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.

    
    
    

“It’s like Wal-Mart or Target set afloat.”–Eriksen

My mother shared an article with me by Will Dunham from the Sun Sentinel published Thursday, December 18, 2014.

I wanted to pass the article on.
Made me blink twice.

Green things we did while sort of homeless #3

3. Without the proper dishes to make food, we used what we had. My favorite thing to do.

#1 Moving boxes

1. Daily my mother traveled up the street to the Dollar Store or I trudged to the elementary school behind her home to pull out empty boxes from their trash and recycling bins.

New appreciation for moms

When I first had the baby and she was months old, the military wives threw me a sort of good-bye party as we left the last base. They all had children, three kids, four kids. As one scooted between table and chair, balancing a loaded plate in one hand, baby in the other, she said,”Oh, I remember those days. I said I’d never let my kid watch t.v., and I would make all her baby food organically from scratch.” All the women burst out laughing and I thought silently to myself, “I AM going to make all her baby food from scratch.”

Environmental wine?

Making your own would be the zero-waste way to drink wine. That’s high on my list but we gave this one a try until then…

What I do all day long with one tiny baby

Not a very green post, this one. Just thought I’d share a little. I don’t do that enough.

I am floored how busy I am with one kid. Just one. And granted, I realize my life isn’t any different from any other mother, but I just thought I’d give a peek into mine. And hey, it’s all new to me.

She looks innocent enough, doesn’t she?

Hello fall!

Fall has officially arrived in Wisconsin!
Come take a look out the window.

Havana Community Garden

While driving to visit daddy last year, I passed a community garden in Havana, Georgia. I had to get out and snoop. By far the cleanest, most successful community garden I’d seen yet, I had to ask, “How and who runs it?”

Uses for olive oil other than the kitchen

If you remember, my Roman-wanna-be husband once wrote a post about shaving with olive oil. In the dry winter months, I’ve found other uses for it too.