Honoring our Earth Day tradition, this year we planted some High Mowing Organic Seeds to transplant to my father-in-law’s farm in a few weeks. I was going to try and do a raised bed since we have clay for a back yard, but we have some pretty bad squirrels and I’m scared they may eat our veggies. I did plant a tomato plant in a pot on our porch and am hoping for the best! So we will see for next year.

Stonyfield Yo Getters got an awesome seed package from High Mowing Organic Seeds and I fell in love with their catalog! I can’t wait to order some herbs and flowers. I am in love with their variety of organic vegetables! Check out how many varieties there are for each veggie!

Artichoke

Beans

Beet

Broccoli

Brussels Sprouts

Cabbage

Carrots

Cauliflower

Celery

Chard

Corn

Collards

Cucumbers

Eggplant

Fennel

Garlic

Greens

Kale

Kohlrabi

Leeks

Lettuce

Melons

Okra

Onions

Peas

Peppers

Potatoes

Pumpkins

Radicchio

Radishes

Rutabaga

Salad Mixes

Shoots & Sprouts

Soybeans

Spinach

Squash – Summer

Squash – Winter

Tomatoes

Turnips

Watermelons

Zucchini

High Mowing organic seeds began in 1996 and now has over 600 heirloom, open-pollinated and hybrid varieties of vegetable, fruit, herb and flower seeds. Their organic seeds are grown without synthetic chemicals and are non-GMO. Even though all of High Mowing Organic Seeds are non-GMO, they have the first line of Non-GMO Project verified seeds!

The best part about buying organic seeds is knowing that you are helping support organic farming.  High Mowing Organic Seeds  has free shipping on all orders, so be sure to check them out!

Another fun Earth Day activity we did was put up a nest box for Brown-headed Nuthatch birds.

The birds are losing their homes due to urbanization and deforestation. Audubon NC hopes to put up 10,000 Brown-headed Nuthatch homes in 2015. I’ve seen some in our backyard, so I hope they decide to stick around and build a nest.

My inner 8-year-old-self geeked out when I was playing on Instagram the other day and came across these new kid shoes made by Fayvel. They are athletic shoes made for ages 3-9 that have plush fabric with velcro patches- Frieze Tags stick to so your child can accessorize to fit their mood or outfit!

Currently, there are 13 limited edition Frieze Tag sets (4 patches) to choose from. The patches can be traded between friends or collected since they will change the designs frequently. Here are the first 10 designs- they have added Valentine’s as well as Winter Sports to the current list. They will release new tags during Fall 2015 and then will release more every season.

Stonyfield has been busy introducing several new products and I’m so thankful that I’m finally not dairy-free anymore so I’m not missing out!!

Now that it is getting warmer, frozen foods are on my mind. I absolutely love Stonyfield Frozen Yogurt and Yogurt Bars, but since both kiddos are allergic to dairy, I feel bad eating it in front of them. But some days, the craving for something sweet and frozen hits and I’ve found myself hiding in closets for a quick bite. But now, with the new Frozen Yogurt Pearls, I can pop one in without having to hide. It’s the little things…

I wasn’t going to make any resolutions this year. Things seem to get so busy during the year that I often forget my intentions. Stonyfield asked its YoGetters to share their healthy family 2015 resolutions, so it got me thinking. Instead of drawing up some elaborate plan for our family, I’m just going to choose a word for us to focus on. This year it will be happiness.

When everyone in your family is happy, good things happen. You have more energy for projects. You are more playful. You have the drive to cook and eat healthy. You focus on the happy thoughts instead of what has you down or what is going wrong. Staying in a happy train of thought sounds a lot easier than it really is. You have to focus and not lose sight of the feeling. Because once you slip, it’s easy to go down the spiral.

So to help keep us on track and thinking happy thoughts, I put together some of our favorite things that make our family happy:

*I am part of the Stonyfield YoGetters group of bloggers and receive compensation and products as part of the program. My opinion is not influenced in any way.

During winter break I decided I was going to finally finish a novel that I started over the summer. Being back in school has left little time to read and write for pleasure. This semester was the hardest so far. On top of taking biology and clinical research, I was still working from home while taking care of little man- on top of moving and getting married 🙂 As much as I would have loved to be writing, reading, and researching- it just wasn’t in the cards.

On my first day of break, I started reading, Save Yourself by Kelly Braffet, and I got totally enthralled by the book. It is an intense dark thriller- perfect easy read. And I was so excited that little man was actually letting me read while occupying himself as I raced through the pages. Then I got to the end. And it was like the author just gave up on her story. It was rushed. It was messy. It just ended and I felt let down. I felt like I wasted my time.

Which made me think about my blog. I guess I kind of just gave up, rushed it, and its been pretty messy for the past year. I feel like I’ve let you down and myself. I spent a ton of time and energy building a readership, building the blog and finding sponsors, not to mention the research behind lots of my earlier articles. I had so much fun building relationships with you and vendors. Now its all fallen through the cracks, and it makes me sad. So my 2015 goal is to slowly pick back up and hopefully I will have the blog hopping again by this time next year!

Thanks for sticking around!

Save Yourself by Kelly Braffett 

“Patrick Cusimano is in a bad way. His father is in jail, he works the midnight shift at a grubby convenience store, and his brother’s girlfriend, Caro, has taken their friendship to an uncomfortable new level. On top of all that, he can’t quite shake the attentions of Layla Elshere, a goth teenager who befriends Patrick for reasons he doesn’t understand and doesn’t fully trust. The temptations these two women offer are pushing him to his breaking point. 

Meanwhile, Layla’s little sister, Verna, is suffering through her first year of high school. She’s become a prime target for her cruel classmates, not just because of her strange name and her fundamentalist parents: Layla’s bad-girl rep proves to be too huge a shadow for Verna, so she falls in with her sister’s circle of outcasts and misfits whose world is far darker than she ever imagined.”

Reading has been one of my passions since I was a little girl. I had hoped to pass this down to my kids, so I began reading to E when she was still in my womb. The day she was born, I began reading Goodnight Moon to her every night before bed. She started reading at 4, but never really got into it. Getting her to read is kind of like making her clean her room… she’ll do it, but never without someone telling her to first.

So when I heard our book club book was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I knew I had to get her in on it. She’s seen both versions of the movie, so I thought it would be interesting to get her perspective of the book. After the first night, she was hooked. She stayed up past 10 p.m. and fell asleep reading every night for a week.

From the mouth of the babe:

I really liked it!!! It was exciting and really funny. My favorite part was when all the people went through the horrible things, like Augustus who went into the chocolate river and the person who really liked gum but it wasn’t really gum and turned her into a blueberry and when she went to the juicing room she came out blue! And Veruca who always demanded things, the squirrels came and put her down the garbage shoot! (She starts laughing) The book wasn’t like the movie at all. The details were different in the book. I liked the book better cause it was funnier and I could use my imagination.

I think I may have just gotten her hooked.

This post was inspired by the classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. To celebrate, Penguin Young Readers Group, in partnership with Dylan’s Candy Bar, the world-famous candy emporium, and First Book, a nonprofit social enterprise that provides books for children from low-income families, is launching a year-long international celebration. 

Head over to From Left to Write to learn how you and your child can have a chance to win the Golden Ticket Sweepstakes where the grand prize is a magical trip to New York City plus much more! For every entry submitted, Penguin Young Readers Group will make a donation to First Book. Then, join From Left to Write on July 24 as we discuss Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

A new child clothing brand that I recently discovered, Go Gently Baby, has a mission that not only makes a difference to our planet, but also to our children’s health. Go Gently Baby uses only organic cotton, eco-friendly dyes, and water-based inks. On top of using earth-friendly materials, they are all produced in the USA. Go Gently also uses as many sustainable business practices as possible, including using left-over fabric remnants each season, recycled paper hang tags and bio degradable garments bags. 

Go Gently Baby has clothing for children sizes 3/6 months to 8 years. They have adorable tees, dresses, pants, jackets and more for boys and girls. Our favorite is their Hero Tee.

I think this is such a powerful message for a little person! This has become our favorite tee and little man can’t wear it enough. It is very soft, stretchy, and comfy. It runs true to size and is on the larger size rather than smaller.

The Hero tee is available for $34 in Grape, Pumice, Seafoam, and Soft White in sizes 3/6 months to 8 years.

Little man was also sent the Wrong Side Roo shorts which are unbelievably adorable! They are long shorts with 4 oversized pockets in the front and back. These are shorts every little boy needs! Little man has enjoyed filling his with shells, rocks, cars, and I’ve even found snacks. The pants are made with 100% organic cotton French Terry, which is reversed on the upper panels- and why they call it them the Wrong Side Roo.  They are also true to size, but run on the larger side.

You can purchase them for $46 and they are available in sizes 3/6 months- 8 years in Slate, Pumice, Grape, and Royal.

 Be sure to follow Go Gently Baby on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.

Sample Disclosure: The opinions expressed above are honest, accurate, and not encouraged anyway by monetary donations. A sample free of charge was received from said company, as stated within the editorial.

Last week I started the From Left to Write Summer Reading Challenge and just finished The Weight of Blood. 

There will be some awesome prizes: Amazon giftcards, books, cool t-shirts or gear from Out of Print Clothing!

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.