Monday, January 24, 2011

May the Farm Be With You

Today's blog is brought to you by Ryan, my 10-year-old, since we're both home sick today!

Grocery Store Wars is a cute spoof that features Cuke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Canoli, Darth Tater, Yogurt, C3 Peanuts, R2-Tofu, Chewbroccoli, Ham Solo, and Princess Lettuce in a battle against the Dark Side of The Farm (organic food vs. pesticides and chemicals).

Your kids should be entertained, but be forewarned it is a "war" so there are gun-toting characters from the supermarket. If you think Star Wars is too violent, you'll probably think this is too!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Win a Greenhouse for Your School

Washington State Potatoes is offering kids a chance to win a greenhouse for their school. Entries are due by 1/24/11 and it is open to kids in Puget Sound and Eastern Washington. Check out the website for all the details, but the basics are the child needs to tell them about their school, say what they would do with a greenhouse, and create a healthy potato recipe.



If you're wondering about how healthy the potato is, you should check out the recent experiment conducted by the Director of the WA StateRusset potato with sprouts. Sliced (left) and ...Image via Wikipedia Potato Commission to eat only potatoes for 60 days. Apparently, the potato had been getting a bad rap in the vegetable world so he chose a dramatic way to demonstrate that potatoes can be a great source of nutrition after some federal low-income assistance programs announced that potatoes were no longer allowed to be purchased through the program. Seems some people couldn't see past the french fries to the baked potatoes.

2011: No Resolutions, Just Confessions...

If any of you out there are still reading this, you may wonder why I've taken almost two months away from the blog. It started with 'life is busy,' but eventually morphed into 'why am I writing this blog anyway?'

I like blogs and I like writing mine, but sometimes the subject matter makes me question myself. Is it too judgemental? Is it really necessary? Does it help anyone? Personally, I like funny blogs and this one just doesn't seem to lend itself to humor on a regular basis.

So, I decided to give up the blog.

But then I changed my mind. I was kind of missing it. And I kept finding ideas that I wanted to blog about, but then would remind myself that I wasn't blogging anymore. So, I'm back here again.

Some people start the new year off with resolutions, but I'm starting mine with confessions instead--mostly to reiterate that the point of this blog is to share ideas, but not to judge one another. There's certainly enough of that in the world!

So... here are my confessions of all the non-green things I've done lately. I try to protect the Earth, but I'll be honest and sometimes I just don't feel like it. What about you? Want to confess anything in the Comments? Remember - no judgement, we're just here to share ideas and pick the ones that work for us!

* I threw away all my old Christmas lights and bought new ones (despite the fact I'm fairly certain I blogged once about how to recycle old lights).
* I don't use any natural hair or skin care products or cosmetics.
* I subscribe to two daily newspapers (and a healthy dose of monthly magazines)
* I don't use all CFL light bulbs because sometimes I don't want to wait for them to warm up from their semi-dark starting point.
* I drive over 15,000 miles a year (in an SUV no less!)
* I like long, hot showers.

Do I feel guilty? Nope. There's enough of that in the world these days too. Happy 2011!