that her reputation would spread.

Last night, we stopped by a neighbor’s house. My daughter’s friend was in trouble for not picking up toys and not listening - typical 4-year-old stuff. My daughter, of course, wanted to play. I rolled the dice and offered a compromise.

“Tell K. about the Clean-Up Fairy!”

She proudly did. My neighbor was excited. I asked if she wanted to stay and help her friend clean her room (which as we all know, involves a certain amount of play).

Twenty minutes later, when I came to get her for dinner, the room was clean.

Mildew is here to stay!

Peat pots and preschoolers: A smart combination?

Last night, much to my preschooler's delight, we started work on our "garden."

I figured she had been tortured enough in having seeds in our home for a month now. I broke out the peat pots and container I'd saved for a special occasion, and we got to work on our kitchen counter.

Being a little rusty in this regard I did the unthinkable: I read the directions. It started with "add warm water to the bottom of the container." Hmm... Lots of water plus preschooler equals potential for a huge mess. We got off the kitchen table fast and settled onto the floor.

My daughter oohed and ahhed as the "dirt grew" in the tray. She was ready to begin.

As I've been a procrastinator this year, I only have the six packets I won from Botanical Interests on hand, the rest are waiting to arrive. Of the six, only one recommends starting indoors. I grabbed the leeks.

We pulled out a bowl to pour the seeds in as I worked to get the peat pellets ready. I sprinkled a small amount of seeds in to show her how tiny they are; in her excitement she dumps the rest unceremoniously into the bowl.

She stared at them quizzically. I jumped in: "Look at how tiny they are, and look how big they'll get," as I grab the leeks I found at the grocery store this week. She looked impressed.

I poked the holes in each pellet; her job was to add the seeds to each. I got admonished in a way that only 3 years olds can do when I slacked off and didn't keep up with her expectations.

Finally, after wandering attention and questions like "Why are your fingers dirty?" we finished our initial leek project. We covered our tray and set out to find a spot with indirect sunlight. Except with our home's orientation, it's a challenge. In fact, the few places that might work are in the direct path of baby brother.

So whether these poor leeks will make it until mid-May for planting is anyone's guess. But I think the two of us, regardless, will learn a lot!

(photo from muranakafarm.com)

Toddler time - and what to do with the aftermath of babyhood

Fourteen months ago. That's the last time I held a baby the size of the little girl I cradled yesterday afternoon at the hospital.

And that afternoon, I returned home, and stared in the face of...a toddler.

There's no denying it. My baby is no longer one. He crawls. He climbs. He tries to tackle his daddy. He thinks he's a big shot for using a spoon to eat "real" milk and cereal. He wiggles around like nobody's business. And he applauds - yes, applauds - me when I get home at night from work.

There's no denying it. There's no longer a baby in this house.

Sure, the signs were there. My kitchen countertop has been reclaimed from the bottle racks and bowl of bottle pieces, long retired. The baby swing has been taken down after too many attempts of trying to climb into or out of it. Toys are already being retired, not to mention the several rounds of sizes of clothes.

But now that baby is no longer a baby, what do you do with the aftermath?

You realize as a parent that the first year is definitely resource-heavy. There's the furniture, the diapers and safety factor, resulting in child-proofing gadgets galore, not to mention the clothing that's outgrown in weeks (as in my daughter's case) or months.

But the little things add up quickly. The pacifiers - love them, or hate them - just get tossed after a fateful fall or too much chewing upon. The bottle nipples, and sometimes bottles themselves, are similarly tossed as the baby gets more demanding in his or her needs. The teething toys. The starter spoons. The age-appropriate toys you'd gotten as gifts. The list goes on and on.

And what do you do with them as a parent? Some, you can just save for future children or pass along to another parent. But others too often get tossed.

As we've approached our baby's "graduation" to toddlerhood, I've been fortunate that I've been able to help some other people out while avoiding just tossing away things the family no longer needed. Pacifiers rejected by my baby after a use or two were re-sanitized and shared with a mom of multiples. The bottles and bottle rack, rather than being tossed, were donated to my work's newborn pantry, with a few given to an expecting co-worker who was going to have to try bottles when the return to work approached. The myriad of baby blankets, particularly the swaddling ones that only really work for a month, were also donated to the cause. Clothes get the usual passing-along to a new mom or to a shelter. And I have a few rejected sippy cups - refused because they just weren't like his sister's cups - just waiting for a new home.

Sometimes, it takes a little creativity to find a new home for still-working infant supplies. But if you can help a parent save some money as well as reduce our impact on the environment, it's worth it.

Rethinking your Christmases

The room dims. A spotlight shines. And Linus, alone on a stage, recounts the true meaning of Christmas. It’s not about pink or aluminum trees or lots of presents. It’s about a family expecting the birth of a baby who would change the world.

“That, Charlie Brown, is what Christmas is all about,” Linus reminds us all.

It’s a lesson revisited each holiday season while watching this Christmas classic. But it’s one that we need to come to terms with.

More and more, I hear of people just feeling depressed this holiday season. I can’t run an errand without overhearing a parent have “the talk” with a child about how this Christmas, things will be lighter and less gifts will be under the tree. Or how people are down because they can’t buy the gifts or do the things they were used to in years past. Or how one super-creative friend confided to me, “I just don’t even feel like making Christmas cards this year.” Maybe that seems frivolous, but it was the one way she showed her friends she cared.

So here’s my challenge: This Christmas season, make new traditions. Call it being green. Call it being frugal. Or just call it getting back to the roots of the spirit of the holiday season.

I know a chaplain whose calling is to assist Hospice patients and their families. Each year, she offers a holiday grief program and insists that traditions can be changed. So maybe this year, you bake a homemade pizza instead of a ham, turkey and the fixings. Or you volunteer somewhere. Or you forgo gift swaps. Find something that works for you and your family this year.

Other ideas on altering your traditions:

• Keep it light. You don’t have to buy gifts for everyone, or as many people. Enlist your kids help as well. Many kids understand that times are tougher and may offer to help make gifts or find more cost-effective ideas.
• Watch how you stuff your stockings. They don’t have to be stuffed with gadgets or many trinkets. My mother-in-law introduced me to the tradition of a large apple, orange and candy cane in the stocking. (I will confess that the baby will get apple puffs to snack on instead!)
• Get creative. Instead of trading gifts with neighbor friends, we invited them and their kids to make Christmas cookies this weekend. Messy, true, but far more memorable than another $5 or $10 toy.
• Prioritize presents. Given our family’s financial situation, I requested specific types of gifts rather than more toys. Yes, I know the baby is getting a toddler bedding set and which one, but it will be needed (hopefully later than sooner.) And my sister will be buying shoes for Amelda Marcos, I mean, my daughter. Planning helps us fulfill our family’s needs but also lets people feel like they are making the most out of their limited dollars and resources.
• Do rather than buy. I loved going to the Plaza and the Nutcracker at the Midland each Christmas in Kansas City. When we moved, we decided we’d rather our kids have fond memories instead of just opening up gifts. So this year, we attended a Cookies with Santa to benefit a hospital program. It was simple, but more memorable and less stressful than waiting in line at the mall. My daughter to this day still talks about “Miss Claus” visiting her daycare last Christmas.
• Be scenic. Look at the lights while returning from work or from errands.
• Live the moment. Listen to a Christmas CD. Attend Vespers. Play board games. Make popcorn and cocoa with your kids and read holiday books. But most of all, just enjoy the season.

Green on the cheap: Creating kid art

Last night, my daughter was in a creative mood. Before I knew it, she was into the box for one of her birthday gifts - a Crayola magic paint sprayer of some kind. Allegedly it sprays ink that can only be seen on specialty paper. All I know is I'm fighting a battle against finding this plastic contraption and its colors being toted around my house. Whatever happened to crayons?

It's a personal reminder that sometimes you simply have to sit down with your child and unleash that creative potential. Particularly when arts programs are being cut left and right, it's our obligation to help foster creative expression in our little ones.

This week's Green on the Cheap focuses on simple ways you can support that creative impulse in your little ones and still be environmentally friendly.

• Reuse your supplies. Create a stash of leftover papers of all types - direct mail, printer paper, Christmas cards, etc. - for art projects, making cards, wrapping presents, pretend post offices, etc. Likewise, I hang on to extra stickers and scrapbooking embellishments for my child to create her "heart" with.
• Recycle. Plagued by broken crayons around your house? You can melt them in sprayed muffin tins at 250 degrees to create new crayons for your little ones. If you're truly adventurous, make your own paper.
• Give a second life to kitchen trash. Plastic bottles, coffee filters, egg cartons, bottle caps, and other household items can easily be converted into kids crafts.
• Use Mother Nature. Remember potato stamps from when you were a child? We (OK, an adult) occasionally carved designs into a halved potato to stamp them on paper. Easy to compost when the thrill is gone. Older children may enjoy creating dyes from fallen leaves.