In my dairy days, Spinach Artichoke Dip was one of my favorite foods, and I had an amazing recipe for it that was simple, hot, and ooey gooey.  Alas, lactose intolerance has set in and eating that these days would keep me up all night with painful acid reflux. Spinach Artichoke Dip = Pain is a sad thing.  So, I went about creating a dairy-free version. I haven't navigated a hot version yet, but this cold one has become a favorite for the kids and me.     

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I recently read my first-ever copy of Taproot Magazine, Issue 11: Mend, and was charmed by pictures of clothing patches in an article that made such a thing seem attractive and doable through layering fabric. I embraced the moment and grabbed some vintage fabric from my scrap box, thread and needle, and a pair of high-quality hand-me-down jeans that V (age 3.5) had deemed, "not very good, mama" and "only good for paint pants" because of a hole in the knee. In 3o minutes, I cut and hand-sewed two pieces of fabric together to create a whimsical layered patch and then sewed that onto the pants. I used a...

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Some of you know that I teach a class called Attached at the Heart (based on the book of the same name) geared toward parents, potential parents, of kids pre-conception through preschool. People often ask me what we cover in the class, so here it is: Week 1- Charting a New Course: Introduction to Attachment Parenting We’ll start our course with a look at how culture impacts parenting choices and examine what attachment theory is and why it matters to our families. Week 2- Prepare Yourself for Pregnancy, Birth and Parenting + Use Nurturing Touch Expecting and potential parents will gain an understanding of...

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It is hard to believe that we finished our basement remodel almost a year-and-a-half ago! We hemmed and hawed over many decisions, but picking eco-friendly flooring was especially difficult for us. Ultimately, we picked USFloors/Natural Cork.  We went with their Greenguard Certified Almada line, which is click-together planks (so it needs no off-gassing glues to install it). Not only is it made in the USA, but they use solar at their facilities. Win, win, win! Though our contractors had never used it before, they installed it easily over an underlayment of  QuietWalk Floating Floor Pad. They put double layers of the underlayment in places...

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Some people call them unpaper towels; some people buy cute ones on Etsy. Some people ditch the paper ones because of cost; some people are convicted about the environmental impact of production, bleaching, shipping, or a lifetime in a landfill. Me? I offloaded paper towels years ago because of cost and environmental impact. As for what I call them, the unglamorous term rags comes to mind. But, really we call them kitchen cloths (to distinguish from the different colored ones we use to clean the bathroom or yet another set we use as diaper wipes). Our are free, because we made...

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