Why 'Born on Earth'?

Where are you from? A basic question that never requires much thought. Yet when you reflect on it, we are all from precisely the same place – this magnificent planet we call Earth.

This is our home! Our home is something we care about, keep clean, and cherish. Our larger home - the Earth is really no different. That is what Born on Earth Moms is all about....we believe that all moms have a vital role to play in nurturing our home, our Earth. Just as we create happy homes in our houses, we can extend our impact out to help sustain a happy planet.

We (Jode and Jules) are two sun-kissed moms living abundant lives with our families in the California bounty. We are both profoundly inspired by our boisterous children and the nature that surrounds us – green valleys, blue oceans, giant redwoods, pristine valley oaks, wetlands, farmlands, vineyards, deserts, beaches. We are writing this blog to share our journey – as we evolve our lifestyles to become fully eco. And while we are learning to become highly skilled eco-moms, we are also embarking on an exciting experiment – the two eco-moms are becoming mompreneurs…building a totally sustainable, eco-chic, kids clothing line called (guess...) "Born on Earth".☺ So join us on our journey – of becoming eco-mommies and eco-mompreneurs. Welcome to Born on Earth!☺

Cleaning with Love

Me & Mrs Meyers

I wish I loved to clean. I profoundly cherish having a clean and happy home, but between 2 kids, a fun-loving husband, Chloe our doggie, Midnight & Poppy (our 2 cats) and in general living in the country, I find that 'clean' is not even close to a perpetual state....and thus I need to clean way too often. I have never enjoyed cleaning, and never been that great at it. But I have had a domestic eco-revelation!

I am now an aspiring domestic eco-goddess aiming for a gorgeously clean, eco-friendly and happy home...all thanks to Mrs Meyers. Since I found her, I have fallen in LOVE with cleaning (well at least in LOVE with my cleaning products from Mrs. Meyers). These products are not only good for the environment (natural, biodegradable and cruelty-free), but they smell AMAZING. My cleaning has become my daily aroma-therapy. Seriously, I get a big mood booster from these products because they smell so amazing. They have Lemon Verbena, Geranium (my favorite), Baby Blossom, Lavender, Basil, and Peppermint for the holidays! YUM. Check em out here, and have fun loving to clean:-)

Creating an Eco-Mom Lifestyle

Since I left Microsoft a couple of years ago, I have been focused on learning and acting to change my ways to become more sustainable. In my family, we are far from perfect, but we have made a lot of progress through simple actions. Here are a few simple steps we have taken:





1. Drive less - we use our bikes, our feet, our pedi-cab way more than we used to. Jacques bought me a shopping basket for my bike, so I can now bike to our local organic grocer - the 'Green Grocer'! Biking is not only eco-friendly but it is spiritually refreshing and great exercise.
2. Turn the lights off - just like putting my seatbelt on in the car is a habit, so is turning off the lights now. And of course, changing out the lightbulbs to CFLs is critical.
3. Waste less - we have dramatically minimized our waste by learning to recycle, reuse & compost. Composting is fascinating - if you are composting now you know what i mean...how in the heck do all those nasty food scraps turn into beautiful dark soil? the miracle of nature.







our cute compost bin and our double recycler cabinet
4. Put a sweater on - instead of turning the heat on all the time, we wear more clothes in the winter, add blankets, have family fires.
5. Consume less - It is so easy to just keep accumulating 'stuff' - toys, clothes, products, etc. So we are trying to reduce buying, start mending/reusing/etc. and are loving hand-me-downs.

6. Eat local and organic - we eat pretty much 100% organic, and as local as we can. We go to the farmer's markets, the 'Green Grocer', and we have our own veggies and fruit growing in our yard.

my meyer lemon plant

7. Eat less beef - the environmental impact of feed-lotted cattle is absolutely devastating, so we avoid eating beef as much as possible.
8. Don't use harsh chemicals - for cleaning, we use all eco-friendly products. We love Meyers cleaning products (see my other post on that).
9. Green your home while you make home improvement choices - we remodeled our home a year ago and made a lot of green decisions: bamboo floors (renewable resource), the most incredible organic paints (YoLo Colorhouse), sustainable decking materials (from recycled Milk bottles), and sustainable fencing from LifeTime Lumber.

These changes have not felt like these sacrifices at all - rather and it has been fun to make these small but important changes in our family life.

Picking Blackberries

Here is an older pic of the girls (and Chloe:-))picking blackberries up at Camano Island in Washington...life's simple pleasures.