3 Ways to Celebrate Earth Day

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I’m not a fan of celebrating holidays.  The whole thing just seems like too much work.  Spending a bunch of money buying decorations, searching tirelessly for ingredients and competing with other consumers for the last ham at the grocery store, cooking a ton of food, and having a messy house all for just a few short hours.  Still, it wasn’t until this past Christmas that I realized just how important celebrating something is.  Having a child leads me to revalue the joy and togetherness that holidays bring into our lives.  Simply because we are alive, well and happy to have each other.  It doesn’t have to be one of the traditional holidays, but it should be something that is important to our family.  I’d like for my son to have fond memories of a special day that we got together and did something fun for a good cause.  So we’re starting our own traditions!

Mommy Can LearnEarth Day is this Friday and while it isn’t a homemade holiday, what better reason to celebrate than the solitary planet that homes us and provides us with food, water, and air!  Here are 3 ways that we can do a little good for our planet that does so much for us.

Teaching your kids about sustainable living

Reading books to kids is the best way to teach them about, well anything!  Learning about the importance of sustainable living is a great way to get kids involved and thinking about preserving our planet at an early age.  And once kids take an interest in something new, they’ll be sure to remind us to do our part as well.  Here are 4 great books to get started:

Compost Stew: An A to Z Recipe for the Earth

Disney Go Green: A Family Guide to a Sustainable Lifestyle

The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle: A Story About Recycling

The Earth Book

Earth Day activities

Earth 911 – Cool DIY projects with reusable materials.

Education World – Earth Day lesson plans and projects – great for homeschoolers!

TinkerLab – 50 Earth Day activities for toddlers and little kids.

Utilizing sustainability sites

Freecycle – A great resource for donating and receiving free reusable goods to avoid using landfills.

Healthy Home Economist – A list of organic, non-GMO, Monsanto-free seed companies.

I Want To Be Recycled – Everything recycling!

Local Harvest – Find local farms, farmers markets, co-ops, CSAs and even pick-your-own fruit gardens.

What do you have planned for Earth Day?

 

Where Has The Time Gone… Part 2

So remember when I said “if I ever go on another hiatus I’ll let you know ahead of time?”  Yeaaah… about that.  My bad.  It’s not even that things were super hectic, aside from my computer practically dying, mom and best friend coming into town for my birthday, us traveling to our home state to see an ill family member, having a situation with our dog and the terror that is teething.  I just fell off.  That’s it.  No excuse.

I don’t know why it is so hard for me to be consistent when it comes to motivating myself and executing my visions.  Whenever my friends (or a stranger for that matter) have an idea, I am the first one to turn into their unsolicited personal cheerleader and encourage them to do it, even finding ways to expand on their proposal. I have yet to find that fire for myself.  I have so many great ideas in my head, but that’s all they are: ideas.  At times I get overwhelmed with my mental haste, yet simultaneously annoyed with my physical lagging.  In my head, I am an active and dedicated person: exercising everyday, being outdoorsy, cooking great meals, reading a book a month, doing awesome DIY projects, blogging consistently, and of course being supermom (and wife); basically everything I rather leisurely do now.  I tend to procrastinate a bit (read: most of my life) and have a general fear of doing things, even my own desires.  It’s as if I’m afraid that I’ll fail before I even begin.  And then today I saw this:

I have seen many motivational and encouraging posters before, but something about this one has struck a nerve.  So I am making a declaration that AS OF THIS MOMENT (read: tomorrow or so) I am going to STOP (read: kinda try to stop) being a scaredy cat, STOP second guessing myself, STOP worrying about other people’s opinions and just write.  Hey, it’s my life and who can tell my story better than me, right?