Mommy Greenest

Healthy Living, Less Judgment

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  • Home
  • Book
  • Categories
    • Healthy Living
    • Mommy Greenest Approved
    • Eco Beauty & Fashion
    • Natural Parenting
    • Latest Buzz
    • Green News & Events
  • Mommy Greenest Guides
    • Guide to Going Green
    • Guide to Eco-Friendly Fashion
    • Guide to Healthy Eating
    • Guide to Natural Parenting & Pregnancy
    • Guide to Green Beauty
    • Guide to Healthy Cleaning
  • About
    • Standards & Disclosure
    • Privacy Policy
  • photo of Stranger Things kids from Netflix
    Healthy Living

    Who Needs Therapy When You Have Stranger Things?

    May 27, 2022 /

    Last year, I wrote about watching “Stranger Things” with my daughter. I described how the series helped us connect during the pandemic. I was conflicted about whether or not to publish the piece, but finally felt that sharing what we went through might be helpful to other parents – and it was. I heard from so many people that they had also shifted habits, gotten more lenient with things like television watching and chores, all in the name of making things a little bit easier for our children, who were going through so much.

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    Rachel Sarnoff 4 Comments

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  • General

    About Mommy Greenest

    June 3, 2019 /

    Welcome! If you found me by choice, thank you—and if you accidentally stumbled in and are about to click away because you think I’m going to wax philosophical about the joys of dressing your kids in hemp, stick around. I’m not here to preach. I might use biodegradable bathroom cleaner, but I’m not about to deny my three children the occasional hamburger—though I can’t help reminding them what factory farming is doing to the planet. I live by example, but I’m not a sustainabully. (Yes, I made that word up.) Since I began publishing EcoStiletto in 2007 and blogging as Mommy Greenest in 2008 (the two merged under the MG…

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    Rachel Sarnoff 2 Comments
  • natural parent couple with small baby on beach
    Guides,  Natural Parenting

    Mommy Greenest Guide to Natural Parenting & Pregnancy

    October 16, 2015 /

    Once upon a time I was queried by an author who was looking for eco experts to comment on a book she was writing about natural parenting. She wanted to know how to plant a garden for a new eater so that the little veggies would come up at the same time as the child’s budding incisors. And here’s what I thought: What the f*ck?!? Has this woman even had a child?

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    Rachel Sarnoff 8 Comments

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    Mommy Greenest Guide to Green Recycling

    November 2, 2015
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    Mommy Greenest Guide to Healthy Eating

    October 8, 2015
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    Mommy Greenest Guide to Eco Friendly Fashion

    October 6, 2015
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    Healthy Living

    Are You A Green Mom?

    September 21, 2015 /

    If you’ve been reading MG for a while, you know that the name of this site is a bit tongue-in-cheek. I started writing as Mommy Greenest in 2008, when I was still driving a gas-guzzling Volvo. And although I share suggestions about how to reduce the amount of toxic chemicals you and your family are exposed to on a daily basis, I’m not the eco police. So when I discovered Influence Central’s latest “Green Moms” report, I had to share. After reading it, I now know what kind of green mom I am. What kind are you?

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    Rachel Sarnoff 0 Comments

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    Stink! Doc Tackles Toxic Chemicals

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  • Natural Parenting

    Mommy Greenest Pregnancy Book (Video)

    May 20, 2015 /

    Eight years ago, I sat down with my infant daughter* in one hand and a pen in the other, and wrote a note designed to be read by my three children when they were old enough to become parents. That barely-decipherable scribble became a book full of notes about pregnancy and parenting. Eventually, those notes became a manuscript. And now, that manuscript has become a pregnancy book: The Mommy Greenest Guide to Pregnancy, Birth & Beyond. You can click here to read it for free or order a hard copy!

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    3 Steps to Breastfeed: Reduce Risks for Mom & Baby

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    Natural Parenting

    Dangerous Chemical in Dry Erase Markers

    March 23, 2015 /

    Remember chalk? Teachers hated it because it got all over their hands and clothes, and extended inhalation could trigger asthma. But schools may have a bigger problem in the works: Now ubiquitous in classrooms, many dry erase markers contain a chemical linked to serious health problems. What’s the solution? Learn how to identify this dangerous chemical, and make safer choices for the white board. 

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    Rachel Sarnoff 20 Comments

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    My Not-So-Natural Childbirth Story

    August 11, 2014
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    Natural Parenting

    Is EMF Safe for Kids?

    March 9, 2015 /

    Since my teenagers both became cell phone enabled a few years back, I’ve been nagging them about the four steps they need to take to keep safe. I’ve worried about brain tumor ever risk since the World Health Organization determined that cell phone radiation is a “possible human carcinogen” and studies showed that children receive double the cell phone radiation as adults because of their thinner skulls. But what about the electromagnetic fields—better known as EMF—generated by wireless technologies such as cell phones, tablets and WiFi? Recent action taken by the French government has me worried about that, too.

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    Rachel Sarnoff 8 Comments

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    April 13, 2013

    Head Lice Repelling Secrets, Revealed

    April 16, 2013
  • weleda giveaway eczema baby skincare cream
    Mommy Greenest Approved

    Mommy Greenest Approved: Weleda White Mallow Baby Skin Care

    March 2, 2015 /

    Newborn rashes are challenging for most parents, but for those newborns with eczema—a skin condition affects as many as 20% of babies—it’s hell. None of my babies experienced anything more serious than the occasional diaper rash, but our close friends dealt with it on a regular basis. They switched over to more natural laundry products and tried every lotion on the market—but nothing ever really worked. I wish that we’d had the new Weleda White Mallow Baby Skin Care Collection back then. Not only does it calm and heal run-of-the-mill baby rashes—it works on eczema, too.

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 Older Posts

Welcome! I created this blog in 2008 as a resource for healthier living with less judgment. I'm a mother of three, former journalist, and co-founder of the (shuttered, sniff) sustainable beauty and fashion site EcoStiletto. I was Executive Director of the nonprofits The 5 Gyres Institute and Healthy Child Healthy World and appeared as a sustainable lifestyle expert on "The "TODAY Show" and "CNN Headline News," among others. Oh, and have you checked out my TEDx talks: Trash is Ruining Recycling and Can One Straw Change The World? Today, you can find me here. Let's keep in touch! xoRachel

https://youtu.be/sOol1MIgois

rachellincolnsarnoff

Sometimes you have to just go climb a rock. #joshu Sometimes you have to just go climb a rock. #joshuatree #joshuatreenationalpark #amrelaxing #amnotwriting
What’s on your cookbook shelf? I usually go off What’s on your cookbook shelf? I usually go off script when it comes to meals (sometimes it works, sometimes not so much) but I do love reading these beautiful books. My stack started with The Joy of Cooking, which my aunt gifted me when I graduated from high school and is now held together with tape, next to the copy that I gave my daughter when she left for college (and may have inspired some of her @jujusdujour recipes). The newest addition is a truly gorgeous and inspirational cook/help/poetry/amazingness book by @julesbdavis #TheKitchenHealer out now from @soundstrue. It’s about cooking and healing and community and women and accessing our power both individually and communally. Plus a little bit of memoir from this amazing author and inspirational human. #AmReading #julesblainedavis #thekitchenhealer #cookbooks #books #bookstagram
These #vintage records include classic tracks like These #vintage records include classic tracks like “Lonely Little G-String” and inspire serious #MadMen vibes. Sadly missing the instructional booklet. You can’t make this stuff up! #amwriting #amlistening #60sstyle #60smusic
Late last year, I read an essay by @elizabeth_gilb Late last year, I read an essay by @elizabeth_gilbert_writer in which she described her process when she first began submitting stories for publication. It was like tennis: Every time a story was lobbed back to her she sent it back over the net to another potential publisher. One in, one out. I took that to heart and each time I received a no, I swung harder. I still haven’t placed a story, but last year I published three nonfiction pieces. More than 50 agents passed on my novel, but 11 requested the full manuscript and responded with detailed notes. (After enough time in the slush pile, querying writers like me gauge success by the detail of the rejection.) No, this work is not lucrative and yes, it is a privilege to carve out the time and attention that it demands. Last spring, I was inspired by @jamiattenberg’s #1000wordsofsummer to schedule hour-long writing sessions, often at 5 a.m. before work, in order to chip away at a new novel that just topped the 50,000-word mark huzzah! Cheers to all the creative people who can’t stop won’t stop trying to make sense of this reality through art. I am inspired by all of you.
#AmWriting #Memoir #Essay #Nonfiction #Fiction #WomensFiction #WritersOfInstagram #Writer #Writing #WritingCommunity #PacificUniversity #MFA
So excited for this double feature! @deshawncharle So excited for this double feature! @deshawncharleswinslow co-led our fiction workshop @pacificmfa in January and his insight was AMAZING. Can’t wait to read these books! #amwriting #amreading #deshawncharleswinslow #decentpeople #inwestmills #pacificmfa #writersofinstagram
Every year, it’s like a living painting outside Every year, it’s like a living painting outside my window. Lula likes it too. #losangeles #pearblossom #socal #spring  #dogsofinstagram
Who else is reeling from reading this incredibly p Who else is reeling from reading this incredibly powerful and terrifying book? Let’s discuss. #amreading #barbarakingsolver #demoncopperhead
My local dog park has been transformed into a pet My local dog park has been transformed into a pet cemetery. Spoiler alert: the duck dies. #onlyinla
Last week, my husband asked me what experiences we Last week, my husband asked me what experiences were on my bucket list. Today he surprised me by checking one off. #falconry #hawking #bucketlist #bucketlistadventures #valentinesday
Things I learned recently. 1. Ritual works. A r Things I learned recently.
 1. Ritual works. A room, a desk, a coffee shop. Paper and pen or antique typewriter. Someone changes his shoes like Mr. Rogers before he sits down at his desk, another does visualizations. For months, I switched into writing brain by exiting my office, where my work desktop lives, and sitting with my laptop (wifi off) in a chair next to the window in my bedroom. I now recognize this as a ritual.
 2. Quality, not quantity. Maya Angelou rented a hotel room and wrote in it for six hours a day. (She asked the staff to take all the art off the walls, so she wouldn’t be distracted. And she drank sherry.) But many of us are working writers - by this I mean working at something else while maintaining a writing practice. We squeeze it in where we can. Currently, I get up at five so I can write for an hour before starting work at seven, a luxury made possible by remote work. I rarely have a concentrated stretch of time, and yet I keep chipping away at my novel, one paragraph or page (on a good day) at a time. 
 3. It’s a practice. Until recently, I didn’t believe that writing every day was that important. I would sit down and write for eight hours and then not for weeks at a time. (I was also a working co-parent of three children. So there’s that.) Now I’m trying to write every day, even just for 30 minutes. And what that means is when I’m doing something else — working or driving carpool or yoga or walking the dog or cooking or watching television — a part of my brain is still with those characters and re-entering the scenes is easier. 
 4. Writing is a tap you can’t shut off. Waking up in the middle of the night to scribble in the dark. Dictating a note to Siri in the car. Pinching your arm in a dark movie theater so you’ll remember a word when the lights turn on. Today I realized that one of my main characters has freckles and another needs to find a credit card and a third is smelling vanilla. All of these realizations happened while I was doing other things (see above). That’s writing, too. 
Right? 
#AmWriting
Exiting the @pacificmfa womb and headed into the w Exiting the @pacificmfa womb and headed into the world, proud of brilliant graduates including @allisuuunshines and @krazykenzer14 and honored to be on this path with @kburmz_ and @katiesumers and @rwrowe21 and too many others to name “jumping and dancing and skipping” and writing and reading and listening and thinking. I am profoundly grateful for this community and fellowship that is truly life-changing, and I read this poem TODAY which is further proof the universe is listening.
THE DAYS (abridged)
If only I could live my life, not write it,
I’d have double the experience
and be better at nothingness, at being present.
The page, I once believed, offers permanence,
sanctifying time, making it longer,
but now I see my words as susceptible,
even if digital, to fire, flood, misplacement.
To misinterpretation. To accidental
download by enemy. I don’t yet want them 
to be lost, but I dread the possibility
that they won’t self-destruct at the end
of my life, or the end of my lucidity.
Maybe I’ve been using paper all wrong,
committing to ink what should live in my head,
which is part of my body, which will not last…
Each night, I had written Here is what happened
like a kid whose pen makes her small life exciting,
then gone on mistaking the plot for the story,
as if the point of writing were writing.
-Adrienne Su “The Days” published in the New Yorker January 2/9 2023 (abridged)
#AmWriting #Memoir #Essay #Nonfiction #Fiction #WomensFiction #Stories #Story #WritersOfInstagram #Writer #Writing #WritingCommunity #PacificUniversity #PacificMFA #MFA
Searching for the sleeper wave. #amwriting #amread Searching for the sleeper wave. #amwriting #amreading #fiction #writer #writersofinstagram #writingcommunity #mfa
After the recent announcement of the fusion breakt After the recent announcement of the fusion breakthrough at Livermore — where my grandfather once worked as a chemist, that’s him on the right — many messaged me that the “climate crisis was over.” At the lab, lasers fused two forms of hydrogen into helium, which released more energy than it took to make it. And yes, this is amazing: Nuclear fusion releases no greenhouse gases and the waste is less problematic than what’s produced by nuclear fission, which is what my grandfather worked on. But the Livermore experiment — among many others — was able to produce just a small amount of energy and scaling its ability will take a lot of time, which we don’t have. Here’s what we do have: Wind and solar and regenerative agriculture, which are all eminently scalable now. As my grandfather might have said, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” Photo: Bonestamp
#Climate #ClimateJustice #KeepItInTheGround #CleanEnergy #Motivation #MommyGreenest
I’m not big on resolutions, but I do believe in I’m not big on resolutions, but I do believe in ritual. Every New Year’s Day — and my birthday — I try to do the things that I want to be doing for the rest of the year. I spent the morning writing and then did some yoga and went for a walk with my family. I made posole for my son’s birthday party and ate said posole and it was delicious. I prepped a bit for work and played my guitar. All in all, an excellent start to another year. How about you? #happynewyear #newyear #resolutions #ritual
I have always been a writer. Published? Not so muc I have always been a writer. Published? Not so much. I published myself, obviously — MommyGreenest since 2008 woot! — but with other projects I tended to give up after a pass and internalize the rejection. But late last year, I read an essay by @elizabeth_gilbert_writer in which she described her process as tennis: Every time a story was lobbed back to her she sent it back over the net to another potential publisher. One in, one out. I took that to heart and each time I received a no, I swung harder. I still haven’t placed a story, but this year I published three nonfiction pieces — in the @washingtonpost, @nwreview, and @hippocampusmag. With encouragement from Kate McKean’s @agents_and_books newsletter, I submitted to over 50 agents who passed on my novel, but 11 requested the full manuscript and responded with notes (this will mean nothing to most people, but after enough time in the slush pile, querying writers gauge success by the detail of the rejection). No, this work is not lucrative and yes, it is a privilege to carve out the time and attention that it demands. Last spring, I was inspired by @jamiattenberg’s #1000wordsofsummer to schedule hour-long writing sessions, often at 5 a.m. before work, in order to chip away at a new novel that just topped the 50,000-word mark huzzah! Next week, I’ll join @pacificmfa peers in Oregon for my first in-person residency on the slowest train ever to an MFA. Cheers to all the creative people who can’t stop won’t stop trying to make sense of this reality through art. I am inspired by all of you.
#AmWriting #Memoir #Essay #Nonfiction #Fiction #WomensFiction #WritersOfInstagram #Writer #Writing #WritingCommunity #PacificUniversity #MFA
Finally c-positive, which is a negative, but the p Finally c-positive, which is a negative, but the plus side is a cozy blanket, knitted with love by a friend, and this amazing book, sent to me by my mother, which includes this wisdom: “…it strikes me as a particularly dangerous fantasy…that someone might be able to live without…heartbreak or sorrow. Which I’m pretty sure you only get to do if you have no relationships, love nothing, are a sociopath, and maybe, if you’re enlightened. I don’t know about you, but I check none of these boxes.” Love love LOVE. Who else is reading/has read? Let’s discuss! #amreading #rossgay #essay #nonfiction #inspiration
Los Angeles is full of magical places, especially Los Angeles is full of magical places, especially this time of year. We got dressed up and went to one of them. Highly recommended. Happy holidays, everyone!
When your daughter is doing the crossword puzzle a When your daughter is doing the crossword puzzle and you know both the answer and the person in the clue.
#JennaJambeck #Plastic #CircularEconomy #BreakFreeFromPlastic #Motivation #Health #Wellness #MommyGreenest
Obsessed. #Natural #NaturalBeauty #CleanBeauty #Be Obsessed. #Natural #NaturalBeauty #CleanBeauty #Beauty #Perfume #NaturalPerfume #HenryRose #NotSponsored
Slow and steady wins the race. #SlowAndSteady #Ha Slow and steady wins the race.
#SlowAndSteady #HappyHolidays #HappyHolidays2022 #AmWriting #WomensFiction #WritersOfInstagram #Writer #Writing #WritingCommunity
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