A Word About Recycling... The Courtesy Rinse

As easy as 1, 2, 3, giving your cartons and containers a quick courtesy rinse will not only keep your kitchen smelling squeaky clean, but it will also make recycling that much more pleasant.

What's a courtesy rinse, you ask?

Simple.

A quick rinse of your recyclables before adding them to the recycling bin.

I know I keep my recycling bin in the kitchen, so having it not smell like trash (where everything is tossed in and starts smelling up the place instantly...yuck!) makes for a much more pleasant kitchen environment in which to cook and eat.

Now, I know what you're thinking. If everyone was expected to rinse what they recycle - milk cartons, meat trays, apple sauce containers - no one would ever recycle! And maybe for some of the population that assumption would be correct. That's why most recycling plants are now asking you to forgo rinsing and cleaning.

But...

If you're like me and you don't want a stinky kitchen - #1 reason I try to be as trash free as possible - giving a quick courtesy rinse to anything that needs it before tossing it in the recycle bin isn't something I cry over.

It's actually something I take joy and pride in!

I know, I know...I'm a green geek...but then again, maybe you are one too!

;)

When a Child Looses a Friend... Bereavement for Kids

A few years back my beautiful sister-in-law sent me a book, The Fall of Freddie the Leaf, to help me with the loss of someone very special. Although it was a child's book, I did find it sweet and welcoming in my time of need. And when I had my own children, I kept the book around as part of their ever growing collection books.

I've read the book to my children numerous times. It's a tale about the life of a little leaf, Freddie, and how he comes to terms with finding purpose in his life, enjoying it, and then finally accepting death as a part of everyone's circle of life.

It's always been one of those books that I pull out from time to time, a simple reminder that although we don't know how long we have on Mother Earth, we all have time to make the most of it. Unfortunately, this summer we witnessed a horrible tragedy as a family: the death of a little boy.

A sweet little friend of my children. Practically a member of our family. A soul never to be forgotten...

My children were there and saw the unthinkable. Understandably, they still talk about it to this day. My three year old even says she can see him and talks to him frequently. Just today I thought I could hear his little voice in the wind while we were at one of his much loved parks..."Come on Juli...let's play!"

And although it doesn't make things better, it doesn't help us know what happened, this little book about Freddie has helped us remember that life is not only short, but precious. We all have a purpose. Andrew, someone who was only on here for such a short time, had a purpose. He showed us that we should enter all situations with the best intentions. That there is cause for smiling and laughing-out-loud all times of the day. That we shouldn't take another minute to hug those we love, and to tell them so...

If you know of a child who has experienced a loss, The Fall of Freddie the Leaf is a very good companion to all the words and hugs of sympathy. It's also a good book to have to help explain to kids that we all have a purpose for our lives. That even though a leaf is small, it's part of a great big tree. And that everything living is part of the same cycle of life.

Quick Update...and labor story

Introducing Anella Paige Green!

I haven't been on in a while, the last few weeks of pregnancy were quite eventful and I wasn't able to make time to get on and blog. Here I am though sitting next to my two week old (she'll be two weeks tomorrow) beautiful baby girl! Yes I had a girl.

I was blessed with the labor of my dreams. My husband and I had taken a Hypnobirthing class and we were both very determined to have a completely drug free labor. 12:20am on Thursday August 20th, my water broke. My husband called the OB to let him know and he told us to call back when my contractions were 5 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute for 1 hour or call back when we headed to the hospital. My husband and I planned on doing the majority of our laboring at home as neither of us wanted to spend all day the hospital. Around 1:30am, I decided to wake my husband up so that he could start timing my contractions, I decided I felt like getting in the shower to relax some. After getting out of the shower I noticed my contractions were quite a bit stronger than they had been. Every contraction I would have to take a moment and focus on relaxing. We headed downstairs at about 2:15am I got myself some water and asked my husband if there was any pattern to my contractions, he said "Not really they're between 2-4 minutes lasting 30seconds-1 1/2 minutes." I'm not sure why but I told my husband that I felt like we needed to go to the hospital. So we packed up our stuff and headed out. We live 5 minutes from the hospital so we arrived by 3am. They had me back in a room at 3:30am and were examining me. The nurse told me I was 3.5 cm and 90% effaced, this might sound good to some people but for me it was very disappointing, I had been 3.5cm & 90% effaced for the past two weeks. I was quite discouraged but knew that with my water breaking and the contractions at least things were happening.

After being on the monitor for 30 minutes the nurse let me know that my Dr wanted me to walk around to help progress labor (this was my plan all along too, the last place I wanted to be was lying in bed). After getting up I did my best to find a comfortable position, I tried the birthing ball, this definitely was not comfortable to me, I then was leaning against the end of the bed slow dancing. At this point I felt like my water broke again, when I asked the nurse she stated that most likely I had a "fore bag" (I'd never heard of this before). After this second bag of water broke things definitely picked up, I decided I wanted to get in the shower for some relief. After spending 30minutes in the shower I got out and was doing everything in my power just to find a comfortable position. I finally decided after all the water I drank I should try to empty my bladder. I sat down on the toilet and realized this was a really comfortable position. I sat here for 5 minutes completely relaxed I don't even know how many contractions I had while sitting on the toilet. I just know that I finally found a position that I could relax in. I then had a contraction that was so strong I jumped off the toilet and held onto my husband, he was holding the majority of my weight. At this point I told him that I just didn't think I could do this without drugs, he told me I was doing a great job and that he loved me. I spent the next few contractions squatting, and then decided to get back on the toilet. Once I sat down I felt a lot of pressure. I mentioned it to my husband and he immediately pulled the emergency cord in the bathroom. The nurse ran in and asked me to go and lay back down on the bed so she could check me.

As I lay down on the bed, Wayne said "I see blood." I knew this was either a really good sign or a bad sign. The nurse checked me and said "We're ready to have a baby." At this point her voice gets a little panicked as she says "I need immediate assistance in labor room 104, page Dr. Biter and let the Dr on call know he may have a delivery." I said "I'm waiting for Dr. Biter!" My Dr arrived less than 10minutes later, I remember the second I heard his voice I felt such relief. He sat down at the end of my bed and said "I planned on getting more sleep, you progressed really fast, let's have a baby." At this point I realized I'd only been at the hospital for 1 1/2 hours, it was just 5:15am, I progressed from 3.5cm to 10 in 1 1/2 hours...WOW! I pushed for a short 45 minutes and at 6:01am on August 20th, 2009 Anella Paige was born. It was amazing to say the least, as she was coming out my Dr told Wayne and I to reach down and the three of us delivered here onto my chest.

From start to finish my labor was 5 hours and 41 minutes. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that as a first time mom I would be lucky enough to have such a quick completely natural labor!

When Being Green isn't So Easy...

Have you ever felt like you were on conservationalist's overload mode? That no matter how many plastic water bottles you save from the trash, that you use all local organic food, or that you barely used the AC all this smoldering muggy summer to conserve dollars and help with pollution...that it's never enough?

What about the crude oil industry? What about people who don't have clean water to drink? What about all those schools and companies and hospitals that trash everything on a continual, day-in-day-out, basis? What about the oceans? What about the polar bears? The wolves? The forests? My kids? My kid's kids?

There is so much to do, so much to be done, I just want to...scream! Being one person against a whole world of problems can sometimes kill the very passion out of you. You start to feel as though you are drowning in the toxic waste that fills your air, water, food.

The need is so great, how on Earth can we ever do enough?

Easy...don't give up!

Even though you are just one person, you can make a difference. Just think about your kids watching you take care of Mother Earth: watching what you put into her, making sure not to add to her hurt. You're raising greenies! Little green ones that will grow up to be big powerful green movements. That is something to be proud of!

And if you have kids that go to a school or you work somewhere that doesn't recycle, why not help them implement a system so that they can? Or show them how easy it is being green by packing a lunch box using reusable containers, napkins, and water bottles.

I sometimes get so bogged down with the insurmountable task of greening my family's life and what I can't do - buy solar, get a electric car, grow all our food - that I feel like I'm not doing a good enough job. But then I go out in the real world and see that I am not alone. That my seemingly small efforts are being compounded by everyone else's greeness...

There may be a lot for us to do...but there are a lot of us...

Keep up the good fight...

"If it's Yellow, Let it Mellow...If it's Brown..."

Flush it down!

Not a hugely complicated water conservation method, right?

And when you look at the statistics - instead of flushing the toilet after each and every use (12-15 times a day), and wait for a a brown addition to flush it all down - you can reduce the number of times you refill your toilet with fresh new water to 4 or 5 times a day. And at 1.6 gallons per flush, that's a savings of 5000 gallons per year of water!

And when I saw our water bill the other day, I realized that we use on average 10,000 gallons of water a month. I don't know about you, but I think this to be an outrageous amount!

Imagine if I had to walk down to the local stream, collect that much water a month, and carry it back to my house. 10,000 gallons? Insane!

So, I'm on a quest to reduce our water consumption. Although my husband takes 2 minute showers and I try to stay under 10, I'm certain we use/waste much more precious water as a family than we should. That's why we have instated the "if it's yellow let it mellow" rule to our household.

And if I could find a way to purchase this sign, I'll have it hanging up behind the toilet in no time!