I’ll be bringing several gift guides to the blog in the next few weeks and wanted to start with my favorite one. This year, I’ve learned of several new companies and organizations that are making a big impact with their products and the thoughtful way they run their businesses and accomplish their missions. I’m thankful for the experience this year of seeing one of these companies’ impact up close in Rwanda where I was able to spend time with artisans and hear how the work they’re thrilled to create has helped sustain their families and change the outcome of their story. I’ve realized how great our purchasing power is and how the enjoyment we share of shopping for our families and friends can gain meaning when we support causes that need our help. Not every single thing we buy is fair trade certified or gives back, but we are definitely more aware of thoughtful shopping habits and try to find ways to support causes when we can. It certainly helps, especially during the holidays, when there are so many beautiful and unique gifts available to us that give back. These are some of my current favorite giveback gifts to make the holidays more meaningful.

1. To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for those struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. Their message and inspiration is applicable to everyone–that you are worthy of love, that your story is important and that your life matters. They focus on community and aim to connect those who are struggling with the help they need. Their store is full of hip products with positive messages–the sales of which help fund their mission. I love this baseball tee and everything it stands for.

2. Franklin Brush Print from Sevenly. If you don’t know about Sevenly yet, you should. They’ve raised over $4 million to date for a number of different charities by donating $7 from every item sold to a designated charity that changes every week. They have supported Down syndrome causes on several occasions as well as anti-bullying, adoption, global health and many more. Their products include an incredible collection of t-shirts as well as prints and accessories ranging from toys to tech gadgets. This week, they are donating $7 from every item sold to Exodus Cry, an organization that combats sex trafficking and restores the lives of survivors. I love this simple yet modern print: “Well Done is Better than Well Said.”

3. Northern Fair Isle Hat from Echo Design. This shop is full of beautiful gift items that feature great design and patterns. From November 17 to December 17, for every hat, muffler, outerwear and pair of gloves you buy, they will donate two comparable items to one of three regional foster care programs. As their mission states, “Echo Design values the powerful impact family makes in the lives of children and young adults.” If I lived where it was cold, I’d be pulling this colorful beauty over my head every day.

4. Leather Kindle Case from Unicef Market. This weathered leathered is dreamy and makes this Kindle case a great gift for him or her. Unicef’s Market site features an impressive selection of beautiful gifts (their leather bags are gorgeous and unique) for everyone in your family, and purchases help fund the work they do to save and protect the world’s most vulnerable children. This gorgeous Kindle case from West Africa is fairly priced and can provide 14 doses of measles vaccine to protect children from this deadly disease.

5. Collection 21 Hooded Towel Set from Vintage Giggles. My friends started this company right here in Naples and continue to make beautiful gifts for babies. The three bathroom hooks next to our tub feature Vintage Giggles hooded towels–all which have held up to frequent use and wash beautifully. This year, Vintage Giggles designed the Collection 21 towel set–featuring simple pastels that work for boy or girl–with 21% of proceeds from every sale donated to the National Down Syndrome Society to help continue their mission of creating a culture that accepts, includes and offers opportunities to individuals with Down syndrome.

6. Knit Arm Warmers from Noonday Collection which provides pathways out of poverty for the vulnerable. I traveled to Rwanda with Noonday this past summer to meet artisans and see the way Noonday is helping to transform their lives with employment opportunities. Noonday has formed partnerships in many countries, from Guatemala to Vietnam. These darling arm warmers are 100% Alpaca and handmade in Peru.

7. The Able Scarf from Live FashionABLE. Live FashionABLE’s mission is to create sustainable business for Africans so they aren’t dependent upon charity but instead earn the dignity of a job. They focus primarily on empowering women, knowing that statistics show she will have a life-changing impact on her family and community. My beautiful friend, Erin Loechner, designed this Able Scarf, handwoven in Ethiopia from Ethiopian cotton and screen printed with handwritten statements that unite and empower all women across the globe.

8. The Chloe Blouse from Cooper & Ella. My favorite blouses. My friend Kara started Cooper & Ella in 2013 and continues to make the most flattering blouses for women with beautiful details like this season’s cut-outs featured in this Chloe Blouse. This year, Cooper & Ella made a commitment to give back with their sales and launched Empower, a partnership with the Hope Foundation School in Bangalore. With each and every Cooper & Ella item purchased, one hot nutritious meal is donated to a child in need.

My favorite giveback choice for our family this year is International Justice Mission. Since traveling with them to Rwanda in July, visiting their field office, hearing first-hand stories from clients they helped rescue and following along on their social media sites as they report rescues that we get to help fund, their mission has become near and dear to my heart. IJM is a global organization that protects the poor from violence and seeks justice by holding slave owners, sex traffickers, rapists and criminals accountable in court. IJM was named 1 of 10 non-profits “making a difference” by U.S. News and World Report. One of their current taglines that showed up in the subject line of my e-mail box the other day was simple and powerful: “What would you do to save your family?” Because in many parts of the world, this means mothers like us–willing to do anything to save their families–take jobs where they are enslaved and their children are used for hard labor, sex and dangerous jobs. IJM is doing great work in changing this. I follow their Twitter and Instagram accounts and celebrate every reported victory: “9 victims were rescued from a street-based prostitution network that sold girls and young girls…THIS WEEK THEY LIVE IN FREEDOM.” “Two girls rescued from sex trafficking in Cebu, Philippines and one suspect arrested. These girls are now safe.” “Last week, nearly 100 people got their rightful land restored to them in Gulu, Uganda. Let’s join them in celebration!” Taking care of our babies and keeping our families safe is nothing where we live compared to the choices and sacrifices mothers and fathers are making in other countries. Supporting IJM is one small thing we can do to create big impact for these families.

Be a part of their great work this year by shopping their gift catalogue. I love making gift baskets for close family members every year, and this year we’re including donation cards from IJM. It’s easy–you choose the gift and increment, pay for it and IJM will send you a card to give the recipient, letting them know that a gift was made in their honor to protect the vulnerable and rescue the oppressed.

This is also a great way to include kids in giving. While not all of the depth of IJM subject matter is appropriate for kids, there’s so much they do to make lives better for vulnerable children. Their gift guide offers many opportunities for kids to give, and saving change or donating a few allowance dollars to something like “Sponsor a child survivor in primary school“–a $30 gift package–can be a meaningful (and relatable) experience that helps teach kids about giving and the deeper message that we are all connected.

I’ve encouraged my friends to consider including IJM giving cards in their holiday gifts this year as well, and I know that those who receive these will appreciate the deeper meaning in their gifts.It makes holiday cheer all the better, you know?

Happy Friday.

This bedtime post is sponsored by Seventh Generation. We love their products, their commitment to protecting our environment and their mission to make the world a safe and comfy place for our kids.

I’ve always been a morning person, clanking coffee cups and cleaning the kitchen well before anyone’s awake (they’re not always too happy about that). I’m ready to get moving early, taking advantage of my sharpest self–writing, tackling projects, cleaning–the earlier the better. I used to save more tasks for the evening, but with three kids and crazy busy days now, nights are spent quietly winding down–relaxing and retreating with my family. Getting ready for bed is a ceremony in itself, a window of the day where we are fully present–what’s done is done, and what didn’t get finished gets moved to tomorrow.

Bedtime is one of my favorite rituals with babies and one of the first memorized routines for all of my kids. I remember when Lainey was barely crawling, we headed into her room to start the bedtime routine, and she went right to the pajama drawer–knew which one it was–and pulled out a sleeper. Dash is no different. As soon as the sun disappears and we make our way to the bathtub to start the routine, he follows right along, knowing what comes next. Jammies, bottle, book, sound machine, bed.

He doesn’t let us put him to bed without touching his mobile. Every night, we hoist him up and he touches each character (surprisingly, very gently) and slides the felt balls up and down their string.

I want everything as comfy and cozy as possible for bedtime. On the few occasions we returned home late with sleeping kids in the car, I’ve risked waking them up to slip them into sleepers because jeans to bed–no can do.

With three kids and seven years of parenting under my belt, I’ve slowly narrowed down the products we use for our kids after trying out a lot of things and taking suggestions from other moms. We have our favorite soft blankets, smell-good soap, safe cleaning products and comfy jammies. I love discovering new products and the ways companies are helping us raise our babies with comfort and safety in mind, and they’ve made great leaps from the days when our parents raised us. “They sure didn’t make them like that when you were kids,” my parents have said a number of times. “We strapped a plastic box in the car and called it a carseat!”

We’ve loved Seventh Generation’s cleaning products for a while now due to their commitment to safe ingredients, and after trying their new Touch of Cloth™ Diapers, we’ve added them to our favorites and into our bedtime routine.

Touch of Cloth™ Diapers are the first and only disposable diapers made with completely clean cotton fibers, free of fragrances, lotions and petroleum based plastics. The outside of the diapers are soft to touch–as soft as cloth–because they’re made with unbleached cotton and other plant based materials, replacing a layer typically made from petroleum based plastic. They fit snugly, are super-absorbent, and I love that they are pure white–as simple as the cotton they’re made from. I tried cloth diapering with Nella, and I couldn’t keep up with it, but these diapers are a nice compromise and work well for our family.

Seventh Generation’s mission in designing products lines right up there with our parenting mission: “we must build new ways of caring for ourselves, and the world around us.”  We’ll take any reminder–even diapers–that the best things often lie in simplicity.

To many more comfy and cozy nights ahead.

Thank you, Seventh Generation for sponsoring this post, and thank you readers for checking out the sponsors that make great products and services our family enjoys, and help make supporting this blog a little easier.

The gift lists and giving guides have begun, and after spending the weekend with my brother and sister and recalling childhood holiday memories, I can’t help but kick it back to the Ghost of Christmas Past–my childhood list of the coolest holiday gifts of the 80’s. If you roller skated in your basement to the Pointer Sisters and know who Teddy Ruxpin is, see how many of these you remember, asked for or jumped around on Christmas morning to celebrate.

1. Pogo Ball. I forgot about the pogo ball until a month ago when I accidentally landed on it online. I remember the grip it took to stay on this thing. Keeping a pogo ball between your legs was like doing Kegals with your feet.

2. New York Seltzer. Perfect stocking stuffer. We used to ride our banana seat bikes up to Paul’s Wine Cellar after school just for the thrill of the Very Adult Act of Buying a Seltzer with Your Own Change. Svelte little glass bottle. Trendy labels. Fizzy adultish drink in delicious cool flavors like cream soda and peach. If you were awesome, you’d mix cream soda with peach for a fusion of fizzy flavor, pour it over ice in a glass and say to your cousin who watched you “this is on the rocks.” You were 8. But you thought you were 20 and a character on Dynasty.

3. Pound Puppies. I helped my dad with one of his sermons when I was seven years old. It involved standing on the pulpit while he preached a message about raising kids and how the Bible is the instruction manual for doing so. I conquered some major stage fright in the process, and my dad surprised me afterwards by taking me to the toy store where I picked out the Toy of the Moment—a pound puppy, packaged in a cardboard doghouse. I named him Rusty for his reddish orange color, clung to him through my parents’ divorce and later passed him on to a girl I met at summer camp who needed him more than I did. Fact #1: there’s nothing cooler than Pound Puppies. Fact #2: I did a happy dance the other day when I saw Target brought them back—exactly as I remember them.

4. Neon Rubber Bracelets. Coolness in second grade was measured purely by how many neon bracelets you had up your arm-bonus if you linked two and twisted them together all infinity-like. My friend Scott’s sister Dena worked at Merry Go Round, had spiked hair and a tail, wore black and had an enviable collection of these babies on her forearm.

5. Keypers. We weren’t old enough to put anything hide-worthy in here, but still—creatures with keys to open them is a fascinating concept, no matter the decade. I watched the YouTube commercial for these, and it made me all weird and sentimental. Brought all the feelings back—like digging up the girl I was when I first saw this commercial.

6. Water Ring Toss. If I had a nickel for every water ring I landed on a peg, I could buy the carpal tunnel device that fixes the pinched nerve you get from playing this game. Was an awesome travel toy. Still an awesome travel toy.

7. Popples. Tell me you remember Popples. When the world seems too overwhelming and I want to curl up into a pocket and disappear, I call it Poppleing. I’m sorry. Pardon me while I Popple. It’s just too much. I’m tempted to pay the inflated price on eBay just so my kids can know the great joy of a Popple and Poppleing.

8. Mr. Professor Calculator. Those fancy scientific calculators can suck it. Because everyone knows there’s only one king in calculator land, and it’s Mr. Professor. I owe it solely to Mr. Professor for passing first, second and third grade math.

9. Jelly Shoes.The purple ones. They make me smile—reminds me of summer, backyard sprinklers, new bathing suits, orange creamsicles, Mackinac Island, feeling too cool for school.

10. Kissing Koolers. Watermelon was my favorite followed by Cherry Cola. I can still remember pulling the cap off a new stick and admiring the swirly-colored cream that passed as Chapstick to my mom but was grown-up lipstick to me. They tasted as good as they smelled. You can still buy old ones on eBay, but I can only imagine how they’ve held up—much like the old Avon makeup stacked up on shelves at the Flamingo Island flea market up the street. Maybelline, if you’re listening, bring back Kissing Koolers for 2015 stockings!

11. Exclamation Perfume. In my mind, Kelly Kapowsky wore Exclamation. Enough said.

12. Lip Lickers Tins. I get overly excited about my memories of finding Lip Lickers in our stockings. I remember having to choose what new Christmas gifts we’d take with us to visit my grandparents after Christmas morning and going right for the Lip Lickers. Duh. Those little cousins watching us slide that tin open and smearing strawberry goop on our lips all Christy Brinkley like? We were so cool.

13. Simon. When I taught fifth grade, I could memorize all 22 kids’ names on the first day of school in five minutes flat, and I owe it all to Simon. All those years of sharpening my memory with Blue. Blue, Red. Blue, Red, Green. Blue, Red, Green, Green. Blue, Red, Green, Green, Yellow.

14. Sweet Secrets. I see these and I’m a kid again. Watching Today’s Special. Hoping I’ll find some Sweet Secrets in my stocking so I can stuff them in my backpack and show them off at school recess.

15. Trapper Keeper. The Trapper Keeper gave you so many ways to express yourself. What kind of student were you? A solid color Trapper classic girl? A horse-in-the-meadow Trapper dreamer girl? A cats and kittens Trapper cutesy girl? Or was it Lisa Frank and rainbows Trapper all the way? (Choose the latter! Choose the latter!) Trappers were for collecting cool folders that you may or may not have used to organize your school stuff, covering with holographic stickers, and annoying your teachers by lifting the Velcro flap over and over—the loudest Velcro pull apart sound in the history of mankind.

16. Lite Brite. You had to turn the lights off while you played this for ultimate coolness.You can still buy Lite Brite today although they’ve been stripped of their 80s coolness factors like many other “new and improved” toys from our childhood. The lights are LED now, the device is smaller, the bulbs are safer, you don’t have to plug it into a wall. I liked the monstrous contraption that had the danger factor way better.

17. Shirt Tales Lunch Box. Pammy Panda and Bogey the Orangutan were my jam.

18. Cabbage Patch Preemies. If you had one, you remember her name, the day you got it, how it happened. Receiving your Cabbage Patch was a rite of passage. The first round, a yarn-haired kid version; the second, a bald-headed Preemie. I shall call you Glennis Williamina and you shall be my Cabbage Patch.

19. The Babysitters Club. If you grew up in the 80’s, you have an equivalent Baby Sitter’s Club persona. I was a Kristy but wanted to be a Stacey. Also Ann Martin is a literary hero. I’m sure that woman has a whole army of reluctant readers turned book inhalers to her name.

20. Monchichi. Cutest monkey ever. And they still make them. The baby ones with the pacifiers are the cutest.

21. Eastland Loafers. My sister had the laces twirl down to perfection. And still available today. Just ditch the socks and peg your pants.

22. Perfection. Speaking of perfection, this game. Love stress? Dream of deadlines? Thrive on someone breathing down your neck to finish something RIGHT THIS SECOND?  Perfection is totally for you.

23. Garbage Pail Kids. I have no idea how we got away with collecting these with a pastor dad and a Gosh-is-a-bad-word mom. A Google image search had me wincing the other day. Seriously. Guys, the world is not going to hell in a hand basket. We’ve moved on from Garbage Pail Kids. Progress! Morality!

24. Esprit Sweatshirt. Preferably purple, pink or pale blue.

25. Plastic Charm Necklace. No precious metals needed. The jingle-jangle of plastic toilet/sneaker/lipstick/whistle charm was music to my ears. Any why yes, that’s the same retainer from my teen years, and it still fits.

26. Porcupine Pencil Sharpener. We got them for Christmas. Mine was light blue. My sister’s was pink. They sat on our desks, and we owned Barnard Elementary.

27. Six Months to Live. My sister got hooked on sad adolescent novels for a while. It was not unusual to walk into her bedroom and find her sobbing on her bed, curled up with a Lurlene McDaniels book. We passed this one around for a while. Pushin’ emotional bruises, diggin’ deep, forcing ourselves to suck the sad sap out of life. Whatever, we were stronger for it.

Honorable Mention: Scratch and Sniff Stickers, Puffy Stickers (the blue metallic gel ones that you could push and watch the blue stuff change colors), Safety Pins bedazzled with tiny colored beads for your tennis shoe laces, White Keds. 4-color Pens.

Alright, 80s babies. I know you remember some of these and more. Tell me, tell me.

******************

Fun stuff for this week:

1. I’m contributing Setting a Sweet Kids Table for Thanksgiving over on eHow.

2. …and 10 Smart Ways to Find Deals when Shopping for Kids over on eHow.

3. My friend’s beautiful essay, To What End?, on chasing our dreams and balancing motherhood (really loved this).

4. Sam and Mattie’s Teen Zombie Movie Kickstarter. Help support two teens with big dreams. Loved this.

5. Heard this short food essay on the radio the other day, and it took me away. Pure poetry. It also inspired me to make beans, cornbread and cucumber salad last night. Hit play and listen to her talk about the joy of slow food.