Holistic on a Budget!

Interested in eating nutritious whole foods, or using safer cleaning or personal care products, but not sure how to do it and stay within budget? Or want to discuss how can we keep our spending habits more in line with our values?  



Being healthy and green doesn't have to break the bank! Join us on November 15 as we share tips and tricks to save money. This is a member-led discussion with handouts. We expect to share lots of great ideas at our meeting to add to our resources! Feel free to bring catalogs, link lists, directories...





Topics will include (but are not limited to)

·         Food

·         Clothing

·         Babies/Kids/Toys

·         Personal and Household Cleaning Products

·         Leisure/Entertainment

·         Healthcare

·         Education

As always, this meeting is open to members and first-time visitors (with children always welcome!), 7-9 p.m, the third Thursday (November 15) at AUMC, 716 S. Glebe Rd. Arlington, VA 22204

Learning to breathe!

What a wonderful meeting we had in October! Amy Arnold of VitalSelf showed us many different ways to breathe and the benefits of different breathing exercises. It was powerful

Here are a few shots from the evening, including after-meeting parking lot nursing with one of our two newest additions! So exciting to see the mamas on the other side birth (in this case, two amazing homebirth stories!) Congrats to our new mamas, and thanks to Amy Arnold for a wonderful meeting!

Breathe easy in October

Do you hold your breath when you are upset?
Start to breathe harder when anxious?
Want to use breathing techniques for health and wellness?

At this month's meeting we will be discussing breathing and gentle movement techniques to best support moving your body's "chi" (energy life force) to help you feel your best.

Learn about and experience the different types of breathing, i.e., shallow, belly, 3-part, fire, and the benefits of each. Also hear about some of the breathing and gentle movement techniques that can help calm, center and energize. Please dress comfortably in order to try out some of the techniques.

Our speaker will be Amy Arnold of VitalSelf. Amy is a Health, Nutrition & Life Coach, Yoga Instructor, Reiki Master, and Quantum Touch Practitioner.

See you 7-9 on Thursday at 716 S. Glebe in Arlington!

Birthday inspiration!

What a wonderful discussion we had about birthdays! Thanks to all who came out for our September "Holistic Birthday Celebrations" discussion, especially the first-time visitors. And super special thanks to co-leader Michelle R. for coming up with such a great handout!

Michelle had a bunch of great ideas for how to approach each category on her handout -- from beginner to hard-core! We fell all over the spectrum!

Members can access the full handout on our chapter Yahoo group. Others can request a copy by emailing HolisticMomsArlAlex (at) gmail (dot) com.

Suggestions for creating a holistic birthday celebration

• Make people the center of the celebration (and consider meaningful rituals)
• Eliminate or minimize the role of gifts
• Recycle and avoid consumerism
• Consider alternatives to party favors
• Organize holistic activities
• Provide healthy food

And some great resources are out there, including:

“Birthdays Without Pressure” – A Project of the University of Minnesota’s Dept. of Family Social Science
www.cehd.umn.edu/fsos/projects/birthdays

FILM: “Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood”

Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood (CCFC) www.commercialfreechildhood.org

Green Party Goods www.greenpartygoods.com


It was also helpful to revisit ideas for Holistic Halloween from our Moms Night Out back in 2009. Check out our suggestions!

Happy, Holistic Birthday Celebrations

What food do you serve at birthday celebrations? Is it a time to throw nutrition to the wind and revel in delectable sweets, or is it important to be consistent in food values and to share those with others. Can you do both?

How about gifts? Do you accept them, ask people not to bring them, ask for them to be homemade or used? What about giving gifts?

What about party favors and themes? Who decides? Where do you get your supplies? How big of a shindig do you throw? Who gets invited? Do you do several celebrations? How do you involve your kids, let them direct, or make decisions for them?

What rituals and traditions do you cherish from childhood? What ones make you cringe? How do you create meaningful and joyful celebrations?

Join us on September 20 as we discuss all this and more at our evening meeting.

We came, we ate, we fermented!

Big thanks to Tom and Christy Przystawik for teaching us how to can, preserve, and ferment the summer's bounty. Our member email list has been lit up with success stories of the kefir people have made from Christy's grains. Thank you! We appreciated the tasty fermented okra and dried figs, too, and were so interested to learn about the Mother Earn News Fair where longtime chapter member Christy will be presenting alongside big names like Joel Salatin and Sandor Katz.

Thank you also to Ed of the Arlington Egg Project for talking with us about urban agriculture. We all learned a lot!

Notes have been posted to the chapter email list and can be requested by non-members writing to jessicahmnarlalex (at) gmail (dot) com.

Ah, summer!

It was wonderful to sit and talk at our social meeting in July. We shared thoughts on parenting and work, travel, moving, birth, health care, and more. Learning from one another is powerful and inspiring. Thanks to all who came out and shared! What a supportive community!

For our August meeting, member and holistic health coach Christy Przystawik and her husband Tom, formerly owners of Food Matters restaurant, will be teaching us how to can, preserve and ferment foods to make the most of the summer harvest. Join us on August 16 for a presentation and demonstration.

Social Meeting and Book Chat in July

Tonight’s meeting is a social meeting and casual book chat where we will talk about whatever is on our minds or whatever we’ve been reading.

Of interest might be the Atlantic article about women not being able to have it all or the news about the new Yahoo CEO who plans to work through her maternity leave. 

Or some of us might just want to talk about summer reading lists of fiction. 

Or maybe there’s a blog post you want to talk about, or a parenting book that recently got you thinking about things in a new way. 

In any case, tonight is our chance to chat and connect. See you there!

Wary of wifi? Check out our June meeting!

There may be a lot to love about convenient wireless devices and wifi internet access, but these technological developments also come with health risks.


At our June 21 meeting, Christine Hoch of the Center for Safer Wireless will discuss "Wireless Safety for the Home," including the following topics:

• Research regarding microwave radiation from cell phones
• Reported heath effects of cell phones
• Ways to use cell phones more safely
• Other wireless products in the home
• Living near cell towers and antennas
• Ways to reduce health effects from RFR in the home

Holistic dentistry

Thank you to Dr. Felix Liao of Whole Health Dental Center for a great presentation on Optimal Dental Facial Development for Children.

Dr. Liao shared a wealth of information about structural factors in the mouth that can influence whole health, and he explained how nutrition, breastfeeding, and toxins (from food, air, products, etc.) can impact the mouth and thus whole body health. What a fascinating talk!

Dr. Liao recommended that any children with crowing, jaw, posture, or learning problems or with clenching or pain issues be seen by a holistic dentist by age five. Remediation (often to expand the jaw, not just to align teeth) should be started before age 10 for maximum effectiveness.

Basics of Ayurvedic Medcine in April

Thanks to Whitney Paterson of Apurva Wellness for teaching us about Ayurvedic medicine, an ancient tradition that uses diet, seasonal eating, lifestyle, daily rhythms and herbs to create and maintain optimal health.
We covered the following questions:
· What are the different Ayurvedic doshas, or body types, and how can you use this information to help support your health and your children's health?

· What is your dosha?

· What are some common imbalances with these types and what are ways we can address them?

· Can diet/herbs improve these imbalances, and how so?

· How else can an understanding of Ayurveda help us understand our children and their specific needs?

Green Schools!

Thank you to our speakers Miriam Gennari, Katherine Sumner and Wendy Sparrow for sharing with us all that Arlington and Alexandria public schools have to offer. Check out this article by one of our leaders about the recent NoVA Outside Green Schools Expo that inspired our meeting and for more from meeting speaker Miriam Gennari on efforts in Arlington. Congratulations to Alexandria for being a winner at the Expo!

Learn about public schooling options on March 15!

Parents in Arlington have just another month to visit schools and apply for admission to any program that is not their home school. New plans are being made for transfer applications in Alexandria kindergartens.

What better time to get an overview of what the Arlington and Alexandria public schools have to offer holistic families?

Even if you might be years away from school or planning to homeschool, our March 15 meeting will give you a flavor for what is happening in public schools in our area.

Arlington parent and APS Sustainability Committee Member Miriam Gennari will speak to Arlington County while Alexandria parent and Nourish Schools co-founder Katherine Sumner and ACPS Schoolyard Coordinator Wendy Sparrow will tell us what is happening in Alexandria City.

Our planned Fairfax speaker will not be able join us due to a family emergency, but we welcome Fairfax parents and invite any teachers or parents in Fairfax or Falls Church City to come share your experiences and join in the conversation.

Topics we plan to touch on include:

• How are schools making efforts to be environmentally friendly?
• What kind of outside experiences to children have?
• What gardening opportunities are available?
• What do children eat or learn about nutrition or local Farm-to-Table eating?
• What kind of emphasis is placed on media and testing rather than hands-on learning?
• How does it work to "apply" to go to one school over another?

Clear your emotional blockages with EFT in February!

Do you have unresolved negative emotions you'd like to let go?

Would you like to know how can tapping on certain acupressure points can help clear you of emotional blockages, improve your mood, or even alleviate pain or addiction?

Are you curious about Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), a meridian tapping technique?

Want to try EFT but not sure how it works or if you can do it yourself?

Wondering what kind of issues (ADD, depression, eating disorders, etc.) with which EFT can help you and your family? (Hint: it’s all of these and more!)

Please join the Arlington/Alexandria Chapter of Holistic Moms Network on Thursday, February 16 for its monthly meeting, where guest speaker Jan Steele, JD, MSW -- a licensed clinical social worker offering therapy and coaching for empowerment and change -- will introduce EFT and discuss its many benefits. She will also provide a demonstration. The meeting is 7-9 p.m.

Note: Although children are always welcome at meetings, participants will likely benefit more if they have their hands free for this meeting.

Click here for an informational video and demo about EFT.

















Please note: These links are provided for informational purposes only and are not intended as endorsements for these businesses.

Getting organized in 2012!

Thanks to Carly Poppalardo of Real Organized VA for sharing tips on home organization. We all learned a lot from Carly's tips and from each other's strategies (and challenges!)

Carly's Top tips were:
1) Put like with like (including "zoning" the kitchen and even sections in the fridge)
2) Downsize to what you need, use, and love
3) Store things where you actually use them
4) Have what you use most often in the most accessible place
5) Containerize -- give everything a "home"
6) Go vertical
7) One in, one out
8) Label with words and picture
9) Start small - don't take out more than what you can do in an hour

Get organized!

Looking for ideas to get better organized in your home, work or life?
Trying to do it in a green, natural way?
Tried to do it on your own but felt the task too overwhelming?

Our January meeting is going to help you start 2012 out right!

Please join us on Thursday, January 19 for our monthly meeting, where guest speaker Carly Poppalardo of Real Organized VA will offer her best solutions for better focus, less stress, and organization for the holistic family.

7-9 p.m. Children welcome, as always!