With five children, my husband and I often did nothing more than run out for a quick meal and then return home. We found ourselves running out of new places to go and things to do after a few years and decided to incorporate fresh ideas into our date nights. We are still trying to maintain an atmosphere of romance and not break the bank. We have to think outside the box on this one.

5 Inexpensive Valentine Date Night Ideas

1. Stargaze – One of our favorite pastimes is lying in the grass staring at the stars. We began the ritual when we were dating and have continued by sharing the passion with our kids. Stargazing involves nothing more than a clear, starry night and a piece of quiet somewhere. We like to sneak out on the patio after the kids have gone to bed or grab an ice cream and head to our local lake. The romance is in the twinkling of the stars.
2. Geocache – Have you discovered the fun of geocaching? I read about it this past summer and our family has enjoyed the thrill ever since. Grab your date and head out on a treasure hunt. There are six within walking distance of our house and several more locally. A little bit of gas and a lot of energy can go a long way in geocaching. Discover the magic of treasure hunting together!
3. Have a Movie Night – With movie rentals as low as $1.50, sometimes the easiest way to share some quality time is to simply rent a DVD, pop some popcorn, crawl into bed, or snuggle on the couch with a good movie. Alleviating the need for a babysitter and not using any gas, this is typically the default plan when we are on a tight budget for date night.
4. Explore your City – Even with gas prices on the rise, there is still a reason to get out and explore. Watch for bargains through an online deal site for places and events nearby. We have discovered that even within our own tiny town there is still so much to do. Grab a camera and become a tourist right where you are planted.
5. See the Arts – Local theater groups and some smaller museums often have low-cost admission prices. Delve into the culture of the humanities and see the arts in your city. You never know what types of new ideas can be inspired by looking at the creativity of others.

What are some of your best inexpensive date ideas?

Staci Salazar is the blog author/owner of 7 on a Shoestring. She is a SAHM to 5 children {all boys but 4} living vicariously through the internet.  Staci writes product reviews, giveaways and everyday antics of family life as they manage their family of 7. They are living blessed on less. She can also be found on Twitter @7onashoestring.

Since “playing” is most often associated with children, most of these bite-size ideas are things you can do with your kids.

10 Ways to Play and Have Fun With Your Kids

1. Put together some play bags with household items like those suggested by Invention at Play, and see what your kids invent.
2. Role play with your kids situations in which they might be tempted or asked to cheat, and feasible ways for them to turn down those requests or not find themselves in situations where they feel the need to cheat.
3. Play these Dakotah Native American language games with your kids.
4. Play the role of an online mentor for about 20 minutes a week to a young college student, interested in math, science, technology, or engineering. Many of the mentees are women or people from groups typically underrepresented in technical fields. If you don’t have those skill sets, but know someone who does, let them know about Mentornet.Net.
5. Take your kids and some sidewalk chalk to their school playground in the evening, and write in big block letters: WE LOVE OUR TEACHERS.
6. Make everyone, including yourself, get off the couch and play—do something active—during every commercial when you watch TV tonight.
7. Read the requirements for a Presidential Active Lifestyle Award, which are essentially that youth “play” at least 60 minutes a day and adults for 30 minutes a day for five days a week for six out of eight weeks.
8. Role play with your kids effective ways to handle bullies, using some of our previously-offered tips or these other ones.
9. Play outside with your kids for one hour tomorrow.
10. Make at least five different kinds of play-dough with your kids tomorrow (here’s a site with 40 different play-dough recipes), and maybe help them take one batch to a lonely friend.

How Will You Give to Others This Week?

• Have you ever done any of these things? How did it go?
• What other acts of service have inspired you?
• How have others given to you this week and what difference has that made in your life?

How Else Can You Make a Difference This Season?

• Commit to do one act of kindness/service based on the week’s challenge.
• Leave a comment with ideas relating to the week’s challenge as well as your experience(s) performing it.
• Enter to win this week’s giveaway.
• Join #gno this Tuesday on Twitter to connect with other Mom It Forward moms about the challenge.

Collect

Teach kids to collect. Depending on the time of year, you can find agencies and churches collecting just about anything: school supplies, coats, shoes, glasses, blankets, and canned goods. You should be sure to jump on one of these already established drives.

Last fall, our family participated in a local food drive. We hauled out our wagon, walked around a section of our neighborhood, and asked neighbors if they wanted to contribute dry goods. The response was colossal and, in addition to all of the non-perishables, we also got to know our neighbors better.

Create

Teach kids to create. Paintings, pictures, and colorful creations made by little hands bring sunshine into homes of people who live alone. Organizations such as Color a Smile and Post Pals  encourage children to create mini-masterpieces and lovefilled letters.

Cash-In

Teach kids to cash-in. Using even the most basic supplies and a little parental help, kids can create cookie or lemonade stands, and turn quarters and dimes into tangible donations.

Two summers ago, my daughter and her friends gathered posterboard, markers, two pitchers of lemonade, and plastic cups. In under two hours, these girls turned a few supplies into $30.00. Then, with their new found riches, each girl decided to give half of her earnings to a cause.

Will dry goods, colored pictures, and $15.00 change the world? Probably not, but I’m pretty sure it’s changing my daughter.

How will you encourage your kids to give back this year?

Can one beyond blessed family move from addicted to themselves to devoted to others? The author of this post shares honestly at Amy L. Sullivan about her family’s attempt to become less me, me, me focused and more others centered. Amy writes for print and online publications and is also writing a nonfiction book about serving others.

One of my most memorable times was when my boys and I visited a friend’s farm in a rural part of Tennessee. It was my kind of town — the kind with a population in the hundreds and areas with no cell phone service.

The little white farmhouse we stayed in had rickety wood floors, no television, and a beautiful view of the pond. There were tractors in the old barn and my two young boys loved sitting in the driver’s seat.

The friends who owned the farmhouse were a sweet older couple with a thriving tree business in Dallas. For years, they worked together growing trees on their commercial farm to provide to major retail stores and landscaping projects. They also had several kids and grandkids, and when they invited us to visit their second home, I wondered how it was all going to go down. How would they juggle it all?

When we arrived on a Friday afternoon, I was in awe of the property which looked like a Norman Rockwell painting. We were surrounded by beautiful lush grass and rolling hills cascading to a small white farmhouse with a barn. Gigantic hay balls dotted the field and as soon as I saw them I knew we’d be climbing up on top of them.

My son caught his first fish in their pond and it was a fabulous moment. We laughed, took pictures, and he told his fish story for weeks following the visit. But even that moment wasn’t the one I remember most. What I remember most was how in the moment the couple was.

The home had a land line phone. Do you remember those days? However, the owners never used it. After twenty-four hours with the couple enclosed in the small space, I couldn’t help notice how neither had used a telephone of any kind, for any reason. No email, no texting, no calls. And it’s that moment of togetherness that I’ll always treasure, even more than climbing macchu picchu, taking the train under the sea in London, or other amazing adventures. They were in the moment — Focused completely on us and nothing else.

Think about how rare and powerful that quality is in today’s world. If you can remain focused and in the moment, people will remember you. Nothing is more beautiful than a real human connection and that’s how relationships grow.

Be in the moment. Sometimes it takes a drastic comparison to open our eyes to what matters most.

The week prior to our visit to the farm, I spent it with my own parents who were in a constant state of communication. Every meal we had together was interrupted by business calls and the sounds of text messages. It was impossible to have a conversation because they were always on their phone and it was frustrating.

In this Facebook era, we hav all become continual communicators. How many times have you been at a kid’s birthday party or some other great event and someone around you snaps a photo or checks you in and it’s uploaded instantly for the world to see? In minutes, the strange guy down the street knows more about your daily activities than your own mother.

But in all that communicating, texting, and Facebooking, it’s easy to miss the moment. I saw it with my parents that weekend when they missed the things their grandkids said. I saw it in a friend recently, when I took him to feed the homeless and he stared at his cell phone the entire time. He didn’t mean to miss the eye contact, personal conversation, and one-on-one connection with the homeless man sitting right in front of him, but he did. He missed it completely because he was so busy texting photos of himself at the homeless shelter to his friends.

I have missed moments too. Have you? Let’s make today the last day that we miss those special moments. Be fully engaged. Make eye contact with everyone you see today and listen to what they say. Set aside your phone during conversations, even if the other person is on their phone. Consider a technology detox from the phone and computer for a full 24 hours (more if you can take it).

Make a memorable family moment that your kids will never forget. Be the one who is fully present, the one who looks, listens, and really hears what people have to say.

Have you ever detoxed from technology? How do you make sure that you have a healthy balance between time with your family and the time you spend with technology?

Photo courtesy of iStock.

Tammy Kling is a life coach, advocate for the homeless, and international author of books including The Compass. Tammy is also the founder of Write it Out, an organization that helps the homeless transform by journaling goals, hopes & dreams via writers workshops, free journals and books. Tammy loves being a mom to two awesome boys, and is also an avid trail and mountain runner, and corporate writer.

I grew up in Southeast Michigan, went to Michigan State University, and always enjoyed all that the state had to offer. When I was younger, we would always travel to northern Michigan to vacation throughout the year. The summer always offered great times on boats and beaches, the state was coated in the most beautiful colors during fall, and the ski hills always resulted in great adventures during the winter.

When I met my husband, I was immediately shocked to find out that instead of growing up in southern Michigan, he spent his childhood years in northern Michigan, specifically in Charlevoix. To me, this was unheard of since “Up North,” aka northern Michigan, meant vacation to me. I asked question after question about how he spent his years in one of my favorite areas in the state.

We try to escape to Michigan as much as possible to see family and friends, spend time riding boats on many of the beautiful lakes, attend sporting events, ski and snowboards at some of our favorite ski resorts, and take in all the local flavor of the small towns in northern Michigan.

Top 5 Things To Do in Northern Michigan

The following are some of my favorite things to do in northern Michigan:

1) Visit the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes. The Sleeping Bear Dunes found along the Lake Michigan shoreline can be enjoyed by way of Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive, located between Glen Arbor and Empire. Drive up and down rolling hills and through the woods and dunes. This is truly one of the most scenic areas in the state.

2) Eat fudge and bike around Mackinac Island. This island is the truly “all natural” theme park of America. Limited to transportation of horse and buggy, bicycle or foot, surrounded by water, it has escaped the vast changes of time. Motorized vehicles have been prohibited on the island since 1898, with the exception of snowmobiles during winter, emergency vehicles, and service vehicles. Travel on the island is either by foot, bicycle, or horse-drawn carriage. The island is filled with fun activities and delicious food, especially the fudge!

3) Attend the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City. This festival entails a week of parades, concerts, cherries, and family fun. The Grand Traverse region, known for its world-record tart cherry harvest, bursts with visitors eager to savor the flavor of cherries tucked into everything imaginable. Each day, Festival-goers find cherry delights along with parades, family and kids events, and entertainment.

4) Visit the small towns for local food and boutique shops. Northern Michigan is filled with small towns such as Charlevoix, Glen Arbor, Petoskey, and Harbor Springs that are filled with lakeside fun, beautiful galleries, local food, and unique shops.

5) Go to the beach, play in the sand and water, and check out the lighthouses. From Lake Michigan to the Glen Lakes, from kayaking to charter boat fishing, getting on the water is a must-do in the state of Michigan. When I lived in Michigan, hardly a day went by where I didn’t go out on a lake. With 3,177 miles of Great Lakes shoreline, and that doesn’t even include the other lakes throughout the state, it is easy to see why Michigan boasts a thriving recreational industry. Plus, there are tons of historic lighthouses that make for great adventures and amazing photographs.

For more ideas, please be sure to visit www.Michigan.org.

Where did you grow up? What was your favorite part about living there?

Jen Tilley has an insatiable appetite for all things related to baking and cooking. She is the author, photographer and recipe developer on How To: Simplify, a blog that shares tips, tricks and recipes to simplify life in the kitchen. She enjoys sharing recipes that require very few ingredients and only a small amount of prep and cook time, all of which make time spent in the kitchen simple and enjoyable. Find her online at How To: Simplify, @HowToSimplify, and Jen Tilley Photography.

But all good things must come to an end and for me, having Melinda stop cutting and coloring my hair not only made me go through withdrawal from not being able to spend as much time with her, but also was a huge hit to my pocketbook. Did it really cost that much to get your hair done? Wow!

Then, Aveda offered to have me check out the Landis Salon in downtown Salt Lake City this summer and review their services.

I already loved what Aveda stood for. Their products are amazing. Have you tried their Damage Remedy line? Have you? I even joined them on a life-changing trip to India. But, I had never been to one of their salons. No time like the present, right?

Aveda’s Mission and Vision

And here’s why I’ll continue going back. Check out their “Guest Bill of Rights” made up of the following 9 experiences you should have in an effort to “[lighten] the guests experience.”

1. We are going to ensure that we pre-book your next appointment before you leave. (Do it! Ask them to text you the date as a reminder.)
2. Upon entering the salon, you will be greeted by our guest relations team and offered water, coffee or Aveda Comforting Tea. (Choose the tea!)
3. You will be escorted into a changing room to change into a smock prior to your service.
4. Your stylist will perform a thorough dry hair consultation.
5. A portfolio will be used during the consultation to confirm the desired look.
6. Your stylist will conduct a stress relieving treatment—a 3-5 minute scalp and shoulder massage. This is your time to relax! (Sooooo awesome!)
7. You are then escorted to the shampoo area for a relaxing shampoo and conditioning treatment. (Best scalp massage/hot towel treatment evs!)
8. [The stylist] will teach you how to complete [your style] and introduce you to the products they used [on it].
9. Your stylist will then conduct a quick makeup touch up. (Love this part. I hate walking out feeling like I have to finish getting ready.)

The thing that impressed me the most is that they have this on a piece of paper all spelled out with their salon’s mission statement.

What this bill of rights doesn’t share is that before getting your hair consultation, your stylist will have you choose your chakra. Let the relaxation begin!

And then, while your color is setting, you will not only get to drink more Aveda Comforting Team (are you sensing how much I love this stuff), but you’ll get the best hand and arm massage of your life. Look how lifeless my hands look? That’s the picture of relaxation right there!

By the time you walk out of the salon, you not only have an updated cut and color and are all made up in case you have appointments afterward, but you feel like every ounce of stress left your body. What’s not to love about that?

And PS: Worried about where to leave your pet while you go to the salon? Worry no longer. Landis is pet-friendly!

Before we wrap up this review, let’s talk about disclosure for a minute. Aveda treated me to the June experience, which I got in exchange for this review. Here’s where it gets fun. I liked my experience so much that I booked a second appointment (note that this place is 40 minutes from my house) and went back yesterday at my own cost. And, I’m expecting their text in early December for my next pre-holiday appointment. If you live anywhere near Salt Lake City, I highly recommend you visit Landis Salon. Ask for Nikki. She’s awesome!

Where do you get your hair done? What are the things you look for in a salon? What keeps you going back?

Clutter Control Rule # 12: Label Items.

We’re not talking about putting a label just on the kids’ gym shorts, although that’s a prudent idea. We’re talking about labeling things around the house—things that people don’t label because they don’t think of it or because they think it isn’t necessary.

How often have you gone to a storage closet to retrieve something from a cardboard box you had stored there yourself, only to find that there are now six cardboard boxes there and they all look the same? You start by muscling down what you think is the correct box and taking off the tape with which you so carefully sealed it. After you discover that an item isn’t in that box, you halfway reseal it with the used tape and start on the next box. Let’s say you do eventually find the item you’re looking for—it’s just that it’s forty-five minutes and six boxes later. That’s the kind of problem that labeling can avoid.

Label Storage Boxes

Label all storage boxes to avoid the grief outlined above. Get a good marking pen and, at least on cardboard boxes, write on the box itself. Try hard to avoid the label “Miscellaneous.” Other examples of labels that may come back to haunt you are “Garage Sale” or “Charity.” Even if your label ends up listing everything in the box, doing so is still simpler than looking through your entire collection of boxes.

Usually you can get away with a label such as “Books” or “Summer Clothes”—as long as you don’t have more than one box with that same label. Use a label just complete enough so you can tell what’s in the box without actually opening it. When you add or remove items from a box, change the label accordingly.

Label Frozen Food

Everything starts to look alike after a few days in the freezer. That’s understandable if you wrap items in aluminum foil, of course, but food stored even in plastic wrap turns white and crystalline and becomes disguised quickly enough.

Put a roll of inch-wide masking tape and a pen in a drawer next to the freezer wrap of your choice. Use a length of the tape to make a label for everything you freeze. Also add the date to the label. If you have more than one package of chicken, you’ll know which one to use first.

How do you label items in your home to keep everything organized and easy to find? What types of items do you label?

To follow along in this series, please be sure to check out the previous clutter control tips and tricks:

• Rule #1: Clutter Control: Simple Steps to Rid Your Home of Unused Items
• Rule #2: Clutter Control: Simple Ways to Figure Out What To Keep and What To Toss
• Rule #3: Clutter Control: Simple Ways to Efficiently and Effectively Store Items
• Rule #4: Clutter Control: Simple Ways to Handle a Household Item Once
• Rule #5: Clutter Control: Creating a Recycling Program for Your Home
• Rule #6: Clutter Control: Picking and Assigning a Number to the Items in Your Home
• Rule #7: Clutter Control: How To Properly Use a Filing Cabinet
• Rule #8: Clutter Control: Making an Action Plan to Get Organized
• Rule #9: Clutter Control: Assigning a Place for the Items in Your Home
• Rule #10: Clutter Control: Test Items Before Displaying in Your House
• Rule #11: Clutter Control: 10 Ways to Avoid Procrastinating Clutter Cleanup

Debbie Sardone is the founder of Cleaning For a Reason which provides free cleaning services to women who are touched by cancer. She also owns a Dallas cleaning service.

Her long-time passion for teaching cleaning and organizational has lead her to continue the legacy of Speed Cleaning and the use of green cleaning products.

She can be followed as @DebbieSardone on Twitter.

Six Tips for an Eco-friendly School Year

1. Pack a Waste-free Lunch

It’s estimated that Americans go through 100 billion plastic bags a year—this averages to 360 bags per person! Have your child pick out a fun reusable lunch box or bag to use throughout the school year. Rely on reusable containers and water bottles for packing food and drinks. If you do use plastic bags, recycle them. Clean and dry Ziploc® bags can be recycled at most local grocery stores where you drop off plastic shopping bags.

2. Choose Greener School Supplies

In the U.S. alone, approximately 11,600 incense-cedar trees are cut down to create the two billion pencils made each year. When hitting the school supply aisle this year, opt for supplies wrapped in limited packaging and recycle what you can. Consider purchasing eco-friendly supplies, like recycled fiber or reusable mechanical pencils, refillable pens and paper clips made from recycled steel.

3. “Upcycle” Last Year’s Supplies

Three-ring binders that are still in great working order can easily be refurbished at home, saving you the expense of buying new ones. Here’s a fun, crafty idea: cover the entire exterior of the binder with a sheet of contact paper, then trim to size for a clean, modern-look. I like using cork contact paper. Make it a fun after-school project, and even have your kids decorate the “new” notebook.

4. Encourage School Cafeterias to Buy Local

I think we can all agree with Jamie Oliver that most school cafeteria menus could use a healthy makeover. Urging your school to buy local ingredients will not only help waistlines, but also the planet too. At the next PTA meeting, discuss the topic with other parents and consider connecting with school administrators about bringing local food to the cafeteria for sustainable and healthy lunches. Contact the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service for resources and information on farm-to-school programs.

5. Green Your Head to Toe 

To avoid sticker shock and find clothes with less of an environmental impact, shop at thrift stores and trendy second-hand stores. Another fun way to save money and help the planet is to arrange a clothing swap party with friends or relatives—your niece’s jeans from last season may be a perfect fit for your own daughter this year (thankfully, skinny jeans are still in!). If new clothes are a must, aim for more sustainable fabrics, like organic cotton or earth-friendly bamboo.

6. Recycle Old Electronics

If you’re upgrading your family’s electronics this year, be mindful of recycling old models. You can even earn rewards, or, cash in some cases, for doing so—visit www.recyclebank.com to check the value of your old electronics and for ways to earn points for your green deed. Don’t forget to recycle the batteries, too. You can drop them off at most business supply stores.

If we all pledge to make greener decisions this school year, imagine the collective impact we would have on the planet. Involving your kids in the fun, too, will set them up for adopting eco-friendly habits over the years and make the world a greener place for generations to come.

What are ways that you and your family plan to go green this school year? What tips and tricks help you and your family live greener lives?

Ali Kalis is the director of digital marketing at Recyclebank, the company that rewards people for taking everyday green actions. Ali has always had a personal interest in social entrepreneurship, sustainability and healthy living, and holds a certificate in integrated nutrition as well as an MBA. She and her photographer husband, Amani, live in Brooklyn with their young son, Satchel, and miniature pincher, Jinx.

10 Bite-Size Recycling Ideas

1. Read Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax to your kids, and then visit The Lorax Project site and do some games with them to drive home the importance of recycling.
2. Reassign uses for items such jerseys. If you have a beloved but old/fallen-out-of-favor sports jersey, turn it into a throw pillow.
3. Check out thredUp.com or visit a Kid-to-Kid store to find out about recycling gently-used clothing. While handing down clothes to younger children may not be a new idea, consider these options if you have a child who doesn’t have a younger sibling to whom they can pass clothes down. Donate more heavily used clothing to a large thrift store like Deseret Industries, who can recycle it en masse or dispose of it wisely.
4. Arrange frequent pick-ups from recycling companies. If your municipality provides recycling bins and pick up, but doesn’t pick up frequently enough (e.g. every week as opposed to every other week), call them to find out what they need in order to have more-frequent pick-ups.
5. Plant a tree. Trees not only beautify our world, they clean carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, out of the air.
6. Visit Earth911.com to find out where you can recycle your car’s oil, if you (or your hubby) changes it yourself, or if they change it.
7. Read this how-to article on composting, and learn how to recycle your organic waste.
8. Recycle your used appliances, furniture, computer parts, etc. to RecycleforBreastCancer.org, which strives to reduce the incidence of environmentally caused breast cancer by keeping electronic waste out of landfills.
9. Donate your used bicycle to RecycleABicycle.org, if you’re in the New York area.
10. Take an online pledge with the Girl Scouts Forever Green Take Action project, or attend a GSFG event like one of these.

How Will You Give to Others This Week?

• What other ideas do you have for recycling?
• How has recycling made a meaningful difference for you this week?
• How have others given to you this week and what difference has that made in your life?

How Else Can You Make a Difference This Season?

Make a meaningful difference this season by taking the Season of Service (SOS) Challenge. Here’s how you can participate:

• Commit to do one act of kindness/service based on the week’s challenge.
• Leave a comment with ideas relating to the week’s challenge as well as your experience(s) performing it.
• Enter to win each week’s giveaways. Check out this week’s prizes from Fisher-Price or Me Ra Koh.
• Join #gno this Monday or Tuesday on Twitter to connect with other Mom It Forward moms about the challenge.

10 Bite-Size Ideas for Serving With Time

1. Do any act of service (see my past Season of Service posts if you’re lacking in ideas), and log it on TimeBanks.org. On this site, for every hour you spend doing something for someone in your community, you earn one Time Dollar. Then you have a Time Dollar to spend on having someone do something for you.
2. Donate your somewhat-old-but-still-usable computer (i.e., six years old or newer) to First Time Computers, if you live in or around Washington D.C., to be refurbished and given to a low-income family.
3. Vote for a community to receive a free fruit orchard on CommunitiesTakeRoot.com, a campaign sponsored by Dreyer’s Fruit Bars and the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation. They say that “when an orchard is planted, generations may benefit from the possibilities: the chance for a greener neighborhood, improved air, water and soil conditions and a community that could become healthier with its own fresh fruit supply.” There’s not much time left, though: voting ends on August 31st.
4. Help family members survive difficult waiting times while loved ones are in surgery by donating your used books and magazines to your local hospital to be used in their surgical waiting rooms. This idea was provided by Stacie Haight Connerty of DivineMissMommy.com.
5. Take your kids on a timed scavenger-hunt type of tour of a nearby library. For your younger child, finding certain sections, books, reading kits, and activities at your local library may be the trick that’s needed to get him or her more interested in reading. For an older child, finding these things at a larger city or college library may open ideas previously unrealized.
6. Participate in this science lesson about reaction times with your 3rd, 4th, or 5th grader, to help them (and you) understand more about their learning style.
7. Take the time to sit down with your child(ren) and make a list of their positive qualities or accomplishments, then post the list(s) in a prominent place.
8. Offer your time to babysit autistic children while their parents attend educational classes, through opportunities like this one.
9. Take the time to visit the Montclair Community Wildlife Habitat Project site, and learn about what it takes to make your backyard wildlife-friendly.
10. Make a mini-time machine with your kids: collect information about years past, make up information about years future, and pretend to travel to them.

How Will You Give to Others This Week?

• What other ideas do you have for giving to others by going green?
• How has going green made a meaningful difference for you this week?
• How have others given to you this week and what difference has that made in your life?

How Else Can You Make a Difference This Season?

Make a meaningful difference this season by taking the Season of Service (SOS) Challenge. Here’s how you can participate:

• Commit to do one act of kindness/service based on the week’s challenge.
• Leave a comment with ideas relating to the week’s challenge as well as your experience(s) performing it.
• Enter to win each week’s giveaway. Check out this week’s prizes from Seventh Generation by clicking here.
• Join #gno this Tuesday on Twitter to connect with other Mom It Forward moms about the challenge.