From cleaning up messes to wrapping up leftovers and going grocery shopping, having kids can lead to a lot of garbage. If you’re looking for ways to help your family produce less waste, I’ve found some great eco-friendly solutions that don’t sacrifice style or quality.

Think of all of the stuff you throw away in a typical day.

There’s the plastic straw you stick into your smoothie on the way out the door. Or the disposable cup you grab at the local coffee shop. There are the flimsy plastic bags you shoved some fruit into at the grocery store to corral them in your cart and the giant wad of paper towels you used to mop up that juice spill. There are also all of those layers of packaging for individually wrapped items and the cotton balls you used to scrub the mascara from under your bleary eyes at the end of the day. And that’s just you!

A whole family can create a ton of garbage in a single day. It’s crazy if you start to really think about how many things we throw away. And while I’m not suggesting we all run out and plan to become zero waste familyies, I do think there are some simple changes we all could make to produce less waste.

I took to Etsy to find some creative—and really freaking pretty—products that can help us all be just a little bit more eco-friendly.

Lice might be teeny, but they strike fear into the hearts of parents everywhere. To take away at least a little bit of the panic, I asked a lice treatment professional all of the big questions about lice that parents want to know, touching on everything from lice prevention to facts, treatment, and cleaning tips.

This post is sponsored by Lice Free Noggins.

Nothing makes a parent’s skin crawl faster than hearing the dreaded L-word: lice.

The second the letter comes home from school, parents start itching. Every time your kid so much as brushes her hair out of her face, you lunge, combing through with your fingers in an effort to find the little critters you are sure have taken up residence there.

So far, we’ve had lice once and I still have nightmares thinking about it. Both girls and I ended up with it and I spent weeks combing through our hair and cleaning every surface in our house I could think of. By the end of our ordeal, I was ready to shave our heads and move, leaving all of our belongings behind so that no little creatures could hitch a ride with us.

Figuring it doesn’t have to be that dramatic an experience, I decided to talk to a lice professional and ask her every single question I could think of about the little buggers. Lena Gorelik, founder of Lice Free Noggins, was kind enough to answer all of my neurotic questions without making me feel like an idiot.

Read an excerpt from the first chapter of Abbi Waxman’s new suburban satire, Other People’s Houses, which unravels the hilarious havoc an affair wreaks on an upper-middle-class LA neighborhood.

Looking for a fun read to sink your teeth into?

Abbi Waxman, the author of The Garden of Small Beginnings, has a new book coming out tomorrow and it sounds like Lianne Moriarty-level juiciness!

Other People’s Houses is a hilarious new novel about a suburban neighborhood and the affair that unravels their community.

Told through the perspectives of four families, the novel shows how the affair exposes all sorts of insecurities and strife within an upper-middle-class LA neighborhood. So far, it’s gotten some rave reviews with PopSugar calling it “A smart, thoughtful look at marriage and suburbia” and Booklist saying that “Once again, [Waxman] manages to take a far-reaching topic and sprinkle it with spicy dialogue, adorable kids, and characters who feel like best friends. . . Recommend to those who like to turn pages quickly without sacrificing complex characters.”

Possibly the most attention-grabbing review for me though came from Kirkus: “Charming yet provocative. . . . This is a voyeuristic (in a nice way) and humorous trip through what is usually hidden behind closed doors. Waxman is a master at purveying the wry humor that rides just below the surface of even the tough times.”

Sign. me. up.

I’m super excited to be able to give you a sneak peek at an excerpt from the first chapter of Other People’s Houses! Check it out below.

We are always looking for books to add to our To Be Read list. We look for books of all levels: picture books, beginner chapter books, middle-grade fiction, and books that busy moms can enjoy. Figuring I can’t possibly be the only one out there who is hunting for good reads for a variety of age levels, I put together a list each month of the books my family has been reading. Sometimes our thoughts on them will be gushy and glowy. Other times they’ll be lukewarm. Either way, we’ll let you know if we think they’re worth your time.

Nothing about this month was particularly leisurely for me. March was filled with birthdays and snow and school closures. But we did manage to squeeze in some solid reads in the middle of all of the madness. Here’s a little peek at what we read… 

In celebration of Women’s History Month, I put together a few of my favorite feminist Etsy finds—from t-shirts and wall art to an enamel pin and a onesie. These pieces are perfect for celebrating womanhood all year round. 

Confession: I don’t understand women who say they’re not feminists.

I mean, how is that even possible?

Being a feminist means you want the sexes to be treated equally. That’s it.

Like any group, there are endless opinions on the right way to achieve this. You’ll agree with some and think others are batshit crazy. And that’s fine. But, at the end of the day, if you’re a woman and you don’t think women should have the same rights and opportunities as men, I just don’t get it.

My daughters should have just as many options and chances to succeed as your sons. Their ideas should be taken seriously and they should not be constantly told to smile or have their worth measured by their looks. We are not there yet.

I think part of the problem is that the word feminist has gotten so entwined in politics that to some, it has a negative connotation. To them, it means being liberal and angry and burning your bra and growing out your armpit hair and hating men. And, yes. Some feminists do and are all of those things. But it’s not an essential part of feminism.

If you disagree (and if you agree too!), feel free to sound off in the comments. I’m more than willing to discuss it further.

In the meantime, I couldn’t let March come to a close without a little dose of feminist love in celebration of Women’s History Month. I put together a roundup of some of my favorite feminist pieces I’ve stumbled across on Etsy.