Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Make Something New -- Arroz Con Leche

Me encanta el arroz con leche. Es delicioso.

I love arroz con leche. My husband and I have an ongoing "discussion" about it. He likes it soupy. I like it more like a pudding consistency. When I was in Spain I had it frequently -- it was cold and it was delicious -- and it was pudding-like, as arroz con leche should be (I think).

Actually, I prefer it warm, but that doesn't matter.

I made arroz con leche for the first time as a treat for my Spanish class. Here's the recipe:
(I googled it, but made some changes.)

4 c. milk (whole milk is optimal, but if it scares you, use the highest fat milk you are comfortable with... the recipe will still work)
1-1/4 c. water
1 c. rice (it's true ... you don't use much rice at all)
2 cinnamon sticks
1/4 teas. salt
1/2 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 c. raisins, soaked in water to plump 'em up
2 teas. vanilla

Bring milk and water to a light boil. Stir in rice, add cinnamon sticks and cover and cook on low for about 30 minutes. Then, remove the sticks and add all other ingredients. Continue cooking on low heat for about 10 minutes.

As the arroz con leche cools, it will become more solid. We had it last night and it was a soupy consistency. By morning, it was solid and I had to add more milk.

It's delicious as a dessert or for breakfast. Raisins are optional but delicious. Some recipes say to add butter or a spoonful of brandy before serving. No need -- it's wonderful as is.

The best thing? Another cheapo magnifico food. I made a double recipe for about 5 dollars. If you don't have cinnamon sticks it doesn't matter -- just put a little cinnamon in. Even nutmeg will work in a pinch - I looked at many different recipes. The classic presentation uses cinnamon sticks, however.

Then, you sing:
"Arroz con leche
me quiero casar
con una viudita de la capital.
Que sepa coser
que sepa bordar
que ponga la mesa en su santo lugar."

And you are glad that we have moved on in priorities :)

Monday, November 16, 2009

Daisy Meeting -- Teach Kids to Sew

My 2nd year daisies are working on their firefly patch. It's a kind of strange patch system, but the basic idea is that a firefly lights the way -- so the girls learn how to do something new. Ideally, they help each other learn something new. We are working on that.

I thought that sewing would be a nice way to start working on this patch. The girls in my troop are 6 -- most have very little sewing experience, but they are starting to have the fine motor skills necessary to sew. Plus, sewing is a lifelong skill and it's something that is best learned from another person.

So, for our meeting we made beanbag turkeys. I cut brown felt into two large circles, cut out some feathers out of more felt and a little triangle felt beak. The girls started by sewing on the beak. Then we carefully placed the feathers -- explaining to the girls that you have to put the feathers on the inside so that they will be on the outside when you turn the turkey right-side out. The girls sewed the turkeys together, filled them with beans, placed googly eyes, and the adult helpers stitched them up (this was a little too difficult for a 6 year old).

The girls were SOOOO proud and busy for the whole time. I was happy to see that everyone finished and was able to bring home a complete bean bag turkey.

So -- can you teach a six year old to sew? Yep.

A four year old? It hasn't worked so well in my house, but if your child rocks a lacing card, it could work.

Should you? Definitely. Kids like to know how to do something useful -- and sewing is a skill that everyone should have.

With real needles? Yep! I told the girls "These needles are real. They are sharp. If you poke yourself, you will bleed, so be careful." And they were. If you are going to teach a real skill, the child needs to use the real tools (to a reasonable extent of course -- don't give a 6 yo a chainsaw to go cut firewood!)

And they like it? For sure! It's kept my kids busy all week :) My son has actually had more fun sewing little bean bag creations than playing video games.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

How much do 6 stitches cost?

Well, the consensus in Gradgreenland is that unless we are dying, nobody goes to the ER. There is an urgent care place pretty close by and they do stitches, so we'll head there if anybody's bleeding.

I promised to report back on the cost of C's ER visit. Check it out (and remember, he HAS insurance, so this is the negotiated rate):

Physician services: 602.00 (the doctor cleaned his wound, gave him a shot of local anesthetic and gave him 6 stitches. Some areas could not be stitched.)

Hospital services: 2161.75 -- adjusted for insurance to 1405.14. I guess this includes the supplies, sitting in a room for a couple of hours, inadequate financial counseling, and the nurse who bandaged the wound.

Yowza -- $2007.15 total. C has a high deductible HSA, so we are responsible for most of that. I will be calling the hospital to see if this can be reduced at all.

Will there be other bills? Who knows.

It seems excessive, doesn't it?

What makes me extra mad is that the whole point of an HSA is that the patient will be able to have control of medical expenses, but I ASKED about the price of various things and nobody was able to give me even the most vague idea.

Keep in mind -- this was all for a cut on the elbow -- a pretty gross bloody cut -- but a non-life-threatening injury. It probably would have been okay, albeit gory, with no stitches at all.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Make Something New -- Onion Tart

A few weeks ago I made an amazing discovery -- onion tart. Wow! It's delicious and it's super cheap to make. A friend of mine brought some over and I liked it so much that I kept trying to save it for a time that I could really appreciate it. Because of all my waiting around for the perfect moment, C got to a good portion of the tart before I could.

This month, my goal is to make something new at least once a week. Something I've NEVER made before. I want to 1) get out of my food rut and 2) try to expand my horizons.

Although I am a major proponent of scratch baking, I don't make pie crust. I buy pie crust. It comes in a package, wrapped in plastic and it's pretty darn convenient.

But, what exactly is IN that packaged pie crust? And it's kind of expensive considering what I discoverd when I decided to make my own.

Tonight I made pie crust for my onion tart. All by myself. And I found out something amazing.

Pie crust has 3 ingredients:
-butter
-flour
-some spoonfuls of water

How can that be?

I whipped up the crust very easily. I'm not saying it was the best crust in the world, but I made it myself, and I am proud :)

I filled it with 3 large carmelized onions cooked in a few tablespoons of butter -- all of that mixed with 2 beaten eggs. The recipe I found did not call for cheese, but I had some fancy cheese and sprinkled it over the top.

Yum!

So, if you want to make onion tart, you only need a few ingredients that you probably already have. That is what is so genius about this recipe. All you need is:
onions
eggs
flour
butter
cheese (optional)
bacon (optional)
salt -- the recipe did not call for salt, but I put a little in.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Stitches and Wound Care

C had a bike accident last week and was taken to the ER for stitches. This brought up lots of questions:

Q:Why did he have to wait 2 hours with an open bleeding wound before he was given any local anesthetic for the pain?
A: Because they were collecting his insurance information. Duh. By the time I met him at the hospital he was shaky and pale. Pobrecito.

Q: How much does it cost to get stitches at the ER?
A: Nobody knows. But they will be happy to collect your insurance information. If you decide that you would like to leave before the stitching takes place, you will still be charged for triage. How much? No one there can/will tell you.

Q: Should the stitched wound be bandaged or allowed to air dry?
A: At the hospital, we were told to keep it covered for 1-2 days and then let it air. It was too disgusting to look at, so I encouraged C to cover it up. I also consulted a wound care specialist and she told me that it should be covered and to keep antibiotic ointment on it. Nobody at the hospital said anything about antibiotic ointment.

Q: So, who's right?
A: Well, this blog has a lovely visual that explains why it should be covered. However, there is a reference to band-aid at the end, so perhaps that's not non-biased. Familydoctor.org says that it is not necessary to cover the wound unless it will get dirty or unless it covers "a large area of the body". Ick. Dr. Sears says to cover it for the first 48 hours and not to let a scab build up (this is also what we were told at the hospital). Seattle Childrens has similar advice.

Q: Should a wound be covered if it is grossing out other people?
A: Yes. It should also get antibiotic ointment and a dressing change once a day.

Q: Is removal of stitches covered in the mysterious amount charged in the initial ER bill?
A: Call the hospital. They won't tell you.

Q: Can a complete amateur remove stitches at home in less than 5 minutes?
A: Yep. You need alcohol, tweezers and scissors. Make sure everything is SUPER disinfected and clean (obviously). There are instructions all over the internet, and even videos on youtube (blech). All these sources (and I too, of course) say that it is not recommended to remove stitches at home.

Q: Did it hurt?
A: C said it pinched a little on the first stitch but then didn't hurt at all. :)


I think it's really messed up that nobody at the hospital could/would tell us 1) how much the visit would cost, 2) how much just triage would cost, 3) how much the medicines prescribed would cost or 4) whether or not stitch removal was included in the original ER visit. Thanks a lot Seton!

*I will be sure to update on how much stitches do cost. We really would have liked to know. Our health system is ridiculous.

Annoying Deer & Hunting Questions

My neighborhood is full of deer. I don't live in the country -- I live in a residential area of Austin -- and I am SURROUNDED by deer.

I like deer. I think they're cute, beautiful, fun to watch, etc. But right now, I am very annoyed by them. I planted a tree -- they ate it. I planted a deer-resistant tree, and before I had a chance to put up a fence around it (ugly) -- they ate half of it. Freaking deer!

Many neighbors feed the deer, which is now illegal in Austin. Herds of deer roam the neighborhood, chomping at will. Can I plant a garden? Not without significant fencing infrastructure. Plus, the deer are starting to freak me out -- the bucks are fighting -- apparently this is the time to look for a lady deer -- and they have lost ALL fear.

I have to go into the front yard to make phone calls because I have terrible phone reception in the house -- frequently I have to run away from a deer that is scaring me -- they walk straight up to me -- looking at me with glazed eyes -- I shout at them and they DON'T MOVE. Ack!

My son likes to chase them -- I've told him that it's too dangerous. Deer can charge, and some of these deer have serious antlers.

So, I wonder.....

Can you hunt the deer? (I'm not a hunter, I'm just wondering.)
No. Illegal in the city limits.

What if you didn't care if it was illegal? (Again, I'm not a hunter, just wondering.)
After some research on the Texas Parks and Wildlife page and some deer processors, it seems that you might be able to tag the deer with your hunting license and bring it to a processor. Or, you could just process it in the backyard and no one would be the wiser. Apparently, you have to field dress a deer anyway, so you might as well finish the job.

But if you get caught, big trouble!

What about the deer that get hit by cars? Can you eat them?
Again, legally -- no. You should call Texas Parks and Wildlife and they will send someone out to pick it up. A few days later. There's currently a large trashbag on the side of our street labeled "Do not touch -- dead deer" Yuck. This varies from state to state.

But if the deer broke its neck and wasn't hit in the abdomen or something like that, again, you could sneak the deer home and butcher it. Totally illegal.

And finally, after googling "Deer hunting Texas" "Austin deer feeding" "Hit deer with car" and other such cheery phrases, I started to wonder -- can you save any money by hunting?

Well, it depends.

There's a post on that very topic at Free Money Finance. The consensus seems to be that it costs a lot of money to hunt -- you need a license, a gun, access to a truck (to transport the deer), and may need to pay to hunt on a hunting lease. Also, you have to pay to have the deer processed (unless you do it yourself). One site I looked at charged $70 to process a deer. That did not include making sausage, etc., which was over $2 a pound -- that's from your own meat! I found that sort of surprising.

But, I guess you could buy a license, go to a hunt on public land and borrow a friend's truck & gun and process the meat yourself. That would be a huge money saver. If you live on land with deer (again, not in my neighborhood, but out in the country), you could hunt for free there too.

Cost: Resident hunting license $25
Archery stamp endorsement $7 (interesting)
Hunter education (required) $15 or you can defer for one year for $10
Rifle/ammunition: borrow rifle; ammunition is surprisingly expensive -- maybe buy a couple of shells (is that the word?) from a hunting friend - $5
OR hunt with bow & arrow -- $0 (borrowed of course)
Annual Public Hunt Permit: $48

Total cost:
for hunting with borrowed rifle & deferred hunter education: $88 if you don't have land
For hunting with borrowed bow & arrow: $90 if you don't have land

This assumes you do the field dressing (which you already have to do) and process the deer yourself. I would assume that needs some equipment & perhaps additional freezer space. All in all, I don't think that hunting is a big money saver over buying meat at the store on sale. Of course, I guess you know where the meat is coming from....

So, how much meat do you get from a deer?

According to this site, if a hunter kills a 165 pound buck (field-dressed weight), he should expect 58.15 pounds of meat. So, let's assume that with borrowing all the needed hunting equipment and buying your friend dinner in exchange (or giving him/her some of your meat), it works out to about $2/pound. If you add in all the time you spend hunting/learning/borrowing/butchering, I hope you really like hunting. And that's assuming that you get a big buck.

But wait! C reminded me that you don't necessarily just go hunting once a year. In Texas you can kill 5 white-tail deer/year (3 max. with antlers). That certainly brings down the price per pound. Again -- you need a big freezer! I don't think you could eat enough deer meat to keep up with 5 deer killed just during deer season.

Now, is hunting a green option?
It doesn't seem to fit in with what many urban greenies do -- go vegetarian. But, since one of the big reasons to go veg is to reduce your impact on the earth (meat requires more resources, water, oil, etc. per pound than plants do to produce), hunting deer, particularly in an area that has overpopulated deer (due to the absence of natural predators) seems preferable to buying meat at the store. That is provided that you don't drive hundreds of miles to hunt deer that are fed deer pellets.

Is deer meat organic?
Well, in the case of my neighborhood, definitely not! (But that's illegal!)
In the wild? Hmmm... hard to say, but it is free range (unless fed pellets) and free of antibiotics.

Disclaimer: I'm not a hunter. I've only had deer sausage a couple of times. I think the deer are nice, but I am very mad about my dead dead trees. The deer population is insane in my neighborhood. Four deer in my front yard last night. Crazy.

I was just curious so I decided to do some research.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Frugal Underwear -- aka What do YOU wear under a leotard?

My oldest girl (6 yo) is taking a gymnastics class. They have to wear a uniform to class -- the girls wear a leotard. She took dance last year and always wore underwear under her leotard -- yes, it stuck out a little bit, but who cares? She's a little kid. Plus, she usually wore a dance skirt.

This year, it's really obvious because of the cut of the leotard. You just can't tuck in the underwear. It doesn't work. I still didn't really care. Neither did she. But for two weeks in a row, the other girls in the class made fun of her. (Devil children!)

So, I tried to convince her to wear the leotard without underwear. She didn't want to. She said it felt funny. I understood. Honestly, going sans panties seems a little mature for a 6 yo, but what do I know? My gymnast friend explained to N that it is just like wearing a swimsuit, but N wasn't buying it.

She was really upset. She didn't want the other girls to make fun of her, but didn't want to have her panties showing.

I tried to find a high cut pair. No dice.

So, I found a great solution!

We took a pair of her underwear, cut the sides, and created a sort of tanga cut. She gets nice coverage and the feeling of underwear (no thong action, thank goodness) and no grief at class.

Money spent = zero
Solution = awesome (granted, it's a weird problem)

Is it better....

to use regular plates and glasses instead of plastic or disposables if you keep breaking them?

I seem to be having a butterfingers problem. Last week -- broke a glass. Tonight -- broke a plate and a dessert bowl. What's going on? And that's not really an isolated incident. I figure that I break (accidentally!) about one plate or glass a month. Broken glass is not recyclable.

I guess I'm still ahead of the game, but sheesh! None of the information I've read about the benefits of reusables mentions breaking stuff.

Then there's the rag I used to wipe up the shards because I wasn't getting all of the micro-shards with the broom. I threw that away. At least I used a really gross rag.

And how about last week, when I was bringing home the groceries in lovely canvas bags, and then dropped one of the bags (how this happened, I don't know) that contained 2 bottles of wine. I ended up throwing away the bag because I just couldn't deal with all the shards of glass and didn't want to put it in the washer like that.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Birthday Edition

We've been on a major spending cutback here in Gradgreenland. C and I have not bought anything other than food and a birthday gift for a kid birthday in the last few weeks.

So, then C's birthday came up. My students asked me what I got him for his birthday and I could tell they were shocked when my reaction was, "nothing".

Uh....

C and I pretty much agreed not to exchange gifts for the sake of exchanging gifts about 5 years ago. Not even birthday cards. He thinks they are a waste of money. I can see that. A handwritten note or even a romantic e-mail can get the point across. To tell the truth, better than any birthday card was the call he gave me a couple of weeks ago in the morning to check on me because I had been feeling bad. Sweet.

So, I didn't get my husband anything for his birthday. But he didn't want me to spend any money on anything. Instead, we'll be having one of his favorite dinners and I made him a cake. I even gave him a choice of flavors :)

I guess we're not a romantic couple -- but maybe we're just not into wasting money. I find it much more romantic to be friends with a man that I love and to do things together. We agree that we'd rather spend the money on a new couch or on a vacation than fritter it away on gifts that we don't really need.

That said, every now and then an awesome opportunity comes along. Great concert tickets, for example. And if that happens to fall near a birthday or Christmas, they get wrapped.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

How many pairs of shoes do you need?

More specifically, how many pairs of shoes does an 8 year old boy need?

I thought 2. He has a pair of sneakers and a pair of sandals. In case of emergency, he can wear the other. It might not always be ideal, but we live in Texas, and you can pretty much wear sandals all year round.

Then he got the sneakers COVERED in mud and filth. Monday morning came -- and they were still foul. I told him to wear the sandals. He told me they had poop on them. He showed me a VERY small stain -- could be poop -- but they're not stinky and we had to leave.

He refused to put them on. Stubborn child. He walked up the hill to school in his socks. There, my husband met us (he works at school and was meeting me to pick something up, thank goodness). Problem solved.

But I went home guilty, thinking, "am I an evil mom? Am I stingy with my kids because they only have 2 pairs of shoes? What's the norm?"

I tried to google an answer. I discovered that adults have WAAAAY too many shoes. But I couldn't find a solid answer for kids. So I asked a mom that I respect. She told me that her kids have 2 pairs. I don't feel so guilty anymore.

I think that all of us have become used to having way more clothes than we need, tons of extra shoes, socks, etc. And it leads us to not really take care of the things that we have. If I had really been thinking, J's shoes would have been washed as soon as we got back. But I was tired. If he had had an extra pair of sneakers, chances are the muddy ones would still be at the front door. But we don't really have a choice. We have to take care of them.

Some years ago, I traveled around South America with a small backpack. I'm a wimp, so I couldn't carry. Here's what I had for clothes:

Hiking boots
Sandals
3 pairs of socks (washed the socks at the hostal each night)
underwear -- probably 5 pair -- can't remember
3 t-shirts
1 pair jeans
1 pair shorts
1 pair PJ pants
fleece
long underwear

I traveled for months. I washed my clothes by hand and hung them to dry, or paid someone to do the same. I had to be careful. If I dripped something on my shirt, I had to quickly clean it up. I had to think about what I wanted to wear and where. If I knew that I would be visiting a cathedral, I couldn't be left with only shorts. Sometimes I wore multiple layers to keep warm. (South America can get very cold, especially in the mountains.) But it was a great feeling -- I could easily carry everything that I needed. I never had to pay a porter. I could carry my backpack onto the bus or airplane -- no checking necessary. In the whole time, there were only 2 problems:

1. On a camping trip in Ecuador, someone stole my boots from outside my tent. Luckily, I had my sandals, but I was not able to get new boots until I got back to a major city a few days later.

2. My brother and I went on a jungle tour and came back enlightened but disgusting. We stayed at a hostal to rest and wash EVERYTHING. Unfortunately, it started to rain. And didn't stop raining.... we had to pack our wet clothes back into our backpacks and travel to Quito in pajama pants and t-shirts... not exactly appropriate attire. So I guess the lesson is -- if you have a limited supply of clothing, you don't want it all wet (or muddy and/or poopy) at the same time.

P.S. How many pairs of shoes do YOU think is reasonable?

Monday, October 12, 2009

Stay out of the store! -- Cooking with what's on hand...

So.... the gradgreen family is trying to save some money. That basically means 2 things:
1. Stop buying stuff
2. Cut down on grocery shopping

#2 seems kind of harsh. C's usual response is "but we have to eat!" I agree. I LOVE to eat, but I think that we can cut some of the expenses. We looked over our bills (don't worry, we pay the card off every month) and found that we had 23 separate trips to the grocery store last month. Holy Canoli. That's not how I want to spend my time.

So we agreed to work with what we have on hand... to the greatest extent possible. We have made a couple of trips to the store to re-stock milk, bread, peanut butter... you know... the staples. But the trips have been far less expensive than normal.

Here are some of the meals we've had:
1. Chicken pot pie. Thanks to S for the inspiration. We had frozen chicken and peas and some funky carrot sticks and broccoli. Chop chop chop with some onion. Make a delicious gravy. I'm not up to a pastry crust, but I made some homemade biscuit dough and baked it on top. Yummalicious.

I was really proud of myself for the biscuit dough, because I was SOO close to calling C on his way home and asking him to pick up a popping package of frozen biscuits. But that would have been lame. Homemade biscuits, especially the drop biscuit kind, are very easy to make.

2. Baked potatoes. This was an emergency dinner, so we microwaved the potatoes. They were organic russets, so a little smaller than the norm, which is perfect for the microwave. We had steamed broccoli on the side as well as a couple of veggie chicken patties that I cut into triangles. This dinner was a big hit and it was made out of true desperation.

3. Chicken soup. This is best made with chicken thighs because they have the most flavor, but I had a couple of chicken breasts. Add some onion, carrots, peas, rice.... wait a second... this is remarkable similar to chicken pot pie! Yet different, somehow.

4. Spaghetti and meatballs. I had spaghetti, spaghetti sauce, some leftover sauteed peppers and onions from a cookout and a couple of leftover hamburgers. Cut up the hamburgers -- cook in the sauce. Voila! Nobody even mentioned the fact that the meatballs used to be hamburgers.

Those of you who have kids have probably noticed that so much of what kids like depends on packaging. They don't like Kix, but if it has Shrek on the front, they do like Shrek cereal, etc. The same is true for leftovers. I fix the plates in the kitchen and nobody has to see all the parts coming together. Sometimes the result is even tastier than the first thing I made.

Monday, October 5, 2009

El Reciclaje -- Recycling in Spanish

I'm so excited that today we started the community action chapter in Spanish class. Part of the chapter focuses on recycling. This gives me a legit way to talk to my (kid) students about what we can and can't recycle. I had already banned throwing away paper in the classroom :) and I make the students use one piece of paper over and over for warm-ups instead of starting on a fresh sheet of paper (Why do they want to do that? I don't get it.) I'm trying to think of something to really push the boundaries and learn Spanish at the same time. Ideas?

Tape

This year I have also been lashing out against tape. In an elementary school it's hard to be a purist about this, because tape is so prevalent. However, I tell the kids that it's better to glue than to tape because tape has plastic and will last forever. Maybe that's oversimplifying things. I'm pretty much making up my explanation, so I thought I'd consult Fake Plastic Fish. Sure 'nuff -- tape has plastic -- she encourages people to use either paper tape or something else.

In the meantime, my students are beginning to think I'm crazy. "She hates tape!" "She thinks the pencil sharpener is too loud!" "She cries out in pain if I throw paper in the trash!"

But come on. The pencil sharpener is REALLY loud. For Pete's sake... what happened to the pencil sharpeners that worked on people power? The electric ones stop class. It can't be money. The manual ones cost about $15 new. The electric ones? Around 30. Wow.

And the magic of giving a kid a little pencil sharpener with a catcher for the shavings? I don't see many of those. But "GGGGGGRRRRRRRRZZZZZZZ!!!!" in the middle of class? ALL the time.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Fixing Stuff

A big problem nowadays is that it is many times less expensive and less hassle to replace something than it is to fix it.

The sole falls off your shoe? Replace it.
Your printer needs new ink? It's sometimes cheaper to buy a new printer (!?*#)
Bicycle tube gets a flat? Replace it. It's complicated to patch them.

But no!!! It may be easier sometimes to replace something, but in the long run, that's not the right thing to do. It's not the right thing for the planet -- it's a huge waste of resources -- and it's not a good lesson for our children. If something is worth having, it's worth taking care of.

I have 3 recent examples of how fixing something may be a pain, but it's worth it:

1. I bought a pair of shoes at Goodwill. They are awesome. They are SO cute. They cost 6 or 7 dollars. They're leather with wooden soles. Love 'em. But AFTER I bought them, I realized that one of the shoes was missing its rubber sole. And that the other one was about to fall off. So I brought them to the shoe hospital. About 40 dollars later (Gah!), I had a sweet pair of shoes.

Was it cheap? NO.
Was it worth it? Yep. I love these shoes. And they would have cost about 100 dollars new.

Incidentally, shoe repair is much more prevalent and less expensive in Latin America. When I was a frequent traveler, I used to bring my dead shoes to Latin America for revitalizing. Usually to the tune of less than $5 a pair.

2. My home phone stopped working. We decided that after many many year of love, the battery had probably worn out. I went to Radio Shack to get a replacement. It was about 20 dollars. Holy canoli! That's almost the cost of a new phone. But... I had the best ever response to the salesman who tried to sell me a new phone. Check it out: "I can't. My mother passed away 5 years ago and I have messages and songs from her recorded on my phone. I'm not buying a new phone." The salesperson sold me a battery.

3. My lamp stopped working. It just wouldn't turn on anymore. We had an extra lamp in the garage, so I tried to substitute, but I found out that I had a LOVE affair with my Tiffany lamp. I would get very grumpy every night when I had to read by the harsh harsh light of the substitute lamp. I told my husband that I would do anything to repair the lamp -- I was willing to pay $100.

Then I remembered my mother rewiring a lamp. Shoot. I can do that. I went to Lowe's. I bought a socket. It cost $3. I tried rewiring the darn lamp. It sort of worked. My husband brought the lamp back to Lowe's. The most awesome Lowe's worker ever tried several solutions, in the store, until he was able to fix it. For less than $10. No charge for the electrician consultation. He even gave us a new curly lightbulb.

That lamp cannot be replaced. It HAD to be fixed, and we found a way.

Anything worth having is worth taking care of.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Green Lawncare in Texas

Now that it's not such a depressing sight, I can report on the state of my lawn.

We bought a house in June. We live in Texas. You probably heard about the drought. It made the national news. We were gone for most of July. So, here's the situation:

June 1 -- beautiful lush green grass; we move in. We ignore the grass as we paint the house & move.
July -- we're gone. Continue ignoring grass. Call my brother mid-July after hearing from people all over the northeast about the drought. He waters the lawn. Once.
August 1 -- we come back to Texas. The grass is brown. And crunchy. When I tried to hand-water some of the grass in the back yard, it washed away. :/

Austin has water restrictions right now. We can only water lawns on Sundays before 10 am or after 7 pm. It has started raining again, which is sort of hard to believe after so little rain all summer long.

So what does the lawn look like now?

Well. It looks different. But not so bad. When we came back, I decided that we would just try to "save" a patch of grass in front of the house. There was also some grass under a big oak tree that had not done so bad, so I gave it a little hand-watering love (permitted under watering restrictions). I pretty much let the rest of the (huge) lawn go.

The grass is mostly St. Augustine, which is not the preferred grass for our area. A better choice would be bermuda or buffalo grass, which does not need as much water. So, a lot of it died. But some of it is coming back with the rain that we are having now, and starting to cover some of the bare patches. And then a large portion of the side yard is covered in a fluffy clovery substance. Not sure what it is.

We've planted a couple of native trees and are planning on planting some more. We are hoping that some more trees on the lot will help with erosion control (very important since our house backs up to a steep drop-off with a sometimes creek) and in the prevention of desertification. The grass underneath the tree was just so much happier than the grass in the burning sun.

When we get more organized, we will be replacing some of the grass with native plants and mulch or gravel. I'm still not totally sure what the best method is, so I will be doing some more research.

Mowing
I think that what helped the lawn look slightly better than surrounding lawns is that we weren't here to mow it. I've noticed that a couple of the neighbors have lawn services that cut the grass regardless of what's going on. I have seen one service cut the grass in the rain -- twice! Many people cut the grass very short and it really suffers in the sun when it is that short.

All About Lawns recommends the following care for a lawn during a drought:
1. let your lawn grow higher than usual
2. mulch the clippings
3. water in the morning
4. plant drought-tolerant grass
5. fertilize less
6. or let your lawn go dormant

It's funny that I did #1, 5 and 6 by default just by not being here :)

When we got back, we had the chance to try suggestion #2 -- mulch the clippings. Again, this is because of laziness and frugality, not because we read the suggestions at the time.

Our Lawn Mower
We bought a push reel mower -- the kind that uses no gas or electricity. It was under 100 dollars at Lowe's. I thought it was pretty cool that it came in a small box that I could easily pop in the back seat of my car. I wasn't expecting that in a lawn mower. I had the choice of paying 20 or 30 extra dollars for a bag, but I decided not to.

It's easy to push. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. My 8 year old son can push it with no problem. I mowed the lawn the other day in platform shoes and a dress. (Maybe not totally wise, but I was in a hurry). The only annoying thing is that EVERY STICK IN THE WHOLE YARD will get stuck in the blades and you have to stop and very carefully pull it out. I have to stop every couple of minutes, but other than that, the mowing thing is a breeze. This is also the reason that, although my son CAN mow the lawn, I don't think he's quite old enough to do it. I have no problem having him push the mower, but I'm afraid he might miscalculate the stick removal and take off a finger.

If the grass gets really tall or there are crazy weeds, the mower doesn't do the greatest job. Weeds really need to be weed-whacked or they just stay there, waving around in the middle of the lawn.

Mulching the cuttings
Again, this happened because of laziness and frugality. I could buy the bag or rake the cuttings. Didn't want to do either. I just left the grass fall. When it finally started raining, I noticed there were a couple of areas where the grass didn't seem to be growing back because it was all clumped with grass (this is called "thatch" in the lawn-care world), so I raked those areas. The rest of the lawn seemed to do just fine.

Mulching the cuttings is beneficial to the lawn if you don't let the lawn get too long. You should only be cutting about 1/3 of the blade of grass at a time. Ideally, the cuttings will fall INTO the lawn, helping the soil hold in moisture and providing some fertilizer. If the grass is so long that it covers the lawn, it just builds up thatch and makes it hard for the grass to grow.

Ahhh... the joys of home-ownership. Just a few months ago I was totally innocent of anything lawn-care related.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Recycling Pizza Boxes

Every Friday, my school orders 20 pizzas. They come in a cardboard box. It's not coated with wax, so no worries there. We pass out tons of pizza and then toss the boxes in the trash (gasp!) OR we have this kind of face-off:

Rule Girl: Pizza boxes can't be recycled.
Green teacher: We can tear off the tops and recycle them. Those don't have any cheese or grease.
Green mom: Some of the bottoms don't have any grease either. Let's recycle those too!

After Green mom left, Green teachers (there were 3) were getting the cardboard ready for the bin and found several boxes that did (!) have grease on them. Ahhhh... the slippery slope. So I thought I'd find out what the real deal is on pizza boxes.

According to Earth911, pizza boxes CAN be recycled as long as you tear off any parts that have grease or food on them. The top of the box can usually be torn off and recycled with no problem.

According to the City of Austin recycling website, pizza boxes and any cardboard with food residue, should go in the garbage. I also checked another City of Austin site, in which you can look up things alphabetically. Under "P" for pizza, it says:
"Solid Waste Services cannot recycle pizza boxes due to food and grease contamination. Please put pizza boxes in your garbage cart."

Hmmmm... what a quandry.

Apparently, the people who sneak in contaminated boxes cause a problem. The grease and food contaminates the materials, causing wasted materials and money.

While searching around, I happened upon a pizza chain called Pizza Fusion, which offers a discount if you bring back your pizza box. Reusing. Interesting.

The conclusion seems to be that the City of Austin does NOT accept pizza boxes. Having seen what happened at school last week, I understand why. But it still seems okay to me to pull of the clean tops and recycle those. Of course, the boxes could be shredded or torn up for compost. But that's a lot of tearing during a 20 minute lunch period.

Any thoughts?

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Green Daisy Scouts

Yesterday was our first Daisy Scout meeting of the year. Last year I struggled with the bottled water issue. This year, my co-leader and I just decided to be up-front about it and tell the snack moms what we wanted.

So, I sent out an e-mail saying something like this:
....in an effort to reduce our impact on the earth, we would like to eliminate the use of disposable plastic bottles at meetings. The troop will be providing cups for each girl and the person in charge of snack can send a pitcher of something to drink (such as juice) or the girls can drink water from the fountain.

Maybe some of the moms rolled their eyes. Who knows. But yesterday, the snack was grapes and apple slices with caramel sauce. The troop provided cups for each girl (I brought a selection of 8 from home) and the girls drank water. There was no trash created from the drinks. Yeah!

Newsweek Ratings

Newsweek released a list of the "greenest" companies. Here's some of the highlights:

#1: HP
#10: Starbucks
#59: Walmart
#67: Whole Foods

Huh. I think it's odd that Walmart is scoring higher than Whole Foods. Even more interesting is that the reputation score (which is 10% of the overall score) is 100 for Walmart and only 50.41 for Whole Foods. What is this score based on? Advertising? It has to be.

Granted, Walmart has made great strides in reducing ts impact, but geez.

Starbucks is #10? With a score of 91.63 overall and 82.01 on green policies. How about all those cups? With the plastic tops? How about all the stuff in plastic bottles that they sell in the stores and then the store has nowhere to recycle the bottle? Hmmm?

How about the Starbucks near us that throws away all their pastries at the end of the day?

True, they do offer hormone-free milk now, but.... #10? Wow.

This list is bizarre and doesn't seem to really mean anything. I guess that it might encourage some companies to make changes so that they can move up in the lists, but maybe they just need to make people *think* that they are a green company, improving their reputation score, rather than actually make hard core green choices.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

The best laid plans....

of mice and men go oft awry.

The longer that I'm a mother (8 years now), the more I realize how little is really in my control. When I was pregnant with my first child, I had a birth plan. That got thrown out the window almost immediately. I thought I would train him to sleep on a schedule. Hah! I thought I would make his baby food -- he had no interest in baby food. Who knew?

I chilled more with my second. And even more with my third. I ended up nursing all over the place because I didn't want to hide or have to leave wherever I was. I nursed my third for more than two years, surprising even my more "granola" friends. It was easier... honestly... but it wasn't what I planned.

Other moms had told me that even though you think the work will get easier when they're in school, it doesn't. I never really understood that. But now I have all three in school (Hallelujah!) and I feel run off my feet. They get home, there's homework, extra reading, patrolling computer time, taking them to friends' houses, fixing dinner, wrangling them into some state of semi-cleanliness and then bed. Gah... it's exhausting. And I get off work by 2 pm everyday. How do people who work a 9 to 5 (or 6?) schedule do this?

It's satisfying and fun to watch them grow. I love them. And they're growing into little people who have more and more of their own personalities every day. But not necessarily what I planned. Of course, you can't plan what someone will be like.... but you get what I mean.

My oldest is maybe the most like me in personality. I feel like I really understand him. He does naughty stuff and I see where he's coming from.

My girls remind me a lot of my mother -- both the things I loved about her and the things that drove me crazy -- and sometimes those things were the same.

You have dreams for your children before you are born. But you can't really plan anything. You have ideas about being a parent -- but again, you can't really know what you'll be like until you're doing it. As a child, I never thought that I'd go crazy about a kid's messy room, but there I am. And now I look back on the way my parents raised me... and I think that they must have been amazingly patient and probably pretty tired.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Packing for Family Camping

I never really found a packing list that I liked for the kind of trip that we took over the summer -- an extended car camping trip. What made it a little more complicated was that we drove from Texas to Maine, and we needed clothing appropriate for heat and cold.... and LOTS of rain.

Here's what we brought as far as camping supplies. Actually, no .... here's what we USED:

*tent -- large one-room tent (Hobitat 6 man tent from REI -- but we have camped in a large tent from Target and it was great)
*tarp -- we put the tarp inside the tent. It worked great. It POURED rain
*inflatable mattress for the parents
*pump for the mattress
*Sleeping pads for the kids:
nap mat -- sort of worked -- easy to clean (and there was a peepee accident in the night)
roll-up Thermarest sort of pad from Target -- not great -- never felt very fluffy
egg crate mattress cushion cut in shape of sleeping bag -- terrible -- absorbed moisture -- yuck!

I would recommend legitimate Thermarest cushions -- I have seen friends use these and they blow up really nicely -- or buy 2 queen air mattresses and a tent large enough to fit them both. Have 3 kids sleep sideways on the mattress in their sleeping bag.

*One large Maglite flashlight -- awesome
*2 small flashlights -- less awesome, but good for kid use
*Coleman 2 burner stove -- propane
*Storage container for all the cooking stuff
*silverware rolled up in a 3 zippered jewelry bag
*spatula
*corkscrew, bottle opener
*salt and pepper
*small bottle of oil
*all purpose seasoning mix
*5 plastic plates -- I'm sorry! -- I already had them -- I tried metal plates but they got hot and burned our hands.
*5 stackable cups -- useful for drinking & for eating cereal/soup
*3 sippy cups -- for drinks along the way -- I would probably use water bottles next time b/c the kids are getting too old for this
*waterproof box with matches & lighter
*A small package of fatwood for starting fires in times of desperation
*dish towel
*dish soap
*sponge
*3 camp chairs -- we didn't have room for more
4 sleeping bags -- one of them was really only a sleepover bag -- terrible!
3 small towels (kid size) for bathing

Along the way, we acquired:
*paper napkins from various stores & restaurants
*shredded paper to use in starting fires (we usually shredded the campground map from the last place)
*camp chairs -- my husband insisted we didn't have room for them, then we couldn't take it anymore and bought them along the way
*sticks -- to roast marshmallows :) I just sent the kids to find a straight stick and then we "sterilized" them over the fire. We all survived.
*a blanket -- you'll notice we only brought 4 bags and we are 5 people -- my husband left his sleeping bag behind and then did not want to buy one -- so he bought a blanket and wrapped up like a taco. This was fine for a while, but chilly in Maine.

More lists to come -- clothing & food.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Too Tired to Cook

So, a new school year is upon us, and once again, I'm wiped out in the evening. Monday evening, in particular, is brutal. I work two jobs, the kids go to school, I help with homework, help my daughter with her reading, miraculously find the right outfits, and then send kids off to ballet and gymnastics. God help me.

At least all the activities happen on Monday, but sheesh! The last thing that I want to do is cook.

So, I looked into a number of companies that offer sort of homemade prepared meals. There is one nearby me, Dream Dinners, in which you go in and assemble the meals. It seemed sort of pricey and it was a big up-front financial commitment for meals I wasn't sure my family would eat.

Why not just another night of quesadillas? Well, to be honest.... I'm sick of quesadillas... and pretty much everything else I cooked all summer long. I wanted something a little fancy from time to time without dragging all the people out to a restaurant.

Then I got an e-mail at work. It seems there is a group of people who get food delivered from the Soup Peddler. This is an extremely cool concept. It all started with this guy in Austin who started selling soup and delivering it (in reusable containers) on his bike.

Now it's bigger, but still not too big. It's a little hole in the wall store. With incredible customer service. And the best soup ever.

The soup tastes homemade because it is. Only problem is -- the containers aren't the greatest. The soup comes in a plastic bag. Boo. The salads and quiches come in a recyclable plastic pie container. Recyclable, but plastic. Boo.

But I am a soupie. I can't help myself. And it's not just the soup. I just had the strawberry rhubarb crisp and it's so good that it makes me want to cry.

Does it help that I recycle the recyclables and it keeps me from running to the store at lunch time?

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Oh Crud -- Hazardous Waste in the Home

It's past bedtime, and I hear "Mommy! Something broke!"

Huh? Why are you even up?

"What broke?"

"The lightbulb."

Oh crud. It's the curly lightbulb in the lamp.

"Girls -- go downstairs. I'll clean it up." Now their room is a hazardous waste area. Awesome.

So.... I had heard about the controversy about mercury being in the CFL bulbs. I have a house full of these bulbs. Haven't had to replace one yet. I heard that when they burned out, you can bring them to Ikea. Groovy.

I never thought about what would happen if one broke. On the carpet. Grrrr...

Here's what you are SUPPOSED to do:
1. Open the window and leave the room for 15 minutes.
2. Turn off the AC.
3. Use something hard to pick up the fragments -- put them in a glass jar or sealed plastic bag.
4. Use duct tape to pick up tiny fragments.
5. If you need to vacuum after all this, dispose of the bag in a sealed plastic bag.

This will prevent poisoning yourself & family with mercury. Also, keep it out of the groundwater (at least until the plastic bag degrades, which we know will take a LONG time...)

Did I do all these things? Uh.... Let's just say I found the handy EPA site after clean-up had taken place. But I knew not to vacuum first thing and I used something hard to pick up the fragments. Luckily the whole bulb did not shatter -- just the top part. At least, I hope that's lucky.

Really I don't know.

In the meantime, I'm looking for an adequate plastic bag I can seal because I don't have very many (any?) of those.

Good times.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Family Road Trip

This summer my family and I went on a LOOOONG road trip. We drove from Texas to Maine, camping and staying with friends along the way. Before we left, I searched and searched for people doing similar things, but couldn't seem to find quite the right combination of details.

Here is what we did:

My husband and I have 3 kids, ages 3, 5, and 7. We drove in a minivan (Toyota Sienna). We did not go to any theme parks :) We did go to state parks and national parks. We left June 24th and were back by the end of July. We actually cut the trip a little short at the end because we wanted to get home sooner. Here are the stops we made along the way:

Austin - Lake Ouachita State Park -- 2 nights camping
Natchez Trace State Park -- one night camping (extremely humid!!)
Smokey Mountains National Park -- 3 nights camping
Staunton, VA -- stayed in hotel because it was pouring rain. Visited Frontier Museum, which was amazing!
Highland Falls, NY -- stayed with friend -- 3 nights -- she is a saint
Portland Maine -- stayed with family -- 2 nights
Acadia National Park -- 5 nights -- lots of rain! Maine was amazing and disappointing at the same time. My memories of Maine in the summer involved lots of beach activities, but it was 60 degrees and raining. The grass was green -- everything was green! Texas is suffering a severe drought, so the green-ness was a real treat. But 60 degrees? In July??
Portland Maine -- 4 nights with family.

I really liked the way TO Maine better than the way back. This may be because it was the more planned portion of the trip. It also involved more camping and fewer large cities. We had intended to go to Cape Cod National Seashore, but I was sick and it was pouring rain, so we stayed in Portland a couple extra days.

Plymouth, MA -- one night in Governor Bradford hotel. This hotel is in front of the ocean, and you can easily walk to Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower II. It was nice to be close to the sights. The kids enjoyed seeing the Mayflower, but it's a pretty quick trip, especially with little ones who are too shy to ask the performers questions.

New Jersey -- some horrible hotel close to the ferry landing for the Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty cruise. The hotel was truly awful, but the breakfast was amazing. We had great weather. Ellis Island is super interesting. By the time we got to the statue of liberty, we were all tired of walking. Ellis Island has a great cafe with reasonable prices.

Washington, DC -- we stayed 2 nights in the burbs with a friend and 2 nights in the burbs in a hotel. We took the metro one day and drove into the city two days. On the last day, we couldn't face the traffic/walking/more museums, and we decided to hit the road. Even though we had read lots of advice about taking the metro, we did not save ANY money or time by taking it. We had to buy 4 tickets and pay for parking -- in all our metro experience was about 35 dollars and not really a time-saver. We drove into the zoo one day -- I think parking was 10 dollars. The other day we drove and parked at a meter at the national mall. We had to move the car at one point, but we only spent 4 dollars on parking.

Atlanta, GA -- we stayed 2 nights in the burbs with family. We didn't see Atlanta at all, but my husbands' family is very nice :)

**car incident along the way** -- we lost the tread off of one of the tires. The only place willing to repair it at 6:30 on Saturday evening was Costco. I brought the kids in, bought some slices of pizza, and the car was ready by the time we were done with Dinner. Love 'em.

Dallas, TX -- after a long night drive, we got into Dallas at 6 am. The kids were well-rested. C and I had not slept AT ALL. But it was worth it to get all the way back to Texas without hours of whining. 2 nights with family.

Austin, TX -- home sweet home. But I'm pretty sure the grass is dead.

Looking back on our trip, here is what I would change:
*fewer hotels. We didn't stay in many, but they were not very enjoyable.
*more camping. This was our favorite part.
*more time in Arkansas. It's SO beautiful. We would probably need to leave earlier in the summer to maximize our camping in the south.
*I would skip Plymouth.
* I would not bother with the metro. (sorry... I know that doesn't sound very green)
*I would not try a day trip to NYC. I was very stressed out about losing one of the kids. My daughter has not recovered from missing the train on the way back -- she seems to have some sort of stress issue about missing trains/buses/rides to the store...... about being left.
*I would not order a lobster roll -- I discovered I don't really like them.
*I would not buy a special cooler that purports to keep ice frozen for 5 days. What a bunch of bologna!
*I would bring a heavier jacket or sweatshirt.
*I would count the sleeping bags before we left -- my husband left his behind :(
*I wouldn't bring a gas lantern. It was a pain. The globe broke. We barely used it. I really like to look at the stars when I'm camping, so as soon as dinner was over, we generally turned whatever light we were using off. The lantern was a waste of precious space.


What was awesome:
*camping in Arkansas.
*bears in the Smokies. My husband saw 5!
*drinking local beer everywhere we went.
*ice cream in Maine
*staying with family and my kids meeting/playing with cousins
*my aunt's cooking
*the farmer's market in Highland Falls, NY
*fireworks at West Point
*the frontier culture museum in Staunton, VA. It's probably worth double what they charge -- we spent the WHOLE day there. (But please don't up the price!)
*not bringing a DVD player for the kids. We listened to books on tape or I read books out loud. We heard a lot of books as a family & it was great :)
*our Garner GPS (aka Map Girl) -- she was a BIG help. I was kind of anti-GPS before this trip, preferring to use my amazing map skills, but Map Girl got us out of trouble a few times and was able to lead us to grocery stores and parks along the way. She also saved us from a MASSIVE Cape Cod traffic jam. She still needed a skilled Assistant Navigator (me) because sometimes she suggested strange routes.

What was fine
*driving -- surprisingly enough, there were only a couple of desperate days. We were able to have a lot of flexibility, bring our camping stuff and stop at grocery stores to get fresh supplies.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Living in the Past?

I am a huge fan of books about time travel. Maybe that explains the following:

I don't have a cell phone.

I have been thinking about buying a cell phone for months, but I can't seem to convince myself that it's necessary. Then I was reading (again!) about cell phone usage in the US. Apparently the adoption rate is 85%. Holy canoli.

That's higher than the number of people who have computers at home.

My husband has a cell phone, but I very rarely use it. Only to make a long distance call after 7. Otherwise, I dial a nifty code so that I can get cheap long distance. It's kind of fun because then my number comes up as unavailable -- only the brave answer. But really, what's so brave about answering the phone? I answer the phone all the time and never know who's calling. Why? Because I don't have caller ID either. Gasp!

But come to think of it.... not that many people call. My friends tend to e-mail me. So I've started answering my e-mail regularly. But I'd rather talk on the phone. Sometimes I lose the phone in the house and can't answer it in time. People rarely leave messages. Maybe they think I have caller ID.

I'm beginning to think that people don't call me that much because I don't have a cell phone. Or maybe they don't want to hear my kids screaming in the background. (Probably).

Here's the problem:
1. I'm really cheap.
2. My husband's cell phone doesn't get any reception inside the house. We have to keep it on the windowsill so that it will ring and then go outside to talk.
3. I'm afraid that if I get a cell phone people will start to be late and stand me up. With the current situation, if I say "Meet me at Magnolia's at 9", people show up. The only other option would be to leave me alone outside the restaurant.

At the same time, I kind of want a cell phone. Kind of. I'd like to be able to call for information on the road when I'm not with my husband (granted, that doesn't happen that much). I hear that when you have a cell phone you don't get as many trash phone calls. Despite allegedly being on the do not call list, we seem to get TONS of telemarketers and surveyors calling. I also HATE that since I am the only listed member of my family in town, I get calls from all kinds of random people (including creditors) when anything happens to anybody with my last name (whether or not they are related to me). Curses.

Here's the things I don't consider problems:
1. Emergencies -- I have had multiple flat tires and car problems. Somebody always has stopped to help me.
2. Kids -- the school has my work number. The secretary will come and get me out of class if there's a problem. I can't have a cell phone on while I'm teaching anyway.
3. Caller ID -- I don't really care about this. If I don't want to talk, I don't answer the phone.

So.... what to do? Any advice? I know you have a cell phone. Convince me.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Bottled Water is Bad

Need some ammo to convince the hold-outs on the bottled water issue? Here's some nice sources:

The Sierra Club -- this page has some great facts and links to a brochure that you could print out (double sided of course) and post at the office or other offending location.

Lighter Footstep gives a nice succinct 5 reasons not to drink bottled water.

You can encourage your friends to take the Take Back the Tap Pledge.

Finally, lead by example. When it is your turn to be snack mom, don't bring bottled water. Bring a pitcher and some cups. When you have a party, do the same. Use a thermos or canteen to carry water. Drink from the water fountain.

This is a very frustrating issue for me because since I moved I feel like I have stepped back in time and everybody around me seems to be gleefully slurping from bottles and THROWING THEM IN THE TRASH (we have curbside recycling... what gives?) I try to lead by example and I don't want to be some sort of environmental pain in the neck, but I am strongly tempted to do an Earth Day Daisy Scout meeting dedicated to vanquishing the bottled water. My main fear is that I would offend the many well-meaning moms who brought bottled water for snack. What to do?

Trends in my Neighborhood

Here's what I see:

More people are using cloth bags at the grocery store. Not everybody, but a lot more people. I also notice that people often say that they forgot their bags if they are getting plastic. At least they have bags somewhere. Often it takes a while to get into the habit.

People love bottled water. I just don't get it. It's so wasteful, but it is the #1 most popular drink at my kids' elementary school. They have water fountains! It's killing me. The "green team" supposedly worked to green the school carnival, but they sold bottled water at the carnival.

Apparently, bottled water is a big source of income at these school events. Why can't they just sell paper cups of water or sell lemonade or.... ACH! just about anything else?!

On the topic of bottled water, will I come across as a nut if I tell my daughter that she is not allowed to drink bottled water? For example, she goes to a kickball game -- everybody's having bottled water, but I send her with a bottle of tap water from home. That's normal, right? And an after school meeting? All the other girl scouts drinking their bottled water and I'll just tell her to say, "no thanks. I have my own bottle."

It's funny how this seemed so bizarre, but when I write it out it seems bizarre even to worry about it. I'm suffering from bottled water peer pressure. Crazy.

Monday, March 23, 2009

More Scouting News

This week the Daisy scouts in my troop are going to earn the "Use Resources Wisely" petal. We are following up on a hike that we took at a nature preserve. Our guide told us that every 4 months Austin sends enough trash to the landfill to fill the Erwin Center (for you non-Austinites, the Erwin Center is where we have big concerts. It's really big.)

So, we are going to have a kindergarten level discussion of the 3 R's, with an emphasis on "Reduce". I am bringing a big box of trash (I wonder how this will go over. Hopefully okay. The trash is clean.) that we are going to look at and sort. We will also talk about what other choices we could make to reduce the amount of trash. I will make every effort to be cool and not preachy :)

I've been looking around for cool things to tell the girls. About 50% of carpet is made of recycled plastic. Interesting. So is fleece and the filling of sleeping bags. But the tip I'm happiest about is from No Impact Man -- wrap your sandwiches in the liner of cereal boxes. Why did I never think of that?

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Green Daisy Scout Snack

This year I became a girl scout. It's really exciting for me because my mother didn't let me become a girl scout when I was little. She said it was a fascist organization. I think it's a nice way for my daughter to make friends.

Somehow, I ended up being the troop leader. I did not intend to be the troop leader when I went to the sign-up meeting, but now I am, and that's pretty fun too.

At each meeting, the girls have a snack. Usually, we have a designated snack mom. I have discovered that 10 5-year-olds don't pay any attention to the meeting until they have had a snack. Also that chocolate cupcakes are more popular than vanilla cupcakes.

Some of the moms bring little bottles of water. The girls usually like the bottles, but I have noticed that they don't actually DRINK much of the water. One day, we had a field trip and I brought along Capri-Sun juices. I think that they're slightly better than juice boxes because at least the packaging is smaller, and neither one is recyclable. I'm not sure if that's right. Again, however, the girls had a few sips and that was it. A giant waste.

So I bought a bunch of little Dixie cups -- you know -- the size that you have in the bathroom to rinse your mouth after you brush your teeth (although I always just filled my hand with water, but I digress). I told the girls that they could fill a cup with water from the water fountain if they were thirsty. That seems to work fine. (And they can have their water with them at the table instead of being in a big line at the fountain).

I guess it would be better to have permanent cups for each girl, but I'm just not there yet. Maybe when we do the "Use Resources Responsibly" petal.

So, what do you think? Is a dixie cup better than a Capri sun wrapper? Is Capri Sun (the juice, not the juice "drink") better than a juice box (not recyclable in our area)? I assume that a plastic water bottle is the worst, even if recycled. Especially if it doesn't even serve its purpose -- it seems a big waste for 3 or 4 sips of water.

Jokes and Random Thoughts

I love cheesy jokes. I teach Spanish. The best cheesy joke is a cheesy joke in Spanish (I guess it's really cursi, not cheesy, but anyway...)

Que hace un pez?
Nada.

Primer acto: Una banana que no tiene plata.
Segundo acto: Una banana que no tiene plata.
Tercer acto: Una banana que no tiene plata.
Nombre de la obra: PlataNO

Cual es la mitad de uno?
El ombligo.

Now for some cheesy jokes in English:
What do you call a fish with no eye?
Fsh.

What did the fish say when it hit a wall?
Dam.

Finally, I can't help but wonder:
Why did all of Cinderella's stuff disappear and turn into pumpkins, mice, etc. at the stroke of midnight except for her shoes? It seems there is a hole in this story.

Lately, I haven't been very grad and I haven't been as green as I would like. But I do what I can. Today, that's jokes.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Wii -- have I gone over to the dark side?

When I was growing up, we had Atari. My brother and I played it pretty obsessively, but we would sometimes tell our friends that it was broken because we eventually got sick of playing it all the time and wanted to hang out with our friends.

For Christmas, my husband bought me a Wii. I asked for it. No, really, I actually did ask for it. It wasn't for the kids. It wasn't for him. It's my Wii. That's actually pretty important to me because it means the kids have to ask me for permission to play it :)

So, what's going on? I'm not a video game sort of person anymore. I spend most of my time hanging out with my kids or reading.

Well, I have to confess. I like the Wii. It's fun. I can play it with the kids or with my husband or by myself. When people come over, we can bowl. It's fun. You get a little exercise. Sometime you don't want to think too much. Sometimes you just want to do something goofy. So, if it's to okay to go bowling, I figure it's okay to play Wii. Because the reality is... I like to bowl, but never go. It's too complicated with the kids. I don't like it enough to pay a babysitter.

So, the Wii gives us a fun family and friend activity when it's too hard to go out. And when it's freezing cold outside and drizzling, it is a way for the kids to burn off some energy.

Have I turned to the dark side? Mmmm... I don't think so.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

What to do when your kids keep eating

I'm back. I'm rested. (Relatively). I've been researching sea lions and squid -- interesting animals, both of them. But the mission of this short back-to-blogging blog is....

What do you do when your kids (or boyfriend, or yourself, or whatever) keep eating?
My kids (7, 5 and 3) are eating me out of house and home. We finish dinner and the first words out of their mouths are "Can I eat something?"

I have decided that they need to be a little more self-sufficient because I am sick of fixing snacks. So, they can fix themselves:
yogurt
cereal with milk
fruit
egg cup (microwave an egg for a minute with a little salt -- they love it)
popcorn
PB & J
trail mix
raisins or other dry fruit

None of the above require much cooking. It's all relatively healthy. I have succumbed to the siren song of the frozen Gogurt. It's strange that I buy the big container of organic yogurt, but for snacking and lunches, a frozen tube of yogurt is so much more appealing. I tell myself that at least it's better than the mini container of yogurt, which seems to have more plastic. But that plastic is at least recyclable..... ARGH.

Anyway, sometimes my kids are going for the 8th snack in a row (it seems) and I am cringing at the price of the food that they are inhaling. 50 cent apple (at least) -- gone! 60 cent pear -- adios! Sometimes I try to get them to eat bananas and cereal because at least those things are less expensive.

I do have to admit that my kids are pretty good about not wasting food -- and have even reported shocking instances of other kids wasting food, as in "X threw half an apple away -- he/she's a waster!"