Silicone vs. Paper

I was washing my silicone cupcake containers, which I use for my girls lunches - never think of them for cupcakes, not that I make them often - and suddenly had a thought; which is better for the environment, paper or silicone. Then I went on and thought of all the other silicone products I had in my house, and how popular silicone has become recently. This stuff doesn't biodegrade (that I know of) and can't be recycled (again, that I know of) so, just how much of this is going to be clogging our world in the future?

I know I can use various paper products to help removal and clean up when baking, but the thought occurred to me, the best answer is to go au-natural. Or use glass products.

But I wouldn't. I hate scrubbing dishes and such. And then the thought hit me: Well, we really should not be eating these baked goods anyway. Refined flour, sugar, bad fats, etc. are all really bad for us to eat anyway. So is this a delima?

Well, yes it is. Because I live in the real world, and my kids really expect a cake for birthdays, and I do enjoy making them one. So now I have to wrestle with this thought now: Paper, or plastic, or silicone.

Unplugged & Recycled Solar System

I almost curse introducing my kids to this unplugged concept! The other day we had no school, but they woke me up bright and early, all excited to work on our solar system unplugged project. Note all photos depict the kids still in pajamas, and if you could see their innards there would be two very empty stomachs because they did not want to eat breakfast. Although, a snack break did happen an hour into the project. And mom was sure to down her required morning coffee.

This week's inspiration was BALL. The kids had two ideas. The first being play basket ball. And being that we have had week after week of frigid temperatures, keeping the kids inside more than usual, I thought a raucous game of basketball was a good idea.

But the fun didn't stop there. The girls wanted to do a *project* not just play. So, we talked a bit about what we could do that would involve "ball" and they came up with the idea of creating a solar system mobile for our Space Room. (Our guest room came with an entire wall covered with a giant photo of the Space Shuttle Challenger.) And being that Gherkie is all about the solar system in general, I was up for the challenge.

We gathered the plethora of solar system books we have on hand, and looked through them for reference on planet size and shape/marking etc. The girls each drew the relative size of each planet, so we would know what size to make all 9 balls. (And we all know that Pluto is no longer a planet, but just try to convince Gherkie of that fact!)

Gherkie also decided she should draw any distinguishing features for each planet; this was all done from memory. She is getting into the whole documenting your thought process. While her writing is not the best, and spelling is, uhh, questionable (apple does not fall far from the tree there) I was pretty impressed with her knowledge of all the planets.

We decided to create this solar system with whatever we had on hand. (Especially since they were not dressed and had not eaten breakfast. But basically why would I purchase something when I can reuse objects I already have in my house.) So we made newspaper balls and glued them together.

We have yet to paint the solar system. The balls of gooey newspaper needed to dry before we tackled painting. And the girls went to Nanna and Poppa's for the weekend before they were dry. This upcoming week is crazy busy, but I hope to finish this project soon. I have to figure exactly how to hang these planets, but I'm sure I can figure that one out.

Remembering the Reduce and Reuse

Recycling is slow to catch on in my neck of the woods. Seriously slow. My neighbors think I'm crazy for recycling all that I do. But this fall, for some unknown reason, it seems that a few of them suddenly began recycling some of their paper and plastics. There sure are a lot of plastic water bottles in that recycling, too. Which got me to thinking ...

The saying goes: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Listed in order of importance. If you reduce the amount of waste created you should have less to recycle, right? And if you reuse the majority of what you would waste, there is even less to recycle. And finally, if you do end up having some waste, then you should dispose of it in the appropriate recycling facility.

But all I seem to hear about is the last part, recycle. It seems the first two, the most important two, have become lost in our current society. Even during the frenzy of Earth Day education in April I have not noticed much, if any, literature or talk about the trilogy: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. I just hear about recycle.

Personally, I need to work on the reduce part some more. But all in all I think my family is pretty good. I do not buy single serving products if I can possibly get around it. I've even switched to blocks of cheese for my kids to snack on rather than purchase "cheese sticks" as we call them. My kids would rather have the plastic encased cheese sticks, but I figure I have to start somewhere, and unfortunately some of these choices are not going to make them happy. Or me, because frankly it was so easy for them to grab a cheese stick on their own; now I have to help them cut off a chunk of cheese.

But there are many other venues that I need to address when it comes to the reduce aspect of the trilogy. Cosmetics and personal care products always seem to be over-packaged. (Lets not get into the ingredients at this point; I'm working on that slowly.) Even my "green" products are packaged in plastics and sometimes plastic inside plastic. And often the plastic is something I am not able to easily recycle. Raw ingredients for foods are usually packaged fairly minimally, but wouldn't bulk purchases, gathered with a reusable container be so much better?

I would like to reduce my packaging consumption, but as of right now I have no good plan of attack. Stores in my neck of the woods are completely tied to the demands of the masses, and these masses do not care about such issues. They all worship the single serving concept for its ease of control and portability. (Although, I am guilty of disposable bags for snack 5 times a week, so maybe I should not be so huffy!)

And the reuse part. Now there is one we could definitely improve upon. Glass jars should have some re-use, right? I have tried to use them to store left overs, but unless you have a soup, sauce, or other liquid type left over they are really awkward. With small kids in the house (and a less than graceful me) it makes me nervous to have too many things stored in glass; I'm afraid something will fall and break. I've tried to save cardboard from various boxes and such, but I really do not need the clutter in my house. And as it happens, it seems recycling day always happens the day before we attempt some project that would benefit from one of those disposed of cereal boxes. I do reuse the yogurt containers, but I recently stopped buying yogurt and making it myself. So that is a reduce part, right?

I am going to have to make a conscious effort to remember the entire trilogy and Reduce first, then Reuse. And maybe I will start talking about it some, just to get it back in the mainstream thought process. Let me go grab my Crunchy Crusader Cape ....

Wormless Worm Composting Anyone?

Sigh. I am a bad worm keeper. I killed my poor little critters after almost 3 years of raising and nurturing them, and sharing with friends and family.

This summer I gave quite a few worms away to friends and loved ones. I just can't share my enthusiasm enough. I love(d) worm composting. It is so easy, so awesome, so fun for the kids, and my plants love the bi-product.

But after giving away a substantial portion of both of my worm bins, I decided to combine the remaining worms into one bin, and then harvest the casings. Honestly, this is the hard process for me. My bins always are wet, so I have to let it dry out some, and I have to kind of "starve" the worms (read, let the worms eat all the visible food) and then "bribe" them to one end of the bin with some special yummy treat.

So this means that I leave off any lid that I may have on the bin. FM does not like the thought of worms in our basement, so I agreed to keep a lid on it, errr, lid on them. snicker. Anyway, I took the lid off both bins and waited for a week or so to let the casings dry some. I stopped feeding both bins - well why would I feed an empty one, duh - and was waiting a few days to feed them one of the melon rinds from our garden.

Well, then school started. And I forgot about them. Completely forgot about them. I've let the worms go without food for a few weeks at a time before, and while I am sure they were not happy worms gorging on tons of fresh kitchen scraps, they did survive just fine.

But like I said, I completely forgot about the poor worms. For like, uhhhh, 4 months. Now don't go and call the Humane Society on me, please. I have to keep the little critters in an out of sight place, and well, lets just say that this year has been a very hectic year and I am struggling to get a handle on our schedule. (You can use your imagination to guess what our laundry situation looks like. And the dog hair; well that has had some moments too.) So when I was clearing dishes one evening and scraping the scraps into the frozen heap of compost material, I realized (Duh!) I had not fed my worms in a long time.

I ran downstairs with the fresh batch of scraps - which included squash rinds, something the worms love. I peeled back the layer of shredded paper from the worm bin and noticed a hard, dry layer of, well, hard dry stuff. Hmmmm, did any little worms survive? I fluffed up the dirt and added the squash rinds, figuring within a day or two I would see who survived.

It has been over a week, and no worms have come to dine at the squash rind. Yup, I murdered them all. Or, as I prefer to think, they all packed their bags and went to some refugee camp where they could get better care.

Now I have to wait for some of my friends and family members to grow their own population and share worms back with me.

Unplugged Theme: Balance!

How funny! This week's Unplugged theme is "balance." Yea, I know a bit about that topic!

The kids had quite a few ideas to approach this topic. Ziggy said we should talk about having a balance in nature. I think that was even her actual words. So we talked about what was needed to keep nature in balance. They came up with some of the following ideas: (I did not write them down, as we talked about this while driving to dance class, so bear with my interpretations and memory)

• not cutting down trees unless you plant a new one to replace it. And it should be the same size. (We then talked about removing damaged, sick, or dying trees to help keep the balance.)


• not removing habitat - which upon further discussion seemed to focus on trees and shrubs for birds and rabbits. (We have been talking about rabbits for nature study recently. And our bird feeder is a constant source of nature education this winter, too.)


• not spraying chemicals on gardens. (Our discussion on this one did not go beyond that point because we had reached our destination, but boy did I want to delve into this one to help them understand why it is important to lessen the ubiquiness of said chemicals!)

Gherkie wanted to use the balance scale we have, and see which of her plastic animals weighs more. This was a doable project, and a great little science project as well! We took out our project journals and proceeded to write down our predictions, results, and guesses as to why one weighed more than the other.

They really got into it, and when my mother came to pick up Ziggy for an afternoon of sewing, they could not wait to share this project and their results. They are excited to try next weeks theme, Ball.

Keep looking for updates. This is a great project we have successfully scheduled into our week and added some balance to our learning and playing.

Is It the Winter Weather, or Me?

Maybe it is the relentless deluge of snow this year (which I actually really enjoy!) or the day after day of fridged temperatures (which I enjoy to a point, but when the temperature is in the single digits, or less, I protest and complain with the masses) but I am loosing some of my desire to fight this fight. I am so tired of always doing things the "hard" way.

This lack of desire has ebbed deep into my psyche, because I actually subconsciously bought Peanut Butter Capt'n Crunch cereal this week. I had no idea I bought it. Seriously. FM doesn't believe me (which angers me) but it is the truth. It was around 9pm and I was on the phone talking to a friend trying to make last minute arrangements for an annual trip a bunch of girlfriends and I take, and apparently talking, thinking, and shopping are too difficult for me! I remember thinking *I* really wanted PB Capt'n Crunch, but it is so not good for you that it is defiantly on my "Do Not Purchase" list. But when I got home FM was shocked to see a box of it in my purchases. So was I! (But secretly glad, and the girls and I have all had a bowl of it for breakfast now! Sugar them up and send them off to school!)

Maybe I just over-exhausted myself this holiday with "pioneer" activities and projects. Maybe I am just half frozen most of the time from my 64 degree home and sub-zero outside temps. Maybe I am fighting food poisoning from homemade yogurt & keifer (smirk.) Or, maybe I am just tired of always trying to find a "new and improved" way of living my life in this world.

Well, tomorrow is a New Day. Maybe I'll be less tired of the fight. .......maybe.......

Unplugging the Kids

We try to keep TV, Videos, and Computers at a minimum in our house. We do watch TV and the occasional movie - in fact we do belong to Netflix and love the documentaries and family movie nights we have almost every Friday night - but as a family we engage in very little "media time." Each year we participate in the annual Turn TV Off Week, which is probably harder for the adults than the kids!

Recently I stumbled upon the blog Unplug Your Kids and I was intrigued. I especially loved the idea of the weekly Unplugged Projects. This seemed like a fun way to help create some more learning opportunities and put some different, and planned, creativity in our lives. So, armed with this week's theme, we set off to do a project or two.

This week's theme is SQUARE

I told the kids about the Unplugged Project idea, what this week's theme was, and then asked them what thoughts they had on how to approach it.

Kids' Idea: Make Squares with K'nex

Ziggy was at Girl Scouts, so she did not participate. But the 2yr old and the other 5yr old I watch during the day did. They all loved the idea of playing with K'nex, and we had some good mathematical discussions. This was the first time any of them had really played with the K'nex. Of course it is too complex for a 2yr old, but he had fun playing with the larger pieces. Gherkie had fun trying to break down large squares and shapes into smaller squares. I tried to make a cube, but couldn't. Not sure why, but I could not find the right pieces to connect everything correctly. So much for *my* part of the geometry lesson.

All three kids played with the K'nex for almost an hour. It was a success!

Mom's idea: Art History Application - Mondrian

My first thought went to pop-artists Piet Mondrian. I was going to have them create an art piece in the style of Mondrian, and also talk a bit about his works and the influencing forces of his time. But I forgot to look for a book at the library, and when I visited their school I noticed that the art class had already done a Mondrian project. OK, time to revisit the idea.

I decided to still talk some about Mondrian and the influences from that period in time, (figuring that the art teacher did not talk much about the social and political forces in play at that time)but to let them do something creative based upon the idea of squares. Sort of like Mondrian, but without a grid. So, I cut up some scrapbook paper into various squares, and had them glue them onto a piece of construction paper of their choice.

Oddly enough the history part kept their interest, and they were intrigued to learn about Mondrian's life. But the actual art part. Well, apparently gluing squares onto paper was not too much fun. They spent about 15 minutes on the project and then ran off to play with their fairies.

I did enjoy their interpretations. Gherkie had a very free flow to her work. One square was turned around to hide the pattern of the paper and show the white back. And, she had a few squares off to the side some, as if they were running away. I always enjoy the flow of her art work.

Ziggy's work was more orderly. Of course, no shocker there. She also stacked her squares one on top of another, and played with the "square" relationship. You can see some of her quilting influence in her piece.

Mine, oddly enough, was very orderly. I was trying to show, without using words, the concept of constructing larger squares with smaller squares, and deconstructing squares into smaller square parts. Or at least that was the concept in my head when I started out. I don't think you can really tell that in the finished product. Oh well.

After "living" with this thought in my head for a week, and in their head for a few days, it is amazing to see how often they are noticing square related activities or objects, and they are talking about square stuff quite a bit. I find that interesting. Just a small focus on one topic really influences their thought process for the week. Just helps confirm my ideas on adding in some planned, themed activities, yet also letting it be child led.

New Years Resolutions?

I usually do not make resolutions for the new year. I know myself well enough that any bright idea I get I either immediately jump whole hog into, or dink around and only do it half assed for a short time before abandoning the idea all together.

However, I'm feeling as if I should make an eco-resolution this year. Something rather major, something rather challenging. But, I am feeling overwhelmed with just my life right now - which is amazing because I do not work out of the house, so why am I so overwhelmed?? Anyhow ...

My current eco challenges I'm facing right now are finding local foods and keeping the heat down to 65 degrees during the day. And, truth be told, I just turned up the heat in the house to 67; I was COLD and even a warm cup of tea and snuggling with Ziggy and Gherkey under the quilt did not warm me up. So, what about my local food issues: no news on the home front regarding new connections for local winter foods. I suck.

But my brain is so cold it is not thinking clearly. he he