Earth Day

Last week we trudged down the street and through the rain to a little local park to help plant trees for Earth Day. We ended up planting the trees in the woods between the river and the bike path in order to crowd out invasive plant species. The morning turned out to be great fun and Milo was a great helper. As a thank you for volunteering we received coupons for free Jeni's ice cream at an Earth Day celebration today, also great yummy fun.

Each year (okay for the last two years) for Earth Day, I have given Milo an eco-themed picture book. Coincidentally these are Sesame Street published books and they are both huge hits here. Whether it is the familiar characters or the content of the books we have been reading Grover's 10 Terrific Tips and Plant a Tree for Me on repeat lately. (You should be able to find the Grover book in the Target dollar aisle and who knew the Muppets had their own wiki?)

In other earthy news, our pea sprouts are now ready to be planted outdoors, but I so loved them when they were wee little plants. I don't usually start seeds indoors, but this has been a great project to do with Milo. We water them, talk about their growth and what things they need to succeed and bear fruit - er veggies.

We've come a long way since this was our Earth Day message:

Summers on the Gulf

Each summer we would travel to the same plot of sand on the Gulf of Mexico. At one point the beach was named to the Top 10 Beaches of the World list because of the impeccable sand and gentle surf. The white sand was soft and would never get hot or too sharp with shells like the beaches to the north. We would walk for miles (or what seemed like miles to a little girl) collecting swirly shells as we went and letting the soft waves tickle our feet. Large sand castles were built with a wet drizzle of sand providing the fancy facade. Feet were buried and tans were perfected on lounge chairs. With the help of only a flimsy raft we would swim out to sand bars and collect sand dollars. Swimming to the sand bar was at once scary and exhilarating - as soon as I didn't think I could swim any longer in deep water, the sand bar materialised with reassuring shallow, clear water where I could see my feet. Almost every evening, sunburned and tired, we would feast on platters of oysters and baskets of peel and eat shrimp.

I remember crying one year when our week long vacation ended: Ohio is a lot of things, but the beach it's not. Now I tear up for the fisherman who are watching their livelihood disappear and for the sea animals who are contending with a confusing slick of oil where they are used to open water and perfect white sand beaches.

The Other Thing

Other than wondering how Prada is taking the whole living with a baby thing, people most often ask me how cloth diapering is going. Here's the thing: we do cloth diaper, but not all the time. Evenings and weekends are spent in cloth, overnights and days at daycare are spent in disposables.

This arrangement is working out really well for us. I figure some cloth is better than no cloth and each time we have his little butt in a cloth diaper, that is one less disposable diaper in the landfill. There is also some research out there that suggests cloth diapers aren't really better for the environment (because of the water and energy that goes into washing them), so I think striking a balance is a good thing.

Even with the little bit we use the cloth diapers, there is the washing and at this point it really isn't bad at all. First of all, since he's breastfed, even the dirty diapers aren't too dirty. I know this will gross some people out, but we just put the dirty diapers in our laundry machine. We do a pre-soak and an extra rinse and use additive free detergent. From there they go for a quick spin in the dryer (although I do plan on line drying them if we ever get the backyard clothesline back up).

Milo does seem to notice a wet or dirty cloth diaper more than he does a soiled disposable diaper. I'm hoping this works out in our favor by the time potty training comes around. In the meantime, we'll keep using the cloth as much as we can because I like the benefits to them...and he looks adorable in them.

Passing Along...

...an Earth Day message from Milo (he also says to ignore the spit-up spot, he didn't mean to do that).

And if you can't plant a tree (but seriously, how can you say no to that face), you could try one of these tips:

• Skip plastic or paper and take along your own reusable bag
• Walk or bike instead of drive
• Unplug appliances such as toasters, hair dryers and phone chargers when not in use

Happy Earth Day!

Green Baby

You want to know a secret? And it is a secret because we are not sharing baby names until the little guy or girl gets here. So here's the secret: for about a day, I really wanted to name our baby boy (if it is a boy) Kermit. I think it is adorable and quirky and strong. I looked up the meaning (without envy) and loved that it was of Celtic origin, but at the end of the day I just couldn't name the baby after a frog. Even if I really love that frog. The kid would go through his whole life hearing it's not easy being green.

And speaking of green, we are firmly on the green team for this baby. For those of you who don't frequent mom chat boards, that means we are not finding out the gender of the baby through ultrasound before he is born. To avoid calling the baby "it" we switch frequently between he and she. We also call her by the term "the olive" (I wouldn't recommend doing this, because you will never look at a relish tray the same way again).

To carry this whole green thing even further, we are also trying hard to have this baby be carbon neutral. Well, actually, we just want to surround him with the most natural products possible and make sure the baby's existence doesn't have a negative impact on the Earth. So we're planning as green of a nursery as we can get, I'm planning on cloth diapering at home and using disposables while out and about, and I'm all about hand me downs.

So, if the olive does turn out to be a boy, he won't be named Kermit, but he will grow up knowing it is easy to be green.

Liberal Guilt

Today I had lunch with a friend from high school and somehow over our wraps and iced tea, the topic of liberal guilt of came up. We both have it. That's either to be expected from two highly educated white kids from an affluent suburb or an oddity. Our other classmates seem to be on one end of the spectrum or the other. As a whole, our graduating class was given a head start in the world. We all came from fairly well-off families and we each had a solid college-prep education. For me these opportunities also come with the feeling of needing to do more for the greater good. In some sense, I feel like because I was given this head start, I should help those who weren't as lucky in the gene pool lottery.

Sometimes this feeling manifests itself in healthy ways - volunteering, donating to worthy causes and being overall empathetic. But sometimes, I just feel silly liberal guilt which doesn't help anyone much. Case in point is the whole Prius thing. I only drive about 30 miles a day and a part of me feels I should leave the Prius, because they are in such demand, for someone who needs it more and drives further each day. In the grocery store, I occasionally feel guilty for not buying organic. And don't even get me started on the conflicted feelings I have when I ride the bus.

Recently, though, a catalog came in the mail which I was thrilled to see (after I made yet another mental note to go to one of those stop junk mail sites). The catalog was from Fair Indigo, and it is all fair trade cute clothing! I think I heard the angels rejoice when I also noticed the free shipping to new customers offer. So now shipping to me from Wisconsin (somewhat local, right) is a new wrap dress, darling peasant blouse and new sandals. And best of all, I don't have to worry about the child and or sweatshop labor that went into making these clothing items. Fashion without guilt, that works for me.

In the Who Knew Catergory

I make it a point to learn a new thing each day. I do this so I am a more interesting person and so I won't develop Alzheimer's. On Sunday, I learned two things I wasn't quite ready for.

It began when Chris and I took a road trip to Delaware, Ohio. It's only about a 30 minute drive, but to me anything longer than 15 minutes is a road trip. So when we stopped for gas on the way, I made sure to stock up on water and lottery tickets. Wouldn't want to get dehydrated or bored during the trip, now would we? We were heading to Delaware because I wanted to test-drive a Prius. We'd been researching them online, but before I went any further, I wanted to see the colors in person and make sure the driver's seat has comfortable lumbar support. Yes, that is how I choose a car. Of course, there are Toyota dealers within the Columbus city limits, but not Toyota dealers who were offering a $50 gift card to Buca for test driving the Prius. So off to Delaware we went. And, yes, I see the hypocrisy of driving out of our way to test drive a hybrid car. If it makes you feel better, I planned some trips in the area (we'll get to that later).
Little did I know, the Prius is so popular since the recent increase in gas prices, that the dealer had no cars to look at or drive. Not a one. Not even a Hybrid Camry. Only plain old gas guzzling cars were on the lot. The salesman thought he had a used Prius we could see, but, no even that one had been sold earlier in the day. I knew the Prius was a popular little bugger, but I had no idea it was waiting list, can't keep the cars on the lot, popular. And, oh yeah, you usually can't pick your color (if you really want one, you get what they have) and you pay sticker price (or at some dealers a little more.)

So after not getting to test-drive the car, we backtracked to the Polaris area to go to The Great Indoors. The Polaris Fashion Place is only about 15 minutes from our house, but it is outside of 270 and so I very rarely go there. We were headed to the Great Indoors because a very nice person had given us a gift certificate from there for our wedding. We didn't need anything, but it was $50 not coming out of our checking account and we were there, so gosh darn it, that $50 would be spent. We looked at doormats, I drooled over the Le Creuset section, and then we pondered how much use we would actually get out of a margarita maker. As we were wandering around the store, wondering again why we aren't rich, we saw the huge selection of faucets. Then we remembered, oh yeah, we do need a faucet to go with the new granite counter tops coming later this month. But, seriously, why are faucets so expensive? I was dripping(!) with sticker shock. Needless to say our $50 gift card barely put a dent into the faucet purchase.

A Bet I'll Take

I've enjoyed reading, thinking on and talking about Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma and An Eater's Manifesto, so when this article was forwarded to me earlier in the week, I took the time to read it. And it did take some time to digest it it, but it's worth the read.

Most of what Pollan's work takes a little bit to read (less so with Eater's Manifesto as opposed to Omnivore's Dilemma). Writing style is one of the reasons why Pollan isn't a quick read, subject matter is another. The nutrition and food chain mess we have gotten ourselves into doesn't have a quick explanation or an easy solution.

However in this latest article, Pollan talks about the simple act of planting a garden. The task of producing some of your own food puts the industrial food chain into a new light. It's also one small part we can take to deter climate change. Plus, it helps with the recent high prices at the grocery store.

Ever since we have had this house, we've had a garden and have found it to be really rewarding.
Currently our lettuce is in the micro form, we have a few seedlings of volunteer fennel from last year and we put peas in this afternoon. Later we'll add tomatoes, cucumbers, beans and peppers. It's not a big garden, but it will help a little with the grocery bill. And it will connect us more to our yard and the earth.

When in Doubt: Shrug

After the fourth and final trip to Lowe's, Chris finally got the new dishwasher installed Monday night. I would like to say alls well that ends well, except that upon filling the dishwasher for the first time, we discovered our dinner plates do not fit in the bottom rack (or the top for that matter). Our dinner plates are over sized and as such I try not to use them much. We use the salad plates much more frequently, which fit fine as they are a normal portion size. (Note to self, do not buy Emeril brand dishes and think these are normal sizes).

Much more disappointing to me, is that the wine glasses don't fit in the top rack unless it is in the lowered position. Before the whole leaking thing, I really just wanted a new dishwasher because I hate to hand wash wine glasses. And the wine glasses in our home do get put to good use. Thank goodness for the stemless.

As Chris was finishing up the dishwasher project, I put my excess energy into cleaning out my closet. It always feels so good to pack bags of no longer worn clothing off to Goodwill! This year, I took my repurposing of clothing one step further and decided to make an old tee shirt into a cute little yoga shrug. So cute and so in the spirit of the Earth Day. I can't find the link to share the directions, but the project was easy and sewing-free. I'm looking forward to trying the technique again. This was my first effort:

Bag Lady

On most visits to the grocery store, I try to bring my own reusable tote bag to bring home my food stuffs in. However, I do sometimes forget. On those days I usually run into a bagger who thinks it is his or her job to make sure each customer leaves with a more-than-needed amount of plastic bags. Even when I bring my own tote bags, I have arrived home to find that the bagger helpfully has bagged all the food in plastic and then put it in the tote.

Most of the time when I forget my own bag, I ask for paper bags. When I run into these situations, I am used to getting a dirty look for asking for paper. I've had baggers tell me they don't like using the paper bags because they are harder to fill and separate. I don't really care. While I know some people debate the merits of paper versus plastic, I like that you can fit more things in the paper bags. I also like the old-schoolness of paper bags. When I was little, paper was the only choice. I now sometimes wonder what school children cover their text books in.

Today, though, I was only getting a few items. So I asked for plastic, but to please fit all the items in one bag (I bought an onion, a small amount of green beans, two filets of fish, a box of Kleenex and a bunch of flowers). I'm sure the woman who was bagging the order thought she was being helpful, but in spite of fitting all the items in one bag, she double-bagged the whole order. Ah!

I kind of wish Columbus was one of those cities where plastic bags were outlawed.