Oct 29, 2010 | Green Living, Uncategorized
Okay,
So I am going to try to participate in Crunchy Chicken’s “Freeze Yer Buns” pledge.
The challenge?
Pledge to Freeze Yer Buns
To sign up for the challenge, add a comment to this post on Crunchy Chicken and pledge what temperatures you will keep your thermostat. (Also comment on my post here!)
Why?
To try and lower our normal heated temperature in the colder months to conserve energy, and lower the amount of CO2 we put out into the atmosphere. She is a tough one and pledges 62 in the day and 55 at night.
I am not sure I can do that cold.
Well, I could but my skinny kids and cold-blooded hubby probably can’t. We shall see how low we can go!
Maybe I should start knitting again….
Oct 29, 2010 | Motherhood, Uncategorized
I have been a parent for 13 years.
So far we’ve had 3 broken bones, several bad ow-ies, but no stitches (amongst my three kids.)
I can’t claim that anymore….
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| Jac’s “after” pic |
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Youngest kiddo had a run-in at school with a door frame…
Three stitches total!
He didn’t cry or flinch during the whole ordeal. What a tough cookie. He said that now he looks like Frankenstein in time for Halloween.
Oct 21, 2010 | Uncategorized
Last night we went to a screening for
“Waiting for ‘Superman'”
a new documentary on public schools in the United States.
Wow.
My kids have gone to two charter schools and two magnet schools. (They now all go to a fabulous charter school.) We are lucky that in our area we have choices (even though I didn’t feel like our local school was one of those.) I think the main point of the movie was that we need to become active in fixing this problem (volunteer, campaign, donate, get informed.)
Fantastic movie. I really encourage everyone even slightly interested in education to go see it.
Opens tomorrow most places!
Just do it.
Don’t wait for Superman!
Oct 15, 2010 | Green Living, Uncategorized
Blog Action Day 2010: Water from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.
Water…
What does the word make you think about?
- Rain on your windowpane?
- Hot baths?
- The ocean’s caress?
- The coolness of the lake?
Right now for me right now I’ll have to go with water bill. We have had a record breaking year
that started with record rainfall and now is into record drought. To me that means either a dried up yard or a +$85 water bill (so I chose the first.) I lost a lot of new plants I planted TWO YEARS AGO! That is how dry it is.
I’ve been talking with others about the effects of global warming and the climate changes we’ve seen in our lives and contemplating the ones that are to come. They say that global warming is already changing weather patterns and will make everything more severe. Personally I feel the dust bowl type patterns will be returning (already are it seems) and that we had better plan for it by better building practices and by teaching ourselves and our kids how to conserve water. When I was young in school we were taught water, electric, gas conservation every year. I don’t see people caring here or even trying. Myself included a lot of the times. It’s all dependent on habits. Making them, keeping them, then it becomes second nature.
Why should we worry about water?
- Nearly 1 billion people don’t have safe water to drink.
- A child dies every 15 seconds from a lack of clean water.
- 1 in 4 children who die before age 5 worldwide, die of a water related disease.
- Children often walk miles every day to collect dirty water to drink.
- It takes 100 gallons of water to produce one egg
- It takes 256 gallons of water to produce one cotton t-shirt
- It takes 2500 gallons of water to make 2 pounds of steak!
- That dirty water you and I make goes somewhere- it is recycled back into our own drinking water and not EVERYTHING gets cleaned out. Remember water is global so it’s a global problem.
What can we do to conserve water?
- Become (and remain) AWARE of your water usage
- Don’t leave the faucet running when you brush teeth, wash dishes, wash your face…(by turning the tap off while brushing your teeth you will save 3 GALLONS of water a day! And another three for not shaving with the water running! )
- Use a low-flow toilet or fill a plastic drinking bottle with pebbles and put in your toilet tank. (This will save you 5-10 gallons a day!)
- If handwashing dishes don’t let water run. Fill one sink with clean water and one with rinse water. (Saves 200-500 GALLONS a month!)
- Compost instead of using the garbage disposal.
- Wash your car on your lawn.
- Always use bio-degradable/phosphate-free soaps (there are good ones like Dr. Bronner’s, Dollar General has a good automatic dish detergent that is phosphate free and cheap!)
- Don’t water lawns unless necessary- also plant wisely with native plants
and drought-resistant varieties
- Take showers instead of baths (wah!)
- Buy used goods and recycle old clothes
- Shop wisely and don’t waste food or water
- Get actively involved in water conservation groups and educate others!
Happy Blog Action Day 2010!
Oct 12, 2010 | Uncategorized
Sunday we went to church with some good friends,
then out to lunch
and…
Good old-fashioned,
southern,
Sunday fun!
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| Boys in awe |
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| Swinging at the State Fair |
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Hubby trying the deep-fried Twinkies
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| Original or ? |
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| Baby Ducks Sliding |
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| Newborn piglets |
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| The only veggies at the fair? |
I love how everyone has a favorite part of the fair. The animals, crafts, rodeo, junk food, rides, freak shows, games, or for me just the people watching. They had a giant yo-yo ride that was a capsule attached to bungee cords- insane. I thought about how I would have done that about 20 years ago. Now?
No way.
Especially after the junk food.
