Monthly Archives: October 2009

My Daughter’s Save the Earth Poster

This poster was my daughter’s idea, from start to finish. She gets in these creative moods and gets going. And she loves using materials she finds around the house sometimes, not just fresh paper.

save the earth

For those who can’t read it, it reads “Save the Earth. Save water.”

She’s pretty much obsessed with saving water. That we’ve moved from an area with strict water restrictions to one with none at all drives her nuts.

It’s drawn on some padding from our move. It was put between plates to protect them. We’re saving it for the most part as we anticipate within the next year or two moving back to the San Diego area, depending on when my husband gets transferred, so it would be a waste to throw it out.

Nice thing is, this piece could still be used that way if my daughter gets bored with it.

Some’s also going to my mom, who needs it to pad out a car seat that’s not well enough padded. Yes mom, we remember!

It’s good to remember that trash to you can be art supplies to children. They don’t need much to be creative.

My Husband’s Amazing Experience with Bees

My husband had a really surprising encounter with bees this weekend, just about surreal.

He was mowing the lawn when he realized that he was in the middle of a migrating bee swarm. He was using a week whacker at the time, and says the buzzing was louder than the whacker.

Fortuntately, the swarm was migrating and so not hostile at all. It took he thinks about three seconds for them all to pass him, with so many bees that he said it was like looking through fog. He doesn’t think any even bumped into him. He was just an obstacle to be avoided.

He describes the experience as scary but also spiritual. After all, how often do you have thousands of bees come that close to you?

I really wish I could have gotten a picture, but who goes out with a camera to watch someone mow the lawn? But it would have been a really amazing shot.

A Great Solution to Outgrown Kids’ Sport Equipment

I came across this post on Free Range Parenting about a website that helps parents to swap outgrown sports equipment. Not only is the website a really great idea, but some of the comments on the Free Range Kids post have some great tips about doing this in your own area.

It’s just a southern California site, not nationwide, but that makes sense. Kind of hard to do this long distance without losing a lot of money to shipping costs.

I really liked the comments about doing this through schools, though. I could even see it as a fundraiser if parents were willing to donate equipment. Keep the prices low and the school could probably make some pretty nice money without selling wrapping paper.

And as another person noted, Craigslist and Freecycle in your local area are good choices too.

So often kids outgrow things before they’re really worn out. It’s also a nice way to let your kids try out a sport they don’t know if they’re going to like with a smaller investment in the necessary equipment.

Kids Can Help Fight Climate Change – Blog Action Day 2009

As a parent, being aware of what’s going on with climate change is important to me. It’s the world my kids are living in, after all. The wildfires we’ve had here in California have been one of the areas that let us talk to the kids about climate change. The water shortage is another, and my daughter is very good at expressing sheer disgust any time she thinks people are wasting water.

A part of being aware is being aware of what can be done by individuals. Teaching kids from early on to do their part at home and elsewhere is a good place to focus.

There are some great resources out there for kids. The EPA Climate Change Kids Site is a good place to start. Lots of information and some games to test their knowledge.

The National Wildlife Federation’s Climate Classroom Kids is another good resource for children. There are games, a family action plan checklist, and parent & teacher resources so you can help your children learn more. My son gets the Animal Baby magazine and my daughter gets Your Big Backyard, which are both put out by the NWF and really fun for them.

If you want to get more serious, there’s the Kids vs. Global Warming website. It has plenty of resources for kids who want to take more of an activist approach to climate change.

It’s wonderful being able to teach your kids from an early age that individuals do matter. It’s not just in fighting climate change, but in everything they truly believe in and want to make a difference in.

Remember the Leftovers!

Going through the fridge is one of those chores I don’t particularly look forward to. While I try to use everything up, some things get tucked away just wrong and are missed, wasted.

That’s particularly true with leftovers.

I’ve found a few things that help our family actually use up leftovers a little more often. It doesn’t work all the time, but it helps.

1. Don’t cook so much extra.

This can be a little hard to predict, especially if you aren’t sure if the kids are going to like what you made. But the better you can predict what will really be eaten in one meal the fewer leftovers you’ll have to deal with.

On the flip side, if you have something your family will love, sometimes leftovers are a good idea. This is especially true if you have the freezer space to store the excess and the food freezes well. Makes a great alternative to prepackaged frozen dinners on those nights that you just don’t feel like cooking.

2. Leftovers for lunch.

I use leftovers for my lunch. For my daughter’s school lunch. I try to get my husband to take them to work for lunch, but that almost never works.

For school lunches you want foods that either go well in a thermos or still taste good cold.

3. Stir-fry!

Chop up leftover meat into bite-size pieces, add a sauce and some vegetables, and last night’s meat tastes new.

4. Leftover dinner night

When all else fails, skip making dinner one night and just reheat a bunch of leftovers. You have to watch the age of your leftovers, of course, but when you have enough that are good take advantage.