Mom is Just a Nickname

Just a day ago, I was worrying about my parents getting hit by Tropical Storm Fay. Turns out, they escaped with some windy storms. They said it wasn’t too bad.

Now, we’re the ones being targeted by Fay! We’ve got a Hurricane Watch here, schools are closed for the next two days, and we’re pulling together emergency supplies.

Oh yeah, I love living in Florida.

We’re somewhere around halfway through J’s summer break from school.  The kids are bored with each other, and I’m bored of refereeing their constant spats.  I need some inspiration for cheap and easy things to do with them at home!  Getting anywhere in town is expensive these days and I’m trying to cut back to only the most basic trips from home.  Combining trips is a lovely idea, but I can only combine so many activities in one day before I’m a worn out mess!

Our fish tank is providing some entertainment at least.  We all three spend a lot of time staring into the tank, studying it, trying to see what the animals are up to now.  Yesterday was an exciting day because we discovered two tiny snails.  We have three large mysterio snails, but these little guys are different.  They must have hitched a ride on some of the new plants we just got!  I know that snails can sometimes take over a tank, but I’ve also read that they can be good for it, so for now, we’ll leave them and let them eat the foul stuff in there.

It was even bigger excitement when we realized that we have some fry in the tank!  The only breeds of fish we have right now red wag platy (4 of them) and silver lyretail mollies (4 of them).  Both breeds are livebearers and we suspected that the two platy females were pregnant within a week of having them home.  I hope there is enough cover for the fry to survive, but if not, I guess we know there’s population control in the tank. (I know, that’s a horrible way to look at it!) We’ve thought about setting a nursery tank, but for now we don’t have the resources to do that.

I’m not sure if it’s the search for something to do or the realization that in about a month X will be starting preschool, but I’ve been weighted down with thoughts of what I’ll be doing once he’s in school.  Toph and I have always agreed that when the kids are both in school, I’d start working - at least part time.  This year is the year to turn my thoughts that way.  X will only be in school for the mornings, which doesn’t give me much time to work a job, but it would give me time to write or do school work.  So, I’m weighing up my options: either I pursue writing far more seriously or I get myself into a school program in order to get a degree.  It begs the questions of what degree I’d get and what kind of writing I want to do.  So, I have a lot on my mind these days.

For now, I guess I’ll succumb to the madness of life with my children.  I’ve had requests to play with bouncy balls in the foyer (oi! I’m ready to hide the darn things!) and we need to go to the library today.  I’ll have to get some pictures of my seedlings and some of the projects me and the kids have done lately.

Here’s hoping your summers are passing more peacefully than mine!

I have been blessed to have known wonderful men and fathers in my life.  Both of my grandfathers, my own father, my father-in-law, and my husband are all men who have contributed much love and care into my life.  I’m thankful for each of them.

Kermit was always my favorite Muppet, so I’ve aspired to “be green” for a lot of my life. Now, I guess that’s taken on new meaning for me. Now, I’m just doing my best to make my family’s footprint on the Earth smaller, rather than trying to live in Kermit’s swamp!

We’ve taken a few more baby steps in the last few months. I’m using tote bags instead of plastic ones when I grocery shop. Sadly, they aren’t homemade bags, like I was hoping. Still, they are sturdy and handy. I always feel good when I remember to bring them along and use them. I’m remembering them more than I’m forgetting them these days, since I now keep them stashed by the passenger seat of my car. Any that are brought into the house after shopping are set under my purse so that I grab them on my way out the next time I leave the house.

We just changed another of our light fixtures over to CFL’s this weekend. There is only one light fixture left to change out now. All of the rest of the light bulbs in the house are CFL’s or regular flourescents. As expensive as the CFL bulbs can be, they last so much longer than incandescent bulbs! We are still using some that we got as a gift back in 2006 (or was it earlier than that?) and they are in heavy usage light fixtures! (Thank you, John, for making the investment on our behalf. We teased you at the time, but we really do appreciate them!) We have moved them with us twice now and they will continue moving with us as long as they last.

I think the next “green” step I will take is composting. I’m still weighing what kind of composting I want to do. I’m pretty intrigued by worm composting, or vermicomposting. Toph’s not all that keen on having a worm composting bin in the house though, and that’s the only way we could do that. I like the idea of having a composting pile outside, but I’m not sure the neighbors would think it was so cool! So, I guess that leaves an enclosed pile. I just have to figure out the best way to do it.

Composting has two huge benefits: For one thing, it reduces the amount of waste going into the landfills. So much of what I throw away, I guiltily realize could be composted or recycled. We do recycle, but our city’s recycling program only accepts a few different types of things. So, other things that seem perfectly recycle-able to me end up pitched. The second benefit for me is that compost provides excellent nutrients for my garden. My garden is growing in leaps and bounds right now, and not having to buy fertilizer or other things to improve my soil would be a definite bonus.

What do you do to save resources, to be “green”? Do you vermicompost or have a compost pile? What have your experiences been with composting?

Also about my adventures in Greener Living: Disposable World

I’m not sure what possessed me, but a few days ago I decided the kids and I needed a schedule to follow this summer. It had to be flexible enough to be spontaneous, but firm enough to guide our actions in the day to day.  I dedicated Mondays to sticking around the house, Tuesdays are grocery shopping day, Wednesday we go to the pool, Thursday to the library, and Friday is our Adventure Day, where we go somewhere exciting around town and explore. Adventure Day should mean the zoo, or a museum, or the beach. But, I’m still trying to recover from our late night Wednesday so I wanted to to stick close to home.  So we followed Monday’s schedule more than Friday’s, yesterday.

Here’s what we did:
7-8am: read in bed, watch TV, or check email
8-8:30: breakfast and get dressed
8:30-10: Gardening: planted the rest of the iris and started some seeds in containers
10-10:30: Shower/change clothes, have snack
10:30-12pm: Craft Projects (I was collaging our summer schedule, J was doing a sort of engraving project and X was painting)
12-12:30: Lunch
12:30-1:30: Chores (Clean up lunch dishes, clean kids’ bathroom, scoop cat litter)
1:30-3: Shopping at Home Depot and CVS
3-4: Quiet time
4-5: TV watching

About that time, J got a phone call from a friend inviting her over for the evening. So we dropped her off for that and then went out to eat, instead of eating at home like we were going to. Ooops.

So far, the schedules are popular with the kids, and I liked it too.  I feel like I was more productive today than I normally am, and this made me happy. I felt like the kids enjoyed their day. There was enough time for them to go off on their own and do their own thing, but not so much free time that they were whining at me about boredom. They got to do fun things (gardening and crafts) but it was balanced by getting things done that we needed to get done (chores and shopping).  Jillian especially seemed to appreciate being able to look at the schedule and know what was coming.

I really hope that we can keep up this schedule. I’ve never been one to stick with things like this, except when necessary. But I really think we NEED this structure to our days this year.

So, if you’ve got kids, what do you do to help tame the wild days of summer? How do you keep from hearing “I’m bored” all summer long?