Also, I recently installed the Prose Theme from Studio Press & Copyblogger Media. Since SFT began, I’ve been running Thesis and was happy with it, but there’s a bit more of a learning curve than I’d like. I know NOTHING about CSS or PHP or coding or much of anything about website building. I also don’t have a load of money to plunk down on a great custom design. For a while, Thesis let me create a site that was good enough, and I’d still recommend it. It’s much easier to use and customize than a lot of themes out there.

But when Prose came out this week, I was hooked. I love the way it looks “out of the box” and changes and customizations are easy to make. You’ll likely notice minor tweaks over the coming weeks — I’m still toying with the way everything looks. If you’re interested, do check out the Prose Theme.

Now, onto the links!

♦ Mindful Momma wrote a great post this week called, 8 Ways to Reduce Waste at Home. This is a huge list of ideas for cutting down and scaling back.

♦ I found two really informative posts on Healthy Child, Healthy World. The first, Recipe for High BPA Exposure: Canned Vegetables, Cigarettes and a Cashier Job, highlights some of most insidious sources of BPA and who is most at risk (hint: it’s babies in utero). The second post, PLU Codes Do Not Indicate Genetically Modified Produce, makes clear what those codes on produce levels indicate, and more importantly, what they don’t.

♦ And on a happier note, Emily at Remodeling This Life is participating in the 31 Days series this month, along with 7 other bloggers. Emily’s topic is 31 Days of Living Simply. She’s writing about some neat things, and, as always, there are beautiful photographs. My favorite this week was Day 15: Make Do.

♦ Blog Action Day was a huge success. By the time it was over, 5,613 blogs in 143 countries, with a combined total of 40,086,610 readers participated. Hopefully, the issue of water will get the attention it deserves and  by this time next year, things will be much better for those who need clean water the most.

What did you read this week that was inspiring?

[Disclosure: The links to the Prose and Thesis themes above are affiliate links. If you click those links and buy either product, I'll get some pocket change. As you know, I only become an affiliate for products I use and like.]

Sponsors: Studio Press: Genesis & Prose Child Theme

I’ve been reorganizing the site a bit lately with more streamlining to come. I’ve cleaned up the categories and reduced them to mere fraction of what they once were. I’m hoping this will make navigating the site a simpler task. I’ve listed the main categories in the navigation bar, so that by clicking each topic link, you’ll go to a page that lists all of the posts within that topic.

The new categories are

• Chemicals: Anything related to toxic chemicals in food and products.
• Do Good: This category covers posts featuring do-gooders or ways that we can all do more good in our daily lives.
• Environment: Recycling, Reusing, Simplifying, Saving Electricity, Reducing Consumption — if it’s green, it’s here.
• Food: Sustainable food. Eating organic, growing your own, farmer’s markets, avoiding pesticides, GMOs and more.
• Reviews: A wide range of reviews from green products to money saving products to parenting products. And of course, books. I do love books.
• Roundup: Often I find posts and articles from around the web that I’d like to share with you. I collect these in a “roundup.”

If you’re reading this by email or RSS, please click over to the site and let me know what you think.

Upcoming Review Series

For those of us who have children AND care about the environment, I think there’s nothing more important we can do than to raise our kids to be decent and kind human beings who are responsible and compassionate. As such, good parenting is important to me. I’m going to begin a series in which I review the Positive Parenting Solutions Online program. I plan to review it as I live it in hopes of providing all of you with a truthful and helpful assessment of the quality of the program. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post for more information on this.

I realize that many of you are not parents and that for you, this series may not be of much interest. Because of this, I’m limiting the review posts to once a week, so there will still be content posted that’s relevant to everyone.

Now the links. . .

Cheat Sheet for Growing Organic Food Without a Garden from Healthy Child, Healthy World

Weekly Challenge: Shop Healthy from True Food Movement

How to Stock a Natural First Aid Kit from Simple Organic

Sponsors: Studio Press: Genesis & Prose Child Theme

As always, I found some great things on the web this week:

◊ Nicki at Domestic Cents wrote a sweet post called For the Love of Simplicity.

◊ Simple Organic has a super-easy looking DIY tutorial for a Simple Market Bag. I may even be able to make this one. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

◊ Healthy Child, Healthy World published an informative article by Dr. Samuel Epstein: Hormonal Milk and Meat: A Dangerous Public Health Risk. I’d encourage you all to read it.

◊ I recently found a wonderful blog called Not Just Cute. Amanda has a terrific post up called Why Our Children Need Nature.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend everyone! See you next week.

Sponsors: Studio Press: Genesis & Prose Child Theme

One of my favorites, Emily, at Remodeling This Life, has written some great posts lately. I especially enjoyed Coffee and Raindrops and her point that we all “value different things” — so important to remember. If you’ve not visited her site before, be sure to look around; her photographs are as beautiful as her writing.

The 10 Cheapest, Healthiest Foods Money Can Buy and Green Kitchen: Why Eat Local — both from Cheap Healthy Good. I am trying to ease up on my use of canned tomatoes, though, because of all the concerns about BPA.

Mother’s Day Gift Guides from GoodLife {eats}: The Edible Gardener and The Eco Mom — these look like great ideas.

Tammy at Rowdy Kittens has put together an amazing collection: The Ultimate Simple Living Guide: 95 Rockin’ Posts.

I really like Jeffrey Tang’s Earth Day post, How to Save the Earth Without Fear. He focuses on the positive results of our actions right now.

And finally, Colin at No Impact Man wrote about the importance of gratitude and encouraged people to tweet their gratitude lists each night using the hashtag #GratitudeList. I’ve done this for the last couple of evenings and it has seemed to make a difference in my outlook. I’d encourage you to read Colin’s post and if you’re on Twitter, think about joining in. Even if you don’t Tweet, consider jotting down a list of 5 things each night that you’ve felt gratitude for that day.

Happy weekend everyone. It’s rainy here, so maybe I’ll actually get some indoor cleaning done instead of playing in the garden all weekend.

Sponsors: Studio Press: Genesis & Prose Child Theme

While I’m riding out the last day of the month, here are some things I enjoyed reading around the web.

I can’t wait for warmer weather so I can start working on our square foot garden. To get some ideas going, Simple Organic wrote this week about Starting a Garden With Repurposed Materials.

Tammy at Rowdy Kittens will release her first ebook on March 1, Simply Car-Free: How to Pedal Toward Financial Freedom & a Healthier Life. If you’ve ever considered doing more biking than driving, at only $9.95, this ebook is a steal.

Jeffrey at The Art of Great Things wrote a thought-provoking post titled, A Question of Legacy.

Most of you know that I make my own laundry detergent. Nicki, at Domestic Cents, shared a homemade dishwasher detergent recipe that I can’t wait to try.

Gina Lincicum of MoneywiseMoms.com wrote a guest post for Get Rich Slowly this week about How to Save While Shopping for Children’s Clothes.

Have a great day, everyone!

Sponsors: Studio Press: Genesis & Prose Child Theme