Crunchy Domestic Goddess posted this interview regarding the world hunger crises.   Heather, a woman who is in the process of adopting two children from Haiti, shares her observations and experiences at the orphanage from the sparse diet available to children living in the orphanage to the dismal political atmosphere and the fact that children dying from starvation is simply accepted  as part of life.   At the end of the interview, Amy calls upon readers to reflect on what might be done to solve the food crises and also to think about what they might do, for their own part, to help.  Immediately I thought about Kiva.org, an organization that allows donors to make loans to entrepreneurs living in developing countries to help “lift themselves out of poverty.”  Still, there is so much more that my family can do.  Years ago when I graduated from college, I worked as a volunteer writer for a homeless non-profit just outside of Washington, D.C.  I met many people from all walks of life who one way or another became homeless.  Part of my work as a writer involved interviewing our homeless to find our their stories, what path their lives had taken, and how they were (or were not) making strides to get off the streets.  What I learned as a writer for the homeless was that anyone can become homeless.  But what I also observed while spending time with the homeless was that food was served everyday.  I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but being homeless in the United States and in other developed countries may not necessarily be equated to suffering from severe hunger.   Heather’s story brings home the cold truth that many human beings around the world go to sleep every day without having eaten enough or not at all.

Kiva.org is one way that my family is trying to make a difference in the fight against world hunger.  Our participation as Kiva donors began with the birth of our daughter, who received a Kiva gift certificate that could be loaned to whomever our family chose.  Again and again, Kiva’s entrepreneurs have paid back their loans, freeing up the money we loan to be loaned to another small business owner.  What I like about Kiva is that their organization empowers folks living in poverty to take action on their own behalf.

So now I pose the same questions as Crunchy Domestic Goddess: what can be done to aid those living in poverty and hunger in the developing world?  What personal actions do you or can you take to help make a difference?

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I just took Sierra Club’s pledge to drive 55 mph and below over Memorial Day weekend, but guess what!?  I am going to make a month long effort to keep my speedometer at 55 and below, wherever I go.  Considering that on just about every trip I make, I drive to and fro with Annabelle, pledging to keep my speed below 55 mph is a safe driving decision too.

Not only will you save gas, but you’ll save money.  Be green, pocket the green stuff.  Will you pledge to drive 55?  Do it. Do it. Do it.   Make the pledge!

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Woo hoo!  I’m so excited . . . and I just can’t hide it!  Barnes & Noble is celebrating the Grand Opening of its new Online Magazine Store, and just in time for me to catch up on some last minute Mother’s Day gifts that I still need to buy.   Right now Barnes & Noble is offering 480 digital subscriptions and over 12,000 digital back issues!  With savings of up to 90% on digital magazine purchases, readers can expect to pay about 50 cents for a magazine that might otherwise cost $5 at the print stand.   The best part about Barnes & Nobles new Online Magazine Store is that no paper need be produced for readership.

I have to admit that I had stopped buying magazines in stores and instead picked up back editions at my local library and used book shops.  What do you think?  Will you read guilt free when you page through your online magazines?

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Exhausted. I pretty much know that it’s been a worthwhile day when I am feeling this way. My legs ache, my feet are throbbing (though in a somewhat comfortable way), and my head is heavy and ready for sleep. I am, to be redundant, plumb tired.

But the good news is that all this exhaustion is due to laboring away in our backyard, digging and digging, to build our organic vegetable garden’s raised bed! Since we are blessed (no, not really) with Virginia’s clay soil, we’re attempting to keep good, rich soil that we mix in, inside the garden.

At the same time, our townhouse backs to shaded woods, so the kinds of vegetable plants that will thrive is a bit limited. I love beautiful gardens though, so I am researching and talking the ear off of anyone who knows a thing or two about planting to learn what plants thrive in shade and are pleasing to the eye. Tonight I planted hastas, a blue hydrangea, and another ground cover whose name escapes me. Also, I created two container gardens for mint, oregano, and parsely, separating the mint and parsely from the others and each other since the experts tell me that both herbs spread fast and need a lot of space. And just as a side note, earlier this spring, I planted lemon thyme in a container and it is thriving and smelling delicious.

I certainly could learn a thing or two more about gardening, especially for those growing in shaded areas. What do others think? Any suggestions on what will do well in an organic (I’m aiming to plant native/local plants) vegetable/flower garden? I’m also trying to keep the herb garden going and expanding for my husband’s culinary interests. Love to hear suggestions . . .

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What is sustainable consumerism? After participating in Crunchy Chicken’s “Buy Nothing Challenge” during the month of April, I acquired (ha, ha) a new awareness of my personal consumerist habits. While it may seem an obvious outcome to many of you, I had not consciously confronted how my ego influences my material desires. For example, my mother and mother-in-law paid us a visit during the first weekend in May. Our house was partially painted, somewhat decorated, and showcased many a bare wall. As time came closer to the weekend of their visit, I panicked. I insisted that my husband and I do something about our bland home decor. “We need to paint! We need a decent looking bed cover!” My husband, never one to notice the color on the walls or what covers our bed, told me not to worry, but still, he accompanied me to Home Depot where we purchased no-voc paint. Score one for my sad consumerist ego.

In confronting and admitting to the reality of my desires to shop, acquire, and own things, I explored the question of whether or not shopping can ever be a good experience not just for my benefit but for the environment and the global community’s too. What I learned is that I am not alone in my worries about the overwhelming trends of consumerist culture. Mary Beth Gonzalez, an iVillage blogger, describes the double-edged sword of being able to purchase environmentally friendly products in her post “Green Anxiety.” She explains her enthusiasm and yet is repulsed by it: “Now, with so many new green companies and products launching, I’m like a kid in a candy store finding new green treats everyday online and in local stores. Green television programming, websites and blogs surround me. Organic tee shirts, bamboo pillowcases, non-toxic nail polish, natural hair color, sustainable sofas… and I want it all!”

Want is the key word, for this Green Mamma. Consumerist culture “wants” us to “want” things rather than think about whether or not we truly need the items we lust after. Gonazlez reveals her awareness of how a desire to live in a green way can be thwarted: “As excited as I am about all the fabulous new green products on the market, I’ll aim to just buy what I need, not what I want. And every day, I’ll just keep doing my best.”

All products, from the toothpaste we use in the mornings to the glass mug that holds a warm cup of milk in the evening, affect our environment. The Global Development Research Center defines green consumerism as:

“ the balance between the expectations of consumer behaviour and businesses’ profit motives - within the orbit of environmental protection. It is increasingly calls upon to look at the entire life cycle of a consumer’s purchases - because a consumer does not just buys ‘a’ product, but also everything that went into its production, and everything that will happen in the future as a result of that product.”

Today’s green consumer is considered an “informed” consumer who is mindful of environmental concerns and is working towards protecting the earth by making conservative purchases. Dave Tilford, in a thorough article written for the Sierra Club and titled “Sustainable Consumption: Why Consumption Matters,” negotiates solutions for coping with a consumerist culture, suggesting that consumers simply ask themselves questions before making a purchase. Important questions include:

Where does a particular product come from?

What are the working conditions like for the person or people who created it? Did they receive livable wages?

From where were the raw resources harvested or mined? And what impact has their extraction had on the natural environment and nearby communities?

What are the real costs of this product, factoring in the costs borne by people, the environment, and future generations?

Tilford suggests easy ways to avoid making purchases; for example, borrowing tools from neighbors and repurposing items allows us to make use of the earth’s resources without unnecessarily taking more from the earth than what is needed.

When I ask myself the questions Tilford poses, I find it easier to live with the choices I make each time I swipe my credit card or hand over cash. As a walk this potentially oxymoronic path of being a green consumer, I will consider where my daughter’s toys and utensils come from as well as whether or not the workers behind the scenes receive a living wage and are treated fairly. I also want to know how the environment and the local community are affected by the items that I “want.” I realize that this means that the price of products I purchase may increase, but perhaps over time, as more and more consumers act in an environmentally mindful way, companies will take notice. If more companies respond to consumers’ need to make conscientious purchases, maybe our environment stands a chance.

What do you think? Is sustainable consumerism possible? Is our earth in dire straits?

Like Mary Beth Gonazlez, Green Mamma intends to buy what she needs, not necessarily what she wants (and believe me, I battle the urge to buy something every time I enter a store), and overall to maintain a healthy balance. I will buy new underwear when I need them.

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Bernie presses his wet nose against the front window of our house and meows. His mom, our neighbor, is at work. Bernie visits our house, oh maybe, two times a day to meow, get pet, and indulge in a small dish of milk that Annabelle and I offer him. Bernie’s presence and gentle nature (he doesn’t mind when Annabelle tugs at his fur when she pets him) have made him a favorite around our house. A budding friendship began and now continues from afar since Bernie now lives on several acres of land at his mom’s sister’s house in North Carolina.

With the recent media buzz surrounding contaminated pet food and with raising awareness about our pets’ exposure to dangerous chemicals in the home environment, this week on Green Mamma we feature your pet as the green friend of the week.

A wonderful new organization who is working on behalf of your pet is Eddie and the Pets for the Environment, an extension of the non-profit research and advocacy group better known as the Environmental Working Group. Together Eddie and the Pets for the Environment and the Environmental Working Group conducted research about the chemical body burden of pets and found that our pets carry a higher level of dangerous chemicals like phthlates, fire retardant chemicals, and stain and grease resistant chemicals than 80 to 100 % of humans.

I think about the average day for our feline friend Bernie (before he journeyed to his aunt’s house for new adventures). In the morning, Bernie stops by for a snack of diluted milk, lets us pet him, and then dashes off into our yard, through our grass, and makes his way around to patrol the neighborhood. When his mom/owner returns home from work, Bernie likely plays with plastic cat toys, eats a daily dish of cat food, and uses his cat litter. The day to day events for Bernie involved walking through grass treated with pesticides (our neighborhood association hires landscapers who use pesticides to treat the grass–unless otherwise advised as will happen in our yard this month), playing with plastic toys that are potentially full of chemicals (phthaltes), eating cat food that may be made from questionable ingredients (according to MSNBC Pet’s Section: “The FDA said that it had not found rat poison in the tainted pet food, but melamine, a chemical commonly used to make plastic cutlery, and also used in fertilizer in Asia.”), and pawing around in cat litter that if clay based is not only hard on the environment (is mined and often ends up in landfills) but contains silica which can cause lesions on the lungs and throat (click here to read Marina Michaels’ “Alternatives to Clumping Clay Kitty Litters”).

Man’s best friends need some love and advocacy from their human friends. Fortunately, there are a number of ways human moms and dads (or owners if you must) can look out for and take action on behalf of their pets. Eddie and the Pets for the Environment shares a long list of ways that pet owners can help reduce their animal friends’ exposure to dangerous chemicals and potential disease; some notable changes include:

1) Go organic and choose petfood that is free of BHA, BHT and ethoxyquin. Click here to read MSNBC’s “Tips for Buying Safe Petfood.”

2) Take your shoes off at the door. Shoes off is practically a mantra in Green Mamma’s house.  Learn more about the health advantages of leaving your shoes at the door, click here and here.

And to read the full list of Eddie and the Pets for the Environment’s healthy pet tips click here.

Greening your pet’s lifestyle and home is easy.  Visit the following sites to find out how:

1. Organic Pet Foods:

• U.S.A. Today’s “Organic Pet Foods Get Paws Up”
  
• Newman’s Own Organics Premium Pet Food
• Karma Dog Food
• Lifes Abundance Pet Food
• OrganicAuthority.com’s “The Top Five Benefits of Natural Organic Pet Food for Your Dog”
  

2. Environmentally Friendly and Healthy Cat Litters:

• “Alternatives to Clumping Clay Cat Litters”
  
• Swheat Scoop Natural Wheat Litter
• World’s Best Cat Litter
• Nature’s Logic Ponderosa Pine Cat Litter

3. Chemical Free and Organic Pet Toys:

• Fetch Dog Earth Friendly Toys
• Simply Fido Organic Pet Toy Collection
• Purrfect Play! Organic, dye-free, and fair trade pet toys
• Tiny Birds Organics’ Pet Beds and Cotton Dog Toys

Creating a healthy and environmental home and lifestyle for your family’s favorite pet is an invaluable way to show your animal that you love and care for him or her. To learn more about protecting your pet’s health and the environment too, read Planet Green’s “Detox Your Home: Maintain a Poison-Free Home for Your Pets” by Jasmin Malik Chua.

As always, I’d love to hear from other pet owners and animal lovers about ways to protect and enhance our furry friends’ lives. Please comment or e-mail me at greenmamma@greenmamma.org

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Now I honestly thought Mother’s Day would be a day of relaxation and doing-nothing-ness, but apparently the popular media and its myths of motherhood (”her” one day to celebrate that thing she does, “mothering”) enchanted me, leading me off into the woods of illusion.  Did I expect to wake up to breakfast?  Had I hoped that I might land in a spa with seaweed goo pasted on my face and maybe my toes too?  Should I have yearned for a hot and sweet cup of coffee (okay, tea.  I am not much of a coffee drinker)?

Mother’s Day started something like this: I wake up to humming.  Annabelle has plastered her body across my chest.  She nurses and hums.  I am pretty sure she is trying to fall back to sleep. I lay there for what seems like a long time (but is probably about twenty minutes).  Never stir a sleeping Annabelle, this we have learned (the hard way, shhh).   Finally she rolls away from me and over to her dad.  I am a free woman!

I stumble downstairs and make a cup of tea with lots of sugar.  I scoop an extra teaspoon since it’s Mother’s Day and I deserve a treat.  Mmmm . . . sugar.  Tea with sugar.  Oh, I am waking up.

I write a little bit.  I make a list of what I hope to accomplish during the day (Discovering Motherhood recommends keeping a schedule and a list of personal and professional goals for the full time mother since [we] often receive little feedback (or none at all) and miss out on fun things like mid-year and annual reviews).   Each day I compose a daily list of goals, etc. to keep track of what Annabelle and I are doing throughout the day, what events are coming up, and where I’d like the day to lead us.

The quiet of making my morning list is misleading, deceptive even.  The rest of my day, a stormy and chaotic Mother’s Day, lies ahead.

I drink more tea.  My friend comes over and we head outside for a walk.  I am enjoying this part of Mother’s Day.  I tell my friends stories from the week, reflect on my family’s visit, our friends’ wedding, and on what an outstanding husband I have because he is willing to watch our little one so that I might go out and walk.

When I return though, the real Mother’s Day begins.  Annabelle screams at the top of her lungs.  She rushes towards the door saying “Ma, ma, ma, ma,” and squeezing her fists to sign “milk.”  I nurse her.  I trust that all will be well with my Annabelle after she nurses.  She runs back across the room and returns to playing.  Not so bad, but once I go upstairs and start running a shower, I turn around and see Annabelle standing in the doorway to the bathroom with a “How could you?” look on her face.  Apparently I am not allowed to shower without her.  Ever.  So I undress her and we both step into the shower.

While I am changing her back into her clothes, my husband’s phone rings.   It is the best man from the wedding we attended yesterday.  Tuxes need returning and someone needs to return them.  My husband turns to me, “Can we drive “here” and “there” to pick up tuxes?”

We arrange to meet the tux people.  We pick up tuxes.  Meanwhile my husband has offered to watch Annabelle so that I may pick up a pair of sandals and a bra.  He drives me to the shopping center, and Annabelle falls asleep in her car seat.  Her pudgy cheeks relax and her lips soften.  Asleep, Annabelle offers me a wonderful Mother’s Day moment: peace.   Our little one is quiet for the first time all day.

A while later a clerk rings me up and my husband taps me on the shoulder.  He and Annabelle are joining me for quality time (they don’t want me to spend Mother’s Day by myself.  I foresee a shortened shopping trip).  We three venture down the aisles of the store.  Annabelle tells us again and again how she feels about this arrangement, “Down!  Down!”  Now that she is talking in a comprehensible way, we really can’t pretend that her commands are not understood.  I release her from her stroller and offer her her freedom, or at least the chance to walk beside me.  This game works for a little while until Annabelle becomes distracted by paper tags that she finds on the floor.  Then I stop the game because the mother in me fears I will lose her between the clothing racks and shoe aisles.  She joins me inside the dressing room but then summons her father for more wandering around the shop.  With Dad at her side, she explores more but tires of it and lets everyone inside the store know it by shouting at the top of her lungs.  Yes, ours is a loud one.

My husband attempts to calm her and strap her into her stroller while I pay another clerk.  I apologize to the clerk who nods at us in a knowing way.  We three hurry out of the store, Annabelle yelping and gripping my pinky finger as I walk beside her in the stroller, my husband steering us to the exit.

The fussiness swallows our car.  We are all fussy.

So I start thinking about the spa.  Why haven’t I visited a spa today?  Once home, I find myself back in my bed where this Mother’s Day started.   My husband and Annabelle plop down beside me.  Annabelle crawls over to me, sits on my stomach, claps and gives me a kiss.  She then presses her cheek up against her dad’s face and he kisses her.  We then alternate kissing her on the cheeks.   For the next hour, we do nothing and everything.  We play rough house, we tickle, we giggle, we just let go.  I wake up to the reality of Mother’s Day for my life.  The day is not necessarily about me and the work I have done to reach this day.  Instead it is about my husband and child.   Spa, shpa.  Hmpph! Mother’s Day is a day for this mom to turn to her family and say “thank you.”   And so I did.  I thanked my husband and my child for giving me the chance to be “mamma.”    All the screaming, all the chaos, all the fussiness.  This is just part of my life as mother, a part that is inevitable and yet forgettable.  When it comes right down to it, I can never return the happiness my family gives me.  So in future Mother’s Days I hope to make more of an effort to honor my family and to forget about cards, spas, and other meaningless stuff.   Yes, little tokens of affection are nice, but the people who are my family make this whole “motherhood” experience what it is.  And I am thankful for that.

Plus, I did enjoy those hot and sweet cups of tea.

Happy Mother’s Day!

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Going on vacation and need to find a good book?  Or maybe you need a book to relax with at night or on the weekends?  Farmer’s Daughter just posted an excellent list of environmental literature and includes brief synopses of each title.   Books that I may check out include Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv and Go Green Live Rich by David Bach.  If Bach’s book has anything to do with its title, I may leave this book around the house for my husband.  A true conservative, my husband enjoys living in an environmental way that does not consume our family’s resources (um, our money).  Anyway, Farmer’s Daughter’s list is long and thorough, and definitely worth taking a peak at.    Click here to read more.

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Fresh bread and the smell of wet earth are two of my favorite smells. I unloaded Annabelle from the car, strapped her into her jogging stroller, and we made our way over to the local open air farmer’s market. White makeshift tents housed the many buckets and bins full of onions, lettuce, strawberries, apples, and herbs. Annabelle and I wove through the crowd taking it all in and scanning the selection. Our first stop was at a cookie stand where I purchased 3 large peanut butter cookies for Matt (his favorite). I then made up my mind to divide my list between as many of the stands as were there; we purchased mint, oregano, and parsley plants from one vendor, fuji apples from another, two tomato plants from yet another farmer, and then lettuce and a loaf of fresh bread from two other farmers, finishing our outing at the strawberry stand. None of the farmers could convince me to broaden my palate and add asparagus to my purchases (although sources tell me that having a flexible palate is one of the best ways to shop local). All together I spent about $35, which seems reasonable and at least equal to what I might spend on produce at Giant or Whole Foods Market.

What I am not sure of is whether or not I am supposed to haggle with the farmers. I figure that farmers and the folks selling their goods are working hard. Before I research the proper etiquette for farmers market shopping or tips on how to save money at farmers markets, does anyone have tips about the polite way to haggle? I’d love to hear how other people shop local and save money too.

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“You didn’t take us to see the Cherry Blossoms,” says my mother’s boyfriend Joe. Over the weekend, Matt’s mom, my mom, and my mom’s significant other, Joe, drove into town for a visit with Annabelle (and us too). Since our parents reside in New England and had missed the infamous Cherry Blossoms festival, Matt and I decided it was only fair to load everyone up and see another bloom to rival the Cherry Blossoms: the Azaleas Collection at the U.S. National Arboretum.

First we showed off D.C. with a tour down Constitution Avenue and then proceeded up Maryland Avenue to see the U.S. National Arboretum. On the way there, we got lost, but our visitors enjoyed the detour and thought we were simply showing them the residential areas of north east D.C.

It was a sunny Sunday, the park bustling full of visitors. Let’s just say that parking was tight. But once inside the park, the azaleas took our breath away (I was happy to have my camera), and we discovered that we weren’t the only D.C. residents who were indulging in the local beauty; while there, we spotted Jon, Andrea, and Zander, Green Mamma’s featured green friends this week. From the azaleas, we toured the Chinese gardens, admired the bonsai exhibits, and stopped to smell mint, lavender, and a whole array of exotic spices inside the herb gardens. Other outstanding sites at the U.S. National Arboretum include the old National Capitol Columns (not pictured here), which were donated to the park and transported from the old Capitol building. Here are a few pictures that I took during our visit:

the azaleas

outside the visitor center

my mom, Annabelle, and me near the citrus trees

the family looking at the large moat where lily pads float

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Hopefully Joe, Mom, and Matt’s mom enjoyed the tour of the U.S. National Arboretum. Always a mamma, I couldn’t help but notice that our busy and beautiful afternoon left my little one prime and ready for a long snooze.

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