The JOON Blog

And the boys get super hero stuff.  This is great, especially given all the news about the new book “Cinderella Ate My Daughter” by Peggy Orenstein (another blog post to come about that).  Anyhow, words of wisdom from a little one.  Love it!

It has been years since I came up with a to-do list of sorts for the new year.  A long, long time ago, I had it in my mind that each year, I got a “do over”.  I could start afresh.  I could erase the past year.  A new year, a new me.

I suppose I stopped these lists because it became overwhelming to figure out just who and what this newly re-invented me would be each year.  As I’ve grown older and wiser (I like to think!), I have come to realize that it’s not at all about making drastic changes.  It’s not about forgetting about the past year – the mistakes made, the things I did that I don’t want to repeat, the fashions I experimented with (had to throw that in!).  Rather, I have come to the personal belief that it’s about taking all of those things and learning from them.

My new year is about taking inventory of everything  – and there’s lots.  I’m the co-owner of a new business, so believe me, there were mistakes made.  There were lessons to be learned.  There were also victories.  There were times in 2011 when I wanted to crawl in my bed and just read books FOREVER.  I’m also the mom of two young children.  I don’t want to be a different type of mom; I want to be a better mom.  But doing so requires that I take a long, hard look at the past.  I, like most people on the planet, want to lead a healthier life and lifestyle.  2011 was definitely my year of physical health – duathlon training, Kettlebell classes, lots of running.  But healthy isn’t just about the body, it’s also about the mind, and there I was lacking.  Learning how to achieve this is important to me not just for 2012, but for life.  And, on the fashion front, I have to say that at 38, I’ve finally realized (note:  not FOUND, but realized, my personal style).  The funny thing is that it has been my style since I was a kid, but I never took the time to reflect.

So, 2012 will not be a new me.  It will be the old me, just better.  It will be a build not only on 2011, but on all of the years past.

I found myself experiencing an “awkward” moment the other day and was completely embarrassed by it.  The funny thing is, no one else knew.  Phew, right?  Well, not exactly because that moment still haunts me weeks later.

Here’s what happened…you all know that I’m the Co-Founder/President/VP of Marketing for a natural line of skin care products for young girls.  I am an advocate for healthy living.  I want to be a guiding light for moms of young girls.  This is my passion.  Of course, it’s my business, but I can’t envision doing anything else.  (side note:  when I turned 30, a close friend bought me a session with an astrologer.  Besides telling me that I’m “other-worldly” – so cool, right! – he said, without knowing anything about my professional background, that I’m here to be a voice for others.  I never went back to him because I wasn’t really quite sure about all that stuff, but I never forgot that and it really resonated.  My entire professional career has been devoted to (in ad terms) being a voice of and for the consumer.  Moving on…)

So, here I am sitting in my friend’s living room with her brand new 2 week old foster baby girl and her neighbor who came over for a visit.  Her neighbor brought over lots of new baby stuff.  Included were these plastic bags that you could sterilize your plastic baby bottles in.  What?  Who puts plastic in the microwave?  That was the first of many thoughts running through my head.  She was well-intentioned, but this is a brand spanking new baby and this isn’t really news.  She said something to the effect of “I don’t think you’re supposed to microwave plastic, but whatever.  I have more important things to worry about. And, you can reuse these bags up to 20 times.”  So, she has heard the news.  I was about to speak up, but I didn’t want to make her feel bad.  After all, she is a mom of two young girls who had their bottles microwaved in plastic bags.  It killed me not to say anything.

It was a strange moment to sit there speechless.  I’ve been on national TV, on the local news, quoted in magazines, I write this blog.  I attend conferences.  I have to say that I’m pretty f*(S$^ing vocal.  Why was I silenced in this moment?  It’s funny because I just blogged about being more vocal about controversial topics.  I think the answer is that my objective has never been to make anyone feel guilty about their choices.  She clearly knew and had made a decision for herself.  Was it my place to make her feel bad about that decision?  Words can be very powerful, but so can your actions.  I bought my friend earth friendly onesies, BPA-free bottles, and gave her natural body wash for the new baby’s bath.

I will continue to be a voice, but I will also continue to show my dedication to girls and moms through my every day actions.  I will also not force my beliefs on others.  The conversation is open if you want to join in.  In time, people will come to see…all in due time.

The other day, I bought myself a Fuji Intax camera.  That’s right…I bought a gift for myself, right off my very own Christmas list.  But, there was a reason for it.  I had a longing for things from the past, something tangible.  I had this urgent need to escape the chaos of the digital world that I’m immersed in.  The camera is the size of my head, literally.  And, it makes this funny noise when you take a picture – it’s the sound of the photo coming out of the top of the camera.  (my husband is embarrassed by this and won’t use it!) But, I love it.  I love that it’s the antithesis of the miniaturization of everything that we covet these days.  I love it that it’s real life Instagram.  There’s no filter to make your photos look imperfect…they just are what they are.

OMG…what does that have to do with the season of giving?  I got lost in thought for a second☺Actually, quite a bit.  As I thought about a gift for our partners at JOON – our retailers, marketing gurus, Interns, everyone who helps us make JOON better each day, that camera came to mind.  I wanted to give something that brings us back to a real connection with people.  I wanted something that would allow us, even if for a moment, to take our minds off the freneticism of our daily grind and focus on something bigger, something better.

So this year, I decided to make a generous donation to The Girl Effect on behalf of everyone who is near and dear to JOON.  (all about The Girl Effect in my next post…if you can’t wait, visit www.thegirleffect.org).

Let’s just call today Too Good to Be Tuesday!  Because we love all of our JOON fans, followers, moms, girls and even those who are just learning about us, we want to honor you for making healthy choices when it comes to your skin.  It is your largest organ, after all!

SAVE 50% OF ALL JOON PRODUCTS THROUGH MIDNIGHT TONIGHT! (and stay tuned for other great deals throughout the holiday season!)

xoxo

As adults we know that it’s best to avoid talking about sex, politics and religion at a cocktail party.  Too controversial.  You never know who you’re going to offend and it’s usually best to keep things light-hearted, right?

But, as a mom, I’m always wanting to discuss what many would deem topics too provocative to discuss with new people or outside the confines of my inner circle of friends.  Topics like sex (or these days, sexting is probably more relevant) or even issues that our kids may face in school or socially.  A lot of people like to keep these talks behind closed doors.  I think many of us moms go through very similar experiences.  We face similar challenges  and fears with our children.  I think that it can feel a little isolating – you know that feeling of “I’m the only one going through this” or “My child is different…is there something wrong”.  Believe me, I’ve felt this way and it almost drove me batty until one day, I decided to just talk…at cocktail parties, mother’s club meetings, etc.

You may think this sounds crazy, but I decided to do this for two reasons:

1) I was watching an episode of The Doctors one day (mind you, this is the 1st and only time I’ve watched day-time TV!) and it was about teen pregnancy and talking to your kids about sex.  I was amazed by how many audience members were reluctant to even talk about sex with their kids because the felt “uncomfortable” or felt that “my kid knows better.  they were raised right.”  I thought…wow, the only time there is a public dialogue about kids and sex is when things go awry and emotions are flaring.  How do we start a healthy dialogue where we can share experiences and learn from each other?

2) Yet another controversial issue…drugs.  We all know we don’t want our kids to do drugs, but we have to deal with reality.  Some kids will just experiment and my kid may be that kid.  When I was growing up, the mantra was “Just say no”.  Now, what is it?  I learned from working on the “truth” (anti-smoking) campaign, that kids respond better to hearing the truth than they do to scare tactics.  So, my husband and I are thinking…why don’t we just tell our kids the truth and not just say that all drugs are bad.  Why can’t we tell them how certain drugs actually effect their brains?  What the real consequences are – social, mental, health?

So, my end of the year and New Year’s resolution is to start being a little more provocative.  A little more vocal.  Venturing into territory that may make others uncomfortable.  For, I believe, when we get out of our comfort zones, we start to learn and start to open our minds.  And, that, I believe, will make me a better mom.

No, it’s not Thanksgiving yet, but when I turn on the radio some of my favorite stations are now only playing holiday music.  And, about a month ago (yes, a month ago), there were giant reindeer outside my local mall.  OK, I get it.  It’s the season.  But I’d like to take it one holiday at a time, please.

Admittedly, I am not a huge planner and we typically don’t travel for Thanksgiving (too much of a hassle with two kids in tow), so the day usually sneaks up on me.  This year, I’m starting my planning today!  Headed to the fish market to order our usual stone crabs for dinner.

I truly enjoy the holiday season because things slow down just a bit.  I still seem to work just as much (probably even more), but the whole vibe of everything around me is a bit more calm.  My son is out of school, so that eliminates the hectic morning rush.  And, this may sound weird, but time seems to slow down during these last couple of months of the year.  And, I like that.

Take it easy this holiday season and remember that it’s the silly, seemingly insignificant moments that matter the most.  Take pleasure in each and every one and have a wonderful and peaceful holiday season.

From all of us @ JOON

Did any of you watch the show The Great Space Coaster when you were a kid?  Remember Gary Gnu?  “No Gnews is good Gnews with Gary Gnu.”  That phrase came to mind when I heard all the bad Gnews about Johnson & Johnson.  Well, this isn’t the first time I’ve heard this, but it’s probably the first time a lot of every day people (not people in the natural/green industry) have heard this.  So, here’s the short of it…J&J Baby Shampoo contains two chemicals considered harmful to babies – Quaternium-15 and i, 4 dioxane.  Several groups representing about 3.5 million people have urged the company to remove these chemicals from their products.  I recently read that J&J is taking steps to remove these chemicals.

J&J does have a line of baby products called Johnson & Johnson Naturals which is free of these ingredients.  It costs a little more, but not that much more if I’m not mistaken.  So, until they reformulate their products, there’s an alternative for those of you out there who are die hard J&J users!  I actually used to buy the Naturals products and liked them.  (now, both my kiddos use JOON!)  I decided to support J&J in this effort and new line because I was so thrilled to see a huge company offer a natural product for an affordable price.  I have to say that I still cringe when I see a bottle of California Baby for $11.99.  Nothing against California Baby – they make a great product – but few can afford to spend that much on baby shampoo / bath wash.

I’m glad that this story has made it into mainstream news.  Hopefully, there will be more stories like this and more people following them.

To learn more, check out the article from CBS News:  http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501369_162-20128227/groups-push-j-j-on-baby-shampoo-chemicals/

So the other day my son almost had a heart attack (from excitement…I figured you’ve probably tired of hearing that he almost peed himself) when I told him that he got his new Discovery Kids magazine in the mail.  He was sitting in the back seat on our way home from school and he asked me to download a QR reader on my iPhone?  What?  No!!!  I don’t want a bunch of useless apps cluttering up my phone.  Needless to say, for some reason or another he was “rewarded” (probably for listening or something like that) with a QR Reader.  But, he had to download it.  I had nothing to do with it.  So, my 6 year old does what he does best…figures sh*(% out all by himself.  A minute later, there’s the app and he’s scanning all kinds of codes in his magazine.

I have to say, I was really really impressed.  He’d read an article then click on the code and, lo and behold, there was a quiz related to the article.  Or on another code, he got to watch a cool video about volcanoes.  So, now I’m obsessed with QR codes.  So obsessed that I’ve been on the phone for a better part of the day begging my web developer to incorporate them into our site.

But, who uses these?  I’m not the earliest adopter, by far, but I certainly don’t consider myself a late adopter…I’m somewhere a little above mid line.  I asked my friends and they don’t use them either.  So, are kids using them simply because they’re just a normal part of their everyday experiences?  Now that I’m in the loop, I notice these everywhere, but I have to admit that I still haven’t scanned one for my benefit even though I saw that my son had a really cool experience.

Maybe my son is an early adopter.  Maybe this whole QR thing is just a fad.  Or, maybe, just maybe, I’m getting old(er)☺

Each morning as I’m rousing myself out of my idyllic dream state, I turn on the news and get my anywhere from 5 second to 5 minute dose before the din of my kids.  This morning, my ears perked up when I heard BPA in the background.  I was about to turn to the weather channel thinking this was old news.  I already know BPA is bad.  But something made me linger.

A new study shows that high levels of BPA in pregnant women can cause behavioral effects in girls.  Girls, not boys, the study claims.  Hmmmmm…that’s interesting.

“Preschool-aged girls whose mothers had relatively high urine levels of BPA during pregnancy scored  worse but still within a normal range on behavior measures including anxiety and hyperactivity than other young girls.”

Though not conclusive, the study did warrant further research into the negative health effects of BPA.  BPA is found in a lot of products – everything from baby bottles to baby and kids toys to canned foods.  It’s everywhere. I think it’s important to be aware of this even if you’re not pregnant.

I wish I had known these things when I was pregnant with my son.  Really…I had no idea and that was only six years ago. Now, so many products are labeled “BPA free”.  When we were exploring packaging options, we were insistent on BPA free packaging and using packaging that can be recycled.

It’s all about awareness and making better choices.  I’m glad that this was on the news this morning. It’s all over the Interweb and, hopefully, it’s a conversation that’s happening in every OB and Pediatrician’s office.