When to Donate Kids' Equipment

School is out and I am once again trying to tackle the mess in my house that seems to arrive with every end of schoolyear season - the artwork and spelling tests, the emergency kits with expired food, the raincoats and sweatshirts that we hopefully won't need for the next few months (but sadly seem to still have use for).

Image via Wikipedia

Of course, one cleaning project leads to another, and now I am on to the giant pile in the garage that I have been meaning to donate one day. I am fine at moving things out of the house, but getting it from garage to the next step seems to paralyze me. For some reason, my greatest fear is that I'm not donating to the best organization. The clothes go to friends with younger kids, but what about the rest? Shouldn't that recorder go to that organization I once read about that collects musical instruments? And, what was their name? Are these toys good enough to be donated or should I toss them? Why can't I find all the pieces? And, on and on...

Needless to say, sometimes I find myself donating dusty things that don't appear to have fit my children in years. Today, I learned how my indecision may make this equipment go to waste. I took several carseats, bedrails, and other miscellaneous contraptions no longer needed for 8 and 10-year-olds to a local consignment store called Me 'n' Moms. I was surprised to learn that they apparently "expire" after five years. One of mine was four years old so it will be priced lower and another was actually already expired and couldn't be resold.

Apparently, carseat manufacturers give expiration dates because they can't guarantee the plastic after that. Of course, it depends on the conditions and whether it was exposed to a lot of heat and cold, but even I can see that letting it sit around in my garage was probably not ideal.

So, if you have any outgrown baby/kid equipment, make sure you pass it on, donate it, or sell it as soon as you're done! Your garage and basement will thank you too!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I've wanted to post this for about 2 months now, but here it is June 18th and I can officially say I have a garden - YEAH!!!

Obviously, I'm getting a late start, but the problem was I had a jungle gym in the only sunny, flat piece of my property, which added significant time to the project. Once the jungle gym was gone, then I had to deal with the fact that I had an 18" deep gravel pit. After contemplating various options for removing it, I finally just decided it was good drainage and the garden would have to go on top.

Now, I have 2 raised beds built with concrete blocks - nothing bad seeping into the soil and they should last forever. The soil is the special veggie soil from Cedar Grove - as my kids said, "It smells awful" so I figure it must have all the good nutrients. I will confess I didn't build them myself - the blocks are 60 pounds apiece and, as you can see from the picture, it took a lot of them!

I am a complete novice at this, but happy to be experimenting. I have one bed for warm season vegetables and one for cool season vegetables. Altogether, I have corn, snow peas, peas, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, potatoes, lettuce, onions, green onions, carrots, parsnips, basil, thyme, and oregano. I also have some zucchini and pumpkins, but they didn't fit into the beds. I figure they both grow well and need lots of space so I planted them where they would have more room.

It was fun planning and planting with the kids and now I'm looking forward to harvesting later this summer. All we need is SUNSHINE!

Plant a Fairy Garden

I went to Sorticulture, a local garden fair, a few days ago in search of some plant starts for my vegetable garden (update coming soon!) and happened up on this cute minature garden done by Two Green Thumbs.

I'm new to miniature gardens, but it seemed like an idea that might be fun for kids. The idea is to plant slow-growing miniature plants and create your own little world. You can complete it with tiny furniture or even small dolls or animal figures. Sort of like an outdoor dollhouse!

I don't know that my boys would be into a "fairy" garden, but maybe a miniature troll garden could pique their interest! Take a look at the Two Green Thumbs website for ideas.

I Don't Get It...

Okay, I'll admit there are a lot of products on the market that I don't quite get. While shopping for a new bride last weekend, I came upon an egg cracker that sold for $14.99. Even my 8-year-old agreed you don't need to pay $15 to crack an egg!

But here is the one that really has me scratching my head. The so-hot-it's-hard-to-find reusable Starbucks cold cup. Looks identical to your regular, disposable cup, but it's not. If you read their website, they pat themselves on the back for listening to customer comments and bringing this "green" cup back by popular demand - and in a new bigger size!

Maybe I'm the only crazy one, but doesn't it seem weird to make a "green" cup that seems to celebrate the millions of other plastic cups being thrown away every day? I do get that these cups will be reused, but somehow the design still just doesn't feel right to me. Feel free to disagree in the Comment section below. I'm fairly certain I'm in the minority here since the bridal shower I went to this past weekend had everyone oohing and aahhing over these when they were opened as part of a gift.

Maybe They Should Ask the Kids

As the Gulf Oil spill spirals from human tragedy to catastrophe to debacle to environmental tragedy, it has become clear that no one knows how to handle the situation. They've called in everyone from James Cameron to Kevin Costner to fix the problem, but based on my conversations at home, they may do just as well by asking the children for ideas.

Image by DigitalGlobe-Imagery via Flickr

My 10-year-0ld initially just wanted to know why they couldn't "turn the oil off". Good question - perhaps that $500,000 backup valve that once seemed to expensive would have helped. Then he moved on to the robot idea. Why aren't there robots that can do these things? Another good question...

My younger son has been a big fan of the straw idea - just keep sucking the oil out until they get the next well built. He also wants to do a giant animal rescue. Specifically, he wants to round up all the fish, dolphins, whales, birds, etc. and move them to Puget Sound. Okay, maybe not doable, but at least his heart is in the right place!

For now, I'll focus on becoming less dependent on all that oil and making sure my kids do well in science so one day they'll be able to solve these problems before they become such disasters.

Green Festival Comes to Seattle

The Green Festival returns to the Washington Convention Center in Seattle this weekend. A joint venture of Global Exchange and Green America, this is just one of its 2010 stops - San Francisco and DC are still to come in the fall.

It's everything green and local all under one roof with 2 days packed with over 100 speakers and over 300 exhibitors. Learn about local farming, sustainable development, bike paths, and more. There's also food, music, and presentations specifically for kids. Do it yourself workshops will teach everything from bike maintenance to how to make worm bins and rain barrels.

Children get in free and adult tickets are $15. Take a bus or ride your bike and you'll get a $5 discount. Free tickets are available at Verizon locations.

I took my kids last year and it was fun and educational for all of us! I'm hoping to go again and get a peek at the new Nissan Leaf - the electric car coming this fall.

Put a Name on It

If you've ever been to an activity with gobs of children, you've probably witnessed this scene:

Children run off to play, come back thirsty, grab a juice box/plastic cup, take one sip, run off to play, come back again thirsty, take a new juice box/plastic cup, take one more sip... By the end of the day, there is a sea of mostly full juice boxes and plastic cups that no one will claim for fear of germs or whatever.



Last weekend we were at Family Camp on Whidbey Island and a simple labeling system solved the problem. Everyone who took a cup put their name on it so they could keep track of it. At the end of the day, the cups were corralled and put back on the table to be claimed and refilled later. No lost cups, no spreading germs. Yes, paper cups could have worked too, but truly this was better than when I went last year and we had enough leftover silver juice pouches to knit everyone their very own space blanket!



Sometimes simple solutions are the best!