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Activities Cole Current Events Family & Friends Me Ryan

Super Bowl Sunday

Today we had a Super Bowl Party in our living room, according to Ryan.  We had plans with the in-laws, but father-in-law was not feeling well, so we stayed home.  Ryan and I made some marble cheesecake squares, (recipe from Cooking Light) some salad, and my own special Italian grilled sandwiches.  Ryan was so excited to have a “party,” he had to call my dad, and invite him over.  Of course my dad couldn’t come, but it was cute.  We had fun watching the game, and eating our treats in the living room. 

 I was super excited, because I was rooting for the New York Giants.  I was really into the game the last quarter, and I was hooting and hollering, as they took the lead.  I think I was too loud, because Ryan told me to stop making all that noise.  🙂  Football is the sport I like to watch the most, and I think this year’s Super Bowl was one of the best!  It was a great game, with an amazing upset the Giants pulled off.  It made for an exciting afternoon and evening.

But the best part was watching the boys during the half time show.  Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were playing (who I really like), and on the last song, Ryan and Cole decided they were going to be rock stars too- here they are rocking out during the half time show:

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Hope everyone had a fun Super Bowl.  Sorry if you were rooting for New England, but the game belonged to the Giants!!

Categories
Current Events Holidays Household

My “Green” Christmas

Our weather is calling for snow tomorrow, and then some on Sunday.  We still have a few inches left on the ground from previous snowfalls, so by all accounts we will have a White Christmas!  Yay!

I have been thinking a lot these last few weeks on how I can make our Christmas a little “greener” as well.  It has always bothered me how much waste gets produced during the holidays, before it became “mainstream” so to speak.  Whenever our families were done opening presents, there was at least one big, huge, trash-bag stuffed with wrapping paper and gift bags.  Not to mention the bows, boxes, tissue papers, ribbons, and cards.

My mom was really good about teaching us to save ribbons and bows, so at least we would try to reuse these items.  I guess it got in my blood, because I am always trying to scavenge the reusable bows, ribbons, and now gift bags (Gift bags weren’t used too much in the 70’s and 80’s when I was growing up 🙂 )

But, even with that, there is still a ton of waste.  I could never save wrapping paper- let’s be honest.  Unless there is a freak of nature unique person, who can open a present with out crumpling, tearing, or creasing wrapping paper, it just isn’t practical to save it and try to reuse it.  It always looks horrible, and it is never the right size.  Believe me, I’ve tried!  This was before I had kids, and there is no way any wrapping paper that my boys even look at, let alone touch, will be in any shape to be reused. 

Amy had a great post earlier this month, on all kinds Green Tips for the holidays.  One of my favorite ones, was running used wrapping paper through your paper shredder, and using it to stuff gift bags.  You could do this year round as well, and use the shredded wrapping paper in gift bags for birthdays, baby showers, etc.  It occurred to me that even if you can’t use all the shredded wrapping paper in gift bags, it could be used as packing (instead of Styrofoam peanuts or bubble wrap) if you are shipping a package.  I’m sure there are other uses for this idea too.

I really love using gift bags.  Not only are they quick to assemble compared to wrapping, but they can be reused several times again.  I doubt I have bought a gift bag in several years.  I save all gifts bags given to me, and reuse them.  This also can save you some money too.

Since I have used a lot of  my “stash” up of gift bags, I realized I may be running low on gift bags and wrapping paper.  I decided not to buy any more wrapping paper, and make due with what I have.  I bought some gift boxes for a few presents, and wondered what kind of wrap I should do for them.  Then I realized that they already had Christmas pictures on them, and they look nice without wrapping paper.  Do I really need to “waste” paper for a box, that a kid will be ripping off in a few seconds anyway?  No.  So I am going to tape the boxes, and add a ribbon to them, and I am done, and hopefully saved a few resources in the process.

For Ryan and Cole’s presents, as well as a few others, they are in large boxes.  I cleaned out my brown paper bag stash, which multiplies faster than rabbits, under my kitchen sink.  I am going to cut them all up, and tape them to fit the boxes, and then put ribbons on them as well.  I’ll have “brown paper packages tied up in strings,” and will be reusing something.  Hopefully, I’ll be saving a few more resources.

If you have any other “green” holiday tips, I’d love to hear them.  I think a lot of people doing a few little things, can make a big difference.

Finally, if you get a Christmas present from me without wrapping paper, or wrapped in brown “recycled” grocery bags, no- I didn’t procrastinate and run out of paper, but you will know ahead of time, why your gift is wrapped this way, and hopefully you will be happy, you are a participant in my green Christmas.  🙂

Categories
Current Events Holidays Parenting

Should Santa Be Thin?

I came across this video clip on Yahoo tonight, and watched it- mainly because I couldn’t believe the heading: Experts Believe Santa’s Body Image Harmful (or something close to that- I don’t remember it word for word).

The clip is about two minutes, and it did raise some good points on the health of the actual people who play Santa in the malls, and some of the problems they may encounter from being overweight.  It said the “experts” agree that Santa is a role model, and kids look up to him- but come on- it is SANTA!

I have never heard a child say he wanted to be overweight, fat, obese, etc., because Santa Claus is.  Isn’t Santa like the constant that every kid has?  Kids look up to Santa because he is magical, kind, happy, generous, and loving- the best of the human spirit.

This clip said there is an actual website and movement devoted to keeping Santa fat.  One of the men who runs the website asks something like, what was next?  Are we going to start melting pounds off Frosty the Snowman?  What about the Easter Bunny?  He said he was starting to look a little chubby.  He said this was absolutely ridiculous.

Then the reporter asked some people on the street what they thought, and they all said Santa should be chubby.  One girl said she didn’t see people leaving carrots and celery out for Santa.  That made me laugh.

The story ended with the point that Santa used to be portrayed with a pipe and they dropped that.  I think that is good, but Santa isn’t portrayed eating junk food, holding donuts, and soda pop!  Maybe Santa is just big boned.  Maybe Santa has an overactive thyroid- not everyone who is overweight eats bad!

If we start taking these things to this extreme, what IS next? Will children not be allowed to have a role model (teacher, policeman, baseball player, coach, parent, grandparent, etc.) who is overweight? 

Yes, obesity is a problem, but I think talking to your kids about a proper body image, giving them good eating habits, and making sure they exercise, will go a lot further in preventing childhood obesity than insisting Santa is thin. 

The world is made up of all kinds of different people.  Why should our kids only be exposed to thin, skinny people as role models?   What kind of message does that send them- that overweight people are not worthy of being a role model?  I think Santa teaches us that it is OK not to have a perfect body.  Santa is overweight, but guess what- no one (until now) cares.  Children  and adults still love him, and he is defined by what he does, and who he is, not what he looks like, and not by how he does or does not live up to a perceived body image.

That is my stand- keep Santa fat!  I am curious to see what everyone else thinks about this.  Please just keep the comments respectful.

Merry Christmas! 

Categories
Current Events Mothering

Dumb & Dumber

I just came across this “story,” and I am speechless, really.  All I could think of was Dumb & Dumber.  I know that isn’t very nice, but read the story (it’s short), and see what first pops into your mind.

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UPDATE: Today (11/17/07) I read another account of this on MSN, that said Heidi Klum and Ellen were totally joking and kind of making fun of Britney Spears.  So without seeing the actual clip, it is hard to say for sure if she was serious or not.  At any rate, if they were joking, that makes me feel a lot better about Heidi Klum.  🙂

Categories
Current Events Health

Bleach & Bees- Odd Bedfellows

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While glancing through the business section of the newspaper today, I saw a headline that caught my eye: Clorox Bleach is buying Burt’s Bees for almost a billion dollars in CASH!  Evidently Clorox wants to get into the natural products market, and decided this was the way to do it.

I LOVE Burt’s Bee’s products.  They are natural, and have some of the best beauty products out there, in my opinion.  I also like that they are one of the industry leaders in the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, being one of the first companies to sign the pledge in May, 2005.  The signers of this pledge vow “not use chemicals that are known or strongly suspected of causing cancer, mutation or birth defects in their products and to implement substitution plans that replace hazardous materials with safer alternatives in every market they serve.”

I’d be lying if I said I never use bleach, in fact I have a bottle of good old Clorox in the laundry room.  It definitely has its place, but it makes me leery and suspicious when a cleaning product company, who makes chemical toilet brushes, among other things, purchases a natural beauty-cosmetics-baby product line.  I can’t help but wonder if the quality of Burt’s Bees products will suffer.

I certainly hope not, but after reading this today, I don’t think I will ever be able to apply some of my beloved Burt’s Bees Beeswax Lip Balm, on my lips, slather Baby Buttermilk Lotion, on my sons skin, or rub their soothing Diaper Ointment on my baby’s delicate diaper area, without thinking of a big bottle of chemical bleach and toilet brushes!  Not exactly the image you want in your mind, when applying natural products on yourself or on your baby  I might go stock up on my favorite items before the production is turned over to the bleach company. 

I have to say that I am disappointed in Burt’s Bees too.  Obviously this was an enormous amount of money, but they didn’t have to agree to be sold to Clorox.  Their customers have built them into the company they are today, which commands their sales price and market value.  It just seems like they “sold out” to a big giant corporate company, that does not fit their brand image at all, and too bad for their loyal customer base.   If Burt’s Bees wanted to be sold to a big company, couldn’t they have at least tried Proctor & Gamble?  At least P&G has a beauty product line, and at least for me the first image I get from P&G, isn’t a toilet bowl filled up with Clorox.  I guess the almighty dollar wins again.

I just hope Clorox doesn’t try to take out the natural ingredients, and replace them with cheap, chemical laden crap, “improve” the products.  Burt’s Bees products are perfect the way they are. 

At any rate, after using Burt’s Bees products for years, it is sad that I can’t look at the company the same way, sad I can’t trust it now, and will always be wondering if Clorox will try to substitute, and sneak chemicals in the products in order to cut costs, and try to make some of that billion dollars back.