To Be or Not To Be Green, That Is the Question

My sis-in-law, Heather, gave me a book at Christmas about “going green”. As she handed it to me she said it sounded like me. I was skeptical. For one, I don’t like the term “green”. I think it’s over used. It’s become a fad. Companies over use the word to market their wares and use that slogan to sell it under false pretenses. Sort of like when foods boast “no trans fat” on the front of the package in an attempt to sound healthy; they are hoping you don’t notice that it’s 6,000 calories per teaspoon. (Stepping down slowly now……as not to tip that soapbox.)

I decided to give the book a try. And not long into the book I realized this girl knows what she’s talking about. She hooked me when she warned of companies green washing you; using the slogan to save the planets resources but not really doing so. (one smart cookie)

Further into the book I caught myself saying, “I already do that.”, “I have that product” , and thinking I'm doing ok at this but then came the words“I never knew that.”

There is a lot about carbon dioxide emissions in there that I never realized before. For instance, I learned that burning natural gas releases around 320 pounds of CO2 annually. And that the average American is responsible for about 22 tons of emissions per year. I always thought industrial giants were the culprits but as it turns out personal activity accounts for more than 30 percent of all emissions in the United States.

Wow!

I would like to say that all our trash cut back, composting, and cutting out paper products in the kitchen is purely honorable but mainly it’s for selfish reasons. One reason being, I want to save money and the less we use that has to be tossed the less has to be bought and replaced. Meaning more money staying in the house than leaving it. Especially when it’s leaving for convenience items like paper towels or paper plates. Sadly, the bigger reason for our switch is just pure laziness. In my old age I don’t want to have to run to the store when I suddenly discover we are out of milk. Now I can just mix up more powdered milk. Or if we are out of paper towels I can just reach for a dish towel or cloth napkins. The homemade cloth pads are such a convenience; no taking stock constantly to keep from running out or , heaven forbid, being caught unaware.

Granted, in my laziness I’m saving three milk jugs a week from ending up in the landfill, that just happens to be a plus in my favor.

I’m learning more areas where I can make do and use what I have on hand for convenience and to recycle at the same time.

I love these scrubbies.

They are cheap and really useful in the kitchen.

I recently ran out because I forgot to pick up another package of them while at the store.

I was in need of a scrubbie but was too lazy to run to the dollar store to pick up more just for that particular cleaning job.

I looked around and remembered a crochet project of dishtowels using left over yarn and plastic bags for the centers to use for scrubbing dishes. I had plenty of plastic bags so I crocheted up about five scrubbies in just a few minutes sans the yarn. I didn’t need them to be pretty just useful. I made them in varying sizes to see what would work best for me.

They ended up working great and can actually be cleaned out better than my store bought versions. Food particles aren’t trapped in it as easily and that means better sanitation.

I’ve used them for washing dishes in the kitchen and made a few for the bathroom to use in scrubbing the vanity and shower. I’ll never go back to the store bought again.

I used to save plastic bags to use as garbage bags but because we generate less garbage now and compost more, bags were coming out our ears around the house. I’ve since made up several balls of plarn to make more scrubbies out of and even made an outside door mat.
　

I admire those that are trying to remove their carbon footprint and if everyone would just change one habit it would greatly improve things for future generations. If dinosaurs had used plastic water bottles we’d all be digging up prehistoric relics in our backyards today. Those things don’t’ break down. They’ll tell a lot about us in millenniums to come. You’ve heard of the iron age well we will be known as the plastic age. And the proof will still be here to prove it.

Just food for thought.

　
If you would like to read more about going green and learn more ways of reducing carbon dioxide emissions the book is entitled: Green Chic- Saving the Earth in Style. by Christie Matheson. 

Disclosure: I received no compensation for reference to this book.  All opinions are my own.

One Last Look Back

In reflection…..

　

2011 was a year of firsts. The first year of mom being in the nursing home, the first Thanksgiving without her at the table, the first Christmas without her here, and the first birthday without her calling. It was a tough year for me.  I don’t want to go back and start it over. But I did learn from it. Both about others and myself. Some good and some bad; some weak and some strong. I learned that the ‘Be Aware” wasn’t just about being aware of others as I’d thought. It was also being aware of yourself and what you do to impact others. I succeeded sometimes and I failed miserably most of it. I take some small consolation that I realize where I failed in hindsight. That, at least, means I have grown to some slight degree.

On to the next……


I’m ready for the new year. I’m ready to look ahead and move forward. Last year we were aware of where we are, now lets look ahead to where we are going.

One step at a time, bit by bit, and day by day.

Moving forward in 2012!

A Just 'Cause Post

The socks were hung by the wood stove with care,

Hoping they would dry in the warm, cozy air.

Update in Pics

These are pics from last week that I didn't get to post due to internet problems.  Lots of projects needing done before the temps drop later on this week. 

Touches of fall.

***********************

Now that's a big tater!

My what big eyes you have!

New bed for Bud in the office.

Stake of granny squares for mom. 

Kyler trying out the field on Chuck's bike. 

   Chuck managed to fix a leaky faucet this weekend in between riding and working on the field.   We also did a little stock up shopping to replenish the food storage.

Lots to be accomplished this week but busy hands are happy hands!

(Y'all tired of me saying that yet?)

Have a great day!

Just Cause

You often hear on the news about a person or group of people fighting for a Just Cause and I can understand that totally. 

For example, if Zach comes in the kitchen and asks why I'm making a cake, I reply "just 'cause". 

Or if I give someone a gift and it isn't their birthday, I did it just 'cause. 

If our dog got his bedtime cookie too early, it becomes a just 'cause cookie and he gets a new one deemed bedtime snack. 

All very good reasons for taking a stand in my book. 

Just saying.....just 'cause this is my blog!  (smile)

Have a great day!

Warning: Murky Water Uh... Politics Ahead!

The following report is just one of many on ABC News. There's a new one every week about Hunger at Home. People in our own country going hungry and malnutrition in American children during this current "recession".
I have my own theories about this recession, the debt crisis, that wascally wabbit, silly rabbit, trix are for kids, and everything else under the sun but that's for another sermon. Today is just to bring you snippets of news that you might of missed and piece them together with a needle and thread.....

By DAVID MUIR
Aug. 24,2011
The McKimmons girls in Arkansas pray before each dinner, grateful for every meal. Michelle Sutton near Atlanta sacrifices her own food for her boys. And 10-year-old Jahzaire Sutton in Philadelphia has a nearly empty refrigerator.
In every corner of the country, a portrait of hidden hunger has now emerged. The recession has pushed 2.4 million more children into poverty. Seventeen million children are "food insecure," meaning their parents often don't know where the next meal will come from.
Simply put, one in six Americans don't have enough food.
Dawn and Michael McKimmons live near Fort Smith, Ark., and have moved into a trailer to save money. Dawn works at a hotel, while Michael delivers pizzas. They have taken whatever jobs they could find, but it is still not enough to feed the family.
They make do with help from their local food bank and try to shield their three little girls from the daily struggle.
"I hear my kids ask me, 'Mommy what's for dinner?' And I sit there at times, I sit there and kind of just pace back and forth thinking to myself, 'Oh my gosh, what is for dinner,'" said Dawn.
Outside Atlanta, the Suttons slipped from the middle class when Bob Sutton's concrete company went under. Michelle Sutton said she used to be a typical soccer mom, but not anymore. She told ABC News that her 11-year-old son hugged her and said, "Wow, you feel skinny."
Dr. Mariana Chilton, founder of Witnesses to Hunger, says the recession has hit the middle class hard.
"People who have been middle class who are now struggling to put food on the table are feeling an enormous amount of stress," she said. "They are starting to experience the pain of poverty, of what it's like to be poor."
In Philadelphia, 10-year-old Jahzaire Sutton knows it's the end of the month, when the food stamps have long run out.
His mother is trying to finish her degree so she can find work.
When asked what is toughest for him, Sutton said, "When I eat, and my mom doesn't. She sacrifices."
Before the recession, 26 million Americans were on food stamps. Today, that number has grown to more than 46 million, or one in seven Americans.
Sutton says he wants to be a senator when he grows up and has even written to Sen. Robert Casey, D-Pa., to ask for help.
Without a car, Sutton and his mother are forced to walk to Rite Aid to buy food. Rite Aid is the closest store, but it is often too expensive and there is no supermarket nearby. Walmart is their best alternative.
St. Christopher's Hospital in Philadelphia is ground zero for hunger. The emergency room might see 250 children a day, and up to half are hungry.
"They don't have the growth that they should," said. Dr. Chris Haines, ER director at St. Christopher's Hospital. "What disturbs me is that your brain grows much in your childhood, and nutrition is what's important to your brain's growth."
Tom Lesher, who brought his grandson to the hospital, has been out of a job for 18 months.
"Things are going to get tough," he said. "I don't know what I'm going to do. I can't find a job."

The following was in the news a few weeks ago.

Barack Obama launched his taxpayer-funded campaign bus tour today.

Even some of Obama’s fellow Democrats have expressed frustration that the president has not promoted plans to boost jobs growth more aggressively. Republicans blasted the trip as a taxpayer-funded “debt end” bus tour and hammered Obama over high unemployment, record national debt and the flagging economy.


And this:

At his rural economic forum in Iowa Tuesday, President Obama exhorted the need to boost the manufacturing and export of U.S. cars and trucks to create jobs.
"We've got folks in America driving Kias and Hyundais. I want to see folks in Korea driving Fords and Chryslers and Chevys," Obama said, drawing applause.
"I want to sell goods all over the world that are stamped with three words: 'Made in America.'"
But it turns out the president's new custom motor coach comes stamped with a brand that's located someplace else: Canada.
The $1.1 million jet-black rumbling bus that has been carrying Obama through the Midwest this week was designed in part by Prevost, a motor coach manufacturer based in Quebec. The New York Post was first to report this, and Provost officials confirmed this fact to ABC News.
The U.S. Secret Service said it purchased the vehicle from Hemphill Brothers Coach Co., which is based in Nashville, Tenn.
Hemphill, which declined to discuss the presidential bus or its business generally, assembles custom motor coaches and customizes the interiors before selling the finished product directly to individuals, businesses or the government.
"We just make the shell. We don't know anything about the end user," said Christine Garant of Prevost.
Several industry sources speculated that Hemphill may have installed an American-made engine, such as a Detroit Diesel, in the presidential bus, though that could not be immediately confirmed.

The service acquired two of the new campaign-style buses last year as additions to the government's protective fleet. Could the government have purchased a bus that was made entirely, or almost entirely, in America? In theory, yes.
The only U.S.-headquartered coach manufacturer, Motor Coach Industries, based in Schaumburg, Ill., also builds the country's only "buy American compliant" coach, the majority of whose parts are made here, an MCI spokeswoman said.
It's unclear whether the Secret Service considered this option.
The presidential limousine, nicknamed "the beast," was made by Cadillac, a General Motors Corp. brand, in 2009.

Just saying..........


I try not to talk about this stuff too much.  But sometimes it's like a belch, you just gotta let it out!  Next time I'll take a Tums and keep it to myself.  (fingers crossed)

Until next time........Kristi.

My Oh My!

It was just a tough week for politicians last week wasn't it?  First up Mrs S., we'll call her, and her fine rendition of history.  But in all fairness we can't blame her solely for this.  I mean we should have learned our lesson the first time around.  When she speaks we cease to listen.  What's that old saying?  Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice.........


And then there was Congressman Weiner and his weiner.  Need I say more?  Don't even want to touch that and I do mean literally.  But it did bring to mind an old song......but you know me, I have to put my own twist on it.

Oh I wish I was a congressman's weiner
For that is what I'd truly like to be
For if I was a congressman's weiner
Then all of twitter would be in love with me!


(can substitute "then all the tweeters would be in love with me")

Progress

Sorry it's so long but I didn't have a script and didn't know what I would say until I said it.

Trying It Out(loud)

What started out as a screen shot and sound test became something with a life of it's own. First impulse was to delete because I looked horrible, so that's why I saved it and published it. Life's not always pretty....

What is the Worth of a Word?

I had a friend mention to me not too long ago that we say the word love too often. That set me to thinking how many times I use the word love, and whom I say it too. What I came up with is that the word itself has many versions for there are so many levels of love. There is the 'I love you bud' for the friend that you've known forever and that you confide in. The 'I love you buddy' for the nephew you love like your own son. Love for the people you care about and care what happens to them. The 'I am in love with you' kind of love. And of course the ones you have to love because they are family but don't necessarily like them. So yes I guess I do tell lots of people I love them, using the same word but with a degree of difference depending on the person. I don't feel a need to apologize for that because I also thought about the times I had used the word hate or felt the emotion. I couldn't come up with one actual time or person that I absolutely hate. Maybe a few with a small dislike but no hatred. So isn't that what we are suppose to do? Love one another and not hate? Do good to those around us? Maybe we should overuse the word love more often. Maybe there would be more compassion in the world and less wars. Less children abandoned and abused. Less elderly lonely and overlooked. Less bickering over petty insignificant things. Again I don't think I should apologize for using a word I mean, in whatever degree I say it in. Until next time....Kristi.