Contigo makes the only reusable bottles and mugs that you will need, period. We use ours every single day, starting with filling our Stainless Steel West Loop travel mugs with coffee, tea and cocoa in the morning to re-hydrating all day and at the gym with our Addison bottles.
I was excited to hear that Contigo just launched their newest collection of Stainless Steel West Loop Travel Mugs. They are available in 7 fantastic new colors (my fave is the grayed jade), and even boasts a lifetime guarantee.
The West Loop travel mugs keep iced drink cold and warm drinks hot! Just press the front button to sip, and when the button is released, the lid seals once again. When it comes to cleaning, the easy clean lid makes it a snap: just twist off the lid, press a button to expose the lid mechanism, and place it in the top rack of the dishwasher, or wash by hand.
Here’s a goody for all Sweet Greens readers, receive 20% off your order of your next Contigo mug with the code WESTLOOP20 – valid through October 31, 2014.
Want to try out a Contigo Westloop mug for yourself? How about four! Jump over to Contigo and leave a comment telling me what your favorite mug color is – and one lucky winner will win a 4-pack of Contigo Westloop Mugs!
For kids, who may not fully understand what a carbon footprint is or how their green choices today will improve everyone’s quality of life tomorrow, it’s helpful to begin teaching them to be environmentally-friendly by focusing on community awareness. Kids are naturally friendly, curious, social creatures who are constantly studying and interacting with their peers and adults around them. We routinely teach children how their emotions and words affect others, and by keeping the context on community we can easily show them how their environmental decisions affect others. Read on for 4 easy ways for kids to have fun while expanding their community awareness.
#1: Pen Pals I remember my first pen pal. She was totally different than me! I lived in Colorado and she lived in Virginia, I lived in a suburban house and she lived in a mobile home on a few acres of beautiful, green land. She had siblings and I didn’t. While we could relate on some aspects of being a kid, my seven-year-old mind really hadn’t conceived of the idea that someone could really live in a different state with a different ecosystem and a different type of house and neighborhood than me. Pen pals, even if your child is simply writing to a cousin or grandmother, help kids build an awareness that there is a vast diversity among how people live and will show them we are all human and all connected at the same time. A feeling of ownership for one’s community is at the root of every good-hearted intention to live green.
#2: Clean Up a Park Kids are usually too busy playing at the park to notice whether there’s litter or whether facilities are clean. By volunteering to clean up trash at a local park, baseball field, or neighborhood you can teach your kids to respect communal spaces and give them the opportunity to see what these spaces look like before and after they’ve been cared for.
#3:Â Visit the Local Animal Sanctuary Animal sanctuary’s often house an animal or two on the endangered species list. Visiting these animals gives parents the opportunity to explain why these animals are endangered and where they used to live. Visiting the animal sanctuary also connects kids with animals and widens their global view by teaching them about the ecosystems where animals once lived.
#4: Visit a National Park National parks really are America’s treasure! There are so many beautiful national and state parks to visit, and taking a trip to one will allow your family to bond and remember why it’s important to protect natural spaces—especially when kids see how many other families flock to these natural havens to escape and enjoy the wild.
YOUR TURN: What is your favorite way to teach the kiddos about community awareness?
Hello, Friends! We are still in the Florida Keys enjoying our family summer vacation. We have been spending our mornings paddleboarding and our afternoons snorkeling and beach-combing. We even spent one entire afternoon relaxing – which means the mister and dogs took a nap, Eben drew and read and I caught up on a little blogging! It was so nice, especially since we spent the entire day before paddleboarding, snorkeling and kayaking (my arms are sore!)
We are still trying to decide how we want to spend our 4th of July evening. Some years while in the Keys, we have visited a nearby town for a 4th of July celebration with fireworks and patriotic music on the beach, other years we have hiked to the top of the old Bahia Honda Rail Bridge and watched a different type of fireworks display, bio-luminescence in the ocean below! To be honest, the latter is my favorite! I have my fingers crossed that is what the boys want to do tonight! And of course, sometime today we have to stop by the marina to pick up an ice-cream cone to cool off!
I hope you are spending the long weekend eating watermelon, sipping lemonade and maybe even snoozing in a hammock with someone you love!
Contigo makes the only reusable bottles and mugs that you will need, period. We use ours every single day, starting with filling our Stainless Steel West Loop travel mugs with coffee, tea and cocoa in the morning to re-hydrating all day and at the gym with our Addison bottles.