I have a chalkboard affliction.  Mason jars are an illness as well, but that’s a discussion for another day.  I did a recent tally and found nearly a dozen chalkboard surfaces in the space of four rooms.  Honestly, I am most certainly married to the most tolerant man on the planet.

There’s this one, near the coffee pot.  Since it is March 3 and definitely not cold outside, it will be evolving to a more springy statement.

And this one, in the dining room.  Sophie will edit it for March with her version of “in like a lion, out like a lamb.”

There’s this one, which is my favorite because it is an entire wall of chalkboard and magnetic paint (around 72 coats) in our kitchen.  It’s framed up with the recycled wooden border that is now bright, glossy red after being rescued from days of serving as grassy green accent to a hideous garden/bunny/floral border.  I (usually) weekly post a quote, the weather, the average sunrise/sunset and moon phase – not because we run out and hold a seance, but because it’s interesting.  That’s not entirely true – sometimes various members of our family do go out to dance, holler or swing by the light of the moon, as every family should.  Ahem.  In my opinion.

From this one:

to this one:

our home is overrun with chalkboard-y fun.  Because, you know, blogs alone were apparently not a sufficient outlet for all my words – I needed surfaces for them, too.  What’s the equivalent of the attack of the chalkboard in your world?

The eight year old and I were recently near-death with the flu, and we spent the better part of ten hours splayed out on opposite ends of the same couch without the will to live. Our century-plus old house has a nifty chimney, but it’s now too risky to burn a wood fire in the fireplace so we have a gas insert with a remote control. At one point during our extreme illness (no parts of this story are exaggerated, I can assure you), the fireplace went out, and we were certain we would freeze to death since we couldn’t reach the two feet to the remote to restart the fire.Happily, though, we survived. We conquered the rest of our sickly sentence by passing a little time on Practically Green. I know, I’m prone to wax poetic about this site, but I’m truly just insanely fond of it. So, Sophie and I explored some of the badges that can be earned on the site by taking steps to make your life a bit greener. I’m particularly interested in how the site uses incentives like this that are popular with the masses (Foursquare, anyone?) and how we might incorporate something similar with the 4,000 kids who visit the Ozark Natural Science Center every year. We already do a pretty good job on the food front: we’re known for our great food, fresh salad bar and reciting the take what you need, eat what you take mantra before meals. If you’re joining me on this soapbox, read this great piece by one of our teacher naturalists, Roslyn Imrie: The Great Journey of Cheese!

I’ve rambled in the past about packing school lunches and the comfort of our routines. I do believe schools are diligently working with nutritionists to improve selections and that the work of Michelle Obama and Jamie Oliver is making a tremendous difference, but it isn’t enough. The food offerings at school cafeterias may be healthy (although so far, they haven’t looked particularly appetizing), but kids aren’t eating them. I’ve sat regularly in the cafeteria surrounded by kids who pick at the dessert and throw away massive quantities of untouched food and disposable serving items, and it truly makes me squirm. Not only do I know with certainty there are kids who don’t have enough to eat in our community and countless others, the sheer quantities of waste floor me.

Anyway, I digress. Sophie and I started out by checking out the Healthy Green Lunch badge, and we discussed her school lunches. She knows our routine (pack ‘em all on Sunday) and our formula (one sandwich on whole grains, one fruit, one veggie, one dairy and a treat) and has it down to a science. She usually makes PB&J or ham and cheese and grabs grapes or an apple and snow peas, carrots or cherry tomatoes in reusable containers and adds string cheese or yogurt. I’m less pleased about the excess packaging on our dairy item, but haven’t tackled that quite yet. She takes a cloth napkin for the whole week and her treat is usually a whole fruit strip or maybe a cookie, and she buys (and enthusiastically drinks) milk every day. You know, the kind that is white as opposed to other colors. And yes: I’m proud of all of this.

So in discussing the badge, she found that she already knocked most of the items out of the park and could even suggest an addition or two (attention, Practically Green – how about pack your own cloth napkin and utensils?!). I asked her if she was remembering to pack a spoon on yogurt days, and she said they had them at school. I immediately riled up thinking she meant disposables, but she assured me silverware was available and asked why it mattered. I explained that it wouldn’t make sense for her to personally throw away five plastic spoons a week, and I loved my husband’s reply when I told him this story: he said she has so much more information available to her than we did, and that parents didn’t know or share those things in the past. “It makes your soul hurt” to think about all that waste, he said. Agreed. It isn’t because I run an environmental education center or because being green is perceived as trendy: it’s just not responsible to behave a certain way when you know better. Isn’t that what we try to teach our children?

Sophie pointed out there was one area where we still weren’t doing well – we will occasionally in a pinch use a plastic baggie, and I confess it makes my skin crawl. I kept thinking how great we are about reusable shopping bags and even produce bags, and yet I haven’t eliminated this small item as an option by just not purchasing the baggies! Chastened, I hopped over (thanks to the Practically Green recommendation) to the utterly fabulous Blue Avocado website and ordered the sandwich and washable (re)zip bags for Sophie for Christmas in her preferred (super cute) orange poppy pattern so we can mark it off the list and feel good about earning our PG lunch badge!

Here’s the GREAT news after all that reading and soapboxing: you can win one of the super cool complete eco-chic kits from Blue Avocado! And, even if you don’t win, you can use discount code bagreen20 at BlueAvocado.com through January 31!

Click that little “More…” button for the giveaway, and good luck!

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Dear all,

My, but we obsess.

Not to be Pollyanna, but we are unduly harsh, critical and snappy to one another, aren’t we?

To those we love most, we offer the least of ourselves. To those we toil with daily, we offer our best. That is to say that our colleagues and customers get our best behavior, our families and friends receive our worst.

To an employee or co-worker, we offer the benefit of the doubt,
acceptable behavior and courtroom-approved comments that cross no lines. To those we say we love most, we offer our harshest judgment and our quickest tempers.

At the end of a long-day, we present our work-torn souls to those who presumably love us unconditionally without so much as a hasty
apology for our poor attitudes. We snap at each other knowing the other didn’t cause our state of mind. I attack those I love and ask more of them when I know they’ve delivered more than I could ever ask, while the outside world demands much of me and delivers little in return.

We are better than all this.

Late at night, early in the morning and at the odd, pensive hours in between I consider all this and know I have not been at my best.

Whether to the clerk, the colleague or the closest to my heart, I realize when I fall short… sometimes moments and sometimes hours later. I think you do, too. I think we can do better. I think the world deserves our best.

If not me, who? If not now, when?

Oddly, there’s no specific event or misunderstanding driving this tirade: just the constant certainty that we often miss our highest calling while busily producing.

Let’s all be better in 2012. Here’s to the best year yet!

After resolutely avoiding trendy newfangled things like Facebook for years, I finally plunged (after being repeatedly chastised by my far trendier sister) and plunged hard, quickly accosting my employer nearly five years ago to hop on the social media bandwagon. Since then, I’ve learned my lesson. If I was an early advocate of those newfangled Palm Pilots, surely I would also be an enthusiastic early adopter of social media.

All of this brings up a separate conversation for another day, but in summary: I’m not enthusiastic about advertising that assumes my ignorance and attempts to brainwash me. I am, however, exceptionally enthusiastic about real and effective communication, and I wouldn’t have made it an inch in the world if truly passionate marketing, i.e. sharing your enthusiasm in a real and convincing way, were ineffective. But I digress…

I did, with some chagrin, hop early on the beta-only Pinterest bandwagon. I confess my initial disdain and thoughts along the lines of “why would I want to waste my time on this?” However, eight months after finagling an “invitation” and four months after TIME magazine called’ll it one of the 50 Best Websites of 2011, I’m here to tell you that I have not simply wasted my time pinning daydreams. If you’re not one with the Pinterest, let me interpret: it’s common to simply hit the “repeat” button and hastily grab ideas (recipes! outfits! crafts! quotes!) that will never cross your mind again.

I can actually say that a number of good ideas spotted on Pinterest were not simply pined for, but were actually incorporated into our lives in 2011. A sampling:

• I made cute dry erase boards for my sister and daughters for Christmas.
• There is a new artwork clothesline in our craft room (watch for a separate post on that!)
• My Dad has set aside multiple pallets for my crafting pleasure, much to his chagrin. Don’t tell my husband. (Rats! He does occasionally read my ramblings, shockingly…)
• I properly expressed my parenting sentiments in the kitchen, per Where the Wild Things Are (I’ll eat you up I love you so)!
• The eight year old crafted mixed media artwork for my mom, my sister and me… and was visibly proud of her meaningful contributions to Christmas (and the carefully, painstakingly wrapped results made my heart sing)!
• My sister bought me (the cutest!!!!) I heart Arkansas necklace for Christmas from Etsy. Be still my heart!
• I hosted a spy party for my eight year old and may have secured my spot in the cool mom hall of fame.
• We made 125+ Nutter Butter chocolate/peanut butter balls and delivered them to the neighbors. And my diet came into sharp clarity for 2012. But oh… they were amazing!
• Potato and French Onion soups occurred, and they made me happy (if no one else…)
• I am STILL DETERMINED to someday have a porch swing bed!!

The moral to the story is not what we did… it’s the power of the collective good that is achievable if you grab onto the good ideas of others rather than simply watching life pass by. We do have time, and inspiration is all the more at our fingertips if we choose to tune in.

Are you taking action on the ideas you see every day (or on Pinterest)? Are you participating, or is life passing you by? Sophie and I have some crafty plans for tomorrow. And next up on my project list: