Refreshing yourself with a little relaxation at a luxury resort and getting a little R & R is important. Also just as valuable is keeping oneself grounded or staying connected with our earth. Yes my dear, sometimes a few of us tend to lose ourselves when on holiday, but let’s not throw all our virtues out the window and definitely not our spa days.

I often times sound like a broken record to my close friends and family. Give me any political issue and I’ll show you exactly how money in politics plays a significant role in its outcome. I’ll spare you my long lecture about how the role of money in our political system degrades the health of our democracy (maybe I’ll hold that for another Working Mother post) and get right to what’s been on my mind.

It's a great day in the city of Detroit !

Those of you who know me know that my favorite market (by far) is Whole Foods.  I was just there an hour ago.  I came home with produce, peonies, Kombucha and vitamins.  I have been a Whole Foods shopper since my son was born and I lived in Chicago.  Back in 1998 there was one Whole Foods in Chicago.  Today there are six.

How did mothers ever get a whole day of our own, start to finish? If you left it up to most of the super-busy women I know, Mother’s Day would get squeezed into two minutes every hour for a few days in a row, threaded between the soccer drop-offs, meetings at the office, and grocery shopping. Imagine...It's a whole, dawn-to-dusk day: 24 hours. 1,440 minutes. 86,400 seconds. 

I'm about to dig in and get my hands dirty. Nope, that’s not an expression. I am embarking on an epic journey of gardening fun. Considering that the last thing I tried to grow (basil) died because I failed to remember to water it, this endeavor that I am attempting seems to be full of challenges from the beginning.

Our home of 30 years went on the market last Friday. And even though we filled a debris box with stuff over a month ago, I can see that I'm not going to want to move a lot of what's left, either.

So I got organized and made a list of what I want to get rid of and how: sell, donate or dispose of. I also did some homework and made a list of resources.

If decluttering is on your "spring cleaning" list, you'll find my resources helpful. You'll find them here, in my April newsletter.

I’m writing this as I drink a cup of coffee in a renewable, compostable cup, and the label reads, “You’re making a difference!”

It’s funny how a cup can provide such encouragement. I have been wondering during the month of April whether I have made a significant dent in preserving our earth as my family and I pledged to join Scott’s Brand Four-Week Test Drive to use hybrid paper products. When I set a goal, I like to not only achieve it but go above and beyond and surpass my goal two-fold.

My makeup bag is a whole lot greener after I raised its GoodGuide rating from a 5.1 to a 6.9 with one trip to Target!  Here's how I did it and why you should challenge yourself to do the same:

In case you don't know, GoodGuide is a website that rates thousands of household and beauty products on a scale of 0-10 based on safety, health and greenness.  The higher the rating, the better the product is for you and the environment.

Sometimes I run out of ideas for keeping my son busy, especially when I need him to entertain himself (primary example: when I am working from home). As all of you moms of toddlers know, the mere idea of a two-and-a-half year old boy sitting still for more than five minutes at a time is a pipe dream at best. It’s certainly not for any shortage of toys or TV shows, those things just don’t keep him engaged. So I found something that works wonders: I made a special box of arts and crafts that he can do independently.

I can honestly say that as an adult, I have never given much of a thought to earth day, earth month, etc…In fact, Lexi’s Daisy troop met earlier in the month to plant some small trees that had been donated to them. I remember thinking, “Oh, I have more important things to do today…” That was only a few weeks ago, and I regret that I didn’t take Lexi to participate in that activity. My husband and I love taking her to the park and enjoying the outdoors, but we’ve led a pretty indifferent life around how we can impact our world.