Going green

I’ve been making an effort to go green for a while now.  I do small changes at a time so I don’t notice them that much and now have a list I’m quite happy about of the changes I’ve made.  This is important folks. WAY more important than any of us care to worry about. I know, I know, we all have soooo much going on in our lives to worry about- why add this to the pile right? Well, to put it bluntly- so our kids will BE ABLE to have things in their own lives to worry about when they get older.  If we don’t change now- what sort of future are we providing for our children?  If we don’t teach our children now, who will and when? When it’s too late? 

 Seems like such a grand idea right? What difference does it make if you, just little old you, stops using plastic bags?  Step back and think of it this way…. if just half of your community stopped using plastic bags- how much less garbage would that be putting in the landfills?  A lot! 

Here’s a link to some great stats about this lovely planet we live on  

http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/4990/ggstatistics.html

Just a few of the easiest changes I’ve made are:

I have stopped using plastic bags. I bring my own, everywhere.

I’ve changed all the lightbulbs in my house to the energy saving ones. This has actually benefited me financially too. My energy bills are way lower.

I reduce, reuse and recycle. I know that sounds soooooo after-school-special-cheesy but it’s true. I recycle EVERYTHING that is recycable.  I’m fortunate to live in a city that composts and recycles for me. All I have to do is sort it and put it to the curb. Garbage, compostables, recycables.  Easy- peasy.

I’m slowly making the change to organic/all natural products. This one is slow going but since I started a while ago- I’m well on my way.

I turn old clothing into cleaning rags and knit all my dish clothes. Can I tell you how much better knitted dish clothes are at scrubbing dishes?!? Seriously people.

And I am constantly looking for new things to try and new ways to change. What are some of the ways you go green??

And I’ll blow your house down…

The weather forcast for today:

-8°C Partly cloudy

• Feels Like: -18
• Wind: W 43km/h
• Wind gusts: 65km/h
• Sunrise: 7:37
• Sunset: 17:26

My kids slept great last night. I was still up at 5am because of the wind. ARG!  Last night the gust were up to 110km/h.  I seriously thought my windows were going to blow in all over the bed. 

Tell me spring is on the way.

Our babies before we had babies

These are our 2 cats.  They were our babies before we had babies. Now they have to yell for attention from us and run from the attention of the boys. 

This is nap time at our house.

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I forgot how small she was when we first got her…. aweee

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This is what  happens when hubby works from home.

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Mom

I love being a mom. 

At bed time, we’ve started this ritual with Cooper about how much we love him.  So we’ll say “I love you more than—-…. the sky, the trees, the ocean etc”.  He asks to do it the minute the Thomas story we’re reading is finished and giggles madly at some of the things we say we love him more than.  Last night was the first night ever that he started in on it on how much he loves me in comparison to ….. things he came up with on his own. I LOVE it.  So he loves me more than his “door. Wall. BLanket. The sky. His arm. His bed. and last but not least his cup of water”. 

The grand scheme of it all

Hubby leaves tonight for a business trip.  Well, technically it’s business but it’ll be more of a vacation for him.  I’m jealous, I must admit but he deserves this. 

Sometimes it’s all too easy to caught up in thinking about all that I do. All the stress and burden that comes with keeping up the household, raising two small kids, etc. It takes a concious effort to step back and re-align with the big picture.  When hubby goes away or has a bout of not being able to come home until late, naturally it’s tough with 2 little ones.  Regardless of what time hubby gets home, some days in the life of a stay at home (especially with young kids) you can find yourself clock watching and counting the minutes until “relief” comes.  When he goes away, that “relief” doesn’t come for however long he’s gone.  Sometimes, I’m resentful and feel like I pull a lot more of the load. But, when I step back, I see that in fact, in a lot of those moments, he’s in fact pulling the same amount but of a different load. Sometimes even more. To look at our life in the big picture, we are right on the track of where we want to be.  We knew going into this (life together, having kids, marriage)  that there would be small sacrifices. Dinners and tuck ins missed. Sometimes even family functions missed and things not always working out as planned.  But in the grand scheme of it all, we are side by side, still working toward our life goal and enjoying all the goals we’ve all ready reached.  Life is good. It hasn’t always been easy getting to this point and sometimes the selfishness of wanting things to be a certain way in the moment can over come me.

 But today, I’m taking that moment to step back and I’m feeling the force that we make together.  We’re doing it.  Exactly the way we planned, exactly the way we dreamed and exactly the way we want.  And when I go to bed, wearing his old shirt (that he never knew until recently that I stole from him), I’ll be smiling because I am just one part of the team we are together. A team I’m proud to be a part of because I know he doesn’t settle for anything less than great.

And come Tuesday, I might be back into the grind tearing my hair out, counting the minutes until the “relief” that he brings, comes but for today, I’m more than willing to take one for the team- to make the team all that better because it’s pretty much a gaurantee that he’ll be doing the same thing for me very soon.

Have an awesome time hubby!

xoxoxo

Missing You

Dear Dad,

Things around here have been pretty good lately.  I miss you.  Hubby and I bought this game Brain Age that I know you would get an absolute kick out of. Everytime I play it I think of you because you were always so good at math. The first time I took the test, my brain age was 80. I could hear you laughing and teasing me. I was always amazed at how fast you could do calculations in your head. When I was first learning how to multiply, I used to think that must have been what you did all day in your head to be able to answer my questions so quickly. 

Carter starting walking this past weekend.  I know how proud you are and no I’m still not putting shoes on him inside the house like you used to tell me to do with Cooper.  I know if you were still here, you’d get a lot of laughs from Cooper.  I know you’d be having  a lot of fun with him at this stage and I will always be sure to tell him how much you loved him. He was the boy you never had and for a brief period, you really relished in that with him.  He still likes to dip his fries in ketchup (thanks for teaching him that) and throw rocks whenever he comes across one.  We visit your grave often but he doesn’t know what a cemetary is or why we’re there. He plays with his cars on your stone but you all ready know this (I like to think anyway). 

I wonder a lot where you are.  I’ve dreamt a lot about you too. In my last dream, you came back and a lot of people got mad at you for having left in the first place. 

Next month is your 1 year anniversary of being gone.  I don’t know what we are going yet to commerate your memory, but I’ll make sure it’s something good.

I love you and miss you terribly.

How silly of me

Conversation this morning between me and my (almost) 3 yr old..

Me : “Let’s go have breakfast and put some cereal in our bellies.”

Him (in a very serious, matter of fact tone) : “No mummy, cereal goes in the bowl.”

Scattered

This post is going to be extremelt scattered as a lot has happened to write about in the last few days.

-  Friday morning, my eldest woke up with blood in his pillow and dried, crusted blood all in his ear. AAHH!!!  Can I tell you how freaky that was for me? Needless to say, off to the docs we went.  He was completely fine the whole time, telling me his ears were happy and that they didn’t hurt.  All week, he never mentioned a thing about his bothering him or pulling at them or anything.  He didn’t even have a fever. Anyway, turns out he and his brother have an ear infection and are both on antibiotics.

- Saturday we got the lovliest late morning we could ever ask for. 9AM!!!!  That’s UNHEARD of in this house. Must have been the antibiotics but whatever it was, I thank you and you can definitely come again.  Saturday brought the birthday party of hubby’s cousin which was a lot of fun. 

- Today I did a lot. Went shopping and bought some pictures for the house at an amazing sale. Came home, had a bit of a nap with my boys and woke up to more stuff getting done.  My sister and mom came for dinner which I love and my sister helped me fix a shelf in my closet that has been broken and bothering me forever. It was a lot of laughs.  So i’ve spent most of the evening re-organizing/ purging my closet.  I found a few interesting things. A sword from the previous owners (?), journals and art books from when I was a teenager and some clothes that I can’t believe I was still holding onto.  Made me think.  Why did the previous owners have a sword and why did they leave it?  Why have I kept these journals when most of them I don’t want anyone to ever read? Especially my kids. All though I was thinking about that one.  I went through a period of depression when I was around 14. What 14 yrd old doesn’t right? But, I needed a little something more than gossip mags and girlfriends to help me through.  From that stage brought some pretty dark poetry. I never want to forget how I felt at that age as I want to be able to relate to my boys should they ever feel like that but I don’t think I’d ever want them finding my books and reading them. Does that make sense?  I think maybe because it’s the most vulnerable/ insecure I ever felt in my whole life and those books represent that and by someone else reading them it would expose all those vulnerablities and insecurities. Hrm. So do I throw them out? 

And some grand news- my baby is walking!  Full out walking, turning around, holding toys and walking- the whole shebang.  He’s 12 1/2 months old.  This makes me happy and sad at the same time.  Also a bit fearful as he’s very active and this new found venture is going to make shopping with him very interesting.  We’ll just have to take it as it comes.

How was your weekend? 

Ahhh

The house is quiet for the most part. The rumble from the volume of hubby’s game, the dryer, and every so often a cough coming from my littlest.

Today was a bad day.  The kind of day where the minute you open your eyes, you just know it’s not going to be good. Both kids were up early. The almost 3 yr old tired from having a bad night and the 1 yr old, grumpy with teething discomfort.  There was no juice when we came down for breakfast, fits were thrown, tantrums were to be had before breakfast even started. Hubby made some smart remarks when he was leaving about me needing a better attitude and almost had a cup thrown at him.  I was cranky too and I knew that didn’t help the situation at all.  Went to the store to get more juice and left the juice on the counter of the store.  Awesome.

The afternoon was better. Good naps were had by everyone (including me) and it seemed to reset the day. Thank goodness!!!  But even though the afternoon was better, I was still glad to see bed time come.  I’ve spent this evening ticking things off my to-do list and that always feels good.  I feel bad when I count the minutes to bed time but lets face it. Not every day is the relish in how awesome my kids are/how great it is to be a mom – kind of day right?  You need the bad to appreciate the good and today was definitly a bad.

I’m off to bed with some good chocolate and maybe a book. Probably the tv but whatever. 

Tomorrow is a new day and will be better.

Reflecting

This morning I took my littlest swimming. It was to a recreation centre where I learned to swim when I was a kid. It was right across from the elementary school I went to. Also, right beside the street I used to live on.

As I pulled into the parking lot, memories of school mornings came flooding back.  Trying to make it inside before the bell. Waving down friends in the distance who are still running to catch up. 

I was really early so I decided to go for a walk. Get some exercise.  I walked to the street I used to live. When I got to the entrance of the street, I slowed my pace down.  Soooo many memories came flooding into my mind as if I had just released a damn that was holding them all captive in my head.  Random tid bits from my childhood. Walking that same path with a huge freezie in the dog days of summer.  Walking to school on a bitter cold winter day trying to unfreeze all the frozen boogers in my nose by breething into my scarf. Walking home from school debating whether I was going to have pizza or chocolate chip cookies for my snack.

As I walked down the street, all the houses were still the same.  Maybe a tree gone here or there from someone’s front lawn but the houses were still the exact same. I passed the house where I used to get babysat. I believe they still live there but it was too early to go knock on the door. And what would I say, I had no clue. 

 I came to the house I grew up in. The entrance is actually at the side of the house, but the gate we had is gone and you could see right into the backyard. Our tree was one of the ones that had been removed. And a bush going down the driveway had been removed too.  The backyard was still the same. Same patio stones, same layout. I noticed they had replaced the windows. They would have obviously had too.  Looking at the front I noticed they kept the cement borders that went around the small garden.  I remembered the day I buried my pet hamster there. I cried and cried and my dad told me I was silly but when he saw how truly heart broken I was, he helped me wrap it up and bury it.  My dad. So many memories of my dad and me when I was just a little girl are in that house. In that driveway. In that backyard. I was such a daddy’s little girl.  It was so surreal to be looking at that house now with my little one in front of me. In my mind, I could hear Gloria  (my best friend while she lived on that street) yelling from her yard, asking when I was going to come play barbies.   I could hear the great dane barking from beside Gloria’s house.

I started crying.  In the middle of the street, just standing there with my stroller- crying.  I cried hard. I cried because of how many things I remembered. How many emotions I felt just standing there on that street, in front of that house.  I was a little girl the last time I stood there.  I was a little girl who dreamt of one day growing up and being a mom and a teacher.

And there I stood, grown up and a mom and I guess you could say a teacher too.  Grown up but still with the heart of that little girl.