Formula Warning

 Back in August, I had to start giving A formula to get him enough to eat due to a dwindling supply. I discussed my search for an organic formula here. I decided to go with Baby's Only organic dairy formula by Nature's One. You may have noticed Nature's One made the news recently, and not in a good way. The first ingredient, brown rice syrup, has been found to have dangerously high levels of arsenic. Nature's One is responding that they use reputable third party distributors and will test all their products for high levels of arsenic. Thankfully, A has moved on to whole milk. We had 2 cans of formula we were going to finish up, but I guess we won't. The news seems inconclusive right now, but until you know for sure, I would avoid products with brown rice syrup, especially if it's one of the first ingredients. My second go-to formula during the time A was using formula was Earth's Best Organic Formula. This would be my suggestion, as A took it well and didn't have any problems transitioning between the two. 

Dryer Balls

Yep, the title of this post is Dryer Balls.

I used to love line drying clothes, but when our little guy came along I just couldn't make the time. Since then, we've been using the dryer without fabric softener sheets. It's been fine, but in the winter I find our clothes a little static-y. I learned that wool dryer balls can help prevent this. By drying clothes with dryer balls (some people use tennis balls), you can reduce the amount of time required to dry, naturally soften laundry, and reduce static.

My original plan was to make my own. When I started shopping for wool yarn, I discovered already made organic wool dryer balls for cheaper from The Willow Store. So I bought some, and tried them out tonight while drying A's diapers.

They are obnoxiously loud (but our dryer is directly below our living room), but they did the job. The diapers came out dryer and softer. I'm looking forward to seeing if they help dry our clothes faster, but laundry day isn't until Friday night. 

My Prius Buddy!

The absolute highlight of my week is that my brother got a Prius! My republican, conservative, military "all man" brother got a Prius! I'm practically giddy with "I told you so" attitude. He claims that it has nothing to do with being green, but I know I'm rubbing off on him. He says it has everything to do with the cost of gas. He figured that with how much he and his wife drive, he'd safe over $1800 a year! I told him he'd have to burn a lot of plastic chairs to compensate for all the good he's doing on this planet by driving a Prius.

I'm so thrilled to be such a good influence on my family :)

Pillow

During my consumer buying rampage on Black Friday I got sucked into buying myself a pillow that appeared to be made purely of petroleum. I did return the pillow because I didn't want the chemicals in the house, or on my face every night. In addition, I got a fantastic deal on a pillow from Natura on Cyber Monday. I've been sleeping on my natural wool pillow for a couple months now, and I am loving it!

In addition, N has been coveting my pillow for a while, and his was more beat up than mine, so he also has a "new" pillow because he's now sleeping on my old one. Reuse is the 2nd "R"! 

Buying American

On my drive home from work yesterday, I caught the middle of a report about KEEN shoes and how they were opening a factory in the United States. It got me thinking about the economic aspect of social responsibility. The reporter was polling people asking if they knew products were American-made, were they more inclined to buy the product? Most of the consumers in the report stated that yes, this was important to them. I realized that without really thinking about it, this has become something I look for, in addition to environmental and health responsibility, as well.

A few years ago my brother and sister-in-law requested gifts that hadn't been made overseas. My brother had just returned from a military deployment in Korea, and there was a scare with chemicals in some toys with China. It was nearly impossible to find reasonably priced toys that were American made, or even simply not made in China.

Since then, I've been more inclined to buy from company's that proudly boast their American made products. With my brother's recent deployment in Iraq and the economic downturn of our own American economy, I continue to find it more and more important to support manufacturing in the U.S. In addition to financially supporting my home country, I find it more environmentally responsible because the goods don't have to travel quite as far.

I bought my own pair of KEENs this summer simply because I wanted the toe protection while walking my dog. Now I will wear them even more proudly this coming summer, knowing that KEEN is doing more to invest in American manufacturing.