Celebrating 7 Years as a Mommy

My oldest son is turning 7 on Friday!
To say his birth was life-changing would be a vast understatement. I was 36 years old had been living on my own for more than ten years and in a committed, but not domestic relationship with his father (we each had our own home about 30 min apart).
Prior to the birth, I had the optomistic expectation that I'd have this baby and life would pretty much continue as normal; and that I'd deliver natrually, nurse my baby and have the time and energy during my brief (6-8 week) maternity leave to plan a "mid-summer's eve" wedding.
Well, I had a cesarean section and my breastmilk never came in. I spent several weeks/months trying to breast & bottle feed - which took most of my time and energy and never really worked anyway.
There were many times in the first two months that I looked at this little crying or cooing bundle in my arms and wondered how I'd ever survive to his adulthood.
Blessedly, he did start sleeping from about 11pm-5am at about 2 months. I took the night feeding and his daddy took the daybreak feeding and we both got enough sleep so that we had the energy in July to start to plan for a September 6 wedding. And that little angel who we shared our love and committment with on that September day, loved us so much, that he started sleeping from 7pm to 5am shortly after.
By December we figured we had the parent thing down pat and were ready to think about having another....but that's another story.

This boy has had a history of wanting very active and involved birthdays (he and his mommy that is). Two Blue's Clues parties at 3 and 4, a CARS party at 5, an INCREDIBLE Super-hero party at 6, and this year...we're doing WALL-E....or rather "RRRON-E". It is a rather elaborate party as described below:

“RRRon-E’s Eco-Adventure” at (Our Local) Park will feature the following:

Letterboxing:
An outdoor adventure pastime started in England.
See www.letterboxing.org or www.atlasquest.org for more info.

We will have 3 letterboxes hidden at the park – the “box” will be old wipes containers re-purposed for containing a hidden stamp kit (Stamp, stamp pad, pen and logbook).

Each child will receive an “adventure kit” which will include their own personal initial stamp carved from a wine cork…Decoder ring from milk & oj carton tabs and a couple other things…. The kit will be contained in cleaned out, cut down milk cartons covered with old road maps with a strap threaded through so it can be carried over their shoulders…
Following the party, we will be hiding the party letterboxes in other local parks; if you are interested in continuing the adventure look for them at the above websites in May/June timeframe or email and I’ll provide a clue-sheet.

Wall-E style relay races:
*A race with a plant in a shoe
*Trash/treasure hunt
(The kids will be given child-sized gardening gloves that they can take home with them)
And More

Hot-Dogs and cupcakes will be served on recyclable or re-usable plates and don’t require utensils
Chip bags & drink pouches will be recycled through terracycle.net
All will be bulk-purchased to reduce packaging waste…

Old cereal/cracker boxes will be turned inside-out, decorated and used for goodie bags.

RRR = Reduce/Recycle/Reuse
RRRon-E’s adventure will be doing that in the following ways:
Reduce waste:
Buying party food in bulk reduces the amount of trash created
Not purchasing single-use goodie bags
Not using disposable plates & utensils; using a multi-use table coverings instead of single use party table coverings

Recycle:
Chip bags and drink pouches will be recycled through terracycle a New Jersey business I support through brigade collections. For more information see www.TerraCycle.net.

The goodie boxes are recyclable cardboard/paper. Please place them in your household recycling when your child is done with them.

Re-Use:
Wipe-containers will be reused as our letterboxes
Plates
Milk-cartons; pull tabs, corks, old roadmaps and cereal/cracker boxes

Both the Adventure kits and the cereal/cracker box goodie bags were ideas inspired by Maya*Made.

I'll try to post some photos of both the party and the craft projects.

Happy Birthday Ronnie! I hope your birthday party is as fun and exciting to live through as it has been to plan for.

Post Script...
Over the last few silent months I had planned many a post that obviously became less important than the day-to-day workings of our lives as a family.
I hope to fill in the blanks over the next few months, but I make no promises.
I have been a hap-hazzard blogger at best, and when life is as full as it is at the moment I can't commit to a daily or even weekly edition.
I HOPE to continue to write so that I have a record of my thoughts and life's goings on...
Blessed Be

Water Conservation - Washing the Veggies

I'm going to start a weird topic for my area this week....Water Conservation.
This June has been one of the wettest I can remember. I don't think we've had more than 1 or 2 days where we didn't get at least 1 shower, and most days were completely grey and rainy.
Gardens are waterlogged, Lake Hopatcong is actually full...when on Memorial Day there were many lamenting how empty it still was from the winter lowering.

So, before June, we were in a drought.

And, summer drought has become common in our area in the last 10 years, I've heard announcements about lakes and reservoirs being at record lows frequently. And the building boom of the late 1990s and 2000's has not helped.

I have posted on my garden site about wanting a rain-water capturing system that we just haven't been able to afford yet, so that I don't have to feel nervous about watering our garden from our well. Nor have we been able to find a source for clean used barrels...

We've never had a problem with our well, and as far as I know, no one around us has either.
It's just that when you think about the dryness around, lakes lower, less rainfall in the highlands, etc it makes you take note, so I'm going to blog about conserving water, even after a month with 10+ inches of rain.

We get most of our produce from the biodynamic Community Supported Garden (CSG) at Genesis Farm.
Some of it comes home pretty dirty, and for years I was washing it all under running water.
For the past year or two, though, I've been trying to do as much as I can with less water.
I start by putting the veggies in a big bowl or use the salad spinner and letting it fill half way, scrubbing the veggies using the water from the bowl; setting aside each scrubbed veggie until the dirt is off and I have a bowl of brown muddy water.

Then I use that water to water plants, and get the benefit of all that biodynamic soil, rather than letting it run down the drain along with gallons and gallons of water....
After getting rid of the "mud", I give the veggies a final rinse, now free of most of their dirt, it only takes a slow stream of running water, again captured in the bowl...and use that for the plants too.

There have been times when I've been "too busy" to do it this way, but when I don't capture the wash water and let it run even a little, I feel guilty.

Water is a precious resource.

Nature is The Art of GOD - Dante

Think about it....If you were GOD and you created HEAVEN out of nothingness ... and you created beings to live there and enjoy your creation - your HEAVEN... how would you feel about what's been done to it? Some of that having been done in YOUR NAME?
We admire the works of Monet of Ansel Adams of Georgia O'Keeffe - but the original artist was "God" "Gaia - the living Goddess" or name any of the myriad "Creation God/Goddesses".
"Judgement" for the sins of pollution, waste and hatred is happening every day. The climate is changing; garbage gets thrown carelessly everywhere; hate causes everyone to live in fear - with locks and walls.
And again : You MUST BE the change you wish to see in the world. No one is perfect; but how can we increase "walking the walk"?
I have a friend who just recently brought my attention back to an issue close to her heart: water. "WOW, as a family of 4 you must use (waste) a lot of water. I can honestly say that I try to be aware of this consumption. I make sure I run a full dishwasher and full washing loads. I turn the water off while I'm brushing my teeth (which we never did as kids). I use soaker hoses to water the garden when it hasn't rained for a while. So, I feel pretty good about myself....however I could do better.
Sometimes I use a large bowl to wash veggies in - sometimes I use running water.Sometimes I use the veggie wash water to water plants - inside and out - sometimes I dump it down the drain.I NEVER turn of the shower while I'm soaping up or washing my hair. And sometimes I let it run longer than necessary to come to temp.I sometimes let the water run while rinsing dishes and loading the dishwasher.
And that's just water.
I also heard a news story this week about plastic recycling. There are several industries which grew up around USING recycled materials as raw materials for their products; newer carpet factories are one.
Well - they can't get enough raw materials - and in-fact 75% (3 of 4) plastic bottles (soda/water etc) used in this country are NOT recycled even though there is a demand for them. Why? Because there is no HANDY recycling container. Sport/Entertainment arenas are a big culprit. What can be done about this?Letter/e-mail writing campaigns - to law-makers and to the centers themselves. Encourage/Demand easy recycling access or ask for fines to be levied.If you attend these events - TAKE YOUR CONTAINERS HOME to recycle.
And the biggest thing you can do is THINK. Think about - "what if everyone in the world did what I am doing; treated people as I am treating them" - what kind of world would we leave our children - our grandchildren?
THINK - AND DO - AND CHANGE.
Peace!

Carbon "Footprint" - How do YOU help save the planet?

On Friday I took the "Live Earth" carbon footprint test -http://www.earthlab.com/carbonProfile/LiveEarth.htm?ver=10 .

I can't find my emailed result right now but I think Iremember it being 250.

The national average for the USA is 350 - so my family is doing a little better than the rest of the nation...but there is a lot more that can be done.

I also signed the "Pledge" http://liveearthpledge.org/answer_the_call.php.For me this is more than just a "nice to do" for the environment.

This is saving MOTHER EARTH, GAIA, The Goddess - and making sure there's something of the NATURE I knew growing up left for my kids and my kid's kids.

What I do currently:

Recycle all paper and cardboard, plastics, glass, metals - curbside

Recycle batteries at the recycling center - approx annually

Compost vegetable materials from the house and garden

Most of the time:

turn off lights /equipment when not in room/or in use

Use dishwasher/washing machine only when full

Keep temps higher in summer (hardly use personal air conditioners at home anyway)

Keep temps lower in winter

Grow/purchase produce that is "locally" produced for the most part.

Freecycle unused household items http://www.freecycle.org/

What I am committing to do going forward:

Re-use plastic store bags as frequently as possible - currently we use these for garbage recepticals as well and do not purchase separate "kitchen" trash bags.

Install more compact flourescent lights and replace some multi-bulb fixtures.

ALWAYS turn off lights/appliances when not in the room

ALWAYS turn off my monitor when leaving work

What do you do currently?

What can you pledge to do going forward?

Peace & Enviromentalism Continued

You must BE the change you wish to see in the world.

Mahatma Ghandi

Continuing to stand on the soapbox I got up on yesterday...
Peace and ecology go hand-in-hand. A lot of things are really about "have"s vs "have not"s.
If we can each make a smaller impact on the world around us it can only help the planet and all of mama earth's citizens in so many ways....
What Ecological footprint are you leaving?
http://www.reuseablesolutions.com/ - Reusable Solutions

Summer Solstice 2007 - Dreaming of Peace

Ours is a SMALL planet, but this planet is essential to us.
We cannot yet survive independent of it. We need its fresh air and water... we need the warmth of its sun filtered through its atmosphere...we need its gravitational pull on our bones. There is enough potential for Mama Earth to throw us off her back -all on her own - violent earthquakes - waves - monster volcanic erruptions.... We need to stop fighting each other and Her and live like the family we are. Sharing our resources; finding ways to stop laying waste to the fields and oceans; doing what's right for humanity.
We're all connected - in oh, so many ways........
http://www.unesco.org/cpp/uk/ - UNESCO's Transdisciplinary Project "Towards a Culture of Peace"
http://www.the-peace-project.org/index.html -The Peace Project
http://www.sadako.org/ - World Peace Project for Children
http://www.worldpeace.org/peacepoles.html - Peace Pole Project
http://www.worldpeace.org/wpps.html - World Peace Prayer Society
http://www.everestpeaceproject.org/ - The Everest Peace Project
http://peaceproject.com/info/links.htm
http://www.earthday.net/
http://www.thinkearth.org/
http://www.nrdc.org/

April 22, 2007 - Song for this Earth

as the waters rise
and take back
dry land
while the sun still attracts
our planet
as we spin
round her core

and as the layers
that protect us
are vanishing

I sing a song
for this earth

as our friends the mammals
the fish, the bees, the snakes
all sea and land creatures
all things furry and
with legs and wings
in whose eyes
there is a knowing
far deeper than ours

are threatened
in their specieshood daily
their millennial existence
annihilated in our split seconds

I sing a song
for this earth

~Mary Steel 2005