I had a blast last weekend! No I did’t attend a rave or even catch a cool flick at the theatre. I wore a T-shirt and I caused a stir. :) I decided to wear my new BYOB shirt from Reusablebags.com. BYOB stands for Bring Your Own Bag and this particluar shirt says “Plastic Bags Blow” on the front and then on the back it says says BYOB and explains the concept. All throughout my shopping that day I had people stop and ask about the shirt. Some just stared and I really wanted to exclaim “Hey quit looking at my boobs!” for a laugh but I decided against it. LOL. A few people rolled their eyes and one lady made a rude comment about my “silly shirt”. But I was happy to to bring attention to an environmental concern in this way and since I did have so many good conversations that day I am looking for more shirts with eco slogans.

The shirt is 100% organic, made in the USA, and is made under fair labor conditions. The BEST part though is that they are only $4.95 right now!!!!!! I am off to buy one for my husband!

Do me a favor though and don’t get caught holding a plastic bag while wearing your BYOB shirt. That would be…bad.

For another Eco Friendly Friday  Tip visit In the Key of Life

[tags]plastic bags, BYOB, reusable bag, t-shirt, eco slogan, organic cotton, made in USA[/tags]

[tags]wordless wednesday[/tags]

This week (Sept. 16-22,  2007)  is National Eat Dinner Togther week. This is an event that was started in 1996 and although I am not a huge fan of the institution that stared it (National Pork Producers) I think it is a valuable thing to remember…eating togther as a family is important. This seems like this should be an easy thing but that is not always the case. When I was living in Arizona we had a fairly large kitchen but the only open area for a table was pretty small. My youngest son’s highchair had to be put across the room and yes (ducking head) many times I let the other kids eat in front of the TV. Usually only one or two meals a week were actually eaten together. This time is so important to help nurture our bond as a family.

But I am happy to say that this has changed since moving into our new house. I have room for a large kitchen table AND we have a formal dining table/room too. My youngest son has moved into a restaurant syle highchair that pulls right up to the table. My parents found it for him at a garage sale! So now we have no excuse not to eat every dinner time meal together. The weekend breakfast meals are usually eaten together too. It is great! We talk, we laugh, we share stories, and we delight in each other’s company.

Of course some nights require extra planning…like Friday nights when my eldest son and I have our weekly “date”.  I have to make sure dinner is put together early so that we can leave AND since I will be gone I have to make sure my other kids have everything they need. I think that if I were to do more advanced meal plans that would help too. Some good resources for that are Meal Planning Central (even has vegetarian menus) and Dine without Whine.

Here are just some of the tips that I think are helpful to finding that family meal time togetherness:

* Don’t make it too elaborate. Simple meals that are easy to prepare are fine.

* Give crabby kids a snack. I make a little snack to give them before dinner so I don’t have crying, grumpy kids on my hands. ;)

* Give kids a task…have them set the table, count the tableware, lay out the napkins, take drink orders, etc.

* Have some conversation starters ready. For instance have everyone finish a sentence like…Something that makes me REALLY happy is….

* Don’t nag about how much food they are NOT eating. If they didn’t eat enough you can always give them a snack later. AND I know it sounds silly but if you are familair with the TV show Yo! Gabba Gabba…you can sing the “There’s a Party in My Tummy” song. My kids like this tactic. ;) See the video below and it will all make sense.

* Mix it up. Once a week go outdoors and have a picnic. If the weather is bad try having a picnic on the living room floor.

[tags]meals, family, national eat dinner together week, menu planning, Yo Gabba Gabba[/tags]

I am not really a big Oprah fan so I don’t watch her show very much. But in my blog hopping this morning I heard a mention of today’s show topic….autism. Well, that still wasn’t enough to draw me in but I did decide to tune in when I saw that Jenny McCarthy (a gal I like) would be talking about her son’s recovery from autism and also the controversial reason she feels her son developed autism in the first place. After those details I had to watch. I have two very controversial beliefs about autism. I believe that autistic children can recover and I believe that vaccines play a part in the cause of this horrible epidemic. On the Oprah show today, Jenny McCarthy shared the same beliefs.

I think she was very brave to share what she did and it notably caused her some discomfort to say things she knew would anger some people…but she did it anyway.. a gal after my own heart. According to many medical professionals and many affected families, there is no recovery for the autistic but Jenny’s son did recover (his Doctors have even confirmed this) and so have hundreds of other kids…it is time that we start to make this information more widely known. One of the things she mentioned was putting her son on a gluten free, dairy free diet. She also said her son had a serious Candida build-up in his body. Changes like these, along with intense therapy, have brought him out of his autistic state.

And of course thousands upon thousands of moms have always suspected a vaccine/autism connection and been ridiculed. To hear this connection brought to light on a show with as many viewers as Oprah was refreshing. It also brought back some bad memories for me with my first child who was also damaged by a vaccine. Although he never received an autism diagnosis I always wondered if I hadn’t just gotten lucky because he certainly did have some strange mannerisms and behaviors that are typical of autistic children. I could relate to the feelings of helplessness and even shame when confronted with this bizarre behavior. My favorite part of the show was when Jenny told about she received the autism diagnosis and her immediate reaction to it. She said she felt like she had died and upon seeing her face the Doctor told her “Don’t worry, your son is still here. That is same boy you walked in here with.” Her response was priceless. “No that isn’t my son. My son is trapped in that body and I am going to get him out.”

There was also a great deal of discussion about Jenny McCarthy’s new book. It is the story of her journey from diagnosis to recovery and all that came in between. I think I am going to have to pick it up because it sounded great. It is called Louder Than Words: A Mother’s Journey in Healing Autism.

[tags]autism, oprah, jenny mccarty, louder than words, vaccines[/tags]

We had a cold snap this weekend. The temperatures started dipping pretty low and that meant performing some of those cozy, cold weather rituals that give you such feelings of comfort..for me at least. I don’t know why it is but there is something so thrilling about making that trip into the basement or storage closet to pull out some jackets and sweaters and your goose down comforters and family quilts. I don’t get so excited about summer as I do about chilly weather and the prospect of snuggling up with a soft blanket and lighting that first fire in the fireplace.

I had been preparing for that first fire since we had a tornado here a few weeks back and tons of trees all over the county fell…it was the perfect time to start stockpiling wood for winter. And so lighting a fire today was very nice. My kids loved it to…in fact I don’t think my oldest son moved away from the fire for most of the day, LOL. He did take take a break to hop into his John Deere motorized truck and bring wood up to the house.

Last year we were in a house with a propane fireplace and I am sure that is probably less of a pollutant but it is just not the same. This year we have a home with three fireplaces…one each in the family room, living room, and in the basement. I am looking forward to seeing how they heat up the house so that we don’t have to run the furnace very much. I need to get some more of those Enviro-Log starter logs too.

I was also happy to pull my favorite chilly weather, Billabong hoodie out of the closet today. You may remember when I talked about it before and how my fellow Chemo patients would look at me like I was crazy when I wore it…it has a beautiful embroidered skull on it. I have been getting similar looks here in small town Ohio, LOL. But I love it…my parents bought it for me on a trip to Disneyland they surprised me with while I was going through Chemotherapy.

This weekend is the Applefest too with warm apple cider, apple pies, hay rides, corn mazes, and a live folk band. I LOVE fall!

So what are your cold weather comforts?

[tags]fall, cold waether, fire, fireplace, apples, hay ride, apple pie[/tags]