Our Vida Green Kids Summer Camp starts next week -- June 23rd-June 27th from 12-4 p.m. It's going to be such an amazing eco-learning adventure for your kids with Spanish and reading instruction as well! Some of the FUN activities that we have planned are: seed balls, seed tape, seed packets, upcycledt-shirt bags, handmade, all-natural sunscreen, nature scavenger hunt, nature mask and so much more! If you are interested in enrolling your child/ren in our camp, please contact me at vidagreenconsulting@gmail.com. Hope you are having an awesome summer!

Show your mom how special she is by getting her all-natural, organic body care products by Vida Green!! The whipped shea butter is ultra luxurious. Pair that with the Salt of the Earth scrub and your mom is going to be so happy! Don't forget about my amazing natural deodorant that actually works very well! And, of course, it's getting around the time in Central Texas when we are inundated with mosquitoes -- it's a great time to buy my natural bug spray! Just contact me for more information or if you would like to purchase some Vida Green organic body care products! Happy Mother's Day!! I would like to send out a huge shout out to my mom who is an amazing, beautiful, compassionate person! I am so very lucky to have such a caring mom who is always there for me and provided a wonderful foundation -- love you mom!

Our annual Spring Fest is coming soon! Hope you can make it! It's Saturday, 4/12/14 from 2-6 p.m. This year, I am busy incorporating a Green Fest into our Spring Fest. We are thrilled to announce that the Whole Kids Foundation will be hosting a Garden Party in our school garden. This will be a great chance to see our school garden since it's kind of hidden in the courtyard! Whole Foods will also be doing a cooking demo along with samples. The Go Green Team will be making healthy, delicious fruit smoothies! Sustainable Food Center will also be there doing a gardening activity with kids. My business, Vida Green Kids will be doing an upcycling activity with the kids and CINCA (Children in Nature Collaborative) will be talking about their website: www.naturerocksaustin.com and how fun exploring in nature is! REI is donating 250 goodie bags full of great information and RRISD Food Services Dept. is donating reusable water bottles and bracelets for the kids to encourage healthy and active lifestyles! This is sure to be an amazing day full of fun, community and great information!  

We have had a very busy Fall! Fernando's sister, Jocelyn came to visit us in October. My parents also visited for a couple of weeks in October. We had a wonderful time with family! Maia's birthday was in October. She was so excited because every year, we have an Echoage birthday, but this year, they had a new charity on their list, Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary and Maia was thrilled to be able to contribute towards the animals at the Sanctuary. Basically, it works like this: Maia's guests contribute financially and the total goes half towards her charity of choice and half towards a special gift for her. Maia wanted to get a sewing machine and a horse for her doll, which through her friends' generous contributions, she was able to get. Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary went above and beyond as they sent Maia a handwritten thank you note, membership card and t-shirt! What an amazing charity! See photo at left -- so happy!

November was equally as busy with garden classes at Wells Branch Elementary, Fernando's birthday and Thanksgiving. We had a Vegan Indian Food feast at our house for Thanksgiving and invited our friends, Claudia, Alvaro and Gabriela over who also do not have family nearby. We had a great time reminiscing about past adventures in Chile and Peru and other odds and ends! 

I cannot believe that it's already December! We jumped on the Elf on the Shelf bandwagon and are starting the tradition at our home. The kids are absolutely loving it so far! Christmas is coming in a few short weeks. My next blog post will give you tips on how to have a more eco-friendly Christmas. And, of course, I have a wonderful array of bath and body care items available for purchase. They make wonderful gifts for your loved ones! Happy December!

It's been way too long since I've updated my blog! I'm going to try to be better at writing and posting material. Both my kids are in school full-time now and it's time to start focusing more on my business. I've been busy getting the Green Team at our school going again. We are so excited to make our school as eco-friendly as possible with the goal of becoming a certified Green Ribbon school! Some of the projects we are working on are: organic gardening (of course!), Farmer's Market with the 5th graders, working to get toxic chemicals out of our school, nutrition/wellness projects (including a possible salad bar in the cafeteria -- how cool would that be?!), working with Terracyle to upcycle snack wraps & juice pouches, writing grants as well as working on various beautification projects around the school. With the recent spotlight on KLRU's "Central Texas Gardener," I've received several requests from other schools for ideas on how they can start their own school gardens. This is a thrilling time where I feel like we are really making an impact and not only helping the environment, but also helping children in this technology/nature-deficit time in which we live.

Speaking of nature-deficit disorder, I finally got around to reading "Last Child in the Woods" by Richard Louv. It was a wonderful book and definitely eye-opening to the fact that our children are facing the consequences of not having as much free time in nature to explore and learn about the world in a no pressure, hands on way. I highly recommend everybody to read the book! I know that my goal is to have my children spend more time outside learning about the world, exploring and enjoying how you feel with fresh air in your lungs and a breeze on your back! 

I hope that we are able to take the kids on their very first camping trip this Fall. We are just waiting for the weather to cool down a bit! They have been asking us for months to take them on a camping trip and they are finally at an age where I think it would be relatively easy. Do you have any outdoor plans for your children? 

Hi all! I haven’t been very good at keeping up with the blog. I keep telling myself that I’m going to write more. I guess if I put it on my calendar as a weekly event, I would be more likely to do it. So, that’s what I’m going to do! I’ve been very busy volunteering at my daughter’s school. We have an edible school garden where the students go into the garden weekly to learn all about nature and growing your own veggies and fruit. The kids even enjoy picking weeds out of the raised beds! We also have a Farmer’s Market that is run by a 5th grade group with Sarah and I are their “guides.” They are responsible for running their business and all aspects of it. They have done an excellent job and have truly embraced all parts of their business. It’s amazing when you plant the seed and then see how it grows and flourishes as the kids have done in the program! With this awesome program, we are not only promoting the benefits of running a business and thinking outside the box, but also promoting nutrition and making healthy food choices. This should be a high priority in schools in the United States.

I was just reading that the number of people diagnosed with diabetes has increased 300% in the past 30 years. Doctors and researchers are predicting that 1 in 3 (!!!) Americans will be diagnosed with diabetes by 2050. Unfortunately, if we continue on our path of the Standard American Diet of lots of meat, cheese and processed foods, this will become a sad reality. Joel Fuhrman, MD and Neal Barnard, MD have done the research with real humans (not animals) and their findings always point to the same conclusion, GO VEGAN! Furhman’s theory for this increase of diabetes is America’s expanding waistline. He states “reversing and preventing diabetes on an individual and national level does not require a prescription. It requires a change in the way we eat.” Eating organically grown, fresh produce is the best thing you can do for your body. My goal is to live a long, healthy life and be around to enjoy all the beautiful, wonderful things about this world, which I absolutely believe will happen by continuing on my healthy Vegan diet! So, eat healthfully, enjoy what you have, go outside and enjoy nature and cultivate beautiful relationships with your loved ones!