The greenness of a child

1. All her clothes, shoes, books and toys have been second hand except for a few gifts from family members up to year three. My goal was not to purchase new. There was no baby shower.
   
2. We used cloth diapers. She’s potty trained but still wears diapers at night. They are still cloth. We use four of them now at a time. She can’t walk when she wears four. But she’s sleeping so she doesn’t need to walk.
   
3. I nursed.
   
4. I bought all her food at the Wisconsin farmer’s market before she had teeth and purreed it, froze it in ice cube trays and fed it to her. The baby food I did purchase came from the Amish Salvage store in glass which I later sold on Craig’s list to a girl for her wedding. She placed candles in the tiny jars for table settings.
   
5. Rather than have our own pool, this kid is a member of the YMCA, a community program that shares resources with other families, including one pool.
   
6. The holiday decorations that we now put up are second hand (except for the potted tree/plant) that belonged to my mother or my grandmother. I found some brand new green and red streamers in the trash behind the elementary school.
   
7. She knows what the recycling bin is and goes there first before putting something in the trash.
   
8. She believes all food scraps go in the compost bin on the counter, not in the trash.
   
9. She thinks everyone uses handmade wipes from old white t-shirts for cleaning up spills or as toilet paper and cloth napkins are the norm. Paper towels aren’t in the house.
   
10. We do not buy books or videos but use the public library instead.
    
11. As of year three, we have not thrown a birthday party, though I know there is a way to throw a green party. Instead, I made cake or cupcakes myself. We reused the candles from the year before and visited the beach or the park. Maybe next year, I’ll challenge myself to see if I can throw a party “green.”
    
12. So far, this kid has not cost an arm and a leg and has implemented right into our green lifestlye. I foresee her main cost being education. But again, if I can teach her to swim or speak another language myself, I have every intention to try until I’m tapped out and she surpasses me. That’s what tutors are for.
    
13. Unlike the swish of the fairy wand she holds, my little green bug will not be able to change the world alone. But one day she will connect with all the other green bugs brought up by green-ish parents who are also teaching their children the value of resourses and not to waste them, to reuse rather than buy new and to tread lightly…
    I do feel I am fighting a loosing battle here. ESPECIALLY here, when I look around Miami at the waste and I feel I am wasting my time doing all the things I do.
    But then I see her face.
    She’s learning from me by what I DO, even more than what I say.Then I see her face…
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    How can I not try?
    As they say on ONCE UPON A TIME—We have to give her her best chance.

    
    
    

To scare off the Friday the 13th blues…

A little green from the back yard…
He lives in our palm tree!

A great little souvenir

Home from a business trip, somebody received a gift from dad. I thought it a great little souvenir, don’t you think? It’s made of wood, sustainable, not plastic. It’s a real musical instrument, child size.

Every day is another chance to make a difference

No matter how beat down I get in this fight for the environment (and I am losing BIG TIME in the streets of Miami–we are number one in trash production in the entire state of Florida), I will not give up.

Miss Precious #1

There was once a Miss Precious long before my Miss Precious.
12 years to be exact.

When she was two years old and we asked her when her birthday was she used to say, “December Two-two.”
That’s today.
She would have been 14 today.

And the beat goes on…

Still packing and cleaning.

And it’s still all about the dog…

What’s been goin’ on

I’ve been at mama’s helping her pack for about a month. I’ve tried and tried to pinpoint something different or green that we’ve been doing here. But mostly we’ve just been packing (in boxes we already had, mama got from work, or I’ve pulled out of recycling bins, yay.) And cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. Trying to use up the cleaning products that are at the end.

Mostly it’s been all about the dog…  

What I found in the yard

While out gardening during Memorial Day weekend, I discovered new flowers and even more new flowers. The woman who owned the house before us was a true lover of flowers. I’ve never seen so many different kinds. A different bunch seem to bloom weekly. I don’t even know their names.

Here are some of the flowers I found just weeks ago– along with this bird feeder.