Doing Some Last Minute Christmas Shopping?

Shop Local. Eat Local. Spend Local. Enjoy Local.
It takes YOU to start the trend.
Support the local business who support the area where you live, work and play.

Making Cookies?

Did you know that you have the power to vote with each and every purchase you make? Even with something as simple as making Christmas cookies, you have the power to choose to support companies who are against the use of Genetically Modified Foods (GMOs) or to give your money to companies who actively seek to keep you in the dark about whether your food is natural or genetically engineered and modified.

Buy Organic and GMO-Free -- Your dollars cast a vote with every choice you make.

If you are against GMO foods and/or believe you have the right to know whether your food has been genetically modified, here's how to use your spending power to cast your vote:

DO NOT BUY: 

• Gold Medal Flour made by General Mills who spent $1,135,300 to stop GMO labeling.
• Nestlé Toll House or Carnation products made by Nestlé who spent $1,315,600 to stop GMO labeling.
• Borden Eagle Sweetened Condensed Milk (not pictured) owned by Smucker's who spent $388,000 to stop GMO labeling.
• Horizon Butter or Dairy products owned by Dean Foods who spent $253,950 to stop GMO labeling. 

These companies will take your money and use it against you to keep you from knowing what's in your food. They are willing to spend so much, because they know genetically modified foods allow them to keep their production costs low while continuing to raise their retail prices.  By not labeling these foods as what they are, these companies are passing off unnatural and inferior products to unsuspecting consumers at a huge profit.  These companies are fighting to avoid required labeling, because they know most Americans would not choose GMOs if they were given the choice.

DO BUY:

• Bob's Red Mill Flour and Grains
• Wholesome Sweeteners Organic Fair-Trade Sugar
• California Farms or Santini Organic Condensed Milk*
• Sunspire Fair-Trade Chocolate
• Organic Valley Butter and Dairy products

These foods may cost slightly more, but it's because they are produced and grown naturally the way food should be by farmers and workers who make a living wage. These companies invest your money spent on their products back into producing more organic, non-gmo foods for you and your family in an environmentally and ethically responsible manner. Eating natural, organic, non-gmo foods nourishes your body and keeps you healthy, saving you money and time spent fighting illness and disease that GMO and non-organic, pesticide and herbicide riddled foods will cause.

*California Farms was pictured in the photo above which was created by GMO Awareness -- I am familiar with and regularly purchase from all of the other companies listed in the DO BUY category, but am unfamiliar with California Farms.  I have emailed the company for more information on their stance on GMOs and GMO labeling.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tomorrow will be my 23rd Turkey-free Thanksgiving! You're welcome turkeys!

Not Just a Statistic

I am not just a statistic.  My baby was not just a statistic. October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Month.  In May 2007, after struggling to conceive for more than two years, my husband and I lost our first baby to miscarriage. It was devastating to say the least. Prior to my own personal experience, I had no idea how prevalent miscarriage is. It's shocking. So many parents just don't talk about their loss.  I was overwhelmed by the number people I knew who had quietly suffered, but never shared their story with me, until it happened to me too.

  

1 in 4 is not just a statistic.  It's me.
Speak out about pregnancy loss.

Image Source: www.facebook.com/pregnancyaftermiscarriage

The Daily Crunch: Fragrance Equals Toxic Chemicals

Fragrance equals toxic chemicals on your skin, hair, clothes, bedsheets, in your lungs and bloodstream! Yuck!
Used in laundry detergents, fabric softeners, dryer sheets, cleaning supplies, disinfectants, air fresheners, deodorizers, shampoos, hair sprays, gels, lotions, sunscreens, soaps, perfumes, powders, and scented candles—and dozens of other products . . .

synthetic fragrances may be the most common type of toxic chemical in your house.

Fragrances are a class of chemicals that are well worth the time and effort to avoid. The term “fragrance” or “parfum” on personal-care-product labels can be a cover for hundreds of harmful chemicals known to be carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, and reproductive toxicants even at low levels.

What to use instead: Go the unscented route whenever possible, especially with soaps and detergents. Avoid any kind of air freshener or deodorizer, including sprays, gels, solid disks, and oils, suggests Anne Steinemann, PhD, a University of Washington researcher who focuses on fragrances in consumer products. “These products do not clean or disinfect the air, but they do add hazardous chemicals to the air we breathe,” she says. “Instead of chemical air fresheners, freshen the air with better ventilation and by setting out some baking soda,” she suggests. You also can place a bowl of white vinegar in a room to dispel a funky smell.

Here are some Crunchville Fragrance-Free Favorites:

• Dr. Bronner's Baby Mild Soap -- This is the only body soap we use at our house . .  in the bath and as hand soap in foaming pumps.
• Kiss My Face Deodorant Stick Natural Active Life Aluminum & Fragrance Free -- I thought I'd never find a crunchy alternative to Secret, but this one works really well for me and I love not poisoning myself with my deodorant everyday.
• Spectrum Organic Unrefined Coconut Oil -- Coconut oil is so multipurpose! You can replace your moisturizer, shaving cream, body lotion, conditioner*, hair gel*, personal lubricant :-), etc with this versatile gem! *Be careful putting it in your hair at first. It only works for some hair types. Sadly, mine is not one of them.
• Seventh Generation Natural Free & Clear Dish Liquid Soap -- Works just as well as Palmolive or Dawn, but it's not poisoning you and your family.
• Woolzies Wool Dryer Balls -- Skip the toxic and often expensive fabric softener or dryer sheets in favor of these natural and reusable dryer balls. After you stop using those harsh, chemically-scented products, you will notice just how nasty they truly smell when you do encounter them on other peoples' clothes or in their homes.

Sources: 

http://rodale.menshealth.com/12-household-toxins-you-should-banish-your-home?page=3

http://www.regardingcaroline.com/fragrance

The Daily Crunch: Educate Before You Vaccinate

If you were born in the 1970s or 1980s you most likely received 9 shots during your childhood, never more than two shots per doctor's visit.

For children today, the CDC is recommending 
49 doses of 14 different vaccines by the age of six.

Sounds extreme when you add it all up and compare it to the recommendations for children born just one generation ago.  Doctors and pharmaceutical companies are getting rich at the expense of our children's health.

The US Government has paid out more than 2 billion dollars to vaccine victims for their catastrophic vaccine injuries.  How much more than that do you think politicians and government officials are taking in bribes and kick-backs from pharmaceutical and medical corporations to keep upping the amount of recommended vaccines while turning a blind-eye to the havoc those same vaccines are playing on the health of our children?   I'm sure it's an obscene dollar amount, but only a pittance compared to the profit Big Pharma is making at our expense.

Sources: Proud Parents Of Unvaccinated Children and National Vaccine Information Center

The Daily Crunch: Crunchy Mamas Do It With Coconut Oil

Crunchy Mamas Do It With Coconut Oil!

Leave me a comment: What are your favorite healthy uses for coconut oil?
Let's see how many different uses we can come up with!

Phyllis Diller on Breastfeeding

I just came across this video on youtube of Phyllis Diller at age 90 talking about her passion for breastfeeding and her experience with being breastfed by her mother and breastfeeding her own six babies. It's not often that you hear someone of her generation speak so frankly and positively about breastfeeding! I love it! Sounds like Phyllis Diller was a bit of a Crunchy Mama!

The Daily Crunch: Celebrating Breastfeeding

This morning my daughters and I are planning to attend an annual breastfeeding celebration put on by the lactation nurses and consultants at our local hospital. The girls and I have gone every year for the last three years, and it's always a fun time. Lots of Crunchy Mamas and their adorable breastfed babies and toddlers! 

In celebration of breastfeeding and all of it's amazing benefits for mothers, babies and our planet, here are some cool breastfeeding-related images found around the web:

"Oh that's okay, I have received too much breastfeeding support already," said no mother ever.

Nursing Mermaids
Source:  http://www.sophia-anastasia.com/drawings/breastfeeding-mermaids.php

Eat Local :-)

$13,000,000,000: What the United States would save annually if mothers would exclusively breastfeed for the first six months of their baby's life.  I wonder what the long-term healthcare savings would be with all those babies getting the healthiest nutritional start possible. 

Keep Calm and Latch On

A Mother's Gift
Source:  http://www.medelabreastfeedingus.com/certified-nursing-center-a-mothers-gift

Pink Breastfeeding Her Baby

Ryan Gosling Will Take Care Of Them For You . . ."Hey Girl, if anyone gives you shit about breastfeeding in public, you tell me."

Breastfeeding . . . Nature's Health Plan

The Daily Crunch: Don't Let Monsanto Give You a Hand

Monsanto

Let Us Give You an Extra Hand

or

How About a Single Eye? 

Glyphosate the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup has been shown to cause devastating birth defects such as cyclopia (a single eye on the forehead), infertility, stillbirths, miscarriages, and cancer even at low levels of exposure.

NO, THANK YOU, Monsanto! 

No one needs your toxic chemicals or your mutant seeds.

We'd like to stop poisoning us and are environment!

Source: http://naturalsociety.com/more-evidence-linking-pesticides-to-birth-defects/ 

Travel to Crunchville With Me

Join me on a grand adventure . . .We'll travel the road to Crunchville together. 

Crunchville is a beautiful green eco-village where all the crunchiest individuals and families aspire to live. The open-minded crunchy villagers strive to live the way humans were naturally meant to live. The Crunchvillians  are eager to share their extensive knowledge and to learn, discover and implement ideas about green and sustainable living, alternative healing and wellness, attachment and gentle parenting, and healthy nourishment.

They challenge themselves to question everything and to seek and discover the truth about all that affects their health, their lives, their village and their planet.  They make it their goal to spread what they've discovered to help others grow.

The Crunchy Villagers do not judge people for where they've come from, who they've been or what they've done in the past, because they know that "when you know better, you do better." They help each thrive and support each other through good and bad times.

The Crunchvillians welcome you to explore their beautiful community and discover their ways and customs. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Asking questions is an excellent way to learn more. Visit for as long as you like. You are always welcome here. When you are ready, take what you've learned home and implement it in any way that works for you.

or

You may find that you like Crunchville so much, you'll decide to make it your new home!

Along the way to Crunchville, we'll be exploring and discussing these fundamental crunchy topics and concepts:

• Green Living -- Creating a Toxin-free Environment, Making Environmentally Conscious Choices, Choosing Sustainable Resources, Sustainable Agricultural Practices, Reducing, Reusing, Recycling, Up-cycling, Organic Gardening, Heirloom Gardening, Composting, Homesteading & Self-sufficiency
• Alternative Healing -- Holistic, Naturopathic, Homeopathic, Natural Prevention, Non-vaccinating, Chiropractic
• Attachment Parenting -- Home Birthing, Natural Birth, Non-circumcising, Breastfeeding, Baby Wearing, Cloth Diapering, Co-sleeping, Gentle Discipline, Home Schooling, Respectful Parenting 
• Healthy Eating --Vegetarian, Vegan, Raw, Organic, Free Range, Grass-fed, Pastured, Locavore, Unprocessed, Cruelty Free, Gluten/Grain-free, Dairy-free, GAPS, Non-GMO
• Global, National and Local Community Concerns -- Political Activism, Voting With Your Dollars, Patronizing Small and Local Businesses

 . . .And Much More

Would you like to join me? Leave a comment telling me a little more about yourself and where you are currently in your own crunchy journey. If you have a crunchy topic or concern that you find speaks to you more so than others, please share that too.