I would like to introduce you to one of our great local New England bloggers, Live Green Mom. She is making quite a splash in the world of mommy blogging and was recognized by Mom-101 as one of the top 50 mommy bloggers that didn’t make the Babble top 50 but are probably more fun anyway.
At Moonworks, we stress ways to increase energy efficiency and become greener by remodeling and renovating what you have and making smart choices in regards to what goes into your home. Live Green Mom’s motto of small changes add up inspires us to make green changes in all aspects of our lives. In addition to talking about ways to be greener, she is a mom who makes us laugh with her personal stories about the normal mommy gripes, especially those involving kids and their food choices (or lack thereof).
We wanted to know a little more about Live Green Mom and we had the pleasure of communicating with her about blogging, her life as a mom and living greener.
Moonworks (MW): Why did you decide to begin blogging and what did you hope to accomplish?
LiveGreenMom (LGM): I decided to start blogging in December 2009. I was a couple of years into being “green” and I realized that quite a bit goes into it, but because I had taken on the steps gradually, it didn’t seem like that much effort. I had a light bulb moment when I realized that there are probably so many other mothers just like me, overwhelmed with motherhood & the lack of sleep or personal time, that didn’t need something else to do – like being green. I thought ‘I can share this insight, and what baby steps I took to get to a point where I felt like I was not only making a difference in our family but also teaching my children so it becomes a part of their routine.’
MW: What is your favorite topic to write about?
LGM: I enjoy writing on the more personal side, opening up about life. I have plenty to celebrate but sometimes I just need a good gripe!
MW: What was your greatest triumph in your first year of blogging?
LGM: When other established, trusted websites began to reach out to me with invites to write for their blog, like Greenopolis.com. Scholatic.com also just got in touch with me to do a piece for April. When you are a small time blogger like me, it’s nice to be appreciated. Also, starting to earn a tiny bit of income from it doesn’t stink.
MW: As a mother trying to be green, what are the biggest challenges you face?
LGM: Feeding my kids, hands down. It’s not that my kids ate so much junk food before I went green; it’s that they have no room for anything new. Like most kids, they will turn their nose up at foods before even trying them. It frustrates me to put effort and money into a more organic, healthier meal and they end up not eating any of. They will come to me a couple of hours later begging for a peanut butter sandwich. I’ve been known to buy a new flavor ice cream or some other treat they have never tried and refuse to let them try it on the grounds that they wouldn’t possibly like it, since they’ve never had it before and that seems to be their theory with all new foods. They protest but I remind them how they are about trying anything new that I put on the table and they have no argument. They don’t like it but I have a job to do here, and it doesn’t come cheap. My parents had no room for ‘I don’t like the looks of it, I don’t want to eat it”. If it was on the table, you ate it, end of story.
MW: In regards to your motto of small changes add up, what new habit do you hope to implement in your home in the near future?
LGM: I’d love to have time to dedicate to a garden that produced fruits or vegetables; my mother in law has the most amazing bounty from her gardens. She also has the time to tend to it as well as had a professionally built enclosure around the whole thing to insure no critters can get to it, and it is a huge garden! I have a yard that attracts all sorts or animals and I still blow my top when I find them digging up tulip bulbs I planted years ago. I could never handle them eating all my hard work!
MW: When is a company green washing vs. actually being green?
LGM: I don’t want to point fingers but there is plenty of that going on. One of my pet peeves, for example, is the health & beauty aids section at Whole Foods. There are all these shampoos, conditioners, lotions & soaps labeled ‘natural’ but then you flip it over to inspect the ingredients list and right off the bat you are seeing ‘sodium lauryl sulfate’, an ingredient used to make products lather up as well as degrease. SLS is suspected of dropping fertility rates and increasing female cancers. Anyone that comes back with ‘but is such a tiny amount, how can it make a difference?” needs to know that SLS is in just about every personal product out there, and it adds up over time. (A good video to watch and learn from is The Story of Cosmetics by Annie Leonard) I wish they would have the sections aptly marked – “Natural Products” and then the “Truly Natural Products”. Right now I rely on a website called Skin Deep, a database of just about every beauty product there is out there and its toxicity levels. You wouldn’t be surprised how toxic most products are, but you would be surprised by how many make ‘natural’ claims and are nowhere near what they should be!
MW: Can you give us an insight into a typical day in the life of Live Green Mom?
LGM: It isn’t very exciting! I get the kids up and off to school. Work in my office for a few hours. I recycle & compost on a regular basis. I take batteries from friends, neighbors, and a local daycare to be recycled properly once every couple of months. Of course, throughout normal daily life I try and impress upon the kids why we do certain things, or explain why some habits are greener than others. Live by example.
MW: Besides blogging, what do you do for fun?
LGM: I taught myself how to ride a unicycle two years ago, but darnit if an old back issue cropped up last year (unrelated to the unicycle) that has made it impossible for me to progress! It’s really hard! I enjoy a good run & workout, I love to work in the yard. I like playing Othello & Blokus with the kids, they are surprisingly good at them for a 6 & a 9 year old. My all time fave non-family related activity is to be on the beach all by my lonesome after a long bike ride with a good book, icy water, and a pack full of snacks. You can guess how often that happens! The surprising thing about that is that it happened often enough in the early 1990’s for me to get a taste of it. (Seriously, I sleep better on the beach than I ever do in my own bed. What’s up with that??)
Be sure to subscribe to Live Green Mom’s blog and check her out on twitter @LiveGreenMom.