Hey Friends!

I send out a monthly email and I thought that this month, I’d post it here. If you would like to be added to my email list, email laurenskijones@gmail.com to be added.

Welcome to March. I don’t know about you but I am looking forward to spring. Flowers, sunshine, uncomplicated clothing . . .

Here are some fun shares about what’s been going on with us . . .And by the way, I would love feedback anytime. – things you’d like to see, things you aren’t interested in . . .

Parent quote of the week:
“Don’t put balls in your mouth, especially other people’s balls”
Get your head out of the gutter, folks, we are talking bouncy balls here! But seriously, after we said this, big Luke and I could barely control our laughter. The things we say sometimes as parents are so ridiculous. If you can’t laugh, you won’t enjoy parenting because it’s a tragic riot at times.

Movies
Greenbook and A Star is Born are both great and I highly recommend them! I don’t think Greenbook is out yet but A Star is Born can be rented from Amazon or Redbox.

Netflix
If you need a good series, I liked Medici – it’s a historical drama which is pretty much my favorite genre.
I just started Working Moms and I’m thinking its going to be amazing.

Eats – I usually only post recipes I’ve made but at the bottom I’m going to post our menu for the week if you’re interested!
Turkey Tortilla Soup – I subbed  rotisserie chicken and  threw this together quickly and  it was delish.
Italian Holiday Soup – from the Living Crazy Healthy Cookbook by Jennifer Rossano – there are a lot of great recipes in here including kid friendly options.
Chili – this is my go to chili recipe and it’s super easy and yummy. 1Ib ground meat, one chopped onion, one chopped green pepper – saute all in big pot. Add large can of tomatoes, small can of tomatoes, can of tomato paste, a bunch of chili seasoning and a can of kidney beans. Throw on some sourcream, cheese, cilantro and chopped raw onions, put over rice if you like and Voila!
Pesto Pasta – My kids love pesto (thanks to my BF!) and it’s one of the easiest things to make from scratch or just buy the premade stuff. If you want to get some veggies in there- put them in the food processor and your kids won’t even know they’re there.
Coming up this week
Avocado and Chicken Fajita Cobb Salad – made this lastnight and it was a winner
Cheesy baked gnocchi
Tzatziki Wraps – tons of veggies and tzatziki sauce wrapped up in NAAN bread
Coconut Curry Soup
(By the way, I’m not always this organized. Sometimes we eat ramen noodles and whatever vegetable I can find that isn’t rotten.)

Clean Swaps
A lot of you have reached out to me with questions about the clean swaps we’ve made this year. I put them all together in this post.

Beautycounter updates
Through my work with Beautycounter, I continue to find ways to make our lives cleaner and healthier. Last month I cleaned out a cabinet in one of our bathrooms and was shocked that I had so many things to throw out! But it felt great to just get that junk out of our house.
Here are a couple of articles that I have found particularly inspiring.
NY Times
7 Most Toxic Materials and how to avoid them

March 4th was our day of national advocacy. As many of you know, our mission is to get safer products into the hands of everyone, we can’t accomplish this without laws that require companies to consider human health when creating products. I think that most of us assume that this would be required, but it is NOT. Recalls can’t even be issued for known dangerous products! Please take a few seconds to text BETTERBEAUTY to 52886 to urge congress to pass more health protective laws.

Thoughts – Closing the Gap
I’ d like to encourage everyone to consume news from a variety of resources. If you have views typically associated  with republicans, look for news beyond FOX. If you lean more democratic, look beyond CNN. These stations often aren’t even reporting on the same topics. It’s insane and very hard to navigate these days. It seems that everyone has a political agenda and will stop at nothing to promote it. And please, please, please, don’t “write off” your friends or even strangers as “stupid” or “ignorant” or “uncaring” because they feel differently than you. We all are SO important. We all have a story that has lead us to what we believe – ask your friends about that, then LISTEN. Keep an open mind and for GODS sake, LOVE PEOPLE, no matter what. We are all guilty of contributing to the divide in our country and therefore all responsible for healing it.

XOXO