Truly Green Grass

When we moved from New York, where our fire escape was our yard, to Miami, where we actually had a real yard, we started to think about how to treat our grass without making it dangerous for our daughter to play in. Most fertilizers, weed killers and bug killers are chock full of nasty toxins you don't want your kids anywhere near, and since our children probably eat more grass from the yard than they do veggies from their plates, it's important that we make it safe for them.
There are several brands and types of organic fertilizers, including some that are specific to vegetable gardens and others to lawns and flowers. Scotts Organic Choice Lawn Food is one that I found to be readily available at local hardware and home stores like Home Depot and Ace.
Of course, the results may be a little slower-going than with traditional fertilizer, but like with all good things, a little patience pays off. We noticed a big difference after applying it three times, with empty patches filling in and greener, fuller grass.
Seems like a small thing we all can do to make our children and our planet a little safer.

Clean drinking water out of thin air

You can filter your drinking water with a grocery store-bought filter or a fancy-pants ceramic one, but there are some things that no filters can clean out. Antibiotics, anti-depressants, hormones and other compounds are running rampant in our drinking water, albeit in small, but detectable amounts. Check out this article for details.
I for one, do not want any of that stuff in my or my daughter's drinking water, so I'm saving up for one of these bad-boys...an Ecoloblue atmospheric water generator. It takes the humidity out of the air, filters it and turns it into some of the cleanest drinking water around. It's pricy, starting at just under $1000, but look at it this way, if you buy bottled water in an effort to avoid all the yuck in tap water, you're probably spending about $3500 a year already ($.40 per 8 oz. bottle x 8 glasses a day x 3 people in a family x 365 days in a year = $3500). And just think of all the plastic you wouldn't be adding to the landfills.
The Ecoloblue generator makes 28-30 liters a day, depending on the model, in both cold and hot temperatures, so you can use it for cooking as well (easy to forget that the water that your food is cooked in actually ends up in your food). For the really green, they are also solar-panel-compatible.
It has 30-day money-back guarantee and a one-year warranty.
Available at www.ecoloblue.com (tell them Obsessed Moms sent you)

Non-stink, indoor-composter...toddler food scraps turned to fertilizer

Nature Mill has just released their third-generation indoor-composter, and it doesn't stink, literally. It has a carbon filter to weed out the stink of decomposing organic waste, fits under a kitchen cabinet and uses about $.50 of electricity a month. I've always been a bit weary of having rotting food sitting in my kitchen, but at the same time, I'd love to teach my daughter that she can make a difference in making our Earth a healthier planet, and composting is a great way to do that.
Using the compost to fertilize the yard is another fun, earthy, thing to do with your kids and lets everyone reap what they sewed, or at least what the composter sewed.
Watch this video (scroll down mid-page) to hear the details.
Available through Eartheasy.com