Celebrate Earth Month with Scott Naturals

I didn’t realize this, but because of the popularity of Earth Day, April has been declared Earth Month. The actual Earth Day is on April 22nd, otherwise known as Kate’s birthday. Last year when she was in kindergarten, we started a tradition of bringing “dirt pudding” to her classmates to celebrate both occasions at once!

In honor of Earth Month, I’m participating in a campaign to change the way we use recycled paper products in our homes.

About a year and a half ago, I took a graduate course in philosophy. It was really quite interesting (even though I almost decided enough was enough on the day I walked in and the professor said we were going to go outside and observe a tree for eight minutes) and thought provoking, and one of the things that stuck out to me was a video we watched about the process of making paper. My grandfather spent his career working in a paper mill, and that man loved him some paper. Even now, in advanced stages of dementia, when he gets his hands on a greeting card or anything else he’ll touch, smell, and even taste it to determine… well, I’m not exactly sure what he is trying to determine, but I guess it’s what kind of paper it is or how it was made or something! But anyway, when I learned about the damage the paper industry he loved so has done to our environment, I must say it made me a little sad.

As we all know, though, recycling paper makes a big difference. According to Wikipedia, “The United States Environmental Protection Agency has found that recycling causes 35% less water pollution and 74% less air pollution than making virgin paper.” So recycled paper is the way to go.

The paper I use most, though, is in my home – paper towels, paper napkins, toilet paper… not thing I generally get excited about being “recycled” – aka scratchy. In my experience, they aren’t as nice as regular ones (and really, using “nice” paper towels is more important than, you know, the Earth continuing to exist. Yes, clearly I need to examine my priorities.)

Enter Scott Naturals. They’ve created the world’s first line of “hybrid” paper products, including bath tissue, paper towels, flushable moist wipes and napkins by combining the green benefits of recycled fiber with the quality we all want, making it easy to “go green.”

They want to encourage everyone to try out their products for four weeks – which, if everyone did it, would save two million trees. Oh, and by taking this 4-Week Test Drive Challenge, you’ll be entered to win a new hybrid sedan.

To make it even better, Scott Brands will donate $1 to the Natural Wildlife Federation for each person who clicks on this link. – up to $25,000. That’s all you have to do – click here and they’ll donate a dollar.

Want to try out Scott Naturals for yourself? You can enter to win this gift pack:

To enter, leave a comment telling us what you and your family do that’s green.

For extra entries, click here, and Scott Brands will donate $1 to NWF for YOU and/or take the 4-Week Test Drive Challenge, and leave separate comments telling us you did so.

The contest will end on Thursday, April 21 at 5p.m. EST and a winner will be chosen randomly.

To learn more about Scott Naturals, visit their website, “like” their Facebook page or follow #ScottNaturals on Twitter.

Good luck!

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I received a package of Scott Naturals and additional compensation via this campaign through The Motherhood, but as always, the thoughts and opinions are my own!

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Pretzel Light Sabers FTW

Thanks to the advice of our uber-smart readers, the pretzel light sabers Sam and I made for his school birthday celebration were a hit. Check them out!

Sam was a great helper!


(Don’t ask me why this picture isn’t formatting the same way as the others…grr!)

The finished product!

They were so cute (and I had so many supplies left over) that we are making them again for Kate and Sam’s family birthday party on Sunday. YUM!

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It Could be Worse.

I originally titled this post “Running on Empty” and I intended to moan and complain about how we’ve been out of town the last two weekends, how Sam landed himself in the emergency room in St. Louis on Friday, how because of being gone I haven’t had time to do normal weekend stuff like go to the grocery, how tennis season is about to start and I won’t see my husband for about two months, how my cell phone won’t actually make or receive calls, and how I am completely unprepared for my kids’ joint birthday party that is taking place on Sunday (oh and btw, Jenny & Aunt Diane – your invitations are still in my purse so it’s Sunday at 2 at my dad’s, k?).

And also how I am freaking exhausted.

But really none of those things are really all that terrible, so I felt guilty about my impending complaints and decided not to wax poetic about them (even though in telling you that I wasn’t going to complain, I still got all my complaints in).

Since I have nothing else to say, I decided to leave you with a whimsical cartoon and googled “It could be worse.”

I was in equal parts horrified and amused by what I found, and I couldn’t pick just one.

(I apologize ahead of time.)

So yeah. It could be worse.

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