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Jan 27

Holiday Debrief: So How Green Were the Holidays?

Written by Green Mama

The holidays can certainly be a busy, stressful time, a time when all around us waste goes up and conservation goes down. I admit that holidays throw me for a loop; I can get easily overwhelmed and let best practices slip. A month later, I have finally caught my breath! Below is a quick assessment of how I did this year during the holidays — What I did well and not so well. How did you do? What will you try to change next year? (Remind me to look back at this next November!)

Top 5 Things I Did Right (i.e. Green) This Holiday Season

Santa goes tag-sale-ing: My son’s gifts included a secondhand stroller and kitchen (plus a new water bottle “like Mommy!”)

1.     Giving: Our son was over the moon about his two big gifts — a wooden kitchen and a baby stroller — both of which Santa acquired at a tag sale last August. For my son’s teachers, we candied organic almonds and packaged them in reused (and reusable) decorative tins. For a close friend, I bought a gift certificate at an upscale local consignment store.

2.     Wrapping: We wrapped everything in reused or reusable materials, including cloth, empty cereal boxes, pillowcases, and decorated bags/boxes, old wrapping paper, and re-used ribbons seeing their nth Christmases.

3.     Receiving: We convinced grandma to give my son about half the number of gifts she gave him last year (yay!) and requested from grandpa a stainless steel water bottle and dish set — both of which my son adores.

4.     Cleaning Up: I meticulously separated out every piece of shrink wrap (recyclable with grocery bags), paper & cardboard wrappers (went right to my son for drawing), and reusable material before putting anything in the garbage. (After a chaotic Christmas morning, it was rather soothing to drink a cup of tea and smooth old tissue paper into neat piles for next year.)

5.     Swapping: A few weeks after the holidays ended, I hosted a swap meet. Friends cleaned house and showed up to trade no-longer-needed clothes, children’s stuff, and housewares. (Think tag sale, but everything is free!) All leftovers were donated to charity.

Resource in Progress

  • See greenHaven’s newest page Buying Greener and help us build a list of sources for locally made, organic, fair trade, or otherwise greener gifts in our area.

Top 5 Things I Want to Change Next Year

1.     Better Buying: While I purchased a number of things locally this year, I still depended way too much on ultra-convenient two-day shipping. Ugh, the size of those boxes!

MY GOAL: Next year everything I give for Christmas will either be made locally (including home-made by me) or will be a non-tangible/non-shipped (a gift card, a charitable donation, a coupon for babysitting, etc.). Read more

Jan 26

1 Comment

Fictional Me

Written by Aviva Luria

One question that comes up often when writing a personal blog is just how personal to get. Before embarking on Old Mom, Young Child, I debated (for instance) whether to refer to my child by his real name, his first initial, or a pseudonym. I settled on the last, both in respect of his privacy and to offer him a little protection, because, well, you never know.

How much of my personal life should I share to make this blog “authentic”? I wonder about this regularly. On the one hand, I’d like to have the cajones to just lay it all on the table (so to speak), but on the other, that seems like a truly boneheaded thing to do. Especially in this day and age when you can’t take stuff back: You never know where in cyberspace your shit is floating around.  Uh… so to speak.

A friend, whom I’ll call Sue Collins, left Facebook for privacy reasons. She was afraid the opinions and affiliations she disclosed might one day come back to haunt her. I told her, C’mon. Your name is Sue Collins. If one day somebody confronts you with something you wrote you can claim it was one of the other 63,452 Sue Collinses on Facebook.

Moi, last I checked I was the only Aviva Luria on Facebook. (There is an Aviv Luria, though. He’s a young Israeli.) Still, without being a complete moron about it (“Going on vacation. Door unlocked. I’m sure no one will steal the heirloom jewelry”) I make my posts available only to my Facebook friends and state my opinions pretty freely. I’m sure I piss even my friends off at times, but I truly consider airing my opinionated opinions on Facebook an expression of free speech. If someone decides not to hire me one day because I stated that Rick Perry is an ass (which is a fact, not an opinion), then they’ve saved me the misery of working for someone who doesn’t think Rick Perry is an ass. And that can only be a good thing.

But back to the question at hand, which is, in case you’re wondering, What is “authentic,” anyway? It’s not just an issue of what makes a blog, or a memoir, or novel, film or whatever else authentic, but what makes a person authentic? How can we tell if we, ourselves, are authentic in everyday life, or with our partners, or children? Read more

Jan 25

Nat’l Girls & Women in Sports Day in Hamden

Submitted by Dawn

Jan 24

Adopt a Sugar Maple Tree in New Canaan

Submitted by Hilary

Jan 23

If You Read, They’ll Read.

Written by Beth Clay from Just the Right Book

With the hustle and bustle of the holidays well behind us, it’s time to reclaim “me-time”. Yeah, right. Seems impossible, right? Not so! A few easy tricks can help you find the time you need to pour a cup of tea and relax with a good book. Now I’m not promising that you can take a whole afternoon for yourself, but those few found moments can make each day gloriously relaxing. Aim for an extra half-hour each day. Before you know it, you’ll be glowing from the inside out!

  • Trick #1: The Play Date. While it seems overwhelming to invite your child’s friends over to play, the payback is that, every so often, they’ll go to their friend’s house to play, leaving you with some time to yourself. The trick is to use that time for yourself, rather than to run errands or grocery shop. And it needn’t be chaos when you have extra kids in the house. An organized activity like making cookies or a craft activity is usually rewarding for all concerned, rather than letting them run around the house making mayhem.
  • Trick #2: The Chore Chart. Even young kids can help you get your chores done and learn valuable lessons at the same time. When you get your kids to pitch in with the laundry, cleaning and meals you can gain a few extra minutes each day. And when they’re helping you get household chores accomplished, they’re not unsupervised making a mess in one place while you’re cleaning another. The trick is to make it fun, and not be too judgmental, especially at first. Give them a star on the chore chart for each task they help with, and reward them for every 10 or 15 stars. Before you know it, they’ll be able to do the laundry themselves, which will save some REAL time down the road.
  • Trick #3: The Book Buddy. If you want time to relax and read a book, help your child appreciate the fun of it. Through our partnership with ReadKiddoRead, I’ve come to appreciate that not every kid starts out being a voracious reader. Some are downright reluctant. James Patterson insists that parents take control here, rather than assume that your school will do that job for you. (Read James’ article on this topic here: http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/28/opinion/patterson-kids-reading/index.html). Find books your child will love. And there’s nothing wrong with comic books or manga. The trick is, if you can gather their favorite reading material in one place and make it available to them, you’ll find some quiet time for yourself while they’re reading quietly; something that can’t happen while the tv is turned on.

 

 

Need some suggestions for books your kids will love to read? Start with these ReadKiddoRead Kiddo Award nominees: Read more

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