Happy Earth Day!

It's that day of the year again, where we set aside our normal routines and green things up a bit.  I do, anyway.

One of the things that I believe most strongly in is advocating for those who can't, and that includes our earth.  I don't just do it for myself, though, I do it to get the children involved and teach them a sense of personal responsibility for the planet we live on.

Now, activism with children is not taking them out on a greenpeace boat and attempting to destroy fishing boats and fishing nets.  No, activism can be much more subtle and age appropriate.  Activism is simply taking steps towards restoring and saving the resources we have available to us.

For example, right now in Florida, our groundwater is being tapped and pumped for companies to use for bottled water.  This is causing a multitude of problems, including backflow of rivers into our natural springs, causing "brown outs" of the normally crystalline blue waters.  Kinder Major has become quite the activist, writing letters and sending them to the water management district, the EPA, our governor, and even the private water bottling companies themselves.  She has, in a stroke of child genius, included pictures she's drawn of the fun times she's had in those springs and rivers, and what she feels will happen to them if the continued draws keep occurring.

Activism can be simpler than that, even.  We were briefly involved in a project called "The Need-A-Bag project." The premise was simple - provide reusable shopping bags to the patrons of our local farmer's market.  Due to a lack of response in the area we chose to open our branch we no longer participate, but that small act was activism alone.

If you're the type that is hesitant to go out and be bold due to whatever reason, remember that even the small act of responsibly growing one's own veggies is a form of activism.  Sustainable agriculture, no matter how small, is one of the many ways we as citizens can rebel against large corporations like Monsanto who are intent on dominating the agricultural market.  Growing your own food, visiting farmer's markets, purchasing from local small farmers - those are all ways you can get involved and be part of the global movement.  Not to mention that it's wonderful fun for the kids to get out there and get dirty, after which they get to witness the magic that is a garden- their garden- grow.

Don't have enough land to grow a full garden? No worries.  Pumpkins, squash, tomatoes, berries, radishes, carrots, herbs, and many other edible plants can be easily grown in containers on a back porch or balcony.  If you're unsure of what you need or how to do it, ask here, ask at your local nursery, but do make sure you ask.  There's nothing quite as satisfying as a meal made with the literal fruits of your labor.

Kinder Major starting seeds for pumpkins, green beans, tomatos and squash.

Don't just sit around today, folks.  Get involved.  Get your kids involved.  Go pick up trash in a local preserve, plant a garden, start some seeds, offer up some of your extra re-usable shopping bags at a market.  Do something.  This is our planet and our society.  Use this earth day as a wake-up call and make it count so that EVERY day becomes earth day.

XOXO,

Accidentally Mommy.

Things-that-are-awesome Thursday!

Woot, it's Thursday!

I have two things that are awesome today.  Number one is a blog I'd like to draw attention to:  The Accidental Environmentalist, home of the Need-A-Bag? project.  The N-A-B? project operates on the same premise as the Need a penny? Take a penny! tray you see everywhere.  Set up at farmers markets, we offer free re-usable shopping bags.  Need a bag, take a bag.  If you want to bring it back next week, great!  If you forget, that's okay too!  We also like donations, both of bags and money.  We're not non-profit, though, and we certainly don't expect donations.  We just don't turn them away if they're offered.

Today was the N-A-B?'s maiden voyage to the High Springs Farmers Market, captained by yours truly.  N-A-B? has a permanent spot at the Alachua County Farmers Market on Saturday mornings, as well.

We're looking for locals to franchise out to the rest of our county's farmers markets, but I'd like ya'll to consider implementing something similar in your area.  Here's the short of it:  Pick up spare bags from friends, family, strangers, yard sales and thrift stores.  You don't want to go and buy new bags specifically for this, but buying used ones from thrift and yard sales is fine.  Wash them, tag them with your mission statement, and offer them to the shoppers for free!  Lather, Rinse, Repeat the weeks following. 

Please comment here or email me at accidentallymommy@gmail.com if you want to know more, and I'll give you the rest of the details. :D

The second thing that is awesome this week?  You.  Yes, YOU.  I want you all to know that I appreciate your presence, your comments, the time you take to read my posts - all of it.  I think you're awesome.

Do you guilt over "green"?

We've all been there.  A party, a meeting, around the watercooler, in the grocery line... SOMEONE is inevitably talking about how "green" they are, and how bunnies would magically ejaculate rainbows if everyone else would just be "green" too.

I don't know about ya'll, but the word "green" and all of it's connotations are starting to illicit a Pavlovian, Catholic-style guilt response in me.  (And trust me when I say it friends, I know what Catholic-style guilt is.  *kisses her grandmother's rosary and looks heavenward*  Love you, Gran.)

There is a virulent infection of one-upmanship spreading rapidly through the movement that has come to simply be known as "being green."  Similar to the viciousness that is gripping the social mothering community these days, this one-upmanship focuses not on the small improvements we're striving to make and instead glorifies the all side of the prevalent all-or-nothing attitude that so many have.  Those of us who are unable to re-purpose our vehicles into container gardens for growing our own organic vegetables and eat animal products that are anything but grass-fed and free-range are vilified, compared in certain extreme instances to Nazis in our "rampant and careless" destruction of the earth.

This illness is not only making us as adults doubt our validity and the impact our smaller positives are having, it is perpetuating the cycle of intolerance in our children.  Our desperate efforts to teach them from the beginning to reduce, reuse, recycle is being tainted with the mindset that anyone who cannot give it absolutely everything is somehow "bad".  OUR guilt that is being bred by this malignant attitude will inevitably roll off onto them, which will present yet another stumbling block towards high self-esteem by making them think that if THEY cannot be perfect in this aspect, THEY aren't as good as someone else, either.  EVERYTHING has an effect, and it's my personal opinion that when raising children to be happy and healthy, you need to minimize those self-esteem killing effects.

Now, I don't know about you, but I teach my kiddos that even a small piece of kindness is better than nothing.  I teach them that in ALL aspects of life.  Why can't we as adults wrap our brain around that same concept and apply it in this situation, too?

As a firm believer in the "One voice is all it takes" philosophy, I'm shouting tonight from atop my soapbox a very clear and unwavering "THANK YOU" to everyone else.

The family that is making a conscious effort to inform themselves about their household cleaners and start phasing out the worst?  Thank you!

The bachelor(ette) who orders take-away twice a week, and has suddenly stopped when they realized they were producing a full bag of trash a day?  Thank you!

Those who cannot afford organics but instead buy as locally and in season in possible? Thank you!

Those who choose small-farmed animal products instead of national producers?  Thank you!

Gardeners who take their neighbors' paper bags to use as mulch, People who repurpose and upcycle old clothing, those of us that buy and trade used books, even the people who do things so seemingly insignificant as turn the light off when they're done with the public bathroom:  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!!

Our society has fallen into some very detrimental habits, there is no arguing that.  Brow-beating and guilt tactics are not the way to go to initiate ecological reform, though.  Instead of focusing on who has the most money and time to go 100% "green" as quickly as possible, let's look instead to those who are making efforts and achievements, and in turn setting new goals.

As they say, Rome wasn't built in a day.  A day isn't enough time to change the collective conscious for the better, either.

Next time you see someone doing something small, say "Thank You" out loud.  Let them know that SOMEONE acknowledges the effort they've made, no matter how tiny.  More "Thank Yous" and less "How dare you?s" could very well be the pound of cure we need in order to get back to the ounce of prevention.