Waste Not

Several months ago I was flipping through a PEOPLE magazine while getting my hair cut when I ran across the article about a Zero-Waste Family. I found the article intriguing, as I too have been trying to cut down waste. I was impressed by the family, who recycled most everything and by the end of the year just had a small jar of what was actual trash, which is incredible considering that the average American produces around 4 lbs. of garbage a day. I did find the article a bit misleading, as it stated that when they make a large purchase such as a computer they leave the packaging at the store to be disposed of (that means that they are producing more then the small jar sized amount of trash that they claim). All in all, it was a real eye opener.

We live in a town which has curbside recycling each week. We are lucky in the fact that all we need to do is throw our paper and metal into one bin and set it out to be picked up. Recently, they stopped accepting glass. I feel bad throwing glass away so have been trying to re-purpose as many jars as possible. I'm using a lot of jars for storing bulk items in my baking cupboard. Popcorn, rice, barley, etc. It's free storage, looks nice on the shelf, and is saving trash from the landfill.

We have a compost bin outside which we throw all our food scraps into. This saves a lot of space and waste in our garbage...think of how much waste a watermelon can make. Our food scraps, in turn, are making rich compost for our garden. I'm also beginning to learn to use food scraps for other purposes - more about that later!

I'm still bad about remembering to take my reusable bags to the store with me. I have plenty of them but almost always forget to grab them before venturing out, or forget to take them into the store with me. While I intend to do better about that, I do still re-purpose the plastic bags. We use them while walking the dog to pick up waste, and save the rest to bring to my aunt's consignment shop where they re-purpose the bags for their customers.

I hate throwing things away. And yet, we still are almost always at the maximum of three garbage bags a week. Occasionally I am able to get it down to two bags. My goal is to get it down to two bags weekly this year. I would love to someday get it down to one bag! The first goal is to make sure everything that can be recycled is. We are pretty good about this but occasionally a recyclable item will be thrown in the trash. Next, our purchases should be chosen more carefully. More bulk purchases, reusable produce bags, such as these (I have never bought these but am considering them!), choosing items with the least amount of packaging or the one with the most recyclable one, etc. We no longer use disposable products such as paper plates or paper towels. It's still a work in progress but at least we are aware of our waste and trying to do something about it!

What are some of your tips for reducing waste?

Coloring Outside of the Lines

"Why doesn't she have her math facts memorized?"

"He is still holding his pencil in a fist grip instead the pinch style."

"They prefer doing instead of sitting for book work."

These were some of my concerns as I spoke to the certified teacher whom we work with. In our state, if we are not dual-enrolled through a school we must work with a certified teacher and have eight contacts a year (four must be face to face).

Each time we have a meeting I come away refreshed and relieved. As parents, I think we can all admit that from time to time we question whether we are doing the right thing for our children. While I know homeschooling is right for us, sometimes I question whether I am doing a good enough job.

Then the certified teacher swoops in and assures me I am. When the kids fell behind with school last year the teacher assured me they would catch up later (they did). When Becca was struggling with math the teacher told me she wasn't ready to grasp those concepts and to work on reading instead (this year she has been sailing through her math).

I realized I am stuck on "rules". Someone, somewhere, sets rules for children at school and I blindly follow along. Back in the late 80's I learned reading in 2nd grade. Now schools are teaching reading in Kindergarten. I panicked when Becca finished Kindergarten without knowing how to read. Then I read study after study that shows the ideal age for learning to read is age 7. That is not to say that a child of four, five, or six can't or shouldn't learn to read, but rather that a child will learn at their own pace and at the right time when given that opportunity.

Albert Einstein was 4 before he spoke and 7 before he learned to read, causing his teachers and parents to think he was mentally handicapped. Thomas Edison was told by teachers in his early years that he was "too stupid to learn anything." Winston Churchill failed 6th grade. Monet was rejected and mocked by The Paris Salon. Beethoven's teachers thought he was hopeless in composing and would never learn to play the violin. Michael Jordan was cut from his High School basketball team.

These are some examples where a person did not follow a set of rules and was deemed stupid or worthless because of it. Children are now labeled because of their nature. I am not saying that there isn't such thing as ADD or ADHD but I do feel that there are many children misdiagnosed. For example, if my Joe were in school he would be labeled ADD for sure, but he just has a lot of energy and I am able to get him to sit still for worksheets, yet he does his best learning while being active. Jacob may be in a Special Ed program because of his speech issues, and yet he is such an intelligent little guy that something like that could hurt his ego greatly. He knows he can't speak well, but he also knows that he learns just like any other child.

The most common anti-homeschooling comments I hear are about socialization, the next complaint is often "A child needs to learn to follow rules, they need to learn that the world won't cater to them when they are adults." I think a child can learn rules just from living in society, not from being told to color within the lines. We learn to respect adults by being around adults, we learn to stand in line when at a store, we learn how to do a job by actually doing the job. These are life lessons but have nothing to do with the style of learning we each learn by.

I'm not saying public/private schools are bad, I'm saying that they aren't the only way to learn.

11 years out of high school and I'm still learning...learning not to live within one set of rules, learning more and more that the world is my classroom, learning that the ones who color outside of the lines are the ones who get noticed.

Off the Hook

What I've been busy learning recently, with the help of a book from the library and tutorials from YouTube...

Up next, learning to follow a pattern.

Support a Cause

When Susan G. Komen announced last week that they were no longer supporting Planned Parenthood, the news went wild. They retracted that statement a few days later.

Planned Parenthood had a huge increase in donations due to this news. Planned Parenthood may do some good, such as health screenings, but they don't do anything that most clinics and doctor's offices also do for reduced costs or free (my own doctor office works with a fund which provides free pap smears and mammograms to low income families), and they don't offer mammograms...just make referrals. The bad they do outweighs the good. Unfortunately, all these donations that Planned Parenthood received aren't just going to the health screenings, but will also be used to support abortions. If we want to support women's health, there are much better charities to donate to.

Which is why I made a donation this week to National Right to Life and urge any of you who are pro-life to do the same. I'm hoping that this month the National Right to Life Committee also sees an increase in donations. Or donate to a charity which offers low cost/free health screenings for women in your own area, which does not supply abortions. There are plenty of clinics and organizations that do a world of good in women's health which do not get the national attention they deserve.

Squishy Squashy

Even with the spring-like days we've had recently, there is only so much time that can be spent outdoors when the yard and toys are still covered in a heavy, wet, slowly melting snow. Which means that the children still have boundless energy.

I saw on a friend's Facebook page that she made homemade playdough. She used food coloring and essential oils, both things which I do not have on hand. I decided to google a recipe that is similar to the one my mom used to use when we were kids and found one with ingredients that were already in my cupboard!

The kids sat quietly playing while I prepared lunch and are still playing with each other at the table after finishing their lunch.

1 c. flour

1/2 c. salt

3 t. cream of tartar

1 pkg. Kool-Aid

1 c. water

1 T. cooking oil

Add dry ingredients in a saucepan. Mix water and oil and pour into dry ingredients. Turn stove top to medium heat and stir ingredients until it thickens into a ball. Let ball cool on counter, then knead a few times. Now it's ready to use!
Store in a covered container (I used a glass canning jar but even a ziplock bag would work) in the refrigerator; it should keep for several weeks.

Shine On

My tea kettle had turned disgusting. It is a stainless steel kettle with a copper bottom. Over the years it had become tarnished, rusted, and since it has been a permanent fixture on the stovetop (I love me some tea) it had become crusted with grease splatters. I clean it, of course, but I never worked at getting it shiny.
I mixed up my typical scrub, which is baking soda and dish soap. It helped, but not enough. So I added table salt to the scrub and then got to work scrubbing. It worked!!
Adding the salt gives it much more abrasive qualities. Be careful using this on something which may scratch, but otherwise it is a great booster to this cleanser. It also works great for tea and coffee stains inside cups!

Good or Evil?

Why does the Bible talk about money in both positive lights as well as negative? For example:

Matthew 6:24
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."

Proverbs 13:11
"He who gathers money little by little makes it grow."

Matthew 19:24
"Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

Proverbs 21:5
"Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty."

These verses seem to contradict each other, do they not? In one passage it seems to say money is bad and others it seems to say that money is good. Which is it?

Money is not evil, per sey, but rather how we spend our money. The rich in the world live in a fish bowl (celebrities, large CEOS, etc.) and we all can see how foolish they can be with their money. Fancy sports cars which they crash, lavish mansions which they tear down, shopping sprees totaling tens of thousands. Money gives people a sense that they are more important then others. Our whole society agrees, and caters to celebrities. A great example is Beyonce's recent birth...she rented out a hospital wing in order to have her child (at a reported expense of over 1 million dollars!), which in turn affected other parents in the maternity ward which were prevented from visiting their children in the nursery. How is she more important than a parent visiting his sick babies?! Matthew 19:30 "But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first."

With money comes responsibility, of which most people can not handle.
Luke 12:48
"From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."

It is not just the ridiculously rich who must be careful of their wealth. We are all instructed to care for those less fortunate. Luke 3:11 John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same." We middle-class or lower-class Americans may think we are just scraping by to exist, but as my post showed last week, we are rich compared to most of the world. If you woke up in a warm bed, had breakfast this morning, or took a hot shower - you are blessed. See how rich you are. Our family calculated in the top 7.74 of the richest in the world!

I'm the 464,770,115 richest person on earth! Discover how rich you are! >>

We are instructed to not be lovers of money, but rather lovers of people. We must love ALL people. If we suddenly feel as though we are better than someone, or deserve more than someone else, we have become that rich man that will have an easier time getting a camel through an eye of the needle then getting to heaven.

Yet, we are instructed to save money. We are instructed to be good stewards of what God has given to us. We are not to go into debt on foolish purchases. We are to work hard and use our money for good. Money can be a blessing, as long as you are blessing people with it. Are we blessing out children by giving them a stable home, or are we hurting them by going into debt for their fancy toys? Are we blessing ourselves with warm clothes and healthy food, or are we killing ourselves with credit card bills and greasy take out?

What is your take on the correlation between good and evil when it comes to money?