Most children think food comes from the grocery store. You might be comfortable with your children learning about farming through books, at school or television. Planting a family garden might be a great activity where each family member has a role, and your children have the opportunity to learn responsibility, teamwork and see the results of their labor in the garden. READ MORE

There are hundreds of words people use to talk about green. Going green, living green, green home, green building, green remodeling, green building materials, green architecture, green building products, energy star, recycled products, eco friendly products, green cleaning products and the list goes on. The question is what do all these words and phrases mean?

Important Green Concepts

These terms aren’t meaningful unless we know the important concepts underlying green so let’s look at the most important words and what they mean. In fact, all resources can be grouped into 3 categories: renewable, non-renewable and perpetual resources, a new word I discovered while doing research for this article. READ MORE

Families get excited as summer winds down, the kids head back to school and family life can get back to normal, whatever that is. Our children look forward to seeing their friends so they’re focusing on the social aspects of school. Parents look forward to a few free moments and empty nesters reminisce about their school days as parents. Children learn lots of  information and develop many skills in school, on their way to becoming independent adults. The most important skill of all is learning to be a lifelong student. READ MORE

There is lots of marketing hype about going green but what does it really mean? The first thing to understand is going green isn’t about buying, it’s about lifestyle. Going green means learning how your actions affect the environment and making conscious decisions to reduce the negative impact you have on the environment. It means reducing how much non-renewable energy you use, how much water you use and lowering the amount of bad things you cause to be released into the air.

While it’s difficult to understand how actions affect the planet and contribute to a healthier earth, many of these decisions can affect the quality of your life. Let’s explore one term that affects the environment globally and in your home. READ MORE

Before the industrial revolution, most Americans lived and worked on farms. The size of a farm depended on what you were growing and how much the farm produced. Watching the CNN video, America’s Oldest Family Farm for Sale, made me realize we can learn from our past, from the changes our country has gone through moving from an agricultural economy to the industrial age and now today’s information age.

Through all sorts of adversity, Americans have learned and thrived by being flexible and open to change. Tomorrow’s homes are already changing so let’s look at the past to see what we can learn that will help us  predict the future. READ MORE