Getting back into the swing of things was the theme of this past week for me and my family. We unpacked, started the laundry, and took the opportunity to start spring cleaning. I also caught up on environmental news, learned more about the food shortages across the world, and was happy to hear that Canada and Walmart are removing products containing BPA from their markets. Here’s what I took comfort in this week:
1. Canada and Walmart ban BPA! Click here to read more.
2. Annabelle tolerates long rides in her stroller! While this may not seem to have the nation and worldwide significance of countries and companies banning BPA, I am a happy woman when my toddler doesn’t start screaming at the top of her lungs when we are out for a walk or run about a half hour away from the house and she decides she wants no more of it. Yesterday we completed an 8 mile route together. It took us close to two hours to complete, but she was content to lay back, relax, and munch from her homemade snack trap.
3. The Ecomom Alliance released Composting Now, a video about how to build and keep a compost! I am psyched to have visual instructions for composting; while on vacation I read another composting book called Let it Rot. Now I just need to find a compost container (or build one), and then my family is going to construct a raised bed vegetable garden in our backyard. If anyone has composting tips for me, please comment or e-mail me at greenmamma@greenmamma.org. I really would appreciate more input.
4. FreeRice helps improve lives by providing English vocabulary to site visitors and donating 20 grains of rice for each word that a visitor understands, or gets “right.” My vocabulary level is 40, and I played for about ten minutes. While improving your own vocabulary by visiting Free Rice is fun and self-serving, I am happy that this sister site of Poverty.com is raising awareness about world hunger. Click here to read more about the world hunger crisis in today’s Washington Post.
5. I gathered the courage to find a good pediatrician for my child, and I am researching good prenatal care for my next child. To learn more about my troubling experiences with different pediatric offices in my community, click here. “Becoming my child’s advocate” will, I hope, encourage other parents who are frustrated with their child’s medical care to get back on the horse and insist that medical professionals do better. It boils down to respect. By treating others with kindness and respect, we as parents (and our children too) deserve respect and care from those who we trust with our health.
In the coming week I am going to try and learn more about prenatal care, as well as prepare for a combined visit from my husband’s and my own mother. It’ll either be a doozy or a lot of fun, but either way, my family is going to be busy this week getting ready for their arrival.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
April 27th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Hi there!
We used an old trash can. We had one left over now that we only throw one bag of trash out a week, with all the recycling we do and the composting. I never realized how much of our trash was compostable! Good luck!