This post is loosely about my children and mostly about my thoughts today. Violet spent last night coughing. She played outside most of yesterday, and had a great time. She loves being outdoors and I am not sure that she would ever come in the house if she had her choice. Right now she is taking a nap and I can hear her cough periodically. We took a short walk this morning, but we can't go outside the rest of the day. Today is a knozone day and this means that the air is not fit to breathe. Here is what the paper said about the air quality today in its article warning people to limit time outside:
""It's literally dirt in the air,'' said Steven Hardiman, spokesman for the city's Department of Public Works, speaking of floating particles the diameter of a human hair."
Violet has asthma, and she has already used her inhalers today.
Today my mind is constantly shifting to the topic of the environment. I wouldn't consider myself an environmentalist, but I think about these things and wonder whether other people do too. Being "green" seems to be hip and trendy right now and there appears to be increased awareness (organic sheets at Target), but I wonder if it is too little too late. I don't know how I feel about greenhouse gas, governmental regulation, or global warming, but certainly there are some things we can do to preserve the environment.
Before I list the little ways I try to contribute, here are some questions I wish could be answered:
-What happens to my recycling after it is picked up? Is it really recycled? What about when I don't peel labels or clean it out? What if I throw in a non-recyclable? What about plastic #4, 5, and 6? Does anyone go through the landfills to pull out things that can be recycled? How much does it really help to recycle?
-How much space in a landfill will I save if I faithfully use cloth diapers (I am hot and cold with this, but wish I were more disciplined)?
-How many more years will we be able to fuel our cars and home with oil? What happens next? Will things come to a grinding halt or will it be gradual?
-Can we go back to a society and a city-structure that will support pedestrian traffic and lessen the dependency on vehicular transportation, or is it too late?
-Should we move to the country and try to be self-sustaining? Is there any country left?
Here are some things I try to do:
-recycle
-minimize unecessary driving
-turn lights off
-use earth friendly cleaning products
-eat as organic as possible
-keep the AC at 75 or 76 during the day and 74 at night
-try to use cloth diapers
What else can I do??? Is what I am doing saving anything?
If anyone has any thoughts or answers, I would love to hear them.
Now onto a more conventional post:
This morning Violet has been obsessed with the thought of having her own, pretend makeup. I looked a couple places for plastic makeup, but all I found was "Bratz" crap and it was real makeup. When I was little, there was plastic makeup that didn't make a mark, but you could pretend you were using lipstick, eyeshadow, and blush. Is she too young for this?
Anara has been great since Saturday. She has been doing new tricks like waving "bye bye" and is definitely starting to show stranger anxiety (sign of attachment). The Developmental Therapist was very impressed by her play. Her hair is growing and I think she might be gaining some weight. She will have her suture removed June 11th and it is likely she will be hospitalized overnight for 24hr. observation.
Here are a few pictures:
Jasmine and Violet (Yummm...snot)
Marlene dumping water on Vi
Marlene dumping water on Vi
"Let's cuddle"
"Come on, I said snuggle me"
4 comments:
You pose some very good questions. I have always been under the philosophy that maybe one person can't make a difference all by themselves, but if that one person makes small changes, like you were mentioning, and then influences, say 5-10 other people to also make small changes, and so on... then that will amount to an exponential change overall and tremendous impact globally. I know that some republicans may object to this link, but I do think it has some good suggestions on small ways that you can make a difference: http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/ (a link associated with Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth" movie).
As for cloth diapers, well, I'll just try to do more of the other things to make up for the piles and piles of my children's poo that go in our landfill. I can only take "green" so far!
Kudos to you for even pondering these issues while having 2 small children at home! I must confess that I don't recycle. The way I look at it, there are only so many things I can feel guilty about (i.e. not keeping my house clean, being a working mom, not making organic/from scratch meals every night of the week, eating trans fats... you get the picture) Maybe once I acheive any one of the above goals, I will have the capacity to feel guilty about the recycling thing. Although, dirt particles in the air the diameter of human hair does make you think twice! About the make-up thing... as my husband says, God made girls to want to look pretty. When Meagan was 2 I let her have some clear chap-stick and this seemed to be a sufficient substitue for 'lip stick' :)
Amanda - Jon calls me the "recycling nazi." I just do the plastic, cans, and papers. I have to try not to obsess about it (like digging through the trash to pull out recyclables that others have thrown away.) I just try to do my part. Plus, then we pay less for our trash removal (pay by the bag and recycling is a city service paid for with our tax money.) Anyway, (which is "Jerome" for "I am now about to get BACK to my original story")there are things that are worthy being concientious about but not worth our worries. I was telling Grandpa Jerome today, we are not to "borrow trouble" as it says in Matthew 6 and I need to remind myself of that often. Enjoy your girls.
Interesting that you mention this. I was thinking recently about an article I read in college that said "Environmentism is a problem for the rich." Those who are living in poverty have to be more concerned with survival...are you going to buy the in-organic cheese, milk and eggs, or buy organic and only be able to afford the milk?
If I were to label myself "tree hugger" isn't one I would choose. I do try however, to be a good steward of this earth. My efforts include riding my bike in the summer (This is possible only because I live in town and can ride my bike nearly anywhere.), drying my clothes on the line (though that's problematic with Claire's allergies), opening windows instead of turning on air (also stirs up Claire's allergies), and recycling.
Okay, I must admit, I do those things more because it saves money, and and for exercise. It does help the earth, though.
Upon graduation at Bluffton, students have an opportunity to pledge to be environmentally responsible in whatever profession a graduate chooses. (Ah, Bluffton. When the Iraq war broke out, the Peace Club vowed to camp out on the lawn by the science bldg. until the war was over, then the Environmental Club got them kicked off because they were killing the grass. Oh, Bluffton.)
ANYWAY,(Yep, I Jeromed there), as a homemaker I guess that means walking to story time and the coffee shop and teaching my girls to do their part...but I used disposable diapers.
Everything in moderation
...including make-up. At Violets age, you can consider it dramatic play and those in child development will pat you on the back. At an older age, we'll just have to teach our girls to avoid vanity.
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