Chronical Books

Chronical Books is offering 30% off of their beautiful parenting and children's books for a limited time on-line. Click the button above to shop today, and use promo code PARENTS30

Healthy Child Healthy World

Need some tips and recipes for getting your kids to eat healthy? Healthy Child Healthy World recently started a new program called "Eat Healthy", that makes food fast, frugal, fun and eco-friendly! With tips and ideas from experts like Myra Goodman, cookbook author and co-founder of Earthbound Farm (the world's largest grower of organic produce), and Raising Baby Green author Dr. Alan Greene, and recipes from celebrity moms such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Meryl Streep and the "Renegade Lunch Lady" chef Ann Cooper, Eat Healthy is a comprehensive, easy-to-read online recipe and healthy food guide. It's filled with easy, delicious (yet kid-friendly) recipes; essential reading and advice about today's most worrisome food issues; food and nutrition videos; and even downloadable pocket shopping guides like "Healthy School Lunch" and "Healthy Formula & Food," so you can always keep the wisdom of Eat Healthy with you.

Other Eat Healthy resources include: Tips to take to the grocery store, including the most and least pesticide-laden fruits and vegetables and the best healthy, kid-approved snacks Eight simple steps for making healthier, greener food choices for your family's diet Quick and easy recipes for eating right on a budget A checklist of fish that is safe for children, teens and all women of child-bearing age How to limit your child's intake of food additives

Eat Healthy is also an interactive space for parents and caregivers to share their recipes and tips, too. Your child's favorite snack could be the answer for another mom in search of fun, healthy mealtime ideas. Your low-cost, eco-friendly storage idea may be just the solution for the dad who just purged all his plastics. Enjoy!

Healthy Kids Kitchen

Enter the Kids Kitchen Contest! Entries can win a $500 organic food gift card or other prizes! Simply upload pitcures or videos onf your healthy, happy children with brief descriptions to the Barefoot Books Facebook Group before October 15th. The Grand Prize is a $500 Whole Foods Gift Card, and Ten Runners-up will get Barefoot Books Healthy Kids Gift Collection...what could be better than keeping your children healthy, teaching them good eatting habits, and winning these prizes from Barefoot Books? How about winning prizes from The Barefoot Storyteller too!

Post a comment to my Barefoot Books blog telling me your child's favorite healthy snack, and be entered to win a "Cooking With Herb the Vegetarian Dragon Cookbook"!

New Barefoot Books Web-site

Join me and come see the new Barefoot Books Web-site! A barnd new look, new features, but with the same wonderfully enchanting & educational stories, world music, art, puppets, puzzles and more! There's the new Ambassador Program, (you can sign up for free) new exciting fund raising opportunities and more new titles! Summer Reading Sale now going on as well!

TheBarefootStoryteller.BarefootBooks.com

I've also added a new blog to my "blog family" where you'll find my Barefoot Books news, including a fun free book drawing! Please visit today!

BarefootBooksStoryteller.blogspot.com

Green House

I am happy to support this little "company". As I often say, I very strongly believe in and practice making a positive change in our world by offering earth-friendly products, and by supporting other families who are nurturing their children in a peaceful way. Please click on the banner above to visit.

Make a Difference

Perhaps I was having a bad day. Perhaps I was frustrated with the same questions, the same concerns that weigh on the minds of many of us from time to time, having to also weigh on the mind of my seven year old. Perhaps I was tired of him asking the same questions over and over again that I have no answers to. Whatever the reason, when he asked his question this time I launched into a long monoluge, my voice increasing in pitch, about how people try to change things, great efforts are made, hard work is done, backs and hearts fully put into things, and yet sometimes it just doesn't seem to make a difference.

He sat and listened intently, though he's heard it all before from me, he waited for me to finally stop talking (ranting) and take my usual deep sigh, and then he stood up, embraced me, and in a calm and soothing voice said:

"It's all right mama, I will make a difference"

That took my breath away. Made me stop and think.

I have a t-shirt in my drawer which reads, "Be the change you wish to see in the world"... we all try to live our lives with compassion and respect for each other and this wonderous planet we live on, we do the right things...we recycle cans and cardboard (even though no one is buying recyclables as much as they used to...our local recycling center has to pay to have glass picked up), we look into alternative energy for heating our homes and powering our cars, we buy local, or if not then free trade products... but how often to be have the courage of our convictions to stand up and say "I will make a difference"? Not, I will *try* to do something that brings change, but to say it like we mean it, in honesty and pure purpose, I *will* make a difference.

I will never forget that moment, the tone of his voice, the way he hugged me, the wisdom he seemed to possess at this still tender age ... but maybe we all need reminders to be confident enough to make such grand statements.

So I put it on t-shirts and buttons and magnets and coffee cups and postcards over at http://www.cafepress.com/iwill and to be true to the statement, begining February 1st, all of the profits from the shop will be given to a different group or cause randomly choosen by my son each month. I will post what he has choosen from the hat here, and welcome your suggestions.

I will make a difference,

Dawnella

Barefoot Books' Annual Winter Sale

Barefoot Books' Annual Winter Sale begins Monday December 29th and runs through Monday February 2nd, with savings of up to 80% on selected bestseller titles, limited stock collectibles and even story cds!! Get your shopping lists ready this weekend , and then be sure to visit http://www.BarefootBooksStoryteller.com/ next Monday! Happy Holidays!

Barefoot Books Sale This Weekend

Special Sale this weekend, save 30% on all Barefoot Books orders through my site! Barefoot Books has unique gifts that will enchant the whole family, not just the children in your life. Please feel free to browse the fantastic collection of books, puppets, puzzles, music CDs and more upon my web-site where you can shop for featured products, as well as the full Barefoot range. Check out the New Fall Releases, such as the books Little Leap Forward, Arthur of Albion, or Portside Pirates (now in paperback in CD) and the new lift-the flap book, Hidden Hippo. With more books to come in following weeks! Also now available Folkmanis Bee Puppet, Camel Puppet, Llama Puppet, and Polar Bear Puppet...and the Mudpuppy "Landmarks of the World" Puzzle which is the perfect compliment to the Barefoot Book My Granny Went to Market.

Barefoot Books Monthly Book Club

In the Waterville Maine area (coming some to Belfast and Skowhegan as well) your child can join this book club series and it'll be like getting a gift each month...the gift of reading!

There are three different series to choose from, currently offered as 6-month subscriptions. These books can be picked up at The Inside Out Playground at 5 Appleton Street on either the first or third Thursday of each month when The Barefoot Storyteller comes to visit.

The First Steps Series

The child receives one gift wrapped board book each month. Books may include:

The Elusive Moose; How Big is a Pig; One Moose Twenty Mice; Cleo's Counting Book.

6-month subscription - $56

World at their Feet Series

(Read together 0 - 5 year old; Read alone 5 - 9 year old)

The child receives one gift wrapped hardback book a month.

The books within this Series expose children to the variety of beautiful cultures around the world. Examples of books distributed within this Series include, We're Sailing Down the Nile; We All Went on Safari; My Granny Went to Market or Mama Panya's Pancakes.

6-month subscription - $109

Tell me a Story Series

(Read Together 0 - 5 year old; Read alone 5 - 9 year old)

The child receives one gift wrapped hardback book a month.

The books within this Series include The Tear Thief; The Boy Who Grew Flowers; I Took the Moon for a Walk; Listen, Listen; My Daddy is a Pretzel.

6-month subscription - $109

Contact me personally for more information and to set up your child's membership.

TheBarefootStoryteller@Barefoot-Storyteller.com

Happy Reading!

Dawnella

February is National Dental Health Month

Fundraising Goal Met!!

A great big Thank You goes out to everyone who contributed to my Barefoot Books fundrasier for the FUTURE MSAD 3 Capital Campaign for the Mount View School Performing Arts Center. They had set out a five year plan to raise $500,000 and in just seventeen months raised over $624,000!!! Way to go!!! I deeply belive music, dance, theater and art in it's many forms, is essential to feeding our souls... both personally as well as that of the community, and that becomes a very beautiful way of nurturing our children & our planet. I am very pleased to have been a part of this project in my community, and thrilled that they have reached their goal. www.Barefoot-Storyteller.com

Top 20 things that are more dangerous to children than lead paint in toys

From Mike Adams: The mainstream media is amusingly irrational when it comes toreporting scare stories. The latest example involves the leadcontent of Mattel toys made in China. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a third recall of Mattel toys involving over700,000 toys containing unacceptably high levels of lead paint(over .06 percent lead). Irrational parents are rushing back to retailers in droves, turning in their Mattel toys to "save their children" from the dangers of lead paint. Mattel, for its part, is being rightly blasted in the media for selling shoddy products made with toxic heavy metals. But here's the interesting part in all this: Parents directly poison their children every day with products far more dangerous than Mattel toys. Don't believe me? I'll name twenty things in this article that are far more dangerous to children than Mattel toys. It doesn't mean Mattel toys are safe, of course. They apparently do contain unacceptably high levels of lead, and there's no question about the toxicity of lead. But children don't eat toys nearly as often as they eat some other toxic substances given to them by their parents, and even as parents are herding back into retailers to refund their toxic lead-laden toys, they're returning home and poisoning their children with many other products that are far worse.The press, of course, reports nothing about these other toxic products. And why? Because they're made in America. American products poisoning American children. American products, you see, are often given blanket immunity by the U.S. press. While the media is happy to jump on toxic lead found in Chinese products, they completely ignore (for example) the toxic mercury that dentists continue to place into the mouths of young children all across the country. Why is it considered highly dangerous for a child to merely touch a toy with .06 percent lead paint while it is considered perfectly safe for a child to chew on a filling made with 40 percent mercury? Mercury is far more toxic than lead in many ways, yet the media has nothing to say about the mass poisoning of children through the outmoded dental work still being performed on children today. Mercury fillings were invented before the Civil War, and they're just as toxic now as they were then! Of course, if dental fillings were made in China, the U.S. press would be screaming about their toxicity! But since they're installed by crazed U.S. dentists -- many of whom still manage to seem convincingly sane -- there's zero coverage in the mainstream media. Reporting the truth about dangerous chemicals, heavy metals and other threats to children is extremely selective. The public never hears the real truth about what's dangerous -- they only hear what the media want them to think is dangerous! But I've had it with popular media distortions. Here, I'm going toreveal the top 20 things that are more dangerous to children than the lead paint in Mattel toys. Interestingly, most of these are things that parents intentionally give their children (or feed tothem!). If you're worried about lead paint, you should be far more worried about these 20 things... 1. Mercury fillings Often called "silver fillings" to hide the fact that they're made from mercury, these highly toxic fillings areplaced directly into the mouths of children where they are inhaled(mercury vapor) and swallowed, causing systemic mercury poisoning tothe child and leading to long-term neurological damage. Visitwww.IAOMT.org <http://www.iaomt.org/> and watch the "Smoking Teeth = PoisonGas" video tolearn more. 2. Vaccines Think vaccines are safe? You've been hoodwinked by the popular media parroting drug company propaganda. Vaccines are preserved with methyl mercury, one of the most dangerous chemical forms of the toxic heavy metal. This mercury is injected directly into the bodies of children where it causes severe neurological damage. And yes, it does cause Autism, despite what you've read in the dumbed-down press. 3. Hot dogs Hot dogs are made with horrifying processed meat parts, then preserved with a cancer-causing ingredient called sodium nitrite. As detailed in the book Grocery Warning, this ingredient causes brain tumors in children, not to mention leukemia, pancreatic cancer,colon cancer and other cancers. Hot dogs are far more dangerous to a child's health than lead paint in my opinion, and yet parents keep feeding them to their children! 4. Antibacterial soap How about a little nerve toxin in your soap? That's what's found in antibacterial soap. It's a toxic cocktail of chemicals designed to kill life. That's how it kills bacteria. The problem is that it also harms people -- especially infants and children who are trying to develop healthy nervous systems. Avoid all products claiming to be "antibacterial." You're better off using natural soap and letting your child's immune system fight off common bacteria. The world isn't sterile, after all. You can't turn your house into a germ-free bubble. 5. ADHD drugs Would you give your child street drugs like speed or meth? Probably not, but what if your doctor wrote you a prescription for speed and said your child needed it because he was ADHD? If you're like most parents, you'd fall in step and start giving your child speed. But wait, you say: ADHD drugs are not speed, are they? But of course they are. They belong to a class of drugs called amphetamines. They used to be illegally sold as speed. Now they're prescription drugs, and they're given to children in schools all across America (and elsewhere). Psychiatrists and drug companies are making a killing dosing up kids and infants on substances that used to be considered illegal street drugs (and that have no legitimate medical use whatsoever) 6. Sports drinks For some reason, parents irrationally believe sports drinks are healthy because they contain the word "sports." Didn't they notice the neon green artificial coloring? Sports drinks are a nutritional joke. Made from salt water,processed sweeteners and petrochemical coloring, many of their ingredients are actually harmful. Drinking water would be smarter,and feeding your child some healthy trace minerals would be even better. Low on potassium? Eat a banana. 7. Cough syrup and over-the-counter medicines Nearly all children's over-the-counter medicines contain multiple toxic substances such as chemical sweeteners, preservatives and additives. Cough syrup, inparticular, has been scientifically proven to be absolutely worthless in preventing coughs. Many "children's" medicines are actually more toxic than their adult counterparts because they're sweetened up and cosmetically enhanced with artificial colors made from petrochemicals. Yet parents poison their children every day with over-the-counter medicine. 8. Sunscreen The sunscreen industry is a huge scam. Most popular sunscreen products actually cause skin cancer due to the numerous toxic chemicals they contain (which are quickly absorbed into the skin where they cause DNA mutations that lead to cancer). Even worse, sunscreen blocks the UV radiation that allows the skin to manufacture all-important vitamin D -- the most powerful anti-cancer nutrient yet known to modern science. It prevents over a dozen different cancers, yet parents block it by slathering toxic sunscreen on their children, all while mistakenly believing they're "protecting their children from cancer!" What a scam. 9. Fluoride in the water I've always found it amazing that city water officials were dumb enough to actually buy a toxic waste substance and arrange to have it dripped into the public water supply where it would be ingested by infants and children. The result? Mass fluorosis and toxicity to children everywhere. Didn't these people realize that fluoride only works topically? (That is,it only works if you rub it on your teeth, then spit it out, and even that only works if you're using natural fluoride, not the chemicals spit out as byproducts of the fertilizer industry, which is what city water departments are buying and dripping into the water supply.) Whoever heard of drinking a topical medication in the first place? It's like swallowing sunscreen to prevent sunburn. Even worse,putting this into the public water supply effectively mass medicates everyone with a bioactive chemical substance that no one has been given a prescription for. This is all done with no regard for the level of natural fluoride children might already be ingesting from other sources. The situation is so crazy that it's difficult to finda more insane example of medical tyranny than the mass fluoridation of public water supplies. The fact that doctors and dentists so vehemently support it demonstrates just how crazy they really are. 10. Processed milk Children as young as 10 years old are now being diagnosed with heart disease and clogged arteries. Ever wonder how it happened? It's due in part to all the processed milk children are swallowing these days. Not only is the milk contaminated with pus, blood and detectable levels of pesticides and other chemicals, it's also homogenized, meaning the fats are artificially modified in a way that makes them stay in suspension. This homogenization also makes milk fats dangerous to cardiovascular health. While I support the consumption of raw, unprocessed milk, I think that consuming processed, homogenized milk is dangerous to the health of infants, children and adults alike! 11. Fast food Fast food is extremely unhealthy for children. Not only are the foods often fried, homogenized, hydrogenated and otherwise altered, they're also laced with chemical additives, taste enhancers, processed sugars, petrochemical food coloring and other unhealthy substances. Strangely, many parents actually reward their children for good behavior by buying them unhealthy fast food meals,thereby creating a psychological association between good feelings and junk food. (Fast food restaurants further exploit this psychological link by building playgrounds and running feel-good advertisements that emphasize friends and fun, then link those goodvibes to their food products.) 12. Antidepressant drugs Children as young as six months old are now being put on psychotropic drugs such as SSRIs (antidepressants). These drugs, we now know, cause suicidal thoughts and violent behavior, especially in young boys. They imbalance brain chemistry and even alter the body's metabolism of sugar, promoting diabetes and leading to rapid weight gain. These drugs are so dangerous that feeding them to children should be considered a crime. Every single school shooting involving a child in the United States in the last 15 years has been linked to antidepressant drug use. 13. Chemical laundry detergents Parents are shown fancy ads on television depicting how wonderful and clean their clothes will beif they wash them in brand-name laundry detergent. What they're not shown, however, is the toxicity of all the synthetic chemicals that go into most laundry detergent products. The fragrance chemicals alone are often carcinogenic, and they're just as bad for the environment as they are children's health. A new alternative has appeared, however: Soap berries! It's laundry soap that grows ontrees. (see http://www.BetterLifeGoods.com) 14. Flame retardant chemicals Did you know that new mattresses for infants and children are often sprayed with extremely toxic flameretardant chemicals? These are easily absorbed through the skin of infants and children where they contribute to numerous neurological disorders and immune suppression. Many clothing products are also sprayed with flame retardants, as are some carpeting products. In the push to make everything fireproof, state regulators (who have mandated the flame retardant chemicals in states like California)have created a toxic environment for everyone. I suppose if you're a politician, it's always better for a million people to die of a mysterious disease that can't be linked to you than to have one baby burning up on the evening news with fingers of blame pointed directly at you. 15. Soda Aside from directly promoting diabetes and obesity, sodas also contain high amounts of phosphoric acid, a substance that dissolves bones and causes a loss of bone mineral density. This causes massive tooth decay as well as a shrinking jaw bone and overall skeletal fragility. Diet sodas are even worse, since they contain chemical sweeteners linked to neurological disorders and learning disabilities. 16. Air fresheners Air fresheners contain cancer-causing chemicals. Unleashing them in the house exposes children to these chemicals,promoting asthma and other respiratory problems. If you value the health of your children, avoid air freshener products and just use essential oils or citrus peels instead. (Peel an orange and hang the peel in your kitchen.) 17. Synthetic vitamins Many children's vitamins are made with cheap,synthetic "vitamin" chemicals that actually harm people who take them. Plus, many are loaded up with artificial colors, sucrose and chemical sweeteners. Avoid cheap, store-bought children's vitamins or anything containing cyanocobalamin (a toxic form of vitamin B12). 18. Dryer sheets Most popular dryer sheets and fabric softeners are made with toxic synthetic chemicals that are not safe to use on children's clothing. The fragrance chemicals alone are often highly carcinogenic, and the other chemicals contribute additional toxicity to the clothing. Children's clothes should never be washed or dried in chemicals. Only use natural detergents and fabric softeners, or avoid the fabric softeners altogether. 19. Bacon Most bacon and sausage are processed meat products made with sodium nitrite (like the hot dogs, above) and contaminated with various chemicals lodged in the animal fats. Conventionally-raised beef, pork and chicken products are extremely toxic to the human body and contribute to colon cancer, breast cancer,prostate cancer and many other diseases and disorders. If you make meat for your children, shop for 100% organic, free-range,antibiotic-free meats that have no nitrites or nitrates. 20. Shampoo and bath products Virtually all popular shampoo and bath products sold on the market contain cancer-causing chemicals. The ingredients read like a top-40 list of toxic chemicals. Virtually none of these chemicals have ever been tested or approved for use on humans (they are simply ignored because the FDA astonishingly believes the skin won't absorb chemicals). So that's the list of 20 items that are more dangerous to the health of children than the lead paint in Mattel toys. Most parents have no concern whatsoever for any of these 20 things, but they're going ape-shoot-crazy over the tiny amounts of lead in their Barbie toys and Elmo stuffed animals. It all just goes to show you that the sheeple will think anything the mainstream media tells them to think (and they'll ignore everything else). It's classic American contradiction: Returning a Mattel toy at the local toy store while taking your child to a dentist to have mercury implanted in the cavities caused by all the soda the kid consumed at home. If it all weren't so downright tragic, it would almost be funny. - Mike Adams About the author: Mike Adams is a consumer health advocate with a passion for teaching people how to improve their health. He is a prolific writer and has published thousands of articles, interviews,reports and consumer guides, impacting the lives of millions of readers around the world who are experiencing phenomenal health benefits from reading his articles. Adams is an independent journalist with strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or company. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a manufacturer of mercury-free, energy-efficient LED lighting products that save electricity and help prevent global warming. He also launched an online retailer of environmentally-friendly products (BetterLifeGoods.com) and uses a portion of its profits to help fund non-profit endeavors. He's also a veteran of the software technology industry, having founded a personalized mass email software product used to deliver email newsletters to subscribers. Adams is currently the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit, and practices nature photography, Capoeira, Pilates and organic gardening. Known on the 'net as 'the Health Ranger,' Adams shares his ethics, mission statements and personal health statistics at http://www.HealthRanger.org

Barefoot Books Special Offer

This one is a good one... an on-line only special... just place an order for $30 or more through my personal Barefoot Books web-link http://www.mybarefootbooks.com/DawnellaSutton between now and October 31st, and receive a free copy of Storytime!

Mothers Moon Links

Here's the link to my *mostly* all-inclusive web-site...

http://www.freedompondmoonworks.com

and then there's my companion web-sites...

For select handmade products:

MothersMoon.etsy.com

A place for women to gather to talk about fertility, pregnancy & birth: themoontree.webs.com

For easy on-line ordering of select products:

mothersmoon.webs.com

For information on Storytimes for Children:

www.StorytellerMoon.com

For Mother Moon Music:

www.mothermoonmusic.webs.com

and

BarefootBooks

www.TheStorytellersBooks.com

Okay, so there's a bunch of places you can go to find out more about me, what I offer, et cetera... and I'm assuming that if you are reading this blog that my sort of thing interests you...super!...but sometimes the best advertising is controversy and it seems I have been made famous by another's personal blog. Being nominated for "Mother Who Should Be Arrested"...hmmm well everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I welcome you to share yours with Michelle. View her blog here:

http://youcantmakeitup.blogspot.com/2005/01/my-first-nomination-for-mother-who.html

Books

Barefoot Books

Settle into your comfiest story chair, grab a cup of faerie tea, tuck some dreams & wishes into a bundle just the right size for a ride on an elephant's back and you are ready to explore Barefoot Books. Barefoot Books celebrates art & story which opens the hearts & minds of children from all walks of life, inspiring them to read deeper, search further, and explore their own creative gifts.

In-home shopping, on-line shopping, fund raisers, and more.

http://www.BarefootOnTheMoon.com

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Please also visit Books by Lori Lite

Beautiful empowering books for children... & more.

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