this MOTHER's going GREEN

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

2011-04-01T08:05:00.000-07:00

Okay so we have heard it before, so many times and you would figure that we undersstood it. Well most of us do: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Most of us are very good at the recycle part. For me that is the easiest... Recycling. But then on todays like today, I stop and think and complain a little: "Why are my recycling cans so small for everything I am trying to recycle; I am trying to be green here and how can I when I can not fit all my recycling in the little bin provided...etc." BUT I forget or more correctly find it a challenge the reducing part. I really need to stop and think about the reducing and reusing portions of the cycle. I think for the week that will be my goal: REDUCE!!!

Have you mastered the reduce aspect - share your success through your comments.

Importance of Biodiversity in Farmers Markets - GUEST POST by Thomas Morrison

2011-02-03T08:11:00.000-08:00

Doug Band and the CGI (Clinton Global Initiative) as well as US Ecologist Gary Nabhan believe we must try new ways in order to promote crop diversity. Nabhan takes a different approach to biodiversity and believes that we must remember to try new things and immerse ourselves in the very concept of diversity. He has caught the attention of many over the years through his theories of sustainability through grocery shopping. In an interview recently Nabhan stated that, “in other environmental issues we tell people to stop something, reduce their impact, reduce their damage.” His article Coming Home to Eat was published in 2001, and afterwards the local food movement exploded with a movement towards farmers markets and everything green.

Along with Gary Nabhan there have been a rising number of organizations that are starting to see the importance of contributing to sustainability through conservation. Bill Clinton, Doug Band and the CGI (Clinton Global Initiative) have been working diligently on removing emission reduction projects throughout the country. They have partnered with companies such as Donlen, Environmental Defense Fund, and GreenDriver to reduce commercial fleet emissions 20% in five years. The Earth Day Network has also been playing a large part in bringing conservationist and green enthusiast together opening a forum to discussion new ways to support our planet. As climate control continues to worsen, collaboration amongst individuals and organizations is essential for a successful green campaign. As human beings, we’re always being told to reduce our carbon footprint, consume less unhealthy foods, and spend less time in the shower. Gary Nabhan strongly suggests that we take a step back and look at this from a completely different perspective.

A study done by the The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, shows that only about a quarter of crop diversity is left and about a dozen species now gives 90% of the animal protein eaten globally. In addition, just about 4 crop species supply half of plant-based calories in the human diet. Nabhan proposes that eating foods that are homegrown will have a greater impact on sustainability for our planet as a whole. Otherwise known as “eat what you conserve,” is a well-established theory in that by eating the fruits and vegetables that we are attempting to conserve/save, we’re promoting the granular dissemination of various plant species.

Agriculturist Marco Contiero also mentions “biodiversity is an essential characteristic of any sustainable agricultural system, especially in the context of climate change.” According to Conterio’s theory, this would suggest that as individuals we tend our own crops/plants, and should make sure to purchase localized farm products at supermarkets and groceries. In the end, this condenses export/import reliance, thus reducing our carbon footprint.

Both theories rely profoundly on an action-oriented approach at conservation and sustainability. With an abundance of green movements following Earth Day 2010, organizations and individuals have taken a stronger following to expert opinions like the ones demonstrated by both of these highly influential agriculturalists. As the fall season approaches, remember to visit your local farmers markets to purchase your fresh fruits and vegetables. Furthermore, as eco-conscious individuals, don’t hesitate to stop the next time you drive by a yard stand with fresh crops. It is clear that promoting biodiversity and localized farming is a crucial piece of the conservation puzzle.

Please Consider the Envirnment Before Printing

2010-03-04T10:33:00.000-08:00

Since moving to the beautiful province of Saskatchewan, I have been lucky enough to get a job where I work from home. Hows that for reducing my carbon footprint? I enjoy the job very much and communicate mostly by e-mail to prospective and existing 'clients'.

The thing I am slowly discovering about my new home is that it is not on the "green" cutting edge, and I am faced with daily 'green' obstacles in my community.

Today, I added the "please consider the environment before printing this e-mail" to my e-mail signature. I took the time to google this and saw many comments on its UN-usefulness...just google it and you too can see the comments. However, I believe that it is a very important reminder and another tool to create 'green' awareness. There are still some people who print everything they get on e-mail, this can just serve as a gentle reminder to them. To those who are offended by this reminder well - too bad - write whatever you want on your e-mail signature, that's the beauty of it - we are all free to express ourselves as we choose and I choose to express my "green" concerns.

If my e-mail signature can help reduce the printing of the e-mails that I send out - then to me that is success. Every little green act adds up eventually and the awareness can continue.

One of the comments that got me all riled up was: "when you do print one of these e-mails with the 'consider the environment' signatures, the signature always requires a second page, a then wasted page" What I would like to say to that is: Then delete the darn signature before printing!!

Welcome to the Praries

2010-02-19T11:08:00.000-08:00

BIG MOVE......Sold our house in September of 2009 and have moved provinces. From British Columbia to Saskatchewan. We are now livingin a small town located 10 minutes from a city.

Many green challenges are on the horizon for me here.... I will attempt to post more regularly as I embark on 'greening' the Prairies.... Stay tuned.

Thank you

Selling our house

2009-05-19T12:58:00.000-07:00

Although I have not kept up to date on my blog of going green - I have maintained the green lifestlyle and continue to grow in greenness.

We are in the process of selling our wonderful house, and once sold and we have moved I look forward to continuing this blog as I do miss posting to it.

In the meantime please visit my new blog: Squamish House For Sale and if you know anyone who wants to buy this house let them know about it and please let our agent know. Thanks to all my followers for your continued support.

Mother's going GREEN - Organic Make Up

2008-09-21T20:30:00.000-07:00

I have been using my make up for a while now and rather than rush out and buy all natural and green products I figured I would only replace finished items with the new and improved greener versions.

I do not and have never spent large sums of money on make up - drug store brands have pretty much sufficed for me. I do not wear that much and never bought into the claims the more expensive companies make about me looking and staying younger.

The other day my blush accidentally fell on the floor smashing it and leaving me with none. A perfect opportunity to head to the drugstore to see what I could replace it with. My drugstore carried a brand called "Organic Wear" by Physicians Formula and I picked up a new blush and I figured I would try out a lip colour too.

It states that it is 100% of the total ingredients are of a natural origin - but in researching it a bit further I discovered that some of the ingredients are not so natural and according to this site (Cosmetic Data Base) one of the ingredients rates a 4 out of 10 (10 being not natural at all). Considering when I enter my old brand of make up the results came up a 7 or greater I think this is a great difference and price is not bad too.

What I really enjoyed too about this new product is the packaging. The lip colour is a corn based bio-plastic - which is good. Most impressive was the compact for the blush. It is made out of cardboard pretty much. The packaging states 93% less plastic than conventional compacts. I like it and I am looking forward to weather it holds up as well as the plastic counter part does.

So while it is not totally rank at 0 out of 10 it is:

-- 100% Free of Harsh Chemicals

-- 100% Free of Parabens

-- 100% Free of Genetically Modified Organisms

-- 100% Free of Synthetic Colours and Fragrances

-- 100% Cruelty Free

For now I will give this brand a try, it suits my wallet and is 'greener' than most.

Mother's going GREEN - Taking some time off to smell the flowers

2008-09-19T15:20:00.000-07:00

My apologies to all my regular blog readers and followers. I have not posted for some time. This does not mean that I have given up on "Green" - more like I have been more caught up in it than ever.

My baby is almost 6 months old now and requiring much more of my time and attention. My son is also enjoying his days at kindergarten which leaves my 21/2 year old without a 'friend' so to speak and I am required to fill in the gaps.

Our walks to and from school are also taking up about an hour and a bit a day - although it is just a 10 minute walk each way - with a toddler that 10 minute walk takes much much longer. If you have ever forgotten how to stop and take time to smell the flowers - take a walk with a 2 year old.

I also want to get myself onto the schools Parent Advisory Council and see if I can get some green initiatives started at the school - and I will need some time for that. While the school already has a no idling policy it is still handing out plastic bags to children for their library books. (A no no in my books!!).

Life has suddenly gotten busier or should I say 'fuller'. I will post from time to time but no regular schedule has been determined at this point. I will take each day as it comes.... I do feel though that there is enough here in my blog to get everyone started on a greener path and the basics have pretty much been covered.

Stay tuned....Thanks

Mother's going GREEN Day 110 - Colds, Colds, Colds... and Flu

2008-09-14T15:58:00.000-07:00

Well it would seem that it is not cold or even flu season yet. But this morning I woke up with a cold. In the old days I would grab the Contact C and what ever cold medicine I could get my hands on to help alleviate the symptoms. IN the past I have found that while they alleviate the symptoms - they also make the cold or flu seem to last longer.

This time I figured I was not going to do that and try and cope with the cold naturally - which means rest and drinking fluids. Thankfully my husband was home today and I got to do just that. REST. I slept most of the day and drank hot lemon and honey water - which does wonders. Not too mention the good old Chicken Noodle Soup. I must say I feel 80% better and I feel the cold is almost over.

It would also be great and natural to prevent the cold from ever happening to begin with and that requires a nutritious diet, sufficient sleep and exercise. Being a mom it is not always possible to get the rest I need. I try eat healthy and do some exercise. But I will admit leading up to the cold I did feel very tired - I was not getting enough sleep. While am not about to trade in my infant for sleep - I will just deal with the cold naturally and get on with it.

No more over the counter or prescription drugs for my colds or my families colds. (Excluding my husband of course - I am sure he will still fill his body with the anti cold drugs - but hopefully I have shown him the alternative way to deal with them.)

I will though take tomorrow off from blogging - just to give me some extra rest. Until Tuesday - I will rest well.

Mother's going GREEN Day 109 - Bear Aware

2008-09-13T12:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (Friday) when I went to pick up my son from kindergarten at lunch time there was a bear (a black bear they are most common here) at the far end of the field near the playground. Yes, we live in bear country. I my heart raced about a mile a minute when I heard this and I rushed to get my daughter off the swings she was playing on.

This whole episode got me to thinking about those bears. I have lived before in an area full of bears (Banff National Park) and in the year I lived there I personally only came across 2of them. Each time I was not too afraid and never gave them a second thought. That being said I was not a mother then.

How motherhood changes us. This recent close encounter made me realize too what a mother bear feels when she sees a human near her cubs - more likely to be defensive in order to protect them. We have a lot in common. Mothers and Mother Bears. Wanting to protect our young.

I respect bears and I realise too that we as humans have encroached on their land and we need to be mindful of them more so than they of us. I no longer go for walks in the woods at the back of our house. It is getting cooler and they are out gathering food and now it is there time to explore the woods. I had the summer to do this and they can have the fall. I want to avoid the bears encounter with humans and the only way that I know how to do this is to allow them their space. The more encounters they have with humans the more likely that one day they will be destroyed.

I have researched to on what to do should I encounter a bear in my daily outings. My first instinct would be to run. This is probably the worst thing to do as the bear will run after you.

This is what is suggested:

-- Stand still, perhaps with your hands over your head to appear bigger

-- Talk to the bear in a monotone voice

-- Watch the bear but DO NOT make eye contact, never turn your back on a bear.

-- The bear make a "pretend" charge or get on its hind legs and make loud grunting noises. It is important to stand your ground - he is just testing the situation.

-- If the bear seems uninterested in you slowly back away - still facing the bear, still talking. If he moves closer stop and hold your ground.

-- Once the bear has decided that you are not a threat to the bear and walks away - it is then safe to do so. Always keep the bear in view and DO NOT RUN.

DO NOT FEED BEARS

DO NOT APPROACH BEARS

GIVE BEARS THEIR SPACE

Armed with this information I feel a little more comfortable out and about in 'Bear Country'. I am more BEAR AWARE.

Mother's going GREEN Day 107 - Mixed Greens - Not the Salad

2008-09-11T17:29:00.000-07:00

Thought I would take the opportunity today to do some updates:

Cleaning with my 'green' cleaning products is proving to be most successful. I find that it stays cleaner than before (now that could be because I am cleaning better since I do not mind it now - no fumes and no headaches) But I am finding that soap scum comes off the shower door easier with Borax and then a rinse of vinegar. The toilet stays clean now for up to 2 weeks using borax to clean it - with the other stuff it was a weekly job. So I will say I am very happy with that.

Our vegetable garden is doing fantastically well - so well that we are struggling to eat it all. I am hinting that next year we get a table at our local farmers market and sell the produce we do not /can not consume. This green thing can bring in some money. I must say want I enjoy the most is planning a dinner and then heading up to the garden to pick the fresh peas and pull out some fresh carrots which we eat immediately. Talk about "fresh" - no fresher than that. We have only one pumpkin growing which is a little disappointing - but I guess we only need one for our Halloween Jack-o-Lantern - hopefully it continues to grow well.

My gas tank a month is growing great. In fact I am hardly aware of gas prices now since I am rarely at the gas station now. But when I do go I must say I get a big surprise as it has usually gone up significantly since my last visit.

My 3 minute shower is still going well - although the weather is get cooler and I am often tempted to leave it on while I soap up. I have yet to give in and it is not soooo bad.

Still struggling with the husband in regards to those awful plastic bags - but soon I hope he will get the idea. I still find one or two making their way into our home.

But all in all going green is going great.

Mother's going GREEN Day 106 - Halloween Treats

2008-09-10T20:07:00.000-07:00

Okay, so we still have over a month to go until Halloween, but I have noticed the stores are starting to promote Halloween so I figured so can I.

In South Africa where I grew up we did not celebrate Halloween and it was not until I came to Canada in my late teen years that I had the opportunity to dress up and attend Halloween parties. The first time my son went 'trick or treating' was my first time too - what fun. Needless to say I enjoy Halloween. Love the costumes...the kids....and the candy especially the chocolate. (or should I say DID love the chocolate).

In a previous post I wrote about Fair Trade chocolate and how I was only going to buy and support fair trade chocolate, now let me tell you Halloween is not going to change this for me. And no, I will not be handing out Organic apples to the trick or treaters knocking at my door.

I am going Fair Trade Halloween Chocolates... and so should you. Visit Sweet Earth Chocolates to order yours today or perhaps your local store will carry smaller fair trade chocolates that you can purchase. Since I will order mine on line - I will order them soon to avoid disappointment.

In case you are wondering - I will be letting my children eat some of the candy that they gather from their trick or treating - it would be just plain cruel to take candy from a child. I will though attach somehow a message to the chocolate that I give out making note that it is fair trade and list the benefits of fair trade chocolate so that in Halloweens to come hopefully more and more parents will hand out the "good stuff".

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Mother's going GREEN Day 105 - What is in your milk?

2008-09-09T14:10:00.000-07:00

I was prompted to write about this when I visited the grocery store by myself and picked up some organic milk. Since starting to live a greener lifestyle we have yet to switch over to organic milk. My husband has not been prepared to pay the $6+ for a 2 litre jug when you can buy a 4 litre jug for just over $4.

Let me explain our families milk consumption and perhaps you will appreciate where my husband is coming from. We go through 4 litres of milk in two days sometimes two days and a bit. I have always loved milk and will have a very large glass of it a day. My son will have 1 sometimes 2 small glasses a day and then my 2 year old daughter well she LOVES her milk and drinks a lot of it almost a litre a day. Perhaps this is too much for her and we should cut it down some but for now this is how it is. Then there is the milk on the cereal and milk in coffee and you can easily see how this all adds up. On average we spend $65.00 on milk a month. If we went strictly organic this would be $190.00 a month.

I also more recently noted that milk may contain antibiotics and growth hormones specifically Bovine somatotropin - rBST (rBST is a synthetic version of the cow's own growth hormone) Growth hormones are injected into cows to increase their milk supply thereby increasing the milk produced by farmers to meet the demand for milk. This made me feel a little uncomfortable considering the amount of milk our family consumes. And what scared me even more is that for all my pregnancies I craved milk so our household demand for milk increased to 4 litres a day. Could I have exposed all my children to these hormones and antibiotics in the milk? - this had me quite concerned.

Thankfully, after some research I found out that Canada has banned rBST and antibiotics in milk. But this is not the case in many US states and other countries. In Canada cows are not given any synthetic hormones and if a cow is ill and does require antibiotics it is separated from the milked cows.

From this video I learned that rBST causes up to 16 adverse health affects in cows which in turn then require the use of antibiotics and all eventually land up in the milk being consumed by humans. This video may be of interest to all my US blog readers. Check it out.

I did learn from this web posting that for us Canadians the only difference between organic milk and the 'regular' milk is what the cows have been eating in order to produce the milk. Are they eating organic grains and grass? If yes the milk they produce is organic and if not then the milk is not organic. Organic milk also means that the cows have had some freedom to graze, rather than being a "factory" cow.

What is a Mom to do? If I lived in the US the answer would be simple. Organic Milk and/or rBST free milk. In Canada I am not sure - The cost is a lot for our family.

My goal though would be to reduce our demand on milk and use it in moderation. Perhaps then we could afford the Organic milk, if we had less demand for milk as a whole. Which I guess is were these kind of problems stem from - over demand for a product weather it be fruits, vegetables, milk, chocolate, meats etc... the list goes on.

So whats in your milk?

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Mother's going GREEN Day 104 - Garbage and Recycling

2008-09-08T14:26:00.001-07:00

I am really excited about an article I read in our local newspaper. The district has decided to only pick up our garbage every 2nd week. Why am I excited, well, people will have to create less garbage. On garbage pick up day, every week, I see garbage cans filled to the brim and now if we have pick up every 2 weeks this will have to be halved which forces people to consider what they are throwing away as garbage.

At the same time they will be implementing curb side recycling (currently we have to drop off our recycling at various depots in town). Now every other week they will pick up our recycling they will give a large tote to put our recyclables in - I know our recycling bin will be close to over flowing and I hope other's recycling totes will be too.

I am so thrilled about this new decision although I have read about many complaints too. Many seem to be concerned that their is just too much garbage and pick up every 2 weeks is not sufficient enough. To them I say: Just recycle more - If I can reduce my garbage to a can a month then you can do it too.

Click here to read the full article as it appeared in our local paper

Mother's going GREEN Day 103 - Tree Planting

2008-09-07T14:50:00.001-07:00

Tree planting or in this case tree rescue. My husbands place of work was getting rid of some of their potted trees. Apparently they were going to be replaced with different more attractive trees. These trees were headed for the garbage.

Now trees are very important to the environment just in case you did not know here are some interesting fun facts:

-- Trees keep our air supply fresh by absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen.

-- In one year, an acre of trees can absorb as much carbon as is produced by a car driven up to 8700 miles.

-- they provide shade and shelter, reducing yearly heating and cooling costs by 2.1 billion dollars.

-- A tree does not reach its most productive stage of carbon storage for about 10 years.

-- Trees cut down noise pollution by acting as sound barriers.

-- Tree roots stabilize the soil and prevent erosion.

-- The death of one 70-year old tree would return over three tons of carbon to the atmosphere.

any for many more facts on trees visit this site.

Because of this, my husband took the opportunity to rescue a couple of these trees and we have planted them in our garden.

In my opinion we should not be replacing trees but just growing more and more.

Mother's going GREEN Day 102 - Beavers and Cubs

2008-09-06T18:45:00.001-07:00

In Canada, Scouts has brought outdoor adventure to young children for over 100 years. As their brochure says: "Entering our second century... the philosophy is more relevant and valuable than ever before to Canadian families." and considering the environmental state of our world I could not agree with them more.

Today, I enrolled my son into Beavers (the level just before cub scouts). He is very excited about going and participating in the nature walks, camping and all around outdoor fun.

The Environment section of their mission statement is as follows: youth learn to become caretakers of the environment.

I am so excited for him - it will further instill the values that we are implementing at home and it is my hope that he can gain a greater understanding and appreciation of the natural world surrounding him and how fragile it can be.

Go get 'em my little tree hugger to be...

Mother's going GREEN Day 101 - Children's Eco-Craft

2008-09-05T13:37:00.000-07:00

For today's craft was inspired by a science experiment that I did way back in high school - making sugar crystals. Taking this a step further we are going to make the crystals on sticks to form a sugar stir stick or rock candy. The picture shown is not the end result of my personal craft today as it will take 2 to 3 weeks to get large crystals.

Sugar Crystal Stir Stick

You will need:

-- 1 cup of granulated sugar (ours sugar is a light caramel colour as it is organic sugar, but regular white granulated sugar will do.)

-- 1/2 a cup of tap water

-- 2 sticks (I used a wood skewer cut into 2)

-- string

-- pot to boil sugar and water

-- container to grow the crystals (I used an old jam jar - choose a container that you can see through so you can monitor the progress of your crystals without disturbing them)

Directions (with an adults help if required):

-- Soak the sticks in tap water remove from water.

-- Cover the lower 2/3 of the stick with a light coating of granulated sugar.

-- Allow to dry (this will help the crystallized sugar to stick better to the stick).

-- In a pot boil your 1/2 cup of water and your cup of sugar, until the sugar is dissolved.

-- Once dissolved pour mixture into your container where you will 'grow' the crystals.

-- Allow the liquid to cool until it reaches room temperature.

-- Suspend the 'sugar coated' sticks into the sugar/water mixture (I tied strings around the top of the sticks and hung them in the water, taping the ends of the string to the side of the jar).

-- It is important that the sticks do not touch the bottom of the container and should be about 1 inch to 2 inches apart (again our liquid is a caramel colour because of the organic sugar being used).

-- Cover the container with a paper towel (we opted to use a cloth napkin).

-- Place the container in a secure place where it will not get disturbed.

-- After 24 hours who will see small crystals start to form and after 2 to 3 weeks you will see the larger crystals appear.

-- Once your crystals have reached the desired size, remove them from the liquid and allow to dry.

You can then loosely wrap them in cellophane wrap with a pretty bow and give it as a gift to someone. They can use it as a sugar stir stick in their coffee.

Better yet just keep it and eat it. Rock Candy.

If you would like to make colour crystals just add food colouring to the warm mixture before it cools. We chose to keep ours natural.

I will post a picture of our "actual results" - once our crystals have formed.

Mother's going GREEN Day 100 - Green Party

2008-09-04T16:38:00.000-07:00

Today's post will be short and brief... As it is day 100 since that day, which seems so long ago, that I decided to green our family, I have decided to join the Green Party of Canada. With talk of a national fall election I thought it only fitting. In the past I have never been consistent with my voting but now I will vote "GREEN" . There are green parties worldwide - be sure to join the one in your area. In going green try and support the green politics in your country/nation.

Mother's going GREEN Day 99 - Temptations......

2008-09-03T14:46:00.001-07:00

I have been pretty darn good on my path and journey to becoming more green in mine and my families everyday lifestyle. But every now and again you are tempted to do an ungreen act.

The other day I went out to the store to pick up some things one of them being measuring spoons. Now I did not have any preconceived idea of what kind of measuring spoon I was going to get as measuring spoons, well are just measuring spoons.

My dilemma started when I found them in the store. They had some nice colour plastic spoons for $2.95 and then they had some stainless steel ones for $4.95. I was drawn to the plastic. Colourful, earth tones to match my kitchen and each measuring size spoon a different colour. They were pretty and I liked them. I wanted them.

The stainless steel ones well pretty boring - stainless steel.

I must have stood in the aisle for about 15 minutes, oblivious to my kids who now were fighting over a pot holder, trying to decide which to buy. Did I mention the colourful plastic ones where so pretty...... Would anyone know or even care if I bought these plastics ones.... No, not really. Okay, I decided if they are a safe plastic I will get them. I then looked for some sign or description of the plastic but none to be found. But they are so pretty.... Then I thought about how much more energy and future pollution this plastic ones would create and who knows after a year or two they would be showing signs of wear and that is not good for plastic and I would have to get rid of them and get some new ones.... but the colours go so well with my kitchen....

Okay so you get the picture. I ended up buying the stainless steal ones and could not be happier. I mean was I really going to put the spoons on display to ensure everyone who came into my house would see how well they matched with the kitchen... No.. They are safely tucked in a drawer for when I need them, and will probably last longer than me and my daughters will be able to use them with fond memories of us baking together.

The point I am getting at is that sometimes we are tempted to engage in not so green activities.... and I think that is okay. We are not perfect as much as we would like to be. Changing our lifestyles to better the environment can sometimes be a challenge. But we are up for the challenge and the occasional lapse is just fine.... Think Big Picture, Think Green.

The image for today's post is: "Growing Through Temptation." And I feel that it sums my post for today. Day 99 on this sometimes challenging endeavour of living greener.

Mother's going GREEN Day 98 - Laptop Lunches

2008-09-02T14:00:00.000-07:00

Pretty much every mom who is writing a green blog has blogged about Laptop Lunches. So you know that they must be pretty darn good.

My story starts in my search for a 'green' lunch container. Back in the day when I only had one child and worked while he attended daycare - I prepared the best lunches. I had searched out these plastic containers with dividers as I liked to send several items in one container and when I found them a t a dollar store stocked up on many of then. Being from a dollar I doubt very much that they were produced from a safe plastic. But live and learn.

Anyway in my greenness I again went on a search. My preferred lunch box would have been stainless steel but I could not find any that was compartmentalized (is there even such a word). I kept running into laptop lunch boxes. I then started looking at them much more seriously and decided to purchase one for my son and his going to school. Let me tell you I am excited. It is though made from plastic - but safe plastic. I am not so crazy about the bottle it comes with, but my son will be taking his Klean Kanteen to school with his beverage.

I have always been and will always be for packing a healthy lunch. Fruits, vegetables, grains, etc. and with the laptop lunch box system it just makes it so much easier and not to mention fun.

This mother who is going green definitely recommends this system and I think everyone should have it. Even adults who take their lunch to work.

If you get a complete system as I did it comes with a handy little book with some fun ideas for lunches as well as some interesting facts on the amount of garbage produced by traditional school lunch systems:

-- The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation estimates that one student taking a disposable lunch to school every day will create 45 - 90 pounds of garbage per year.

That figure is not hard to believe considering the plastic wrap or bag that the sandwich is packed in. What about all those snacked size items that you can buy to put in lunches - juice boxes, paper napkins, plastic cutlery and straws. Well starting with us that is all about to stop with the laptop lunch system. I love it.

To truly appreciate this product and all that it offers be sure to check out the website: http://www.laptoplunches.com/

Mother's going GREEN Day 97 - Maple Flavoured Sugar Water

2008-09-01T13:21:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while my children love pancakes for breakfast. We now use an organic wholewheat pancake mix and my son loves the syrup on it.

His dad will often shout from the kitchen: "Hey Josh, want some Maple Syrup on those pancakes?"

I so often interject, "It is not Maple Syrup!!"

Josh looks at us a little confused and response with "Of course, I want Maple Syrup."

Me again "It is not Maple Syrup!!"

"Dad, What is it then?" his enquiring mind wants to know.

"Well son, it is Maple Flavoured Sugar Water."

And pretty much that is what it is. On my husbands last grocery expedition (that is what it is as he will be gone a good 2 sometimes 3 hours to buy 2 weeks worth of groceries) he brought back some real Maple Syrup.

Lets for a moment just compare the ingredients:

Bottle #1: Glucose; Liquid Sugar, Liquid Invert Sugar (whatever that is), Water, Natural and Artificial Flavour, Caramel Colour, Sodium Benzoate, Sorbic Acid, Malitol and last but not least Sulphites

Bottle #2: Pure Organic Maple Syrup

Now when my husband offers Maple Syrup for the pancakes, he is offering the real deal!

Mother's going GREEN Day 96 - Greening your School Back Pack

2008-08-31T08:08:00.000-07:00

Had I not gone green earlier this year the question for my son starting kindergarten would have been: "which super hero back pack with matching lunch box would you like? Batman, Spider man or Superman?" But as it stands the question was "Hemp or not?"

My first choice was hemp and on a recent post I list the greatness of hemp, but one of the things it is not and that is waterproof - well at least the pack back I was looking at was not waterproof. Since we will be walking to school rain or shine - it would make sense to get a back pack that would still keep its contents dry in the pouring rain.

I have read too about back packs made out of old tires - now that would be great, funky and cool. But I could not find any online to buy and if my sleep deprived memory serves me well - if I did - then shipping to Canada was not an option. (on a side note: I would like to say that global warming is a worldwide thing and that if you are an online store selling 'green' products you should try ship worldwide!!! - it doesn't cost you but the person paying for the shipping, doesn't it??)

We finally settled on a "Book Bag" sold at Mountain Equipment Co-Op. While it not made made from a natural material or from a recycled material it is made from 'safe' material. PEVA - which as this website "Sorting Out the Vinyls" suggests: that the term vinyl in ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA), polyethylene vinyl acetate (PEVA), polyvinyl acetate (PVA), and polyvinyl butyral (PVB), however, does not refer to PVC and does not raise the same concerns associated with chlorinated molecules like PVC. Now I am not a chemistry major (but my understanding is that it (PEVA) is safe).

Also, the company representing this product is in support of wilderness and conservation. They develop award-winning green retail stores and they strive to make their products with a minimum impact on the environment. They also are a member of 1% for the Planet which means they donate 1% of all sales back to the planet. The reviews for this back pack noted that it lasts for many years - hence we will not have to buy a new one for a very long time (unlike the superhero models that last - if you are lucky - the school year). So we ultimately will be reducing waste by reusing this bag for years to come.

As this news article from November 2007 states: "High levels of lead in children's backpacks, rain ponchos, vinyl lunchboxes and toys are documented by nonprofit environmental health and consumer protection groups in two reports this week." I wanted to make sure that I at least stayed away from that in choosing a back pack.

Should you wish to look at some really cool hemp backpaks be sure to visit: Rawganique

Mother's going GREEN Day 95 - Natural Teething Poducts

2008-08-31T08:07:00.002-07:00

Some of you may have noticed that I have not been posting everyday and have skipped a couple of days and am now playing catchup with my posts.... well, I do have an ~~excuse~~ explanation, make that several explanations.

One being my little girl is cutting teeth and has stopped sleeping through the night. Her new schedule is sleep at about 7pm or 8pm. Awake at about midnight then again at 4:00am and then she is up for the day. She will then nap briefly for about half and hour in the morning and if I am lucky and I mean really lucky I may get her to sleep in the afternoon for a good 3 hours. If I am unlucky it will be an hour in the afternoon.

Needless to say I have been a little sleep deprived and have been going to sleep in the evening at 9:00pm with no time to blog. Add to this, my husband has been working 12 hour days for the last 8 days - which has left me feeling much like a single parent of 3. And when you thought you were coping you get a bonus surprise of a little boy waking you up at 3am with some sort of a stomach bug. (Why do they always seem to get sick in the middle of the night?). Anyway I declared it a relax on the couch watch TV because you are sick day -which gives me a little more time to catch up with this Mother's going GREEN. The joys of motherhood.

But back to the topic of this post: Natural Teething Products. I have 2 great ones.

First there is Sophie the Giraffe and as her marketing blurb states: "She is made in the French Alps with natural rubber and non-toxic paint, Sophie has been safely cuddled and chewed for over 40 years! She is soft, light, and easy to grasp and fits perfectly into little hands. Sophie is loveable and amusing. She even makes a happy sound when squeezed. Babies especially love her bumpy head to soothe their teething gums."

Now as you have read in a previous post - that it is not always a good idea to fall for 'marketing' I was drawn to this product because it was natural and non toxic. And my little one loves it. It certainly, for me, lives up to the marketing blurb. If you want to purchase one just Google 'Sophie the Giraffe' and you will get many links - I have also seen it for sale on eBay.

Secondly, is an item I picked up recently and it is a "It's Only Natural" Organic Teething Ring - Made by a company called Little Star (their website is still under construction - but they offer a toll free number). And again my little one loves it. It is made from organic cotton (4 layers) and an unfinished Birch wood ring which will not splinter. It is made in Canada.

So armed with these teething toys I am hoping for a little more calm as my baby chews her pain away on these natural products.

Mother's going GREEN Day 94 - Children's Eco-Craft

2008-08-31T08:07:00.001-07:00

Since I have been talking about hemp I figured we could make some hemp jewelry and such. I have chosen to make a bracelet and/or key chain.

Hemp Bracelet and/or Key chain

You will need:

--Stands of Hemp

-- Beads

-- Key ring (if you chose the key chain)

Directions (with an adults help if required):

We will be using the easiest knot in our creation the "Square Knot".

-- You will require 4 stands in total (so get 1 stand of 24" for 'filler' and fold it in half and for your working stands one strand 6' long and fold it in half).

-- With the loops of the folded stands together tie them together with a knot creating a loop. (in ours we used a bead for a fastener so we measured to make sure the bead would fit through the loop snugly when we tied the loop. (if you choose to make a key chain attach the loop to the key ring at this point).

-- The 2 shorter strands are your filler stands and they are to remain in the centre of your work with the 2 working strands on each side.

-- Follow the instructions on this site to tie the "Square Knot". Please note that they are using four strands for their filler instead of the 2 strands that we are using.

-- To add the beads - insert both filler strands through the hole of the bead and tie the knot around them. We chose to make our bracelet with a message - also by doing this we had way less knots to tie.

-- keep tying the knots until the length of knotted hemp is the desired length for your bracelet and then tie them off. In our case we inserted a bead on all 4 strands and tied it off. (this is where it ends for the key chain)

-- the end bead is then inserted into the the loop to create a 'clasp' to close the bracelet.

This craft is probably for the older children although my children had fun selecting the beads and it was great for letter recognition as my son searched for the letters as I asked for them.

If you are struggling to follow my directions there are many directions available on the Internet.

Mother's going GREEN Day 93 - Hemp

2008-08-29T11:50:00.001-07:00

Since greening our families lifestyle I have never come across hemp or references to hemp so much as now. It seems if you are going green there is no way to avoid hemp and the many products produced by hemp.

Here are some interesting hemp facts:

-- From its fibres we can get textiles, paper, lighting oil, rope, incense, charcoal, glue and some building supplies such as plywood and drywall.

-- US Presidents Washington and Jefferson grew hemp.

-- The US Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp paper.

-- The first American flag was made out of hemp.

-- The finest bible paper remains hemp-based even today.

-- The first Levi Jeans were made from hemp.

-- The rigging sails of every ship that sailed the high seas during the 18th and 19th centuries was made of hemp.

-- Hemp was money and was used to pay taxes for over 200 years.

Hemp may be the 'be all and end all' of our 'green' society it has so many benefits:

-- It can grow in just about any soil or climate and grows quickly and easily, it can reach heights of 10 to 20 feet in as little as 3 to 6 months.

-- It does not require herbicides or pesticides as it is naturally resistant to pests.

-- Hemp fiber is longer lasting than wood pulp; it’s stronger, acid free and chlorine free.

-- Paper made from hemp can be recycled 7 times over the 4 times for paper made from wood pulp.

-- Hemp can replace plastics made from petroleum and are therefore biodegradable.

-- Best of all hemp could be the answer as a fuel source. At a comparable cost in converting petroleum to methane, methanol or gasoline we can instead convert hemp and it burns cleaner without contributing to global warming.

For more information and facts visit this Hemp Site, among the many others found on the Internet.

Mother's going GREEN Day 92 - Packages

2008-08-27T14:54:00.000-07:00

From time to time we will all receive or send packages. And if you are like me and do a lot of online shopping you will get more packages than most. Since I have gone green and most of my purchases online have been from green stores I have noticed the packaging is also 'green'.

Lets look at how we can 'green' packaging:

-- First off lets reuse and reuse the boxes that we pack the items in. I am saving my boxes for Christmas when I ship all of our families gifts off. I have noticed too that the companies I am ordering from are also re-using the boxes.

-- For the delicate items and for stuffing lets get ways from the Styrofoam peanuts and plastic bubble wrap and those plastic 'air pouch' things.

-- Instead use newspaper, old magazines and for the 'air pouch things try making your own by reusing the plastic bag your bread comes in and fill with a little air and tie closed.

-- I read about a great idea to use instead of Styrofoam peanuts and that is popcorn. Make it organic popcorn and that is even better. Use it a Christmas and the receiver then can reuse it to make a Christmas popcorn string for their tree.

Which reminds me, I have packages to pack up and ship off...

Also, if you are receiving packages through FedEx or UPS it is best to have them delivered to your business (place of work) as it is most probable that they will be stopping by your office building rather than making a trip out to your home.

Mother's going GREEN Day 91 - Getting your Bills On Line

2008-08-26T14:44:00.000-07:00

This is a simple step you can do on your journey to becoming green. While I was receiving some bills on-line there were a couple I was still receiving a paper copy in the mail. Cell phone and land phone. My land phone amounted to about 10 pages. I make lots of long distance phone calls.

So today, day 91, I decided to get these bills on-line. While for my other bills it was relatively easy - just go to the companies website fill in a form and there you go done, not more than 5 minutes. I quickly realized why I had not converted these 2 bills to on-line sooner as I spent the better part of the morning trying to do this. While getting quite frustrated and calling the companies were I was put on hold in total for 30 minutes, I kept reminding myself that this was for the greater good. And now it is done.... All bills from today onwards will be received online.

The benefits of on-line billing are as follows:

-- save paper

-- saves more paper

-- saves even more paper

-- saves trees that are required to make paper

-- saves water that is required to make paper

-- saves energy that is required to make paper

-- and it is convenient

Some interesting facts in regards to paper and for more paper facts click here

-- Approx. 324 L. of water is used to produce 1 KG of paper

-- Paper and paper products accounts for more than 1/3 of all Canada’s waste

-- Canada uses 6 million tonnes of paper and paperboard annually.

-- Only 1/4 of Canada’s waste paper and paperboard is recycled

-- Paper manufacturing is the 3rd largest user of fossil fuels worldwide

Mother's going GREEN Day 90 - Green Shopping Sites

2008-08-25T16:44:00.000-07:00

In the last couple of days I have been 'googling' perhaps a little too much, but have found some great on-line 'GREEN' shopping sites and I thought I would share.

The Rainforest Site I came across some time ago. It offers great gifts from different countries around the world. When you purchase from the site you help various different organizations and you can also buy gifts for others. I once purchased school shoes for a school girl in Africa. A great way to give a gift to others. It also offers a daily click program where when you click a sponsor will pay for habitat protection at no cost to you. (you can also fist their literacy, breast cancer, animal rescue and child health sites; also clicking to so sponsors can donate to various programs) Check it out a click away each day.

Global Exchange Fair Trade Online Store offers hundreds of fair trade and environmentally friendly green gifts. They have some great gift baskets and gift certificates. I have already picked out some items that will make great Christmas gifts. Yes, I am thinking of Christmas already.

Grounds for Change is the on-line store for any coffee lover. They sell certified organic coffee specializing in Fair Trade Coffee. They have a coffee of the month program which would be a great gift for someone or even yourself. They also offer some other coffee related products and they are also a member of 1% For The Planet and they donate 1% of sales to environmental groups.

Gifts with Humanity this site is just full of art and crafts from around the world. All Fair Trade and some really cool ideas for gifts some creative uses on recycling soda cans, flip flops and telephone wire. I grew up in South Africa and the telephone wire bracelets they sell bring back the memories of my own creations from telephone wire although much simpler than these creations.

GreenBoatStuff.com is just that a store full of boating stuff but all 'green' as there website states: "a speciality store offering environmentally friendly alternatives to the petroleum-based, chemical-laced, plastic-ridden products available at most boating supply stores." they also claim to offer "truly biodegradable sunscreen and chemical-free insect repellents." I have listed this site as both my brother and father are avid sailors so I know I will be returning to this site often.

Another site I will be visiting on a regular basis is planet happy kids toys, toys and more toys need I say more...

This site Eco Choices Natural Living Store you name it it they pretty much have it. Toys, a bedroom section, kitchen section, patio section, clothes. You need to check it out in order to see the large selection offered. Too bad no school supplies.

And the last store I will post for today is a link to getting 'chocolate on-line'- I just loooove chocolate and hence I have to add a chocolate link.

I hope in the near future to create a list (to the left of this post) to all these stores for easier access and also so I can find them again with ease. There are so many more wonderful green on-line stores out there and I am sure I will continually be adding to the list. So check back often.

Also, maybe you know of a store that you would like to share - email me or write a comment.

Mother's going GREEN Day 89 - Greening your Clothes

2008-08-24T12:18:00.000-07:00

Clothes - most of us want to look good and therefore we buy nice looking clothes to wear and I am no exception to that.

I will admit that I do not regularly visit the thrift stores in search of clothes. Not to say I have never been - I have and my last pregnancy wardrobe was made up of 95% thrift store finds and this was before I went green. I guess by my third pregnancy I did not want to pay those high prices attributed to maternity clothes when you only wear them for about 9 months. This last pregnancy I was also a little smarter as I know it takes some time for me to loose the pregnancy weight I also just purchased extra large normal clothes ( like track pants, yoga pants, sweaters - things with a little stretch to it) that way I was not stuck wearing maternity clothes after the baby was born. Some of the clothing because of the stretch factor can still be used well after I have lost the 'baby fat'.

I think this greening of clothes is going to be a little more challenging for me - I mostly now shop for my children and they tend to grow out of their clothes so quickly. I am going to make a resolution of sorts to go a little more greener with their clothes:

-- I will attempt to purchase organic fabrics or natural fabrics like cotton and hemp

-- For their romp around everyday clothes I will visit the thrift store more often (we have a great local kids only thrift store in town with a huge selection)

-- Instead of purchasing gloves and mitts every new winter season - I will invest a few extra dollars and get them a good eco-friendly fair traded set which then can last several years.

-- I will also be reusing some of their summer clothes for winter. T-Shirt can be worn over long sleeve cotton shirts. For girls shorts and skirts can be paired with leggings or tights for a funky look.

-- I will also be handing down more of their clothes. No need to get rid of the 'boy' jean shorts when really a pair of jean shorts is just that jean shorts that can be worn by a little girl. Same goes for regular jeans. With my two girls this will be easy as I can keep the clothes for the little one. In fact our church minister asked when I wanted to get my baby baptised and I replied - well not quite yet as I want to reuse the dress my other one wore and she needs to grow a little so she can fit into it.

-- Once the clothes are done in our family I will as I have always done donate them to charity.

For myself - I tend not to buy that many clothes for me anymore. I have always bought clothes that last through the fashion trends and I have some items in my closet going back over 10 years, with proper care and handling they can last another 10 years. As I type this I think of my favourite wrap skirt - it used to be my mom's then it was given to me and that was a good 20 years ago and I still love it. Because it is a wrap skirt it has always fitted me as I have gained and lost weight through all my pregnancies. Then there is the button up cardigan I purchased a a thrift store for $9.00, 15 years ago - it is still one of my favourites and still looks as good now as it did then. One of my favourite things to do to clothes to is to re-invent them. I am lucky enough to know to sew and have often changed an item of clothing after I got bored with it. An ankle length skirt becomes a short skirt - pants can become capri's or shorts etc.

So I guess I have been on the right track all along - I just now need to ensure that any new items I purchase are either recycled (thrift store) or environmentally friendly and are fair trade.

Shopping for my husband clothes - well I do not do that - so hopefully he will read this post and take a few hints.

Well, I started off this post thinking that it might be a challenge for me to go green with the clothes but it seems at least for myself I am doing a pretty good job already and that I just need to work on the shopping for my kids clothes.

After my post yesterday - I found so many cool online green and fair trade stores that I will be adding them to a list on the right for easy access to all.

Mother's going GREEN Day 88 - Pre-School Jitters

2008-08-23T13:38:00.001-07:00

My oldest is about to start school - kindergarten -in a few weeks and I am starting to feel anxious. Not about him leaving home and going to school, actually I am looking forward to him being away a little. Stretching his wings, gaining some independence and yep, you guessed it a bit of a break for me.

What I am anxious about is him leaving his 'green' nest and going into that toxic world of school. I am anxious about his school supplies - which I have not purchased yet and will not be given an indication to what he needs until 3 days before he starts. Not sure why that is but for the kindergarten class we will meet with the teacher a few days before class starts and as per the letter they mailed: "(the teacher) will be giving you a handout at that time regarding their school supplies and snacks." My mind starts to panic...where am I going to get environmentally friendly school supplies on such short notice. If he needs crayons - do I just purchase whatever they are selling in the store even if it goes against my green ethics. Do I just send him to school with the old crayons we have from home rather than purchase the other new crayons and then wait to order some soy crayons. What about a ruler which is better for the environment plastic or wood are their any other options??? Pencils, erasers where to buy? What to get? And if required can I get them on such short notice.

My husband says I should not worry about it - just pick up the supplies at the store just like everybody else. This is the husband who routinely breaks all my green rules - it is clear that he is not worried. His worry, if anything, is that our son might be singled out for his mothers "greenness". No batman or spider man back pack or lunch bag with matching plastic drink container for him.

Perhaps I am being a neurotic mother and in some part of my sub conscious am being obsessed with the 'green school supplies' to calm my unacknowledged anxieties of him going to school.

If anyone out there can offer some suggestions and guidelines for this 'green school supply syndrome' I would appreciated any comments or feed back.

I will sign this post off as "the neurotic mother who is ~~crazy~~ green"

Mother's going GREEN Day 87 - Children's Eco-Craft

2008-08-22T12:31:00.001-07:00

My son will be starting kindergarten in the fall so I thought we could prepare something that we can file his artwork in once it has had its time being posted on the wall. A variation on the Magazine File. Of course you could make yours to hold magazines, story books, papers that need to be filed etc.

Magazine File

You will need:

-- a cereal box, or any other suitable box

-- Mod Podge (not sure how environmentally friendly this is - but we have it and it works great.)

-- Any one or all of the following: Pictures, newspaper, other children's artwork, pages an old colouring book, magazine pictures or gift wrap. We used an old world map.

Instructions (with an adults help if required):

-- cut the cereal box to resemble a magazine file

-- cut out pictures newspaper or whatever you have chosen

-- glue using the mod podge to the cereal box

-- finish with a coating or two of mod podge

-- allow to dry

You are done... and your magazine file is ready to store all of your chosen items.

Art/Space saving tip: We all love our children's art and it is important to display it in order to build their confidence. Here at our home we display it for a week and then take it down. I make sure I get a digital picture of their art which I save on a separate disk. This way I do not need to keep all of there masterpieces. I will always have copies on file. After awhile I ensure the "old" art is discarded in the environmentally correct way.

Mother's going GREEN Day 86 - Fair Trade Coffee

2008-08-21T11:36:00.000-07:00

It took us 80 plus days for us to run out of our our 'regular coffee' (my husband likes to purchase non perishable items in bulk - that means coffee). And with the purchase of our new coffee maker we are finally moving to fair trade organically grown coffee.

The coffee we have chosen is Ethical Bean and according to their website: Coffee is the world's second-largest traded commodity after oil, and the global market for coffee is extremely volatile. Over a decade ago, farmers saw prices drop 80% worldwide in less than 12 months. Over the past three years, the average price of coffee has fallen almost 50% and now rests at a near 30-year low, impacting over 25-million coffee growing families in over 50 developing countries.

But buying fair trade coffee for us just isn't good enough as based on my research it is also important to purchase coffee that is organic and shade grown in addition to being organic.

Fair trade coffee means that the coffee growers will be getting a fair price for their coffee. A price that will ensure a reasonable standard of living.

Organic coffee means that the coffee has been grown and processed without harsh toxic chemicals. When pesticides and chemicals are used to grow anything it not only kills the pests but makes its way into the surrounding environment and water supplies doing further damage to nature. According to this website - organic coffee beans have a rich, smooth flavor.

Shade grown coffee is very important to the environment. Coffee is best when grown in its natural environment - the shade of the rain forest. But because of the huge demand for coffee, forest are being cut down to make space for more coffee plants which then find themselves growing in full sun - not ideal for producing a good coffee bean and because of this it is drenched in fertilizers and chemicals in order for it to grow.

So next time you grab your next coffee consider for a moment where and how it was planted and what was paid for it.

Side note: I have reach 1000 hits today - yippee hooray for me. I get excited when I see how many people visit and makes me feel that all this blogging is worth while.

Mother's going GREEN Day 85 - Trip Planning

2008-08-20T17:15:00.000-07:00

This concept, Trip Planning, is not something new for my family. I would say I have been practising this since I had children. It is only lately that I learned it is a green action. Just goes to show you that some of your habits and actions maybe green and you don't even know it yet.

Trip planning is planning your trip so that you are not running multiple errands separately. This is especially important when you are driving.

For example if you need to say go to the post office, pick up some milk and drop your kid at an extra curricular activity - then you plan out your trip. Not go and pick up the milk in the morning, return home and then after lunch go to the post office and return home and then late afternoon deliver your kid to his karate practise. Instead you leave a little early for the karate pick up the milk and go to the post office on the way to the karate lesson. This saves huge amounts of gas, energy and reduces your carbon emissions.

Since I am using karate lessons - you can guess my son does karate. Instead of dropping him off and returning home only to pick him up later. I either stay and watch the practise or I take my little ones and go for a walk and do some 'window shopping' again saving some milage, gas, and carbon emissions.

On a side note I was impressed by my husbands green action. I came downstairs after settling our little one down for the night and noticed our garbage can in the middle of the driveway with the lid open in the pouring rain. Puzzled by this I ask my husband what he was doing. "I am washing it out. I figured instead of using the garden hose to rinse it out. I would collect some rain water in it instead and use that to rinse it out." was his confident response. WOW was my reaction - this green thing does rub off on him in little ways. Way to go hubby for thinking green.

Mother's going GREEN Day 84 - Spreading the Eco - Word

2008-08-19T13:44:00.001-07:00

Today's post will be brief - I think- I say this as sometimes I start out with this thought but the posting lands up to be lengthy.

The other day I gave myself a new job title. Stay at home mom does not quite cover it. As I have stated in my blogger profile I am now an "Environmental Manager - Lifestyle Applications" Now doesn't that sound important... Well, yes it does and it is an important job - part of my job description is spreading the Eco-word. I then went on to create my own business card of sorts.

The business card stems from a recent incident I had at a local store. I forgot my bags at home (something I seem to be doing quite often - not sure why) but I got to the cashier with quite a number of items and requested not to have a bag. The cashier looked at me quizzically and piled up my items as she scanned them. I then attempted to load them into my arms to carry them out of the store. Remember I have 3 children that are always with me. One I am usually toting around in a car seat so my one hand is always full. The cashier watching my struggles again offered me a plastic bag and I replied: "No thanks, I am saving the environment and will figure something out." I did... the kids each carried 2 items, I stuffed a bunch in my purse and some I stuffed around the sleeping infant in the car seat. We made it back to the car where I unloaded the loot into the trunk.

I felt very satisfied with myself. But I did feel that I could have offered the cashier more of an explanation - other than 'I am saving the environment' hence I came up with the idea of the 'business card' I can hand them out to people I meet - like the cashier - it may explain what may appear to some as my peculiar behaviour.

The front of the card is a snapshot of my blog with my blog address and on the back it has some tips we can use to live greener.

I am hoping this will continue to spread the green word - the more people who implement the smallest of green changes will ultimately make a big difference. SPREAD THE WORD. Green is the new black. BE GREEN.

I too would like to take this time to apologise for any typo's that may appear in my blog. Often I am typing with an infant on my lap and click on the publish now button when the children are needing my attention without proof reading. Thanks to all who read through these errors and still post great comments.

Mother's going GREEN Day 83 - Green Printing 101

2008-08-18T16:54:00.000-07:00

Green printing...it seems so simple but on the weekend when my husband wanted to print something (17 pages long) I gave him a quick course on printing green which I have decided to share.

-- First off - do not print everything save the website or document as you favourite and refer to it (my husband loved to do this so I hid a paper on him - which prompted our lesson)

-- If possible use recycled paper

-- Select to print in "draft mode" this will use less ink. To do this for most printers go to print settings and select draft. Using less ink will save you money make the 'plastic' cartridges last longer so you do not need to discard of them. When they are empty look at using the ink you can refill these with ( I tried it once and was not really happy with my results) otherwise take it back to the store were you purchase your ink from and they will recycle.

-- Print on both sides of the paper. With some printers this is an easy option. You can select it on the printer settings (most offices are equipped with this sort of printer.) Our home printer does not have this option so I find out how many pages I will be printing. In my husbands case as mentioned above 17 pages so then I only insert 1/2 the amount of pages in the printer 9 pages for this example and then print. The computer/printer will alert you that you are then out of paper. I take the paper and turn it around and run it through the printer so that it prints on the other side. Okay, so your page order is a little out of the ordinary but does that really matter in the "green" scheme of things?? Some people may disapprove of running printed paper back through the printer as it supposedly is not good for the printer. I have been doing this for sometime now and see no negative effects on my printer.

-- Also, reuse paper that has been printed o one side only.

That concludes our green printing lesson...quite a simple change to implement.

Mother's going GREEN Day 83 - Greening my Baby Food

2008-08-17T18:49:00.000-07:00

You would think by now I would be a pro at this - now starting my 3rd child on solids... well I think we are getting close to perfecting it.

I remember with my son (our first) - my husband and I would spend one day a month making his food from scratch and then freezing it (in plastic containers and non organic food). We thought he was lucky and getting the best food ever. Our second unfortunately ate everything from a jar (well she hardly ate - did not like much of anything and still doesn't - I am constantly amazed that she survives on what little she does eat - but that is whole other subject). Now our third... they say practise make perfect.

First off we have not purchased any of those fun little plastic dishes to serve their first meals in. One with lids, multiple colours and all those fancy plastic spoons that change colour when the food is too hot. We are using stainless steel teaspoons and little glass containers.

Secondly we are not spending hours preparing her food from scratch and then freezing it. She is basically eating what we eat. If we have carrots - I cook some extra well done - puree it and then serve. Same with peas, potatoes, beets, etc. Fruit like bananas are again pureed and then served. All my kids love apple sauce and we purchase a large container of organic apple sauce and I serve that to her. No need to stock up on those tiny little jars of food (which are not necessarily all recycled by many families out there). I will admit that I do purchase the organic baby cereals - as I do not think I have the time to make those from scratch or even know how - so if you do - please share your thoughts on this.

I am finding my new way of preparing food for my little one to be very simple, easy, fresh organic and 'green' - and she seems to be loving it. Perhaps too because it is my third child I am not being overly concerned about he possibility of allergies and am serving her something different each day (they say you should serve the same food several times to rule out any allergies - since none of my other children have allergies - perhaps I am hoping for the best).

The World Health Organization also suggest that you breastfeed exclusively for 6 months before introducing solids - again as with my first I am not sticking to this. She seems interested and has her first tooth at 4 and half months and is enjoying the food - so I feed her. My philosophy is - if you have teeth you can start on solids - but this is a personal choice.

In closing I would like to say that feeding your baby 'green' is quite simple - I wish I had done so with my other children. But live and learn.

Mother's going GREEN Day 82 - Wildflowers and Bees

2008-08-16T16:38:00.000-07:00

Most of us have heard about the decrease in bees over the last few years. A decrease of approximately 30% as noted by the US Agriculture Department's Agricultural Research Service and in 2006, beekeepers began reporting losing 30 percent to 90 percent of their hives.

The decrease in the bee population has become known as Colony Collapse Disorder. The cause of this disorder is still unknown. Possible explanations include pesticides; a new parasite or pathogen; or are under stress which makes them more vulnerable to pests and disease and perhaps limited or contaminated water supplies.

An estimated 80 percent of all flowering plants depend on a living creature, mainly bees, for pollination and seed production. The remainder of the pollinators are other insects including butterflies. “Bees are responsible for one in three bites of food you eat,”says Tuell, who studies bees as a post-doctoral researcher at Michigan State University. In the past few years, honeybees have started to disappear, a puzzle known as Colony Collapse Disorder. While the cause is unknown, some scientists believe honeybees are under stress that makes them more vulnerable to pests and disease.

Bees are responsible for pollinating the food we eat and the farmers need the bees to grow more food for us to eat. No bees equals no or very little and expensive food.

Hear in our home we are trying to create a safe little haven for the bees and have planted wild flowers almost everywhere. They are pesticide free which is what these little guys need and did you know that a bees favourite flower colours are blue, purple, yellow and white. Butterflies like red. (see picture of our flowers to the right)

In this small way we are helping the bees. We have seen a lot bees in our garden (and butterflies too) and no we are not afraid of getting stung and my husband to is slowly overcoming his fear. Like I always tell him when he tries to swat them away: "If you do not bother them, they will not bother you."

Help the bees, the environment and the future of our food and plant a garden for the bees.

Mother's going GREEN Day 82 - Children's Eco-Craft

2008-08-15T13:38:00.000-07:00

Today's craft is rather simple. It will make a Simple Statement. A Green Ribbon, show the world that you support a Green lifestyle. It is so simple that you can make a whole bunch of them and give them to your friends.

The Green Ribbon.

You will need:

-- Green Ribbon

-- A Safety Pin

-- Needle and Thread (Ideally the same colour thread as the ribbon - but just use whatever colour thread you have on hand - no point going to buy a matching thread. The only green thread I had was a dark green colour.)

Instructions (with an adults help if required):

-- Cut a length of your green ribbon (mine is approximately 8 inches long)

-- Approximately a third from the bottom sew on your safety pin (see pictures to right)

-- The fold the ribbon to create a loop (ensure the cross over piece of ribbon covers your stitches of sewing the pin on)

-- Stitch the cross over piece of ribbon in place.

You're done. Wear your ribbon with 'Green' pride - make a few more and share....

Mother's going GREEN Day 78 to 81 - Back on the GREEN Schedule

2008-08-14T12:25:00.000-07:00

Day 78, Day 79 miss a few Day 81. Having the husband at home for a few days after our vacation puts my schedule out of whack. As I explained to him I run a tight ship around here and he just gets me out of my routine. Makes my life much busier as I now need to tend to his needs too... All the wives out there - I am sure you can relate!!! But he is back at work today and life returns to normal. Please do not get me wrong - I enjoy having my husband around and miss him now that he is back at work but now I have time to get back to blogging...

On the subject of my dear darling husband - he seems to have taken some several steps back on the green scale since we returned from home..... that darn darling husband (DDH). I asked him to go to the store to pick up some organic baby rice cereal - (started solids for our little one - but more on that on a another posting).

The DDH returns after several hours with plastic bags of stuff....His excuse for the plastic: "Well I did not think to take the canvas bags as I was just getting cereal". Then why did you not just get the cereal.....

Then there was the new coffee maker - Here is a snippet of the conversation:

"Jen the old one is terrible does not keep the coffee warm after a couple hours and it spills the coffee when you try and pour it - and besides this one does not have a pot so no spills and you can get a cup of coffee with one hand - look the picture on the box. The mother is holding her child while she gets a cup of coffee - I just had to get it."

With a stunned expression I respond: "Did you forget that we only buy stuff we really and truly need - not just want and besides I never had a problem pouring a cup of coffee with one hand using the old coffee pot. And you should be drinking the coffee after it is made and not leaving it turned on all morning hoping it will stay warm when you want it."

Still hoping to get himself out of his ungreenness he states: " Well if I use this coffee maker, I can make coffee to take to work in a reusable cup rather than buy some on the way to work; idling the car while I wait to go through the drive-through and then land up throwing away the cup - now that is a good thing you can post in your blog."

"Sure, and you could not do all that with the old coffee pot?" I ask still a little stunned by this new object that has intruded into my green world.

If you are wondering where I am going with this - Well it is quite simple - Do not buy stuff you do not need. Do not fall for the marketing on the packaging and do not buy things on a whim!!! Think GREEN!!!

Mother's going GREEN Day 77 - Light Shade of Green Vacation

2008-08-10T18:28:00.000-07:00

Well our family is back safe and sound from our vacation. Very tiring but very enjoyable at the same time. A nice break.

Attempted as much as possible to stay on my green track but I will admit being on a vacation away from home does present many challenges. I am sad to admit that I did succumb to many of the not so green activities.....

I did pick up a plastic bag or 2 - those Disney bags - I felt I needed one as a souvenir - why I am not sure.

Although we took our Klean Kanteen water bottles with us we still used some plastic bottles - boy is it ever hot in California, and we needed lots of cool drinking water. We purchased some cold bottles of water the first day but did reuse them (not recommended because of the plastic) but it was only for a few days... I came up with a great way to keep the refilled bottles cooled - I packed them into a soft sided cooler - filled it with ice and kept it in the bottom of the stroller - we had cold water all day. The melted ice (water) I then sprinkled in one of the many flower beds thus reusing the water.

Food was another source of a challenge of staying green. We did pack several organic snacks from home which we ate as snacks and for breakfast had cereal which we purchased there but for lunch and dinner we had fast food or either ate at restaurants. But I can say at least we put in the effort.

Staying in the hotel room was the easiest - I managed to do everything I set out to do in an earlier blog - so that's one good green thing.

Souvenirs - now that was a real challenge especially for the kids - so many toys and paraphernalia with lots of packaging but we did let them get a couple of things. For myself I managed to pick up a 100% cotton dress and a beautiful paper sun hat. It says it is paper but it looks like a straw hat. Both natural and zero packaging. The biggest souvenir will be all the pictures we took and ticket stubs, maps etc. I will be making each of my kids a "memory" book of their vacation.

Lessons learned: It is tough to maintain your green status on a holiday, especially when you are fairly new to the green thing. But we learn from experience and next time I know I will be better prepared especially when it comes to the food - I would say that was our biggest downfall.

Mother's going GREEN - Day 65 to Day 76 - On Vacation

2008-07-30T17:24:00.000-07:00

VACATION To all my blog readers - I am now on vacation. Started a little earlier than expected as there was a very large "rock slide" blocking our quick way out to the airport. We now have to take a 10 hour detour to get to the city and our trip. With 3 kids we will probably need to make several stops on the way so we will be leaving a day earlier to compensate for this. An unexpected road trip (not great for the environment and not at all good for my one tank of gas a month challenge - to my friends at Our Green Year - does this constitute as an emergency?)

The rockslide has closed the road for approximately 5 days they (the news) is saying. It is believed that no one has been injured or killed - thank goodness. It did happen late at night.

I will blog as soon as I return (Sunday August 10, 2008) with some more tips on green travelling and to report on how we 'greened' our vacation.....

Mother's going GREEN Day 64 - Cloth Diapers and Vacation

2008-07-29T18:02:00.001-07:00

As those of you already know from reading my blog on a regular basis, I use cloth diapers on my baby and love them. Deciding to go on vacation brought on a challenge of keeping the cloth diapers clean. Although I probably could find a laundromat near the hotel I am staying in - did I really want to spend every second evening washing diapers after a fun filled day which would probably leave me exhausted? What about the film of 'bad' detergent left behind in those washers and driers? And I do not think I could trust the hotel laundry service to use a natural detergent. You see one of the things with cloth diapers is you do need to wash them with care and with a natural detergent in order for them to retain their absorbency...

Hence, for our vacation I opted to go with a disposable diaper. Now not any disposable diaper would do. My babies bum has been chemical free for sometime now and I hated the thought of placing a 'disposable diaper' on her bottom. My search began for a 'natural disposable' diaper. I did find a few out there Seventh Generation and Nature Babycare to name a couple. I choose to go with Nature Babycare. The packaging is 100% biodegradable. The diaper is too. Now I know that is not 100% accurate of anything as it still finds its way into a landfill where the conditions are not quite right for it to degrade as it should, but at least it is a possibility and made from all natural ingredients and is cholrine free.

To read more on this diaper and the company behind it, visit: http://www.naty.com/.

Okay, so I am cheating on my cloth diapers but only for a few days..... I will be back to them as soon as I get home.

Mother's going GREEN Day 63 - Green your Hotel Stay

2008-07-28T14:22:00.000-07:00

As with your air travel when going on vacation you can look for hotels you are doing something for the environment and state as much in their policy. For us though we chose a hotel that would offer us a good rate - since my husband is in the industry we got a really good rate. However, although they have an environmental policy on their corporate web page - in my opinion it does not add up to much.

Having said that there are ways you can still "green" your stay at the hotel and it is similar to what you are already doing at home. (just thought of something funny....call ahead and ask what type of light bulbs are in the rooms - if it is not the environmentally friendly kind - perhaps we can pack a few and replace what is in our room anyway - an environmental token) Anyway back to how you can green your stay....

-- On entering your room unplug some of the many lamps (there always seem to be so many lamps in hotel rooms) as we already know that even if it is plugged in it still uses energy. Turn the air conditioning down or off or heating down.

-- Conserve water as you would at home (not running the tap while you clean your teeth; maintaining your 3 to 5 minute shower)

-- Ensure that you turn off all lights when leaving the room - if you get a turn down service ask that they do not turn on any lights or radio. (My pre-mother life was also in the hotel industry and I remember that when our VIP hotel guests would check in we would have the room set in a 'welcoming atmosphere': some gentle lighting (light turned on) their favourite music playing on the radio (radio turned on) etc. Looking back I can see how wasteful this is as guests never show up when expected and that energy just wasted perhaps for hours).

-- Reuse your towels for at least a week. That is what we do at home - so why should it change when on vacation. Most hotels offer you the choice - that if you hang your towel up - you do not require new ones. Although this is not always followed by the housekeeping staff I found a cool little sign from Go Green Travel which is what I will be using to ensure we reuse our towels and elimanate the energy used to wash them after we have only used it once.

-- Don't use the little packages of soap, shampoo and body wash. It is probably full of chemicals. Instead bring and use your own tried and trusted products which are environmentally friendly and you will not waste all the 'small' packages.

-- Use the little recycle bin that most hotels offer in the room and recycle all that you possibly can.

Enjoy your stay and make it GREEN.

Mother's going GREEN Day 62 - Air Travel

2008-07-27T16:35:00.001-07:00

Well it is almost time for our family vacation. This is not an annual activity for us - the last time we travelled as a family was 2 years ago and was to visit family out east.

On Saturday August 2, 2008 we head off to Disneyland.... The kids are so excited...so am I (neither my husband nor myself have ever been).

A family vacation comes with many green challenges and the first one is: How to get there? I took this one quite seriously... I did the research on a train but when I learned it would take us 35 hours to get to where we wanted to go - there was no way. It came down to the environment or my sanity. Call me selfish but I chose my sanity. For those who would choose the environment - well I doubt you have ever traveled with 3 children under 5 ~~and a husband~~.

The research then began on airlines. Some airlines like Air Canada have environmental policies and as stated in their policy they have ongoing commitment to finding and implementing innovative solutions for protecting the environment ......And are well on their way towards their ambitious goal of improving fuel efficiency by an additional 25% between 2006 and 2020. Needless to say we booked with Air Canada. So check out the airlines environmental policy before you fly.

If flying still makes you feel guilty you can purchase "carbon offsets" by buying carbon offsets lets you negate CO2 emissions that you would use in flying or just about any CO2 producing activity. Air Canada has also partnered with Zerofootprint and allows you to calculate your CO2 emissions and then purchase the required amount of offsets. So for a mere $25.00 I have offset our families air travel CO2 emissions.

While flying you can do other simple things: reuse those earphones from your previous flight and then just keep on using them; bring your own healthy snack in a food safe container to avoid the fast food and packaging that comes with it. Chose direct flights - it is the landing and taking off that produces the most CO2 emissions. Pack light - the less baggage you have the lighter the plane, the less energy required to fly.

Green your air travel provides the following air travel statistic: Flying to Europe and back from the US contributes 3 to 4 tons of CO2 per person. That’s more than what 20 people in Bangladesh produce per year and roughly half the CO2 produced by the average American annually via all other sources (home heating, lighting, driving a car, etc.).

Mother's going GREEN Day 61 - Signs of Change?

2008-07-26T19:50:00.000-07:00

Sometime ago I watched the movie "An Inconvenient
Truth" with Al Gore, I did enjoy it but both my husband and I preferred the one called "The 11th Hour". narratted by Leonardo DiCaprio. One scene in the movie "An Inconvenient Truth" stands out for me and in my daily life I often recall it. It is at the end of the movie and Al Gore is walking through an airport terminal and the voice over is of him speaking: "I keep looking for signs of change..."

I too keep looking for signs of environmental change.... I live in a small community and as I go about my daily life I feel good about the choices I am making and can visualize the impact - but then I go into the larger city and I see sooo many people and I watch them with all their plastic shopping bags and I wonder.... is change happening.... it seems difficult to see amongst those plastic shopping bags - the too much plastic packaged merchandise - the rows and rows of toxic products in the big box stores - the many many cars on the road - and how people toss out their garbage without a care in the world.

I have - when I go out and need to grab a quick something to eat - bring my garbage home with me as I feel there are not enough option for me to properly dispose of my garbage. Sure there is a box for glass bottles and perhaps cans next to the garbage bin - but what about the plastics and the paper. Today I brought home the banana peel from my banana (food for my worms) The empty juice bottle and a paper napkin - just so I could dispose of it properly.

Then I return home to my smaller community, were life seems simpler and I feel I can make a difference. Do I see the signs in my own community - to be honest very little - but it is a smaller scale and I at least feel more hopeful....

Mother's going GREEN Day 60 - Children's Eco-Craft

2008-07-25T19:27:00.000-07:00

Today's craft will add some sparkle to our summer nights on the deck.

Tin Decorative Candle Holders

You will need:

-- Tin Cans

-- Hammer

-- Nail

-- Tea Light Candle

-- Safety Glasses

Instructions (with an adults help if required):

-- It is best that you fill the cans with water and then freeze them - it just makes it easier.

-- Draw a design on the cans (after the water has frozen)

-- With a hammer and a nail punch out the design (this is when you may need the safety glasses)

-- Allow ice to melt. (I stuck mine in the garden where the sun melted the ice quickly and the water then went into the garden - rather than wasting it)

-- Insert the tea light candle

-- You may need to flatten out the bottom of the can especially if it pop out with the ice being in it.

And there you have it - A nice decorative candle holder.

Mother's going GREEN Day 59 - My Pet Peeve

2008-07-24T15:21:00.000-07:00

It seems most green bloggers have a pet peeve. So I thought I would share mine. People who do not follow the water restrictions placed on their community.

A few weeks ago; I read in our local paper of what they are calling Phase 3 Water Conservation. It says that we need to conserve water by only watering our lawn twice a week. 1/2 an inch each time. Odd houses can water on Thursday and Sunday from 4:00pm to 9:00pm and even numbered houses can water on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 4:00pm to 9:00pm. Very simple straight forward instructions. For those who may not have picked up the paper or did not read it or can not read; it is announced on the local radio station.

WHY THEN ARE PEOPLE STILL WATERING THEIR LAWN on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and in the heat of the day????? It drives me crazy to see this.

If you are reading this and are one of the people who blatantly ignore your communities water restrictions - PLEASE ADHERE TO THEM NOW!!! - Thank you.

Mother's going GREEN Day 58 - Some Updates

2008-07-23T20:00:00.001-07:00

I thought I would let you know what has been happening with our changes that we have made so far.

Our garbage is now a bag a week. Not a big bag, but 20" by 21" bag - so in a month we fill one garbage can for pick up. Which is great. I made the challenge of 1 can a month.

Our worms are eating a lot of our produce waste and already we are seeing the compost develop. They are so low maintenance it is unbelievable. No smell and very few fruit flies which is great.

Also, since our dryer broke awhile back we have been hanging our clothes out to dry. The drier has been fixed, hopefully it is working as I have not yet used it again. It still amazes me how the stains come out of the cloth diapers. I get all excited now when I have a badly stained diaper as I want to see if this stain is too tough for the sun. Haven't had one yet.

I am also very happy with our switch in body wash. With the old stuff (the chemical stuff) I would always break out in little blisters on my arms after being in the sun. This would happen every summer when I ventured out into the sun. Initially the doctor said it was an allergic reaction and to change soaps. I did but the same old thing. Then she said just wear sunscreen and you will be fine. Whatever.... that was about 3 years ago. Now having switched to the natural chemical free body wash - I have no side affects from the sun. Coincidence, I think not.

Our walking everyday is great I have lost about 5 pounds of my post pregnancy weight in the last week and probably saved that in gas too.

Our vegetable garden is great - we are already eating lettuce and Swiss chard from it. I can hardly wait for the tomatoes to come. It looks like we will also have an amazingly large pumpkin for our jack-o-lantern come Halloween. The strawberries and blueberries get eaten by the children as soon as they are ripe. So nice for them to pick a fresh snack in the garden while they play.

Going green is not difficult - in fact rather simple - you should try it too

Mother's going GREEN Day 57 - Stair Climbing

2008-07-22T18:05:00.001-07:00

Today's post is something simple. Something we can all start to do NOW. Climbing Stairs!

Whenever the opportunity presents itself, you can take the stairs. It will not kill you - only make you fitter, healthier and stronger.

I personally opt to take the stairs. My kids love to push all the buttons in the elevator or fight about who will get to push the button - so to avoid this we take the stairs. Okay if we have to go up 30 flights I would probably take the elevator - or if I have a stroller.

If you work/live on a high floor perhaps you could start by taking the stairs on the way down and maybe once a week take them up and work your way to taking the stairs 80% of the time. You could then cancel your gym membership. Saving you money.

Using an elevator requires energy (electricity). But then you say - It is using the energy whether I am on it or not. But if you are the only one on it - then the energy is just for you. And if you take the stairs it may inspire others to do the same.

Mother's going GREEN Day 56 - Deodorant

2008-07-21T19:31:00.001-07:00

This topic is one I have personally been trying to avoid. Deodorant... But my chemical laden, aluminum one has all been used up. As I am going 'green' I have to now face the 'green' facts and switch my deodorant.

It took me forever to find the "poison" one that I just used. It worked well for me, but as it turns out not for the environment and I guess not for my health either. But masking the body odour and perspiration it was great.

I guess now a new search begins: The search for the right "Green" deodorant for me. Since everybody's body chemistry is different we all react differently to deodorants. I might have to try a few before I find one that works for me. When I asked my husband on Saturday to pick up some deodorant for me I said: "Please get me a 'green' deodorant and my regular one, in case the 'green' one just does not work." He in all his 'greenness' responded: "I am not buying 2 - you're going green so the 'green' one it will have to be." So I have it and am trying it. Hopefully it will work.

I have tried the crystal rock kind and it never worked for me - If anyone has any suggestions I will be quite open to hearing them. The one I am to start trying is: "Tom's of Maine" - It says: Naturally, it works" - well we will wait and see.

I have read too that if you need a quick refresh all you need do is wipe your underarms with rubbing alcohol and then reapply. I will try this trick too if need be. All I can say is thank goodness I am married already - as I am not sure I would be trying this if I was still single.

Mother's going GREEN Day 55 - Breastfeeding

2008-07-20T21:26:00.001-07:00

Today's post will be rather brief. Our family has had a rather busy 'family' day with a picnic at a local natural lake with a barbecue and swimming. I was glad to see many families and families with infants and their mothers breastfeeding. We all have our own style some cover up discreetly, some find a very private and secluded spot and some (like me) well whatever.... My motto is: anywhere, anytime. And as I recently found out as a Canadian it is my right and is protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights.

Breastfeeding is the way to go both the health benefits for the child and mother, plus all the positives for the environment. No energy consumed (warming bottles, producing bottles and formula.) No water used in the preparation of formula. It is all ready and set to go.

Now I understand the personal choice here. But I am also certain that one should take into account all the benefits when making that choice and they far out way the benefits of bottle feeding. Some mothers cannot breastfeed. My first child was a natural and I breastfed for 22 months. My second child was a little more difficult. It was very challenging at first just to get started any much of my support suggested just switching to formula. That was not an option for me so we continued and struggled and persevered until she was about 41/2 months and then I started to supplement with formula. The thing is I never gave up and even with supplementing I continued to breastfeed her until she was 18 months old. My newest arrival has taken to feeding quite well and I look forward to another 22 months of breastfeeding her.

The point is breastfeeding is the "green" way to go. It is good for mother earth. The mother and the child.

Mother's going GREEN Day 54 - Green Ribbon Pledge and Shopping

2008-07-19T21:14:00.000-07:00

Some days when it comes to writing my blog, I have so much to write on it can be tough to decide.. My husband suggested I write about the wonderful organic and local meal he prepared for dinner, I was going to write on deodorant; but after I read one of my fellow green bloggers post - I got side tracked into shopping (not for deodorant but for cool cool green stuff.)

Jollygoodandgreen wrote of the Green Ribbon Pledge - I decided to check it out and have joined her in her pledge. This is my pledge: Over the course of a year, the energy saved as part of your green ribbon pledge is 6810 kWh/year and 200 gallons of gasoline.

But while taking the Green Ribbon Pledge I clicked on to the store: The Rain Forest Site and here you can buy gifts for anyone and everyone and the great thing is you give back to the people who created your item, you give back to the environment. For the most part their products are organic, recycled, fairly traded and ethnic. You can purchase gifts to help others or animals. I purchased a pair of school shoes for a girl in Africa. South Africa is where I was born and raised it is my home so I chose to help those less fortunate on the continent Africa.

I could spend hours perusing the site. Great selection and always an opportunity to help the environment with every purchase.

Guys and Gals - GO SHOPPING!!!!!!! (guilt free - yes there is such a thing).

Mother's going GREEN Day 53 - Children's Eco-Craft

2008-07-18T18:52:00.001-07:00

When Fridays come along, I usually head to the recycling can and try figure out what we can create this week because we have an abundance of milk jugs I decided to put them to use. We also needed some sort of plant markers for our rooftop vegetable garden which is growing so well - so the idea of Vegetable Plant Markers came to mind.

Vegetable Plant Markers

You will need:

-- Empty Plastic Milk Jugs

-- Pictures of Vegetables

-- Glue Stick

Instruction (with adults help if required):

-- Cut long 'rain drop' shape from recycled milk jug (2 per marker)

-- Glue picture on the top of 'rain drop' shape cut out (I used printed pictures on the back side of an already used paper, but you can either draw your own or cut some from a magazine)

-- Glue on second 'rain drop' shape to cover picture - this will provide some waterproofing so our pictures do not get damaged.

-- Place markers in garden to identify your vegetable plants.

Mother's going GREEN Day 52 - The Car Wash

2008-07-17T20:15:00.000-07:00

My car is probably one of the not so clean cars on the road. I honestly do not have time to wash it and quite honestly have better things to do. But when it gets really dirty and dusty - when it is tempting to write on it with your finger "please wash me" then I head of to the drive through car wash. (okay - so not as dirty as in this picture)

Today, was the day I headed for the car wash and as we were going through it the thought occurred to me that this might not be the best environmentally friendly way to wash my car. As soon as I had a spare moment I was going to investigate this and here is what I found:

What is the most environmentally friendly way I can wash my car: doing it myself or going to the local car wash?

I figured washing the car by hand would be the most environmentally friendly way to go - since most of the time to be 'green' one needs to go 'old school' but as it turns out that washing our cars in our driveways is one of the most environmentally un-friendly chores we can do around the house. Unlike household waste water that enters sewers or septic systems and undergoes treatment before it is discharged into the environment. Which means that the water from washing your car in the driveway goes right into storm drains -- and eventually into rivers, streams, creeks and wetlands where it poisons aquatic life and wreaks other ecosystem havoc.

The water from out washed car includes the following harmful ingredients: gasoline, oil and residues from exhaust fumes; not to mention the detergents used in wasting the car, unless of course you are using an environmentally friendly detergent but even so it has the other chemicals I have just listed.

However federal laws in both the U.S. and Canada require commercial carwash facilities to drain their wastewater into sewer systems, so it gets treated before it is discharged back into the great outdoors. And commercial car washes use computer controlled systems and high-pressure nozzles and pumps that minimize water usage. Many also recycle and re-use the rinse water.

The International Carwash Association, goes on to say that automatic car washes use less than half the water of even the most careful home car washer. According to one report, washing a car at home typically uses between 80 and 140 gallons of water, while a commercial car wash averages less than 45 gallons per car.

For more info on this topic you can visit the following sites: http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tech-transport/car-wash.html

http://www.imagesautospa.com/Environmental.html

Needless to say I was thrilled about my findings - taking my car to the commercial car wash was in deed the green thing to do.

Mother's going GREEN Day 51 - Strawberry Jam Forever

2008-07-16T17:49:00.000-07:00

Strawberry Jam Forever and ever. You guessed it we made strawberry jam with all those Strawberries - 15 jars of it. Enough to last us at least 11/2 years to 2 years. That is if we do not give anyway as gifts. Christmas gifts, birthday gifts, teachers gifts. Homemade and it really tastes GOOD!!!!

One less thing to pick up from the store. Produced locally (I would like to say it required no energy - but it did to cook but I am sure not as much energy than those mass produced jars of jam.) The plus side is we can reuse the jars a thousand times over making other jams and pickling our veggie garden harvest.

Here is the recipe we used (we made a few adjustments to the original recipe) My husband who is a chef said this was okay to do - I on the other hand nervous to how it would turn out not following the exact instructions, but it worked out just great and delicious too. The anxious part for both of us was waiting for the lids to "pop" to ensure a good seal. But after the pop we breathed a huge sigh of relief. Our hard work was not in vain.

Strawberry Jam Recipe:

4 cups crushed strawberries

1/4 cup bottled lemon juice (we used fresh lemon juice)

1 teaspoon (5ml) of vanilla essence

4 cups of sugar

1 package (57grams) Fruit Pectin

-- Combine all ingredients except fruit into a large deep stainless steel saucepan and bring to boil on high heat

-- Add sugar

-- Stirring constantly, return mixture to a full rolling boil that can't be stirred down.

-- Boil hard for 1 minute.

-- Remove from heat and skim foam.

-- Ladle jam into hot sterilized jars within and 1/4 inch from the top rim.

-- Using a non metallic instrument remove air bubbles.

-- Wipe jar rim removing any stickiness

-- Put lid(s) on jars and screw tight firmly

-- Place jar in canner (we did not have one of these - instead we used a large pot of boiling water, enough water to cover the lid of jar by 1 inch.)

-- Boil jars for about 10 minutes.

-- Remove jars without tilting. (we used BBQ tongs for this task)

-- Cool upright and undisturbed for 24 hours (you may actually like we did hear the lids 'pop')

SEALED LIDS CURVE DOWNWARDS

-- Label and store in cool dry place

Mother's going Green Day 50 - The Big 50!!!

2008-07-15T18:06:00.000-07:00

We made it to 50 days of going green and living green.

I became a member of Alltop - all the top stories covered all the time. So my blog appears as one of the top green blogs - Way to go me. What is Alltop; in their words: "We help you explore your passions by collecting stories from “all the top” sites on the web. We’ve grouped these collections — “aggregations” — into individual Alltop sites based on topics such as environment, photography, science, Muslim, celebrity gossip, military, fashion, gaming, sports, politics, automobiles, and Macintosh. At each Alltop site, we display the headlines of the latest stories from dozens of sites and blogs."

Today also on day 50 I passed the 500 mark on "hits". Word is getting out and people are visiting my blog. I feel the purpose of me writing this blog is being realised - spreading the "green" word.

Happy 50th blog day to me.... Hip Hip Hooray!!

Mother's going GREEN Day 49 - Strawberry Fields Forever

2008-07-14T19:39:00.000-07:00

Today was strawberry picking day. The whole family set out to a local farm to pick strawberries. The children ate as they picked, hubby picked a great deal and I picked off and on while I looked after the baby.

It was nice to be out in the sun and surrounded by beautiful mountains. We picked a total of 20 pounds of strawberries.

Going out to pick strawberries taught the children that the food we eat is not just purchased in a store - but there are farmers who plant them and grow them. It was fun for our children to be out on the farm - "look mom a real barnyard and look horses"

The strawberries are grown without pesticides (good) but they do use fertilizer which was not organic. But we buy local organic first and if that is not available local. So we are supporting our local farmer.

In our excitement to get going and picking we forgot to bring our own container to bring the berries home so unfortunately we had to purchase some cardboard boxes - but at least we can recycle them.

Stay tuned to this blog to find out what we do with our 20 pounds of strawberries!!!

Mental Note: Next time we pick strawberries we will bring our own container.

Mother's going GREEN Day 48 - What we can do to combat Light Pollution

2008-07-13T21:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I spoke of the environmental and human health concerns that light pollution poses. Today, I will suggest ways in which we can help combat light pollution.

First off I joined the International Dark-Sky Association for $30.00. by doing this the money generated through membership and donations will help reduce light pollution; conserve energy
and enhance human health & the environment.

Other options I can personally implement are: Using light sources of with a minimum intensity required to accomplish the light's purpose; Turning lights off using a timer to turn off light when they are not needed and Improving lighting fixtures, so that they direct their light more accurately towards where it is needed, and with less side effects.

As opportunity presents itself I will also attempt to be an activist in lessening light pollution in my community, hopefully as time goes on I can attend community planning meetings where I can raise the issue of light pollution and suggest alternatives.

Mother's going GREEN Day 47 - Light Pollution

2008-07-12T20:12:00.000-07:00

(note the amount of light produced at night blocking our view of the stars)

I just adore the stars. Looking up and seeing the millions of stars on a quiet evening - or not!

I will say having lived in the cities in Canada, I lost my appreciation for them. If you were lucky you could see maybe 10 stars on a clear summer evening. But, I also had the luxury of living in the Rocky Mountains (Lake Louise) in Banff National Park for a year and my goodness the stars - the night sky was lit by trillions of stars - so beautiful. My new home in a small town in Southern British Columbia offers a night sky full of stars and my love for them again has been renewed. The old saying stands true "Out of sight out of mind".

The another night I had some trouble sleeping - when this happens I usually sit in the darkness on our deck and just enjoy the peace - that night it was a clear and calm night and the stars were visible in the sky which got me to thinking about what they call light pollution.

Light pollution has several consequences: Energy Waste, Disrupts Eco-systems and can have a detrimental effect on ones Health, not mention city dwellers and astronomers can not see the stars clearly.

The energy waste is quite clear - the more we light up the city the more energy we are wasting.

Within Eco- systems, life exists with natural patterns of light and dark, and disruption to this can disrupt the animal behaviour. Migrating birds are often confused by light coming from building structures and die needlessly when they collide with them. Light pollution also affects nocturnal insects, animals and plants continuous light pollution may lead to night species decline. The sea turtle who hatches on the beach needs to find its way to the ocean by moving away from the dark silhouette of dunes and their vegetation, light pollution interferes with this process by creating different shadows and silhouettes which confuse the turtles and the list of other nocturnal animals affected goes on...

Studies have also shown that light pollution can have health risks too. Humans need day and night patterns too. Light pollution can cause premature reproductive system ageing, and increase the risk of breast cancer and large intestine cancer in women.

For more information on the consequences of light pollution visit:
http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/medicine_health/report-77725.html; http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/01/light_pollution.php and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_pollution#Consequences_of_light_pollution.

On tomorrows post I will explore what we can do to help reduce some of the light pollution.

Mother's going GREEN Day 46 - Children's Eco-Craft

2008-07-11T20:08:00.000-07:00

Today's Eco-craft was crafted without my children . Their dad had the day off so they spent some quality time with him, and I according to my husband I was "sticking garbage together to hang on our door." Today I made a wreath out of recyclables.

Go Green Wreath

You will need:

-- Twigs (flexible ones) We collected ours the other day from the woods near our house

-- Recyclable items. (It can be anything) I used: Cardboard egg carton, pop bottle caps, milk jug lids, plastic bag from fruits, large yoghurt container lid, milk jug & the shower scrubby.

-- Paint and paint brush

-- Glue

-- String

Instructions: (with adults help if required)

-- Bend twigs into circular shape to create a wreath (tie as required)

-- Using the glue (glue gun works best) decorate wreath with recycled materials.

I used:

-- The shower scrubby for the 'ribbon' on the wreath

-- The yoghurt lid painted with the recycling sign

-- Colourful circular accents are the milk jug lids

-- The 'Go Green' sign was painted on a plastic piece cut from the milk jug

-- To make the 'pop top flowers' we cut 2 sections of a cardboard egg carton, painted the inside green. Glued a circular piece of clear fruit bag plastic to the centre to create a petal effect and then glued a bottle top in the centre as the flowers center.

Voila - we had our wreath. Be creative there are limitless possibilities to creating a wreath with a recycled theme.

Enjoy displaying your wreaths so everyone will know that you are 'Green'.

Mother's going GREEN Day 45 - Husband is showing signs of Green

2008-07-10T17:50:00.000-07:00

More and more these days My husband is exhibiting hues of green, he is starting to think with the environment in mind.

He has switched from a electric edge cutter thing to a manual hand held edge cutter. He is also enjoying using it as he gets a more precise cut and avoids cutting the edges too short. The environment enjoys it as no resources are used.

My husband is a chef and works in a large corporate hotel in the city. Lately he is starting to introduce organic food items to the menu. Yesterday he brought home some samples of cookies and granola bars that he will be switching to and they are all organic. He is also looking into organic meats and poultry and looking more at local suppliers for in season produce.

While he still needs to conform to "corporate" standards he is trying to go a little greener wherever he has the power to do so. Too bad the 'corporate' mandate could not be 'greener'. But baby steps....

My husband has also not brought home a plastic bag for awhile either. Way to go Hubby!!!

Moral of today's post: If my husband can live greener, then so can you...give it a try and don't worry that it just small things to start eventually you will catch on and just keep going.

Mother's going GREEN Day 44 - Alternative Transportation

2008-07-09T11:07:00.000-07:00

So we are back on track with our postings and today I post for well today... Wednesday July 9, 2008.

Take a look at our new set of wheels. Okay so it not a top of the line sports car with all the bells and whistles. It is a 'double stroller'. Following my green shopping suggestions I purchased it second hand from Craigslist. I am so happy with it.

I love to walk but have always found it a challenge with my 2 year old who likes to dawdle and then when she gets tired - sits down and refuses to move an inch and you land up carrying her, pushing a stroller with the infant in and rounding up the 5 year old - so long distance walks to run errands have been avoided.

But times are changing and changing quickly. With gas prices the way that they are - I need to do more walking. To save the environment but also my cash. Yesterday we went on a long walk, ran errands in our new set of wheels - we were gone for a good 3 hours and it felt great. My 2 year old loves the stroller too (finally a new thing not just for the baby but for her too). I plan to do so much more walking and that goes for the winter too. Walk to school, walk to the recreation centre, walk to the movies (which we did on Sunday) just walk and walk. Besides it will also help me get rid of some of the post-pregnancy weight.

So to my green friends at Our Green Year - I say: "I am, personally, up to taking your one tank challenge." This is were you take on the challenge of using only one tank of gas a month (lucky for those who have a big tank - ha ha). My husband unfortunately cannot join in the fun as he needs to drive a long distance to and from work. But there is no need for both of us to guzzle up the gas. Why don't you take up the challenge too!!!

Remember you do not have to walk, you can cycle, skateboard, Rollerblade or take public transportation like a bus.

Mother's going GREEN Day 43 - Drying our Clothes

2008-07-09T10:35:00.000-07:00

Again, you may note that I am posting a day later for day 43. Internet is still intermittent - but I see crews in the neighbourhood working to get it fixed. Today I post for Tuesday July 8, 2007.

As I had noted in an earlier post on Day 29 - Greening your Laundry - sunshine is the best way to dry your clothes. I also mentioned that my husband probably would not be open to the idea of hanging our clothes outside to dry. How things change in a few days.

On Monday - the same day our power went out - well our dryer broke too... It is still under warranty thank goodness and we are waiting for a repair man to come and have a look at it. Until then those cloth diapers still need to be washed and dried - so by default my husband has no option than to have them drying outside. I set up a nice little area on our front deck (it gets the most sun) and it is not visible from the street - just a visual bonus. My husband was impressed by the set up and announced "Hey, why don't we dry all our clothes outside on a sunny day - they will smell so good and we can save energy. Now that's something for your blog" Sometimes we (wives & women) just have to let them think it was their idea while we are already 3 steps ahead. So it was decided drying our clothes outside - weather permitting. Victory for mother earth.

Now let me tell you how impressed I was with drying the diapers in the wonderful sunlight.... words just can't express my amazement. One of the blogs I read regularly: Jolly Good AND Green suggested that sunshine is probably the best natural bleach out there and she goes on to explain how the stains came out of her babies diapers by hanging in the sun. I had to try. Cloth diapers get stained - you wash them and they are clean but stained. Yes throw in some natural oxygen bleach - but they are still a little stained. Put them in the sun to dry and those stains that you thought would never come out are GONE. Yes gone completely gone - not a hint of a stain even on the badly stained diapers. Just gone. If you don't believe me just try it yourself. It is miraculous - IT IS THE POWER OF THE SUN.

Mother's going GREEN Day 42 - Electrical Power

2008-07-08T20:03:00.000-07:00

As some of you may note; my post for day 42 comes one day late... We had a power outage yesterday - for us it lasted a few minutes but for some of our town into the early evening. Because of this our Internet connection was affected and now was only operating intermittently - not sure how - but that is what the cable company told me after several calls begging them to see what they could do to get me up and running so I could do my post. To no avail - hence I post today for Monday July 7,2008.

It was really weird - early in the afternoon as I was researching our use of electrical power (my kids have TV time for an hour after lunch and I surf the net) and BOOM the power went out. how ironic...

Since going green I do not turn on any lights - it works well now that it is summer as when it gets dark it is almost time for bed and then I usually sit on our deck and enjoy some quite time by the light of the moon.....It is great. I have always been a fan of saving electricity as it it a savings you also see in your monthly bill. I have been known to sit and read in almost darkness before turning on a light (which by the way does not damage your eyes only outs strain on them).

You too can save electricity by following these simple steps:

-- Do not leave lights on in a room when you leave.

-- If you have a porch light and would like it stay on to welcome your night time visitors - invest in a motion detector light that goes on when some one approaches your house. We have one as my husband often only gets home after dark and I do not want to leave a light on so he can find his way in putting the key into the lock - now the light goes on as needed and turns off 5 minutes later.

-- Turn off electrical appliances when not in use. Even the ones that are just in sleep mode. If it still has some sort of light/clock running even when it is off - it is still drawing power and using electricity.

-- Cut down your TV watching time (this benefits you and the environment). Get out and enjoy the world or in the evening pick up a good book.

-- The hardest one for me is also cutting down on my computer time - and also making sure I turn it off when I get up and leave. That includes the monitor.

-- As mentioned before only run appliances like the dishwasher and washing machine with full loads. Also, decide what you want from the fridge before you open it. No need to stand with the fridge door open as you decide on what you need. You warm up the fridge, which then needs to use more energy to get it back to it's original temperature. Same thing with the oven when you are cooking. Use the oven light rather than opening the door to check.

-- Install energy efficient light bulbs - now that is an easy one.

For some numbers on how much electrical energy we use world wide look here. The United States ranks number 1; Canada number 8; United Kingdom number 13.

Electricity production requires the use of non renewable resources such as coal, oil, (natural) gas, uranium, of semi renewable resources such as biogas, wood, waste, or of renewable resources such as water, wind and solar energy. The non renewables form by far the most important resources for electricity production. Therefore there is an almost direct relation between electricity production and the use of fossil non-renewable resources. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the electricity generated in America in 2002 came from the following sources:
Coal 50%
Nuclear 20%
Natural Gas 18%
Hydro 07%
Other 05%

Here is some information on the relationship between oil and electricity and the impact on the environment.

Hence, you can see why it is important to conserve electrical energy or use a renewable form for producing electricity such as solar or wind power.

Mother's going GREEN Day 41 - A Day at the Movies

2008-07-06T20:33:00.000-07:00

Taking a page out of Mom Goes Green blog, our family too decided to head for the theatres and watch the Disney Pixar movie WALL-E.

I seldom get out to the theatre what with an infant and all, but today the whole family went out. My son who is 5 loved the show and understands a little more on how our actions can impact the planet - the garbage and such. Since "going green" he has often asked me what the world may look like if we do not take care of it - I think this movie gave him a visual but also hope.

It definitely opens the door for discussions with children about the environment, which I think is very important considering the environmental crisis that the world is in. I too hope it can open the minds of the parents too and we can all live a little more environmentally conscious.

If you have children and even if you do not - this is a great movie to see and a movie with an environmental message.

Mother's going GREEN Day 40 - Recycled Toilet Paper

2008-07-05T21:07:00.000-07:00

I remember back to my teenage years when we would joke about "recycled toilet paper" in the future. Well, that future is here and it is no joke.

But the day has come when we switched to recycled toilet paper. As I have mentioned before, my husband always buys in bulk, especially when things are on sale like toilet paper, Kleenex and paper towels. He often comes home from grocery shopping with large volumes of these products - it used to drive me crazy as we would then have to store all of this stuff.

But I am happy to say we have now used our last roll of the "virgin" toilet paper. And now it is okay for my husband to go out and buy in bulk as long as it is the 'good' stuff - like the stuff he recently purchased. Cascades 100% recycled. The label reads:

-- Recycled content(majority post consumer fibres): 100%

-- Virgin Fibre: 0%

-- Chlorine Bleaching: 0%

-- Water saved vs. paper industry manufacturing average: 80%

-- Added fragrances and colours: 0%

-- Environmental certifications: 2

-- Quality: 100%

A study shows that if every household in the United States just replaced 1 roll of the regular toilet paper with a roll of recycled toilet paper we could save 423 900 trees. Now that is a lot of trees.

For some fun facts on toilet paper and what has been used prior to 'toilet paper' visit: Toilet Paper World.

And in case you are wondering - Recycled toilet paper is not made from toilet paper but other recycled paper.

Make the change to recycled toilet paper.

Mother's going GREEN Day 39 - Childrens Eco-Craft

2008-07-04T19:04:00.000-07:00

This weeks craft can be used to add some scent to your home. We hung one in the cupboard were our garbage can is and another in our laundry room above the dirty cloth diaper bucket.

Cinnamon and Spice Rope

You will need:

-- Plastic bag

-- 3 x Cinnamon Sticks

-- 2 x Coffee Filters

-- Spice/Herbs

-- String

-- Ring (optional - I used a ring from an old key chain)

Instructions: (with an adults help if required)

-- Cut the plastic bag into strips (at least 6 fairly long strips). Lay the bag flat and cut up from the bottom into strips.

-- Tie at least 6 strips of the plastic bag to the ring. If you do not have a ring you can use a piece of string with the ends tied together to create a loop.

-- Braid the plastic bags (2 strips for each part of the braid). Tie it off when you reach the end with string or an extra plastic strip.

-- Take the coffee filters and place about 2 teaspoons of herbs/ spice in the centre. Pinch together and tie - see picture to right

-- Finally tie the cinnamon sticks and spice pockets to the braided plastic and hang up.

Mother's going GREEN Day 38 - Washing Dishes

2008-07-03T19:33:00.000-07:00

"Mom, I thought we aren't supposed to be using plastic" was my son's words as I served up apple juice in plastic cups today. The thing is I had no clean glassware. I have recently changed my dish washing habits. My routine was to turn on the dishwasher after breakfast. It would have lunch, dinner and breakfast dishes (sometimes it was full and sometimes not). But now my routine is no longer - I wait until I have a full load. I had to go out and purchase more cutlery as I kept running out of that now it looks as if a couple more kids glasses are in order.

The "Green" on Dish washing:

-- A study refered to in treehugger.com proves that the dishwasher uses only half the energy and one-sixth of the water, less soap too than hand washing. see more on this debate: hand vs. machine washing

-- Set your machine (if possible) on a low energy setting, low heat setting. My dishwasher has 3 options: Hi-Temp Wash (on or off); High-Temp Rinse (on or off); Heat Dry (on or off) - mine are all set to off thereby maximizing my energy efficiency.

-- Run your dishwasher only when you have a full load.

-- Use biodegradable soap with no chemicals

-- Don't use a commercial rinse agent (again full of chemicals) I use good old vinegar as my rinse agent. My dishes have never looked better.

Here's to the dishwasher - thank goodness it is a green choice, as I would not enjoy washing dishes by hand.

Mother's going GREEN Day 37 - Driving "Green"

2008-07-02T20:41:00.000-07:00

We live about an hours drive outside Vancouver, British Columbia (60km or so) along a beautiful mountain road with lots of twists and turns. And sometimes I need to make that trip into the city.

There is a rail track that runs right next to the road but alas no passenger trains or I would by far prefer to take the train. It is a 'political' thing that their is no passenger train - I would say about 50% of our community commutes to the city on a daily bases for work (my husband included). Lots of CO2 !!!!!! Now if only the train could take you there that would cut down on some of that pollution. But I think that is going to take awhile for that to happen.

However, there are green ways to drive, and I use the book Green for Life by Gillian Deacon as reference to some of them:

Drive the speed limit - cars engines will operate more efficiently at the speed limit, as they are designed for this. Plus it is safer too.

Keep your cars tires at the correct pressure - Tires that are not inflated enough cause a drag on the road - hence using more energy, gas and creating more pollution. To know what pressure is right for your tires - look at the sticker that should be inside the door frame of the drivers side.

Keep your oil clean - The cleaner your oil is the better the car will run - more efficiently. I prefer to have my oil changed 'professionally' this way the oil can be disposed of in an environmentally friendly way. If you choose to do it yourself, please ensure that you dispose of the oil correctly.

Do not idle your car - not even to warm it up - Idling your car only wastes the gas and creates unnecessary CO2. It is best to drive a car to warm it up and if you live in a really cold place it is more energy efficient to buy a block heater that can keep your engine warm. Along our highway into the city - there is a lot of construction going on - in preparation for the 2010 winter Olympics, hence there are often times when cars are stopped for construction purposes. There are signs posted asking us to save the air and turn off our cars and I think this is just great - although some people do not and prefer to idle for the 10 - 20 minutes that they need to wait.

So even if you do not yet drive a 'green' car - at least drive green!!

Mother's Going GREEN Day 36 - Food Storage

2008-07-01T21:06:00.001-07:00

With everything I have learned on plastics and food storage, I have had to re-look at my food storage.

I have had plastic containers for I do not know how long maybe 5 years that I store left over food in. I tended to heat the food in those same plastic containers and my favourite container for cooking rice in the microwave is plastic. All that has to go....

In its place I have opted for glass dishes - they do have plastic lids but are #4 lids so a 'safe' plastic. The glass containers are nice as I can clearly see what is in them when storing them in the fridge and now do not have to take it out and open it. A quick glance lets me know what it is. They are great for reheating too - I take of the plastic lid and cover with a plate and microwave as usual. My rice cooking dish has also been replaced and now it has a lid so if I do not use all the rice I can just put the lid on and save it for another meal - no need to dish it out into another container.

Food storage is an important part of our life. I do not relish the idea of cooking so usually cook more than required so I can just reheat for a future meal. Which turns out too to be energy efficient - since it takes the same amount of energy to cook 2 cups of pasta as it does 4 cups. Reheating in the microwave takes less energy than cooking it again. But I am now getting off topic about food storage.

I will soon be looking into some stainless steel food storage options too. Mostly for school lunches and snacks on the go. Glass can be pretty heavy to carry around and with kids there is always the chance of breaking it.

Mother's going GREEN Day 35 - Body Wash and so much more

2008-06-30T16:13:00.000-07:00

Body wash- something I have been researching for sometime. Knowing that I would soon run out of my regular chemical ladened body soap - and need to replace it with an environmentally friendly soap.

My search turned up many options some turned out to be quite expensive and then others I questioned how green friendly they were.

Finally I came to a decision. Dr.Bronner's Magic Soap. The bottle lists 18 different uses, but according to their website it has many more. Some uses include: dish washing, car washing, pet washing, laundry washing, deodorant, shampoo and the list goes on.

I purchased the lavender scent for my children and it can be used as a body wash, bubble bath, shampoo you name it. You only need 2 drops of it so I am sure it is going to last much longer than the regular stuff. Lavender I choose for my children to calm and soothe them before bedtime.

For my husband and myself I purchased the peppermint scent - this one because of it peppermint scent you can even use it as toothpaste. We will use this as a face wash too. I chose the peppermint as a fresh lively scent that will get us up and awake it the morning.

I know that I am going to enjoy these soaps. Oh and did I mention that it is Fair Trade too.

Mother's going GREEN Day 34 - Miscellaneously Green

2008-06-29T21:58:00.000-07:00

Was it ever hot today. 32 Celsius (89.6 Fahrenheit)!!! But it was a day of many small successes.

No energy wasted on indoor cooling systems: I have never been a fan of air conditioning. Not even in my car (it has always felt very artificial) In my car I prefer to have all the windows down and just let the breeze blow though. The same was true today. My husband wanted to plug in the electric fans to cool our house and I said no lets just open the back and front doors of the decks and let the very slight breeze blow through. It did the trick and kept the house cool.

Reused Water: Because it was so hot, and even though we are trying to live a greener life, I did want my children to enjoy splashing about in the cool water of a 'wadding pool'. We filled the pool a little with water - enough for them to cool down in and have some fun. What we did do with the water once we were done was water all of our garden plants (which we would have done anyway since it was such a hot day). This way the children could amuse themselves for a while as they filled their buckets (and thier watering cans) with water and watered our garden. Picture shows our daughter watering the small tree we planted on earth day.

Reduced waste and recycled: I am not one to feed our pets 'human' food. Although I have heard that it is better for them than 'pet' food. No additives. So today I made the decision that our dog could now eat the left over 'human' food that our kids do not eat. In doing so we throw away less of the food waste and our dog can eat a little treat too. Because I did not have an extra dog bowl for this delicious snack - I thought - mmmmm what can I use..... my green friends at Our Green Year spoke about recycling yoghurt containers, so I went off to our recycling bucket and dug one out. Cut it a little shallower (since we are buying the larger containers and not the individual containers - so we can reduce packaging) and presto I had a little dog bowl.

Organic Food: Food has never tasted better and tonight we enjoyed a 100% organic meal. Chicken with carrots and tomatoes with organic dressing. Even organic ketchup for the kids. Hats off to my husband who is getting into the 'organic food' thing.

No Plastic Bags: Further kudos to him as he also purchased another canvas bag when grocery shopping today after he realized that he would not have enough and to avoid the plastic ones. I believe my earlier post about his plastic pitfalls has put a little fear in him.

So all in all a great "going green" day in this household. Living green is becoming a habit, almost second nature. Which make this mom really happy.

Mother's going GREEN Day 33 - Cloth Napkins

2008-06-28T19:33:00.000-07:00

I picked up a package from the Post Office today. Yippee, my cloth napkins had arrived and just in time too.

Having small children can be messy at meal times and we have always given them a 'paper' napkin to wipe their hands and their face. My husband as you may recall does all of our grocery shopping and likes to buy in bulk so we had a ton of paper napkins - we just this morning used the last one, so my package arriving today was great timing. No more paper napkins, that get used once and then tossed out. We are now going with cloth.

I bought my napkins off E-Bay - vintage was the description which means 'used' - So we are not only going to save throwing away the paper but we are also reusing. Ones mans junk is anothers treasure. I purchased 45 napkins for approximately $1.00 each. Enough napkins to last us through several meal periods without having to wash them. It would be a shame to waste additional energy to ensure we had clean napkins - sort of counter environmentally productive.

I think now I am going to invest in some 'napkin rings' just to add some flare to our meals. Having the cloth napkins too reminds me of meals with my grandparents who always used cloth napkins. A mix of differnent patterned cloth napkins - just like mine.

Mother's going GREEN Day 32 - Childrens Eco-Craft

2008-06-27T20:28:00.000-07:00

Finally the sun came out in our part of the world....Yippee!! We crafted something simple outside in order to enjoy the sun.

Pet Rocks (a classic)

You will need:

Nice smooth rock
Paint
Google Eyes (if you have any – not required)

Instructions:

Paint rock in pet of choice (we did a Lady Bug – but you could do a bee or a regular bug whatever your creative heart desires).
Stick on Google eyes
We placed our 'Lady Bug' in our garden for a little bit of colour.

Mother's going GREEN Day 31 - Computers and Such

2008-06-26T19:04:00.000-07:00

I have been having some computer problems for the last several weeks. Finally, today a technician was out to have a look at the problems..... After a few hours we got it fixed but he did mention to me that it was probably time I got a new computer. "What a new one, this is only 5 years old" was my response. "Yes, but a computers life is only about 5 years" he said.

That got me thinking - if everyone has a computer which pretty much everyone does have that's an awful lot of computers being replaced every 5 years give or take a few years, and an awful amount of computers being made each year. I made a decision to hang onto this computer for much longer. Okay so it gives me problems, sometimes it can be slow, but it does the job I need it to do. When the time comes I will get rid of it the environmentally friendly way. My friends at Our Green Year speak to this (http://ourgreenyear.blogspot.com/search?q=e-waste). However, I also found a website that suggests much of the E-Waste is then just simply sent off to China, Nigeria, India and Pakistan (usually illegally) where it remains in toxic piles waiting to be recycled, poisoning the residents. http://www.greenlivingonline.com/HomeGarden/stop-e-waste-by-recycling/

So when it comes time to reinvest in another computer (I will try and make this one last another 5 years - by fixing it) I will ensure that the company I buy it from will also offer a good recycling program for it, when it's time comes. Here is another interesting site on all the hazardous chemicals in ones computer: http://www.canada.com/topics/technology/story.html?id=e8def77a-3a8f-420b-ad29-a9e08d03fca0.

Moral of this story: Don't throw out your computer or any electronics for that matter and be sure to recycle it ethically. With an E-Waste company that has ethical practises.

A side note on plastics: One of the comments I received recently was that their organic produce was packaged in an 'unsafe' plastic. This prompted me to check mine. What I had, all seemed to be in the 'safe' plastic. But what I did note though was my milk and juice are packaged in 'unsafe' plastic; whereas my old cleaning detergents (I had to blow of the dust and search the back of the kitchen cupboard for them) are mostly packaged in the 'safe' plastic. How ironic - I guess the cleaning companies just don't want any more poisons to leach into their already toxic product.

Mother's going GREEN Day 30 - Let's talk Trash

2008-06-25T18:47:00.000-07:00

On Day 2 of my blog, I spoke about our families 6 bags of garbage and how I needed to get that down, especially since on a whole we produce way to much garbage.

So today, Wednesday, garbage pick up day - I am proud to say that we only had 2 bags of garbage to throw out - a big drop from the 6 bags we originally had which was the norm. My husband even said "Hey, we do not even need to put the garbage can out for pick-up." And we didn't - but I put it out anyway as I want an empty garbage can for my next challenge - which is "One Can a Month". I know our family can make this challenge, we pretty much have with our 2 bag a week - but now that I have accomplished that - I want 1 bag a week. Lets see if I can do it. Can you do it? Join the challenge and find out.

Some of you may ask how did I do it? Simple really. First off I got rid of the disposable diapers, then we have our worm compost and we feed it lots. We feed it so much we needed to get more worms to eat it all - but in the end we are going to have great fertilizer. I also took more notice of what I was throwing into the garbage, simple things like plastic candy wrappers, paper clothes labels, the plastic do-hickeys that hold the clothes labels onto the clothes, paper receipts, the plastic that the bread comes in, the plastic do-hickey thing that holds the bread closed and many more small things that can be recycled. It is by doing this that I became aware that I was throwing away stuff no matter how small could that could still be recycled and now that is what we do. We recycle a lot more.

Word of the day in case you did not notice "do-hickey" and "recycled" .

Join the challenge of one trash can a month and to get more information visit: http://www.enviromom.com/enviromom/join-enviromoms-one-can-a.html

Mother's going GREEN Day 29 - Greening the Laundry

2008-06-24T20:09:00.001-07:00

In a previous post I spoke of the hazards and dangers of laundry detergent (see day 5 - Ignorance is Bliss).

So it has been just over three weeks of using my natural laundry detergent and it is great. My whites are white (maybe not whiter) my colours are bright enough (maybe not brighter) But they are naturally clean and 'green'.

For my tougher stains I am also not using a chlorine bleach but and oxygen bleach as with the laundry detergent it has zero chemicals and breaks down into oxygen and hydrogen when mixed with water, otherwise known as an oxygen bleach.

And for those softener sheets (which by the way are too loaded with chemicals) I read somewhere on the Internet that a ladies dog died from eating it because of the chemicals, I know our dog once chewed one up and it was sick for a week not too mention that they are not biodegradable so I have switched those too. I am now using a cloth type thing that you can reuse for 500 times (after that I will probably use it as a rag - it is the stripey thing in the picture) but at least it stays out of the landfill. Using these also allows me to feed the lint from the dryer to my worms - since it is chemical free.

The above listed items I picked up from the local grocery store in their organic 'green' section.

Using 'natural' products is not the only way you can green your laundry:

Use high efficiency washer and dryer (uses less energy).
Use the COLD wash and rinse cycle (uses less energy to warm the water - and your cloths get just as clean).
Ensure you wash a full load (no point just washing half a load) In our house I have 2 piles of laundry (whites and pastels colours & black and bright colours) ensuring full loads and I have never had my whites turn pink or any other funky colour.
Ideally you should dry your clothes outside (no energy usage except sunlight which too is an excellent natural bleach) Having grown up in South Africa this was the only way we dried our clothes. Very few people had dryers and I only saw them in Laundromats.
I am still using a dryer though - it has been wet and miserable here. But I use the least amount of time necessary to get the clothes dry and I use the low heat setting - if by chance they come out a little damp, which they sometimes do, I just hang them and let them air dry. I am not too sure either how my husband will take it "airing our dirty laundry" in the garden so to speak - baby steps - remember he still struggles on days with the NO plastic bag idea.
Ensure too, that your lint catcher thing is always cleaned (clean it after each load) this keeps the machine running efficiently thereby using less energy.

Mother's going GREEN Day 28 - More on Plastics

2008-06-23T19:56:00.000-07:00

After I wrote my blog yesterday, I still felt somewhat confused about the whole plastic thing so I decided to investigate a little further.

I looked in my kitchen at all my 'plastics' and found that 99% of the time they had a little logo (as depicted on this post) or visit http://www.packaginggraphics.net/plastic-recycle-logos.htm. This logo is quite important as it tells you what kind of plastic it is or is made of. Here is a quick summary of my findings or for more detailed information please visit: http://www.lifewithoutplastic.com/factsonplastic.htm

Symbol with a #1: Polyethylene terephalate (PET or PETE) is used in soft drink, juice, water, beer, mouthwash, peanut butter, salad dressing and other similar containers. This kind of plastic leaches Antimony trioxide. The longer a liquid is left in such a container the greater the concentration of antimony released into the liquid.

Symbol with a #2: High density polyethylene (HDPE) is used in opaque milk, water, and juice containers or cereal box liners. This type of plastic seems to be safe however research is ongoing.

Symbol with a #3: Polyvinyl chloride (V or Vinyl or PVC) is used in toys, clear food and non-food packaging (e.g., cling wrap), some squeeze bottles, shampoo bottles, cooking oil, shower curtains, medical tubing, and numerous construction products (e.g., pipes, siding). PVC has been described as one of the most hazardous consumer products ever created. It has been strongly linked to asthma and allergic symptoms in children; may cause certain types of cancer.

Symbol with a #4: Low density polyethylene (LDPE) is used in grocery store, dry cleaning, bread and frozen food bags, most plastic wraps, squeezable bottles (honey, mustard). Use of this plastic also seems to be safe but research is still on-going

Symbol with a #5: Polypropylene (PP) is used in ketchup bottles, medicine and syrup bottles, straws, Rubbermaid and other opaque plastic containers, including some baby bottles. Again, this plastic seems safe, but again, research is still ongoing.

Symbol with a #6: Polystyrene (PS) is used in Styrofoam containers, egg cartons, disposable cups and bowls, take-out food containers, plastic cutlery, compact disc cases. It leaches styrene, which is an endocrine disruptor mimicking the female hormone estrogen, and thus has the potential to cause reproductive and developmental problems.

Symbol with a #7: Other This category seems to be for all the other plastics that do not fit into any of the other groups It is important to interpret this category correctly because it includes polycarbonate - a dangerous plastic - but it also includes the new, safer, biodegradable bio-based plastics made from renewable resources such as corn and potato starch, and sugar cane.

Polycarbonate (the bad one) is used in most plastic baby bottles, clear plastic “sippy” cups, some “sports” water bottles, metal food can liners, some juice and ketchup containers, compact discs, cell phones, computers. Polycarbonate leaches Bisphenol A (BPA which has been in the news of late)

There is also two other types of plastic that fall under code 7 are acrylonitrile styrene (AS) or styrene acrylonitrile (SAN), and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). Both AS/SAN and ABS are higher quality plastics with increased strength, rigidity, toughness and temperature and chemical resistance. AS/SAN is used in mixing bowls, thermos casing, dishes, cutlery, coffee filters, toothbrushes, outer covers (printers, calculators, lamps), battery housing. The incorporation of butadiene during the manufacture of AS/SAN, produces ABS, which is an even tougher plastic. ABS is used in LEGO toys, pipes, golf club heads, automotive parts, protective head gear. Again these 2 kinds of plastic seem okay but are still undergoing research.

So in a nut shell: Plastics with the numbers 2, 4 & 5 seem the safest so far with some of number 7. I am personally going to stay clear of all plastics numbered 1, 3, 6 and the bad number 7's. Although I am still weary of the number 7. And personally I figure if it does not have a label on it it is just plain bad.

This has now cleared up the plastic mystery for me and hopefully for you to.

Mother's going GREEN Day 27 - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly on Plastics

2008-06-22T20:46:00.000-07:00

So we made the switch from plastic water bottles and sippy cups to the stainless steel variety. The most popular being Klean Kanteen. They are great. I did though find out too that there are safer plastics than others out there and will share some info with you:

SAFER: If it is a #2 HDPE (high density polyethylene), or a #4 LDPE (low density polyethylene), or a #5 PP (polypropylene)- safer plastic for use as food and drink containers AVOID: #6 PS (polystyrene) - can leach styrene, a brain and nervous system toxicant, associated with advesre effects on red blood cells, liver, kidneys and stomach in animal studies.

AVOID: Other plastics not found in numbers listed above which includes polycarbonate plascti made with bisphenol A (BPA). BPA can leach from polycarbonate plastic, especially when heated. It is a hormone disrupter, linked to the early onset of puberty, obesity, recurrent miscarriages, decreased sperm productions, and is associated with breast and prostate cancer.

Holy Camoly, pretty unnervinfg stuff. I for the most part am going to try and aviod plastic of pretty much all kinds, unless it is noted clearly to be the safer plastic as listed above. The Kleen Kanteen has plaxtic lids but is of the safe plastic.

I will keep you updated on my purge of plastics and what I plann to use as substitutions. For starters there will be no more milk in plastic jugs but in the cardboard cartons.

For more information visit: http://www.toxicnation.ca/

Mother's going GREEN Day 26 - The Health Food Store

2008-06-21T19:13:00.000-07:00

I in all my naivety always thought that a 'Health Food Store' was for those who worked out for 3 hours a day 7 days a week. I thought they really existed for the health nuts out there. Today, I decided to check out our local health store and was very pleasantly surprised.

While they did have there protein shakes, loose weight powders and muscle building pills they also had a vast selection of organic stuff.

Candies
Vitamins
Body wash
Shampoo/Conditioner
Baby stuff
Soaps galore
Cereals
Snack bars
Dried Organic Fruit

I was needless to say impressed. This mother going green life just got a little easier. Here was a place I could buy the organic stuff I needed. Not that I did not enjoy surfing the Internet to find things but it is equally as fun to go to a store and browse through the products. What made my visit to the store more pleasant is that they had a corner set aside in the store for kids. I mean a play mat with toys and a chair in case you needed to stop and relax and feed your hungry baby - which is exactly what I had to do. This particular store made it easy for me what with 3 kids and all to browse their wares and at no time did I feel rushed or pressured into buying anything. In fact I was so overwhelmed that I did not buy anything except some organic candy for my kids. I need time to process all they have to offer and I will be back.

Now for the novices out there - this is pretty standard stuff - but I am sure too that there are folks out there that have some misconceptions about the 'health food store' but I say dismiss them and check it out. Hopefully like me you will be pleasantly surprised by their organic selection of goods.

Mother's going GREEN Day 25 - Children's Eco-Craft

2008-06-20T19:43:00.000-07:00

Today we had a wonderfully warm day and the birds were out singing in the trees which inspired today's craft.

Pine Cone Bird Feeders

You will need:
Large pine cone (open – which means it has opened up and released it seeds – see picture to right)
Peanut Butter
Bird Seed
Wire or String

Instructions (with an adults help if required):

Spread Peanut butter over the pine cone and in between the crevices
Cover with birdseed (we just stuck the whole cone in a dish of birdseed and it sticks to the peanut butter)
Tie the wire or string onto the base of the pine cone
Hang is a suitable spot (we hung ours off our back deck)
Watch as the birds visit and enjoy a tasty treat.

Mother's going GREEN Day 24 - The Green Clean

2008-06-19T14:34:00.001-07:00

I think subconsciously I always new the cleaning products I used to clean were harmful. I always had an excuse not to clean. First off the fumes give me a headache especially when it came to cleaning the bathrooms. Small enclosed space - lots of chemical fumes - no wonder.

When I was pregnant I refused to do any cleaning - poor husband - worked so hard at work and had to clean too. And even after I was a little hesitant. What would happen if my baby cried and needed me while I was cleaning - all those fumes would not be good for them. Now I think back to when I used to clean the bath tub - I would dread bathing my children in the 'clean' bath as I was sure no matter how well I tried to rinse the cleaning agents off - there would still be some residue. Then there would be the times when my little ones would want to help clean and I would say "No, yucky dangerous don't touch". Yes we clean with yucky dangerous stuff. See all the different products I have used - picture to the right.

Turns out I was not wrong and my fears justified about the cleaning agents I used.

Ammonia - Fatal when swallowed
Ammonium Hydroxide -Corrosive, irritant
Bleach - Potentially fatal if ingested
Chlorine - Number one cause of poisonings in children
Formaldehyde -Highly toxic; known carcinogen
Hydrochloric acid -Corrosive, eye and skin irritant
Hydrochloric bleach -Eye, skin and respiratory tract irritant
Sodium hypochlorit - Potentially fatal
Sodium laurel sulfate - Carcinogen, toxin, genetic mutagen
Sodium tripolyphosphate -Irritant
Trichloroethane -Damages liver and kidneys

and the list goes on..................... If this is the dangers to us humans imagine what it is doing to the environment....

Some interesting facts:

In the past 40 years, at least 70,000 new chemicals have been released into the environment through new consumer and industrial products and food.
Male and female infertility are on the rise. Research is now pointing to pesticides as a viable cause.
Women who work in the home have a 54% higher death rate than women who work out of the home. - Toronto Indoor Air Conference, 1990
According to the U.S Poison Control Centers, "A child is accidentally poisoned every 30 seconds and more than 50% of all poisonings occur at home with children under 5 years of age."
There has been a 25% increase in the last 25 years in cancer incidence among children under 15 years of age.
Thirty years ago the 3 major childhood illnesses were chickenpox, measles and mumps. Now it is asthma, ADD and cancer.

For more info on the above visit http://www.healthycleaning.com/whycleanhealthy.html

Today, I decided to go "green" with my clean and now have only a few cleaning products: Vinegar, Baking Soda, Lemon Juice, Borax (for tougher cleaning) Water Newspaper and a little Rubbing Alcohol way safer now for my children to help clean and for the first time in a long time I was excited about cleaning and these non chemical alternatives really and truly work. No need to worry about the headaches, accidentally mixing chemicals or the potential dangerous residue left in the bath tub that could harm my children. Now see the "NEW" cleaning products I use pictured above. What a difference.

In my search for information on cleaning products I came upon this web page: http://lesstoxicguide.ca/index.asp?fetch=household it too list the dangers of our current cleaning products, however it goes on to suggest some alternative products as well as some recipes to make your own from the ingredients I listed above.

Here's to the "GREEN CLEAN" my challenge now is what do I do with all the dangerous cleaners, throw them out? NO; Keep them? NO my kids may get a hold of them. I am tempted to send them back to the company so they can be made aware that I am not interested in their poison anymore.

Mother's going GREEN Day 23 - Books and Litter

2008-06-18T20:27:00.000-07:00

Well you may be asking what books and litter have in common - not much really except for today.

My son is to start kindergarten in the fall and they had sort of an open house this afternoon. The school is fairly close so we walked as when he does start school we will be walking. It is a route we seldom walk now and the sidewalk is unfortunately strewn with litter. I made a mental note to take along a bag to collect the litter in the future (my son always wants to pick it up to examine it anyway - so we might as well pick it up and get rid of it properly.)

At the school they were giving away some older library books so of course we grabbed a few. My kids love to read stories and hey why not pick up some books and reuse them. There was one book in particular that was just left behind after the other parents collected the books and I figure I would grab it since no-one else seemed to want it. It is titled "The Wartville Wizard" by Don Madden.

When we got home it was the first book that my children wanted to read, strangely enough the book is all about litter and how one man (the wizard) tries to clean it all up and eventually discovers he has magical powers over the trash and can send the trash back to the person who discarded it - it then sticks to the person. Some of the characters have shower curtains, bed linen, cigarette butts all stuck to them. The story ends when the people of the town decide not to litter anymore and throw their garbage in garbage cans where it belongs. If only 'real life' could be like that.

It does send children a message about not littering, also about one mans struggle to care for the environment and how in the end he won. I enjoyed the book and I am glad we picked it up. Great for kids and great to reinforce our family's ideal of going green.

Moral of the story: Pick up litter. It is what you can do to live greener.

Mother's going GREEN Day 22 - Organic Food

2008-06-17T21:04:00.000-07:00

Cooking for the most part just overwhelms me - the thought of it gets me flustered. I guess some people have a fear of public speaking but for me it is cooking - the food thing in general. Hence I married a chef. Throw in the organic food situation and my mind really goes for a loop.

Because I am a mother and my husband works long hours, I needed to learn how to cook and when I thought I finally could cook and prepare meals - they just were not good enough. Now they need to be 'organic' not packaged but fresh and preferably made from scratch. So instead of the frozen pancakes you put in the toaster - I now need to make them and with organic ingredients at that. No more meatballs and shells with tomato sauce quick from a can - they too need to be fresh - made from scratch again with organic ingredients. Very intimidating for me.

However, I can do it. My husband does all of our grocery shopping - so this last week I sent him off saying everything as much as possible needs to be organic - and lo and behold that is what I got for the most part. And now with everything I need it does not seem so daunting. I mean I can make meatballs from organic hamburger, add some organic tomato sauce; boil up some organic shell pasta and hey I have my kids favourite meal - it is fresh, organic and made from scratch.

When going shopping make sure your products are marked certified organic - usually there is a funky little label stating that. Just the words organic on the box or packaging is not good enough. When buying produce look for a number 9 at the beginning of the numbers on the little sticker that is stuck to the fruit and vegetables. This little number 9 means that it is organic.

The idea is to look for local organic first, then local non-organic, thirdly imported organic and as a last resort imported non-organic.

Soon our family will sign up for an organic produce delivery service. They will for a fee provide us with in-season fresh produce. Organic delivery companies usually are able to charge you a little less than the larger grocery stores can.

Here's to healthy organic eating.

Mother's going GREEN Day 21 - Shopping the eco-friendly way

2008-06-16T21:27:00.000-07:00

Yes, there can be an environmentally way to shop.

Shop less (do we really need everything that we buy - lets think how quick the excitement of the product you buy will wear off - especially when it comes to children's toys)
Shop locally - support your local businesses in your community, often the business in our community in turn support the community we live in. Also, it will help foster relationships which is also a good thing.
Locally made - Shop for locally made products. Support your country's economy.
Shop online (my personal favourite) - when you shop on eBay or Craig's list you can choose to buy second hand items (recycling) "one mans junk is another's treasure" and many of the warehouses use much less energy than your conventional store.
Packaging - try to purchase items with minimal packaging. Today, I was so excited to buy my infant a baby rattle (made no less with the environment in mind) it is made with wood and natural fibres packaged with recycled paper and none of those plastic ties which you land up having to pry from the toys with some sort of sharp object. This toy had natural string holding it on the board - a simple knot to untie and toy was ready for enjoyment. (pictured on right)
Bring your own bag - always bring your own bag or try to anyway.

References for this post was from a book I have on hand "Green for Life (200 simple Eco-Ideas for Every day)" by Gillian Deacon

Mother's going GREEN Day 20 - Those darn plastic bags

2008-06-15T21:14:00.000-07:00

Even though we long ago said "NO PLASTIC BAGS" one or two always make their way back into our home via my husband. As soon as he walks in the door he apologises - but he did not have any fabric bags with him and they just gave him a bag anyway is his excuse. It is a challenge to teach an old dog new tricks. First off I have suggested to him to just say no - no to plastic bags the cashier does not take any offense to it; and also at all times to have a bag ready. But I guess for some men remembering to take a bag with them everywhere they go can be quite a feat.

These plastic bags are like cockroaches - always around and no matter what lengths you take to get rid of them they always seem to be there and like cockroaches they will probably be around long after too - give or take a few hundred years.

Today, I told my husband that I am not getting rid of anymore plastic bags he accidentally brings home. I will be reusing them in several ways. I have found a website that gives you detailed instructions on how to make "fabric" out of them (he might be wearing a rain jacket soon from the bags he brings home). There is also many websites that offer crochet patterns for plastic bags. I love to crochet so I might be doing a bit of that with the bags. I already have 2 crafts that I will be utilizing the plastic bags in my children's Eco-craft Friday's. So my dear hubby better watch out - he might soon find himself among a ton of creative re-incarnations of the "plastic bag".

Some serious facts about the plastic bag:

Well over a billion single-use plastic bags are given out for free each day.
Each year billions of bags end up as ugly litter.
Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photodegrade—breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest.
Production requires vast amounts of oil.
Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year.
Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food.

The above facts and more plus possible solutions can be found on the following website: http://www.reusablebags.com/facts.php

Treehugger provides some pictures of 'plastic' fabric clothing and some links to places on how you too can make your own fabric or perhaps your next crochet project - just visit the following link: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/06/diy_plastic_bag.php

Mother's going GREEN Day 19 - Garden Pests: in particular a Squirrel

2008-06-14T19:55:00.000-07:00

We have our rooftop garden underway - but the last few mornings we have woken up to see that some little animal has dug up our seeds - we suspect a squirrel. Now we are trying to grow our own vegetables in order to be sustainable - but we did not figure we would have to sustain a squirrel as well.

When I 'googled' garden pest deterrents I came up with some scary facts in regards to pesticides:

Pesticides not only kill the pests but all of the good bugs too like Lady Bugs, Honey Bees and Wasps.

Collect in the tissues of animals and humans, causing disease and possible death.

Each year 43 000 children under the age of 6 are exposed to pesticide in concentrations high enough to cause damage to their developing bodies.

Many of the common pesticides have been linked to an increased occurrence of allergies, asthma and cancer.

Since we are growing an Organic Garden using pesticides was never an option but the information on them very informative.... But I still had a squirrel to deal with.

One website suggested that we feed the squirrel - squirrel food. Set up it's own little eating area away from our garden and then he would not bother our seeds. While this would be ideal, quite honestly I do not want the squirrel to become reliant on me for providing its food.

Finally, I found a website that suggested hot pepper flakes. Currently, we have none on hand but I thought regular coarsely milled peppercorns might do the trick too.

My search on pest deterrents also lead me to a website where you can make your own Pest Control Spray right in your kitchen. Should we ever get those unwanted bugs we will be sure to try the recipes. Most of them involve a combination of Water, Oil, Biodegradable Dishwashing Soap, Garlic Powder, Chili Powder - all non toxic and chemical free.

For some information on the dangers of pesticides visit: http://www.noahsnotes.com/naturalpest.html

And for the recipes for the "Pest Control Spays - you can make in your kitchen!" visit:http://www.sierraclub.ca/national/programs/health-environment/pesticides/non-commercial-pest-spray.pdf

Mother's going GREEN Day 18 - Childrens Eco-Craft

2008-06-13T19:19:00.000-07:00

Today (Friday) is Mother's going Green craft day and today's official craft is "Watering Cans" but as it turns out there was a surprise second craft "One-of-a-Kind Gift Wrap" - I was in need of some wrapping paper for our Fathers Day gifts.

Watering Cans

You will need:

- Empty Milk Jug (saved from the recycling bin)

- Sharp instrument to make holes (I used one of the handy dandy tools on my Swiss Army Knife)

- Paint

- Paint Brushes

- Sheet of paper or Newspaper

Instructions (with adult help if required – you probably will need it for using the sharp instrument):

- Lay down the newspaper or craft paper on your work area.

- Set the empty clean milk jug down and make some holes on the top side of the milk jug opposite the handle (see picture).

- Make anther hole on top of the handle which will allow for air to go into the bottle as water comes out.

- Paint the jug (be as creative as you can be – anything goes) – allow the jug to dry.

Once dried fill with water screw the lid back on and you have a one of a kind watering can. (I found having the lid on was great for my younger kids as with a normal watering can they tend to pour all the water out from the top – with the lid this stops all of that and the water comes out in a nice ‘sprinkle’

Enjoy watering your flowers and plants.

One-of-a-Kind Gift Wrap

Take the paper that you painted your jug on and use it to clean your brushes by brushing off the excess paint – allow to dry – you have instant gift wrap.

In fact you can use this idea with any painting craft you do. Instead of throwing away or recycling your “drop” paper just turn it into gift wrap. The excess paint will add some colour to newspaper and a truly unique piece of gift wrap.

A little 'reusing' history on our "drop paper":

We received it in a package, the items were protectively wrapped in it. Then it became our 'drop paper' for our craft project, acted as our 'paint brush cleaner' and finally our gift wrap. Talk about reusing!!!

Mother's Going GREEN - Day 17 - Involving the Children

2008-06-12T20:13:00.000-07:00

Going green for our family was partly inspired by my children. What kind of world are we going to leave them? Whatever world it is I want my children to look back and know that I tried to do something for the world and for them. I also want to teach them the value of the earth and how important it is to our lively hood.

Our family's journey of going green most certainly involves them. The small ways that they help out is:

cutting newspaper for the worms (our worm compost) each time we feed them we give them a little fresh newspaper.
feeding the worms.

taking care of the vegetable garden.

ensuring lights are turned off in the rooms and are not turned on during the day. (my son noticed one deary grey evening, that I turned on the light for dinner and he questioned it as it was not quite dark enough for lights. Way to go son!)

helping out with the recycling (sorting out the glass from the plastic and the corrugated cardboard from the paper)

I am seeing after only 17 days that my behaviour toward reducing, reusing and recycling is rubbing off on them. "Monkey see, monkey do."

Thank goodness for little children, thank goodness we have the opportunity to do right for the world for them.

Mother's going GREEN Day 16 - The 3 Minute Shower

2008-06-11T20:22:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is possible. A 3 minute shower. After all I have read on water consumption I figured I could aim for a 3 minute shower. Now you may ask how is this possible? Well, I enjoy the warm water for a minute and a half, I also wash my face during this time. I then turn the shower off and soap up and wash my hair, then I turn the shower back on and rinse off for another minute and a half. Technically a little longer than 3 minutes but I only use 3 minutes worth of water.

Since I had children I have never had the luxury of anything more than 5 minutes in the shower always a baby crying or a child interrupting so a 5 minute shower for me has always been sort of the norm. That is why I challenged myself to use even less water by turning off the water while I washed. It seems to work great and now I am in the habit of doing it everyday. Not sure how I will feel about the cutback in the winter when you will get a little chilly - but perhaps I will appreciate the water even more when I get to turn it back on. In case you are wondering we have a clock in the shower which I use to time my showers.

When it comes to bathing the children, I bath the infant first in her little bathtub. I then dump her water into the big bath tub where I bath my other 2 children together. I fill there tub up with 3 inches of water. I measure this by putting my hand in the tub and when the water reaches my palm it is 3 inches deep (the length of my fingers). When I first did this my son exclaimed: "Mom, how are we supposed to bath in such a little bit of water?" It has since become the norm.

Based on some figures from my green friends at "Our Green Year" http://ourgreenyear.blogspot.com/2008/05/day-26-of-our-green-year-limiting-our.html ,

I am only using 45 liters of water per day on my shower, 315 liters per week or 16380 litres per year rather than the average North American who showers for 15 minutes using 81900 litres per year.

An interesting sites to visit regarding Canadian water consumption: http://www.environmentalindicators.com/htdocs/indicators/6wate.htm

The average water consumed in a household in Canada is 125 000 litres per person per day to see how your household compares to this average visit: http://goblue.zerofootprint.net/

Mother's going GREEN Day 15 - Picnics the Green Way

2008-06-10T20:41:00.000-07:00

Summer is almost upon us in our neck of the woods, although you wouldn't believe it with our cool temperatures.

But with summer here many people will head outdoors for picnicking and there is an eco-friendly approach to these wonderful outdoor meal occasions.

Make your food fresh and organic and local if possible.

Use minimal packaging to transport your food. Perhaps glass containers for homemade salads, fresh veggies and dip, a nice sandwich and some yummy homemade cookies for dessert.

Ditch the paper plates, plastic cups, cutlery and paper napkins and dine outdoors in style with stainless steel cutlery, glass glasses, cloth napkins and china plates (the plates you use on a regular basis). This way you will not creating additional waste which eventually lands up in the landfill.

Our family has a "picnic basket" - a gift I received from my husband for my very first mother's day and in it we keep all of our utensils, china plates and glassware along with our traditional red gingham cloth tablecloth and matching cloth napkins. It is perfect.

Going picnicking as a group or joining a group on a picnic can also be environmentally friendly if everyone just brings there own plate, cutlery, glassware and cloth napkin.

Going on a picnic is all about enjoying the outdoors, experiencing mother nature so in turn it would be nice if we left none of ourselves behind. Happy summer and happy picnicking.

Mother's going GREEN Day 14 - Our Rooftop Organic Vegetable Garden

2008-06-09T16:45:00.000-07:00

After a lot of work, building boxes, hauling them and the soil onto the roof we finally have our Organic Vegetable Garden set up and ready. We are lucky enough to have a 'flat' garage roof with fairly easy access onto it and being dead space we figured we would put it to good use and plant our vegetable garden. Because of where we live we need to be mindful of the bears and we figure they will not be able to access our rooftop. We opted to make some boxes for our plants although you can pretty much use anything for container growing. Also, you can pretty much grow whatever you want in containers. We chose to use Canadian potting soil, it had to be chemical free and organic. We planted many of our plants from seeds but chose a few that have started growing so we can enjoy their rewards sooner.

We have planted: tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, butternut squash, peas, winter squash, cantaloupe, water melon, rosemary, cabbage, cauliflower, pumpkin (hopefully for our jack-o-lantern come Halloween), sunflowers, parsley and celery. I can hardly wait until we can harvest our vegetables and we hope that it can sustain us for a little bit - talk about organic vegetables and zero traceability and of course very local.

In our 'regular' garden mixed among our plants we have grapes, raspberries, blueberries and strawberries - the strawberries already have berries so can not wait until they are ready to eat. We live close to a wooded area where there are many blackberry bushes and they have fruit on them too.

We hope to have a summer filled with fresh organic homegrown berries. It feels great - this possibility that we will be able to sustain ourselves for a short while and eat the best and freshest vegetables ever.

Mother's going GREEN Day 13 - Lawn Care the Organic Way

2008-06-08T20:46:00.000-07:00

Lawn care, while it is better for the environment to have little or no lawn (should be plants and trees instead) there is very little chance in the near future of my husband giving up our lawn. It is also nice for the kids to play on. Since we do have lawn, not much of it, but lawn anyway we have decided to take care of it the environmentally friendly way.

Using a push mower for starters, no carbon emissions, no use of a natural resource - gas. Just plain old man power.

The grass clippings are then just left on the lawn, acting a a natural mulch - no need to rake them up and throw them away, besides your manpower is all spent mowing the lawn.

The mulch will also help retain water which your grass needs, but not too much. It only requires 1 inch of water a week that includes rainwater.

Don't cut your grass too short, this causes it too look yellow and will also dry out quicker requiring more water.

If you need to water your grass it is best to water it in the early morning or early evening, that way it will not evaporate too quickly.

It is best not to use a sprinkler to water your grass but to stand there and water it with the hose and a nozzle. Remember it does not need a lot of water.

If a fertilizer is required it is best to use an organic one or better yet the compost fertilizer that your worms are busy creating or the fertilizer from a traditional compost.

Mother's going GREEN Day 12 - Not so sweet facts on Chocolate

2008-06-07T20:32:00.001-07:00

Chocolate - oh how I love chocolate. Ever since I can remember I have always had a chocolate bar or two a day but since discovering some not so sweet facts I can no longer just stop by the corner store a pick up a chocolate bar or two.

Not so sweet facts:

- Is farmed in unsafe conditions were large amounts of pesticides are used in order to yield a greater crop. These pesticides cause great environment damage seeping into local ground water, soil erosion and not to mentioned being in hailed by the farmers.

- Farmers are often children under 14, approximately 284 000 children are working on cocoa farms. These children are often beaten with whips and switches.

- Farmers are living in total poverty earning between $30.00 and $100.00 US dollars a year. That's way less than I spend in chocolate in a year.

For more information on the above see the following websites: http://www.sustainabletimes.ca/articles/chocolate.htm; http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2003/02/14/chocolate/; http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/02/the_bitter_trut.php.

Our family picked up a bar of Fair Trade chocolate the other day and after explaining to my children why this bar of chocolate was so much different to all others we sat and savoured its goodness and yes it did taste good we devoured the whole bar, even my son who is not that crazy about chocolate had his fair share of the bar. At over $4.00 for the bar, I think it may need to become a weekly treat, rather than a daily treat. We found a store selling our delicious chocolate through http://www.cocoacamino.com/

Picture on this blog is from http://www.sustainabletimes.ca/

Mother's going GREEN Day 11 - Children's Eco Craft

2008-06-06T19:42:00.000-07:00

Friday’s Craft Corner: Individually Wrapped Chocolate Drops (especially for dad in preparation for Fathers Day)

You will need:

A jar (recycled – an old jam jar works well)
Foil wrap (preferably recycled – perhaps from chocolate or candy bars – I collected ours from chocolate bars – that is before we stopped eating them – but more on that in tomorrows blog)
Chocolate (preferably fair trade chocolate we used Coco Camino http://www.cocoacamino.com/)
Piece of old material
Wax paper

Instructions: (with an adults help if required)

Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl in the microwave (microwaves take up less power than the stove)

On the wax paper and with a spoon drop the melted chocolate – see picture (it is a good idea to out the wax paper on a cookie sheet if you intend to put it in the fridge to set)

Allow the chocolate to set ( you can put it in the fridge to speed up the process)

Once the chocolate has set you can individually wrap them (see picture) and then place them in the jam jar

Cut a circle in the fabric large enough to cover and overlap the jar lid and tie it on the lid with a piece of ribbon or string.

Voila, you have Individually wrapped chocolate drops you’re your favourite dad for Fathers day and remember to reuse or recycle the wax paper.

I hope your dad enjoys these tasty treats. For added individuality you can place a nut on each drop of chocolate before it sets.

Enjoy.

See the chocolate all over the t-shirt; you can eat the left over chocolate in the bowl.

Next weeks craft will be a 'watering can' for your garden.

Mother's going GREEN Day 10 - Spreading the "Eco" Word

2008-06-05T17:52:00.000-07:00

Today in South West British Columbia it is a cold and miserable "winter" day. 12 degrees Celsius (53.6 degrees Fahrenheit). I thought it was supposed to be summer. I almost wanted to turn on the heat - but grabbed some extra sweaters instead. This is what climate change is all about!!

Gandhi once said: "Be the change you want to see in the world." hence my decision for my family to start living a greener life. I urge you to spread the green word, if my blog does not appeal to you there are others that also offer great green tips in a different format - one of my favourites is http://www.ourgreenyear.blogspot.com or visit http://www.bestgreenblogs.com to view a green blogs worldwide.

The point is: Share this blog with your family, friends, neighbours, strangers or just about anybody perhaps it will inspire them, if not you to be more environmentally proactive.

When I first announced to my family that we were "going green", my husband was a little reluctant - but he recently suggested that to his work place that they should encourage a group order on an organic food delivery thus cutting back on the amount of delivery stops the organic company would need to make, reducing carbon emissions and promoting organic eating among the staff members. My 5 year old son also today made an announcement to his preschool class that his family was going green and trying not to make so much garbage and save the earth. Baby steps, but steps in the right direction.

Please feel free at anytime to post your comments and your green ideas.

Thank you.

Mother's going GREEN Day 9 - Green Birthday Gifts

2008-06-04T20:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my 5 year old son received and invitation to a birthday party for tomorrow (not allowing me much time to shop). Trying to think of a 'green' gift in our small town provided to be a challenge. It certainly did get my creative juices going though. The first idea that came to mind was a seedling that could be planted by the recipient. However I am not sure how that would go over at a 5 year old birthday party and yes, I did want my son to get invited to other parties, says a lot for what the world is coming to... Lets face it kids birthdays are all about the toys.

I took this opportunity to start to talk to my children that, toys are not what makes a birthday, it is a celebration of life, a milestone, another year gone by. So with this in mind we headed to the store to try and find a 'green' gift. My son headed straight for the action heroes and said we had to get one of these for his friend. I, on the other hand opted instead for a bug container with magnifying glass and a book titled "Monster Bugs". If I could not get a totally green gift it had to be at least educational and allow for some outdoor fun and getting closer to nature. Books have no packaging and the bug container had very little so on that part it was environmentally good.

Purchasing children's gift can be a challenge when you want to keep the environment in mind. Had, I had some more time I would have explored my options on the Internet there are some great sites that offer 'green' toys. I still do like my tree sapling idea - but I think I need to work on the "packaging" so to speak, so that it would appeal to a 5 year old. (I will keep you posted on how that progresses.)

Things to consider when purchasing a 'green' gift:

Organic (such as cotton or hemp)

Fair Trade

Local

Educational

Minimal packaging, preferably none.

Perhaps even a donation to the persons favorite charity (for children this could be receiving an adoption kit for endangered species through the World Wildlife Fund.)

Some sites to look at for further green gift ideas:

http://www.planetfriendly.net/gifts.html

http://www.tenthousandvillages.org/

http://www.greenfeet.com/

Be sure wrap your gifts in either recycled paper ( perhaps a gift bag you have received can be re-given). Someone once mentioned the Sunday Comics ( if you receive a paper) now wouldn't that be fun.