Healthy Schools don’t just happen! They need your help!
Check out the list of ideas for a healthy school. Suggest one to your kids’ school principle.
Healthy Schools Day Canada
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Family Fun Fair! Visit us!
This Sunday, May 5th, between 10am and 4 pm, Greenplease will be in the large Gym at Booth #6 with our green living items stocked and ready for you to take home! Fill all your “greenista” needs!! Do you need litterless lunch containers for the kids or yourself? How about health-friendly pillows for a great sleep? Are you looking for great, birthday gifts?
Come play with our eco-friendly toys too!
Swap It Earth Day Contest!
Thank you for sharing all the fantastic SWAP It ideas below!
Lia you are the winner! (My son pulled your name out of the hat.)
Interestingly, in correspondence with your SWAP suggestion, look at the info I found from the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center about the damage styrofoam cups/plates, etc. do to our environment and us…50 years to break-down and listed as a possible human carcinogen.
Imagine if we all made just one health sake swap this Earth Day!
Here are a few ideas to get you started…
- stinky synthetic wax crayons ➡ SWAP IT ➡ real soy & beeswax crayons
- sweaty synthetic pillow ➡ SWAP IT ➡ breathable eco wool/cotton pillow
- polluting plastic toy ➡ SWAP IT ➡ non-toxic wood toy
- throw away plastic baggies ➡ SWAP IT ➡ litterless lunch containers
- chemical-laden lip balm ➡ SWAP IT ➡ organic lip balm
- toxic BPA baby teether➡ SWAP IT➡ organic cotton/real rubber teether
The list is endless…share your swap!
On Earth Day 2013, we will randomly pick a winner from the list of ideas shared below. One lucky person will be on their way to many green changes with our Greenplease Swap It Green Goodie Bag!
Chocolate Sweet Tooth Satisfaction Recipe
Do you get Chocolate Overload during Easter weekend?? I have made our favorite Raw Shortbread Chocolate Squares!! AHHH! Satisfaction for my sweet tooth from this healthy dessert by “The Rawtarian” (with a few of my changes to make it kid-friendly). This will likely be part of Easter breakfast this year! Why not given it is filled with nuts, dates and cocoa!
Raw Shortbread Chocolate square!
Shortbread ingredients:
1 cup cashews
1 cup dried, unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup dates
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Chocolate ingredients:
1 cup cashews
1/3 cup coconut oil (I use Coconut spread which is thicker but does not get as smooth)
1/3 cup maple syrup, honey or agave nectar
1/4 cup lemon juice (I use 1/8 cup or a bit less as I like the zingy kick but do not like lemon chocolate taste, nor do the kids)
3 tablespoons raw cocoa powder
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon water
1/8 teaspoon salt
1. Process: Grind just cashews first in the food processor. Then mix in the remaining shortbread ingredients. Process until the mixture sticks together and the dates are well processed.
2. Dump shortbread mixture into your pan. Press the crust down firmly in your dish with your hands. (Shortbread base is now done.)
3. Blend: Place all chocolate mixture ingredients into food processor. Blend until very smooth. (If you want is smoother you could blend in a high-speed blender. Too many extra dishes to clean for me though!)
4. Pour/deposit chocolate mixture on top of shortbread, similar to pouring icing on brownies. Smooth with the back of a spoon.
5. Freeze: Cover and freeze for at least 1 hour. Always store these in the freezer.
6. Eat! I like to slice a frozen piece, then let the slice thaw out on the counter for 15 minutes or so.
Easter Eggs: Fruit & Veggie Dye Recipe!
I hope the Easter Bunny hides health-friendly goodies this year! I found this awesome recipe in Natural Home & Garden to make beautiful colored eggs without toxic chemicals…just blueberries, coffee grounds and beets! (Makes sense as those stains do not come out of our clothes!) 
Ban Chemicals, not Dandelions!
Signs of Spring are here! I loved the warmth of that sun yesterday!
This Spring, I also would love to see a Manitoba Cosmetic Pesticide Ban too!
Why is the Provincial Government stalling on this one when 6 other Provinces already have a ban?
Why are they considering a “Phased In Approach” only with “newer biological or organic lawn treatments coming onto the marketplace.”?
Does that mean all existing cosmetic pesticides are still fine to use and available and it will only be the new ones in the pipeline trying to enter store shelves that will be halted? What about all the current chemicals that are harming our children?
Get our Manitoba nature off drugs!!! So far as I understand, dandelions are not poisonous. They should be considered or “re-branded” a “yellow flower” instead. I have not seen any studies stating links between dandelions and the major potential illnesses listed below that have been linked to pesticide and herbicide exposure. The science is there, not just the precautionary principle! As per the article: “Some research has shown links between pesticide and herbicide exposure and childhood cancer, birth defects, neurological problems and respiratory illness.
- Click here to see Winnipeg Free Press Article quoting the Manitoba Minister of Conservation and Water Stewardship.
Integratron?
I asked my hubby if he wanted to visit the Integratron with me to kick off 2013.
“What? Where are you taking me? Is this some “ooga booga” crazy place?” , he asked after we travelled for over an hour in the desolate, cactus-spotted desert while visiting Nana this year.
No worries, I did not find this place via some random web search but actually I clipped an article from Vanity Fair a year ago about these “Sound Baths” with pure quartz crystal singing bowls. My hubby has always wanted one of those bowls for our home, so I thought awesome, lets go to this one of a kind, all-wood douglas fir Dome apparently located at an intersection of strong geomagnetic forces in the Mojave Desert. I figured, good, that will really kick things up to start off the year. I am up for testing anything non-invasive and eco that is meant to rejuvenate me!! This world famous (even listed on the Rolling Stone Magazine’s 2009 Hot List. Bands record songs in the acoustically sound dome too), circa 1950′s Dome is located above the intersection of 3 flowing underground rivers, hence the strong geomagnetic forces, which focus and amplify sound and energy within the 55 foot round Integratron. Across the desert road was actually a huge orchid greenhouse, I guess getting their water to grow from those rivers.
So for 30 minutes we lay relaxed on the desert blankets above with our heads pointing towards the bowls and the centre of the dome while we listened live to the separate sound of each one of the 14 singing bowls, keyed harmonically to the body, (we were told each note resonates with a particular one of the 7 Chakras but I can not recall which note is best for which one). Have you ever been to the Manitoba Legislative building and stood in the basement right under its dome? When you speak in that spot your voice is super amplified, even a whisper. That is exactly what it sounded like from where I was standing in the above picture.
Wow, those bowls were intense! As the postcard noted, “Imagine being “bathed” in beautiful and powerful sound waves.” They claim it is “nutrition for the nervous system with the result being waves of peace, increased balance and awareness as well as deep relaxation for the mind & body.” One of the owners, who played the bowls for us, said it is almost like “clearing out your cache” on your laptop. This experience clears out all the unnecessary junk saved in your mind computer.
I loved the experience! The sound of each bowl was wildly whipping in one ear and circling out the other. I felt vibration through my body of some of the notes. Some people even see colors while they listen to the bowls. I was totally relaxed after my private sound bath, to the point I simply went to bed within 2 hours. For a number of days afterwards, I had nothing floating around in my head in the sense of “to-do lists”, “remember this lists”, etc. Clear almost like when the meditation tapes suggest you think of nothing or black outer space which I find impossible to do. Yet, after the sound bath, my mind just was in that state of being. Yahoo!
Given that I am game for and have tried heaps of different types of complimentary/alternative medicine, my love of such an experience is not surprising!! However, what did surprise me were my husband’s comments post-Integratron: “The session was like a massage for your brain… not a head or scalp massage, but actually your brain. It provided a sense of clarity, objectivity and confidence in thought and decision-making, the effects of which I still have some reminiscence of today, a month later. I would like to go regularly just like one would go to a massage therapist or chiropractor. We should all experience and benefit from this!!!”
If anyone knows of any singing quartz bowl experts in Winnipeg, please do post their info below. We would love to hear more singing bowl meditations!
For more info or if you are ever in Palm Springs, California do go visit http://www.integratron.com
