Archive | January 2011
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Why Labels Aren’t Necessarily Bad
Update, 12/12/12: I wrote this a few years back, about a year after my daughter was diagnosed on the autism spectrum. That first year was incredible – Her diagnosis qualified her for our local developmental preschool, where we met a nurturing and welcoming team of teachers and specialists who helped her blossom and thrive. The […]
Bainbridge Island: Local Tips for a Life with Less Plastic
Seeing as how I just posted a lot of this to my friend’s Facebook page (sorry about that, K!), I thought I might as well turn it into a blog post, too. Over the past year, as part of my ongoing effort to reduce the amount of new plastic entering my life, I’ve developed a […]
Life Without Balloons
It’s M’s birthday this week, so I spent a bit of time last night getting the dining room ready. My mom always “surprised” us with a decorated table on our birthdays, and I have fun carrying on that tradition. We have a few things that we use for each person’s birthday each year: A personalized […]
Filthy Plastic Hypocrite – No Impact Week Fail
Or Forbidden Fruit: How My Life as a Schoolyard Sugar Dealer Has Impacted My Thoughts on Plastic Toys I am a filthy plastic hypocrite. Tomorrow is M’s birthday, so her preschool party is this afternoon. She requested swirled chocolate and fruit cupcakes with swirled blue and green icing, each topped with a plastic sea creature. […]
Eco-Shabbat – No Impact Week
My family’s weekly Shabbat is from sundown on Friday to Saturday night when three stars twinkle in the sky; we added Sunday’s Eco-Shabbat theme to our Saturday and Sunday for some extra relaxation and joy this weekend. I am far from Orthodox or Conservative in my observance of Shabbat, but this difference in observance does […]
Giving Back, Marine Plastics Recovery Mission – No Impact Week
Today was beautiful here, with sunshine and dramatic clouds and cold air. We decided to take advantage of the break in the rain to meet some friends for one of our regular marine plastics recovery missions, aka picking up plastic trash from the beach. Here comes a digression. I can’t help myself, I must write […]
Water – No Impact Week
Let me be upfront about this: When you live in place famous for its rain, it’s sometimes hard to feel the truth of potable water being rare and precious on a visceral level. We’ve had a bit more rain than usual here this winter, and the sump pump in our crawl space, the one that […]
Abe Lincoln, Hankies, and A Travel Mug – No Impact Week
We have been using toilet paper instead of official tissues for our tears and runny noses for years, but I was motivated to kick that habit this week. One of my zero waste local heroes mentioned the other day that she had just cut up a t-shirt to make herself a soft handkerchief to help […]
Gratitude, the Electrical Edition – No Impact Week
Here’s what I’m grateful for tonight. Now to find ways to keep these things in my life with smaller footprints: Light. Sunlight, candlelight, bulbs incandescent/compact fluorescent/LED, flashlights, oil lamps, moonlight, I’m not picky, I love it all*. Just one small candle in a jar can turn my living room from deserted house to home. Heat. […]
Energy. Confessions of a Carbon Glutton – No Impact Week
Right, it’s Energy Day. As I am just now warming up after being off the power grid thanks to that one storm in November, I wasn’t up for cutting the power to my home completely. We decided to mitigate our use instead, to see how little electricity we can get by on without endangering the […]
