Eco Kids

It all starts with you.

Or me.

Or our kids.

Or someone else starts it.

At some point someone will get tired of seeing litter and will decide to do something about it. Someone mentioned that a group should get together to clean up an area. Some else asked, “Why does it have to be a group? Why not just take a garbage bag with you when you take your dog for walk? Why not take a bag with you when you go to the park? Why not?”

It’s the little things that matter the most.

Every spring our town calls for a band of volunteers to help clean up our town. Volunteers register and either pick or get assigned a small area to clean up. Naturally, some areas are worse than others. It just depends on where the winds blow and what’s around to catch the garbage; fences, tall grasses, bushes, buildings, etc… We picked the area in front of the bar/Chinese restaurant.

DW likes Chinese food. The bar is for a significantly younger crowd.

It’s a pretty set up they have. Volunteers spend a couple hours on a Saturday morning picking up garbage and beautifying the town we live in. The town provides gloves, garbage bags and garbage bag pick up. Actually, it was a local car dealership who offered to pick up the full garbage bags. The town also provided t-shirts, BBQ hotdogs, apples, bananas and Timbits afterward.

This event had been planned for weeks so, of course, it rained. It poured. Cats and dogs kind of rain. The kind of rain Fort Mac so desperately needs but isn’t getting. We survived an hour of the rains and made significant headway in our clean up when the kids were done and approaching melt down. It was a bit chilly being so wet. We tried not to get too mad at them, even though there was still more garbage. We cut our loses, decided we had cleaned enough in the rain and the rest would wait for better weather.

Before

After

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So perhaps the next time you go for a walk, perhaps with your dog or perhaps your cat or even your lobster if you live in Atlantic Canada, you could take a bag, big or small, with you to pick any litter you might find along the way. Imagine if we all…

If only there was a way to stop it at its source…

This is exactly what we were finding. Sad.

 

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Nesting and Hoarding

First I just wanted to share this screen grab with you before I get into the meat of the matter, the juice in the box, the refried beans in the burrito.

I have posts 500 times. 500 times I’ve written something I’ve felt is worthy enough to share. While I love writing, stats are fun but don’t define my writing and blah blah blah you readers and subscribers and commenters definitely make it easier. You definitely make it worth while. Thanks for making this fun! I wonder what’s in store for the next 500?

Okay… now for the fun in dysfunctional…

The best way to get to know someone is to live with them for 10 years then start getting rid of stuff you don’t need any or use any more. Say, clean out your basement (or attic, or wherever you keep your stuff “for later”). In our basement you will find all the teaching stuff I saved from my classroom before our big move. The intent was to keep here until I got my own classroom. We moved here almost 7 years ago. That stuff is still here. I don’t have a classroom here, yet. We didn’t get rid of that. Even the Virginia social studies lesson plans.

Other stuff did go to the curb. The broken telescope and tripod. An old poster frame. A busted horizontal blind. Some stuff didn’t go. Kayak pads for the roof rack. An old driftwood post (I hid it outside somewhere, shhh). A laptop bag that I’ll start using for school because my messenger bag has outdoor paint spilled all over it.

It’s fun to see what your spouse is willing to keep and willing to part with. I call myself a pack rat. I keep stuff in case I need/want to use it later. I may never us it, but as soon as I throw it out I’ll need it. My dad’s mom is pack rat president. I’m not sure which chromosome the pack rat gene is on but it’s been passed on to me. I’ll need mom’s input to know if my dad has it too.

I’m not a hoarder, though. Here’s my argument… Hoarders suffer from severe anxiety. They’re not keeping their stuff to use later or because they might need it. They keep it because they’re literally afraid to throw it away. You can find some really interesting information on hoaders at Psych Central.

Sometimes things need to be thrown out, even if they’re our favorites. An old pair of shoes long past their mileage. Soccer short who’ve played in too many games. They disappear quietly when I’m not looking and can’t protest. It’s best for all of us that way. This is why we don’t throw stuff away when the kids are watching. Toys they haven’t played with for 25 years suddenly become a great interest. “Don’t throw that away!”

I’m pretty sure this is why my parents sent me to my grandmother’s for a few weeks every summer during my childhood. They wanted to toss out the toys I never played with any more. It only took me 30 years and having kids of my own to figure this out.

Thanks to Toy Story, I have trouble throwing away toys. So you can imagine my sadness when I saw Buzz Lightyear, well loved yet broken and missing pieces, in the bag to be tossed. He’s in a bag with others so hopefully they’re having a grand adventure.

Just Another Tuesday

As I sit here staring out the kitchen window wait for whatever it is I’m going to write about today to come through, I see a crow in the bird feeder. Really, it’s a bird bath, but we put food in it for the crows. He didn’t bring me any ideas either. Not even a shiny thing.

Bang had a short playdate with a friend because our cooking class was cancelled due an unforeseen emergency. So a friend came over. Instead of playing with the toys they played with the mop and vacuum. This is my kind of playdate!

We already gathered up the garbage for Kyle and Lewis. They came with their big garbage truck to pick up our garbage. The recycling truck is here now. This is also a big deal. Bang plasters himself to the window to watch. Though, he doesn’t like to get close. He says they’re too loud.

We are currently sitting here watching Justin Time and eating apples. After lunch is finished, we’ll be heading out to take down the trampoline. Time to winterize it by putting it away. While it does open a good bit of space in the backyard, it’s also an easy source of entertainment and exercise.

Halloween is coming up. We’ve received an invite to a Halloween party this weekend. Unfortunately, it’s in Australia. So I think we’ll have to decline this year. We’ll go trick or treating instead. We’ve developed a bit of a Halloween tradition since moving here.

First we go see Nanny and Guppy in the next town over. They love to see the kids and they always put together a wicked treat bag for the kids. We visit a couple friends houses while we’re there. Then it’s back to our town for supper at McDonald’s. Something fast and easy so we can get back to candy collecting. Then we visit Nanny and Pop. Again, another wicked treat bag for the kids. We’ll walk around the block trick or treating. Then drive to a few friends houses.

Back home we consolidate the loot, give the kids one small treat from the pile, then ship them off to bed. We don’t get many trick or treaters where we live. We just leave a bowl of treats on the front porch with a note instructing the treaters to take one or two. Sometime there is still some left when we get home, sometimes it’s gone. Either way works for us.  We enjoy going out more than we do staying home and handing out. It’s a family event for us.

We have some fun costumes this year. It’s the first year we’ve all dressed to the same theme. I won’t give it away until after Halloween, though. Sorry, not sorry. Some have seen it since we were just at a kids Halloween party last weekend. Some parents, including DW and I dressed up as well.

So we’re just hanging out on this regular Tuesday. We have some jobs to do. But mostly we’re just anxiously waiting to go trick-or-treating.

What are you up to today?

Garbage and My Blog

It’s Tuesday again. That means it’s garbage day. It’s up to DW and Bang to get the garbage to the curb this morning. Crash and Bang are best friends with the garbage men Kyle and Lewis. They hear the truck coming down the road and they plaster themselves to the window to watch. One day, Bang had a complete meltdown because the garbage wasn’t going to come. It was Wednesday. There was no consoling him. Crash and Bang will wait in the driveway for them. Sometimes they let Crash pull the lever to crush the garbage. Bang won’t get that close. He doesn’t like the noise of the truck. Though, once, Kyle did get him to go near enough to pull a lever. Once. Bruce, who to drove the truck before Lewis, brought Bang a hat from the garbage company. When we make cookies or muffins we make sure to leave some for the garbage men.

But Tuesday also means something else, especially for my blog. According to my stats page, Tuesdays are my days with the most views. I’m not sure why. I write six days a week. Why Tuesday? Is that the slowest day at work so people have more time to read blogs? Even more specifically, 11:00 AM is the time I get visited most frequently. I suppose since it’s 10:55 AM now, I have 5 minutes to get this posted.

Anyway, it’s Tuesday and you’ve found your way to my blog. My cozy corner. My miniscule corner of the internet. Make yourself cozy, follow a few links, read a few posts, and leave a some comments. Who knows? You might be here until Wednesday.