To Be or Not To Be Environmentally Friendly...

From time to time I get an urge to consider what I can do to be more environmentally friendly. Sometimes I feel guilty and stop using disposable sandwich bags for a few days and pull out my re-usable water bottle, but then I forget it in the car and it rolls under the seat and I am too busy to think about it and I go back to normal life.

But the reality is, I do believe in good environmental stewardship (this is really not about global warming, more about being cheap and wanting to breathe clean air), and ideally one day I would like to seriously make some changes to reduce my environmental impact. Anyone who knows what I drive is probably raising an eyebrow by now, but I'm baby stepping, ok?

So here are a few of the areas where I have dabbled in research, and where I am at/would like to be...

1) Diapers - ok, I'm going to clear this one up early. I use disposable diapers. The regular ones you buy in huge boxes at Costco, not the expensive organic, food grade ones you have to get somewhere on Whyte Ave. I'm price conscious, and I just can't shell out the extra bucks. As for cloth - I am a poor house keeper as it is, and cannot imagine the impact of using cloth diapers on my house. I would forget to wash them, I'd run out, it would be smelly, I would cry. And the bottom line is, I am just not that committed. As for a diaper service, they're pretty much as expensive (and possibly as environmentally unfriendly) as disposables, but almost as gross as washing them yourself. It's like the worst of both worlds. I feel pretty much the same about feminine products.

2) My vehicle - I admit it. I drive an SUV. HOWEVER - I do try to keep my foot light, and I don't drive that much since I work from home and Matt takes a bus. Being from Alberta, I also think that if you have to drive more than 20 minutes to get somewhere, it's too far so when I do have to venture outside of St. Albert, I usually try to combine my errands. Also we were in a car accident with our Honda Civic (in which luckily no one but the car was hurt), and I feel that my family's safety outweighs the environmental considerations at this point.

3) Travel - I fly quite a bit. I know it's bad for the environment, but I really like to go places that are inconvenient to drive to. However, when we're on trips we usually walk a lot, so does this outweigh the flying?

4) Food. I have read a couple of books on this subject (I highly recommend anything by Michael Poulin) and have made sporadic attempts (ok, I have sporadically thought about...) at buying locally, etc. This is actually an area that I'm pretty interested in taking some action in. We are moving hopefully this year, so no garden, but I would like to take a stab at growing some food next year, and when I am not too lazy I love to hit the farmer's market in the summer. In my next house I also plan on having a deep freeze and I have looked into a small farm meat subscription, which would be pretty neat. I try to avoid pre-made meals where possible for the health & environmental (packaging) aspect although my weakness is individually packaged snacks for Matt's lunch. When I take my baby break later this year, I would like to start doing some more baking to reduce this.

5) My yard. My yard is pretty environmentally friendly. We don't water, and almost never mow it, which means low gas lawn mower emissions (these are pretty bad), and our backyard is organically fertilized by my dog. We did do a fall fertilizer on just the (small) front yard last October because we are planning to sell and wanted it to look a little better, but for the most part we don't use chemicals on the lawn. Also when we do get around to mowing, usually we use the mulching function and leave the clippings on the lawn (this is good for putting the nutrients back in the soil, but mostly we do it because the grass is so long that we have to stop and unclog the bag constantly...). One day I think we might get one of those mechanical mowers, maybe, if I can convince Matt to use it.

6) Recycling - I left this towards the end because this is one of my strongest points. I actually do recycle everything that they take at the bottle depot (and only take it in twice a year when it fills the whole car, thus reducing my driving), and everything that they take through St. Albert's curbside recycling, and we did actually do this even before when we had to haul it to the depot ourselves. I think this makes up for our SUV and the diapers. PS I would like to recycle batteries because they are terrible, but haven't found a convenient way to do this. Any suggestions?

7) Light bulbs - I HATE COMPACT FLORESCENT BULBS (this is an understatement). My parents taught me not to mis-use the word hate, but this I can say. I hate the delay when you turn them on, and I hate the colour of the light. It is ugly and makes me unhappy. When someone does the research for me and can show me a compact florescent that is the same colour as my incandescent bulbs, I will switch. Until then, let the hoarding begin! (seriously, if someone knows about a bulb that is worth considering, let me know).

I know this is probably just a scratch on the surface of thinking about leading a more environmentally responsible existance. My goal is not to convince or guilt anyone (I'd be a pretty big hypocrite) but just to get the thinking going. I think that we all have little things that we can do all the time to try and contribute to less waste and a cleaner environment. It goes without saying that we should not throw trash on the ground (although a lot of smokers seem to think that disgusting cigarette butts somehow don't qualify as litter) and that we should stick our bottles into the marked recycling container next to the trash can, but it's worth thinking about other areas of our lives, and realizing that every little thing that we do counts!!

I'm Back!!

I guess I got distracted in March and totally forgot about my blog (which probably doesn't matter much considering my small following, but don't worry you two, I'm back!). Anyway, it is the middle of April and I have no idea where the time has gone. SO anyway, here's my "I'm back" random thoughts.

1) When I first moved to my new house at the edge (literally), I hate hate hated the wind because it echos loudly down my fireplace chimney in the middle of the house and it blew my bbq off the deck and it makes the vent for my hood fan go "tink tink tink". I think deep down I have some fear of wind blowing my house down (my Chinese birth year is year of the pig after all). But I am proud to say that 2 years and 9 1/2 months after moving in here, I no longer get stomach cramps when the wind picks up. (Also I can hide in my relatively newly finished basement should things get too scary upstairs).

2) The real reason I am writing this blog entry because I was updating the website that I administer (I know, hilarious) and I got frustrated with it, so my blog has become a tool of procrastination.

3) Sometimes I get caught up in idealogical movements based on books I read. I read some books on the food chain and this is the result. When we move, I'm hoping to get a deep freezer again and I am thinking of subscribing to a meat delivery program where you get a delivery of meat from small local farms once per month. Also I want to have a garden next year if I haven't lost inerest by then.

4) I think I should probably stop wasting time and clean the house now...more soon...maybe.

DO NOT CALL!!!

I joined the do not call list on September 30, 2008 - the very first day that I could, and 18 months later I'm starting to really get sick of it not working! I get at least a couple of out of country calls per week, many of which are just dead air (aka poorly programmed auto dialing systems which don't have a good algorithm to make sure that an agent is available when I get on the phone), and the rest of which are scam insurance, credit card and vacation calls. I also get the occasional call from a Canadian number, but almost without fail when you try to dial back the number that comes up on your caller ID, it does not connect.

I think that the worst is when you get a telemarketer who argues. Seriously? Just say sorry and hang up the phone! I realize that it's your job to call me, and it's pretty hard to get a job in some places these days, so you're just doing the best you can for you and your family. Most of the time I even remember this while I'm on the phone and try to maintain my composure when informing them that I AM on the do not call registry, and I have been for almost 2 years. But the other day a lady called me while I was in a bad mood, trying to get out of the house, at dinner time. First she claimed that they used the do not call registry, then she claimed that she wasn't selling anything but refused to tell me why she was calling me because "I should have listened in the first place". As you might imagine, this didn't go over very well with me and I got pretty rude back.

So this post doesn't really have a point. Mostly I hate being called by people trying to scam me, and I also hate being called by people who are trying to sell me stuff, even if it's not a scam. I'm grouchy and rude and pregnant, and I cannot ignore a ringing phone.

My Two Cents

I read a story in National Geographic recently about polygamists and my first impression was that they are pretty seriously messed up. But I realized as I read that it's hard to really give an objective opinion, since I've been raised in a society that strongly opposes polygamy and I cannot even imagine spending my life sharing my husband with other women and pumping out a crap pile of kids. It seems too obvious - they've got creepy middle aged men marrying 14 year old girls, and they kick out boys and men who get upset that there's not enough wives to go around. Isn't that just wrong?

And than I got to thinking about it. The article also mentions that they raise their kids on farms, with little tv/media exposure and few processed foods. Kids are homeschooled, and help out with chores from a young age. Their communities are largely free of crime and are very self sufficient. When was the last time you heard of a kid shooting up a polygamist compound? Sure there's that thing about teen pregnancy, but we have lots of teen pregnancy too - and at least these children are born into a loving (albeit strange) environment with both (or all 7) parents. Admittedly there in an elevated risk of obscure recessive hereditary disorders because of in-breeding, but at least there's no Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, STDs and homelessness. They have cell phones, women are allowed to drive, and laser eye surgery is all the rage, and contrary to popular belief there are no guards keeping the women from running off.

Before you all get excited (as excited as an imaginary blog audience can get...), I'm not taking applications for sister-wives just yet. I'm pretty jealous of my husband's attention and very happy with the set up we've got, but what I'm saying is that our society has this I'm ok, you're ok, we're ok attitude where people purport to mind their own business and let everyone do what they want, whether it's marrying someone of the same or opposite sex, remaining celibate or devoting ones life to having as many sex partners as possible, believing in as many or as few gods as one wants (or believing we're all god inside), anything goes. But somehow the polygamists are getting judged as horrible child abusing people and if you really think about it, it seems like a bit of a double standard.

Why don't they get the same liberal "you're ok" treatment as the rest of those in society who choose to pursue an "alternative lifestyle"? Why do we judge women who say they're fine with polygamist arrangements as brain-washed? Let's not kid ourselves - it's not like mainstream North American society is an enlightened paradise. Every year there are millions of abortions, a growing number of people medicated for depression, and our youth seem to be losing their innocence ever earlier as we see serious issues such as suicide and eating disorders in younger and younger children. Maybe we're the brain-washed ones, raising our kids idolizing promiscuous, drug addicted pop stars amid rampant comsumerism in a world where we pretend that we're "all ok".

In an ideal world we would all be raised in upper class families surrounded by loving, biological parents, and given every opportunity to fulfill our unlimited potential, but in the absence of perfection, is a life of sister-wife-hood and pooping out a dozen kids really the worst alternative? My whole point here is not that I agree with polygamy - far from it - but there are a lot of things in our society that I think are wrong, and I am confused by the fact that we choose to single out a relatively small group of people who believe differantly than the rest of us. I believe that we should continue to work to stop anyone who exploits young girls, but I think we need to maybe start looking around at our society in general and realizing that without some shared standards of right & wrong, and a general societal agreement to provide a safe world for our children, polygamist compound living will continue to offer many advantages that many in our society are missing, and that that is a shame.

Things I have been trying not to complain about out loud

1) The lady driving in front of me on 142 St. at Yellowhead who decided that instead of picking a lane at the front of the pack, she would drive in the middle of two lanes. Seriously, I know that it's winter so it can be hard to see the lines, but if all else fails, FOLLOW THE WHEEL TRACKS.

2) People at Superstore who go through the self checkouts with carts full of exotic produce and take 20 minutes to check it all through. Seriously, I had 4 items and a baby. I hate you.

3) Safeway for taking away the platinum Air Miles promotion and with it, my flimsy self justifications for paying too much for groceries, resulting in me standing in line at Superstore to save $1.50 on bagels.

4) Dogs who eat kid's toys (no pun intended on the "pet" peeves for this one). Gir, I am warning you. We may have to have to recreate the shoe incident of 04, and this time Daddy's not here to protect you...

5) Morning sickness...afternoon sickness...evening sickness. Please please please stop. I just want to feel normal.

6) Parents who ignore their crying whining stinking disgusting babies, especially in public.

7) Poor spelling. Poor grammar. Poor punctuation. Poor manners.

8) People who complain about graduating from secondary education with no job offers (sorry to pick on the nurses and teachers again, but seriously, do you guys take some kind of entitlement class to qualify for your degree?). Deal with it - it's called a freaking global economic crisis and no one cares except you and the rest of your future-union friends.

9) People who believe everything they read and hear on tv, the newspaper and especially the internet. Come on folks, it's called CRITICAL THINKING.

10) Whiny blogs.

I love food

My brothers and I grew up with probably more exposure than most people to "exotic" foods. We didn't eat a lot of what my family calls "white" foods growing up - no mac & cheese, bologna or pizza pops, and a very limited selection of pre-made foods (funny enough, I didn't grow up into some kind of food snob - I actually don't mind any of these foods, but I just know there are a lot of other better things to eat).

Our restaurant experiences also helped to shape our young palates - no Red Robin or Olive Garden here - El Salvadorean, Indian, Mexican, Japanese and more helped to provide a broad and tasty food experience. I remember spending every Halloween and many birthdays at "Korean Beauty" - a tiny authentic Korean restaurant with a smoky little bar at the back, and great Korean specialties. We learned to view food as an adventure, and enjoyed many things that most people would not even think of feeding their kids - frogs' legs, "stinky" cheeses, escargot (snails) and steak tartare (raw chopped steak with toast), just to name a few.

My dad's view, passed on from his eccentric French-Canadian mother was that God made food for us to enjoy, and if you don't like something, there is something wrong with you, not the food. And if you don't like it once, you need to try it again to get used to it. As harsh as this may sound, it really does work (other than for black licorice, which I refuse to recognize as a food)!

The thing that I have begun to realize as I grow older is that the appreciation of food that was instilled in me as a child by parents who refused to follow societal norms when it comes to children & eating actually extends to a lot of other areas. If you are open minded when it comes to what you put in your stomach, chances are you're probably more willing to try new things when it comes to music, arts, literature, travel and more!

I think we should keep our minds open and start challenging the lame and boring pre-conceived notions that many Canadians have about kids and food. Think children can't or shouldn't eat spicy food? Wrong! What do you think kids in India eat? Afraid your kid won't eat broccoli or peas? Maybe a garlic hoisin vegetable stir fry instead of plain steamed vegetables will meet their approval. You know the excuse "she just doesn't like it" (or even worse "oh, I know he wouldn't like that")? Would you stop sending your kid to school or let them stop brushing their teeth just because they didn't like it? Try actually reasoning with your kids when it comes to food and maybe adding a little creativity to the menu and you'll be surprised at how adventurous and open minded children can be with just a little help.