Ecofrugality: From Disposables to ReUsables

So, I've been thinking.

There are plenty of ways to "green your life" and I like to think we do our fair share.

But many times, those things aren't necessarily cheaper on the front end. 

In the long run, things like buying organic foods will indeed, save you money.
Better health leads to less doctor bills, for example.

But what about all those cheap disposable items we buy and steadily throw away?

Sure, a roll of paper towels cost less than $1 and that box of plastic sandwich baggies is no more than that as well. So, what's the point?

Replacing all those convenience disposable items with reusable ones can not only save you money, but also make that landfill just that much less full.

Want to learn more about these simple, inexpensive things to easily make your life just a shade of green brighter?

Well, I'm going to tell you 5 ways we've replaced disposable products with reusable ones in our home.

And, heck! 

Let's make this fun!

How about a giveaway for each of the 5 reusable products?!
 The lucky winners will have no excuse for not giving reusables a chance ;)

Stay tuned!

You've Got Mail!

Tripp was beyond excited that Gramma sent him a letter in the mail.

He ripped it right open.

It immediately was hung up on his bedroom corkboard wall.

She drew him a picture of our family.

They always draw together when she visits.

So cute!

Flying High

Today my heart is heavy.

It's heavy for...
my boys who will never get to wrestle with their uncle,

my husband who has lost his brother,

mother-in-law who lost her youngest son,

step-father-in-law who lost his only child,

Will's Gramma and Colby's other grandparents who lost her grandchild,
cousins, aunts and uncles who too lost a part of themselves,

his friends that learned one of life's hardest realities at too young of an age

My heart is heavy
because the reality is that death is a part of life.
The rest of us that are left here living,
have to do just so.
We have to live a new reality.
We always carry that little bit of Colby with us.
Colby was FULL of life.
Always.
Living in the moment
and living it to the fullest.

We have to find the positive things in the cards we are dealt.
Or otherwise, you're just miserable.
It's hard when something so devastating like this has happened.
It feels like Colby was ripped out of our lives without so much as a goodbye.
Sometimes, I have to stop myself from thinking about the what-might-have-been,
And instead, relish in all the time that we DID get to spend with Colby.
It's hard.
There are so many reminders of him just in our daily life.
Instead of being sad, we try to think of a good memory.
Luckily, with Colby there's plenty of those to draw from...
He was so full of life and always put a smile on your face.

Two years have passed and it seems like an eternity
while seemingly, just like it was yesterday.
I wipe away tears just writing this,
and hope like with all things, that time will heal these wounds.
But for today, my heart is heavy.

Fly High Colby!
We Love you and Miss you!
Gone too soon...

July 22, 1991-February 1, 2009

A Beautiful Mid-Winter Day

 We had some gorgeous weather at the end of this past week!

All of my mama friends and their kiddos spent the morning outside at the park.

Everyone enjoyed the sunshine and fresh air.

 Such little buddies

 Ham.

 

 

At a glance, these 2 look like they're innocently exploring around the park.

Up close, they're COVERED in mud!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

I'm pretty proud of myself. 

I cooked a great supper 2 nights in a row.

Lately, I've been otherwise distracted and cooking, the way I normally do it, has taken a back seat.

Yesterday, I made a tomato-free version of Chicken Tortilla Soup. 

I didn't even miss the tomatoes.

So, so yummy...

Two nights ago I roasted a delicious whole organic chicken. 

With the remaining chicken and carcass, I made the broth for the soup.

I threw in some carrots, onion and garlic and filled my pot with water and let it simmer all day.

Another big pat on my back, because this beckons to the olden days (before child number 2) when I used to meticulously meal plan.

I'd incorporate every detail to use and reuse everything we had on hand for delicious meals.

I've had a twinge of guilt hanging over my head lately about being so wasteful.

I'm kicking my own butt back into gear.

Okay, 

Back on topic...soup!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

-pot full of chicken stock (yeah, I don't really measure)

-1 can of black beans

-1 can of white northern beans (if I'd really been on top of my game, I'd have used dried beans)

-1 cup of frozen corn (off the cob)

-2 carrots, diced

-1/2 medium yellow onion, diced

-3-4 cloves of garlic, diced

-1 diced pepper...I was going to use a red bell pepper, but it was past due :( I'd imagine any pepper to your liking would make a great addition to this soup

-2 cups of cooked rice 

-Spices...approximately (because again, I don't measure) 1 Tablespoon of paprika & chili powder

-1/2 cup of heavy cream (or for dairy free use plain almond milk or other df milk)
salt & pepper to taste

Also, if you're not tomato-free like we are (99.9% of the time, sometimes I must cheat), then a nice addition to the soup would be a jar of canned tomatoes from last summer's garden. What you don't can your own? Well, you should. Grocery store tomatoes are not real tomatoes. :) Or at least, that's the Sanders' family opinion.

Optional Garnishes: avocado, sour cream, green onions, cheese, tortilla chips, cornbread, cilantro...

After making my stock, I strained it and picked the remaining meat off the chicken. After sauteeing the onion, garlic and peppers, add  everything but the rice and heavy cream. Let it cook until the carrots are tender. Add in the rice and cook for another several minutes. Taste to adjust for any seasonings. Just before serving stir in the heavy cream. 

I garnished mine with avocado and crumbled up homemade cornbread. It was delish!!

And don't worry, I'm sure I'll eat another bowl soon and update this post with a lovely picture :)

Everyday Antics

Charlie climbing up on the fireplace to poke and prod the tv and dvd player.

Now, the real fun begins...

 Charlie wants to play!

 Brothers are never too young for a good wrestling match.

 

Moving on...

I mean...really?
He must get this from his father.

No matter what shenanigans these 2 have been up to all day, bath time is always a treat :)
Love these boys.

Verbatim

Tripp: "Is it Friday, yet?"

Me: "No, it's Wednesday. Tomorrow is Thursday and the next day is Friday."

Tripp: "This Friday I'm going to spend the night with Devi and Poppie. Sometimes on Mondays I go to Georgia and sometimes Devi and Poppie come play with me while mama and Charlie go to Jackson."

While talking about Will graduating from MSU in May, Tripp says...

"I'm so proud of dada for his colwege. I'm proud of Poppie, too. Poppie and Dada are cool dudes."

Midwifery on My Mind

Lately, I've been working to get a bill passed through the Mississippi State Legislature that would allow for licensed Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) to serve women in our state. 

Most of you know that my 2 children were born at home with CPMs.

We made this decision after MUCH research..

We read and read and read.

We met with OBs and Women's Hospitals across the entire region.

It wasn't until we met our midwives that we KNEW this is who our care provider would be.

There are many, many reasons I chose to give birth at home with a midwife.
Safety was obviously the biggest factor.
Research shows that for normal, healthy women with normal, healthy pregnancies that midwife-attended homebirth is just as safe if not SAFER than a hospital birth.
Globally, midwives care for the vast majority of women.
Only high-risk women are cared for by obstetricians.
And to be clear, I'm very grateful to live in a period in history when the option of a hospital, an OB and all the technology that is available for better outcomes for a high-risk pregnancy.
But also, this technology should only be used sparingly in such cases as a high risk pregnancy.
It should NOT be the norm.

I digress.
This is my soap box.
 But, the point is midwives are highly-specialized care providers in natural, normal child birth and pregnancy.
The level of care I received was superb.

So, this leads to my passion for midwifery and protecting women's right to have that option if they so choose.
Last year, a bill made it through the House of Representatives in Mississippi that would have made any midwife that was not a Certified Nurse Midwife illegal. Thus, home birth would have been illegal as CNM may only practice in a hospital under a physician in Mississippi (and most other places as well).
In response, we formed the Mississippi Friends of Midwives and the Mississippi Midwives Alliance formed as well. I am currently a board member of the MFOM which is the consumer representative for midwifery in Mississippi. We also decided that based on the national trend of midwifery regulation, that we should be proactive and draft our own bill.

Long story, short, HB207 was born.
 Fellow board member, Bianca Wooden put it so well in her description, that I'm going to quote her recent blog post.
This is the essence of our bill and of our motivation.

• Women give birth at home and hire direct entry midwives, the women of MS deserve a system that will allow them to verify the competency of a midwife and file a grievance against incompetent midwives.

• MS needs direct entry midwives , but we need to define what a direct entry midwife is exactly, and it makes sense to use the NARM (North American Registry of Midwives) recommended CPM (Certified Professional Midwife). We didn’t want this law to eliminate the midwives currently practicing, but we do want to move forward to improving our standards.

• Currently practicing midwives are vulnerable to prosecution under our current legal situation. In other states similar to our, midwives have been arrested and jailed.

• By having a law that defines a direct entry midwife, our state will be more protected against opposing forces introducing a law to restrict births to hospital only.


The thing is that it doesn't matter why *I* chose a homebirth with a midwife.

What matters is that the option was available to me.

By Supporting Midwifery in Mississippi, that option to make an educated decision and choose my own health care provider is preserved. No one should tell you how, where and with whom you should give birth. House Bill 207 needs to be passed so that women have confidence in the safety and qualifications of their care provider just as in any other branch of the health care field.

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Baby Signs

Before I forget, Charlie is picking up on a lot of signs lately. 

I really need to remember to do them with him because he seems to like it.

He readily uses "all done/finished" (and has for several months), "milk" when he wants to nurse or is nursing and "eat". He will also copy many others when we show him. I need to brush up on some more signs as he's clearly very interested.

This morning was the first time he used "eat" to tell me he wanted some food.
In the past, he's signed it to us as he's getting ready to eat when we sign it to him.

But this morning, he used it to actually communicate that he was hungry.

Tripp, Charlie and I were having a little wrestling match on our bed and Charlie decided to crawl down. He started out of the room, turn to me and signed "eat" several times and crawled towards the kitchen. Then, whenever I promptly didn't follow, he stopped and did it again.

This time he eagerly grunted along with it, so as to say "Come ON Lady, I'm hungry!".

Cute, big baby boy.

What's Up, Doc?

Tripp loves raw veggies.

In fact, he'd prefer all his veggies to be raw.

He particularly loves eating raw carrots after watching an old bugs bunny movie several months ago.

He likes to walk around eating them and repeatedly saying "what's up doc?"

This however, is a new use for raw carrots...

A handle for his cup.

The Incredible Hulk?

Nope.

Just a really cute baby who got into his brother's green paint.

His diaper was really interesting the next day.

Survey Says...

Well, this sounds fun.

Kind of a game of blog tag, if you will.

Today, fabulous photographer and my long lost middle school concert choir partner ;),

Lindsey Hines from All that I'm After... tagged me in a blogging survey.

Here are the rules:

1. Make a post & link back to the person who awarded you 

2. Share 7 things about yourself 

3. Award 15 great bloggers so we can share the love 

4. Contact these bloggers and tell them they’ve been tagged 

So, 7 things, huh? 

I can do that.

1. I LOVE, love being a mama to these 2 sweet boys. Even days like today, when I feel kind of crappy, I can't help but look at them and feel SO incredibly blessed to be their mother. 

2. My life is currently focused on passing a midwifery certification bill in the Mississippi Legislature. Both my boys were born at home with Certified Professional Midwives from Memphis, TN and it's time Mississippi raises the bar for it's mothers and babies. Support Midwifery in Mississippi!

 

3. Will is currently finishing his final semester at MSU. I couldn't be more proud of my hubby. Look out World! Great things are coming in the world of Sustainable Design and Landscape Architecture from MY man!

 

4. I love being crafty. One of these days my babies won't need me so much and I will be crafting up a storm!

5.I miss our chickens. For real! They were such personable little animals. We had ZERO food waste because they scrapped up anything and everything. They ate our bugs. AND we had fresh eggs. Everyday. The BEST eggs too. :( Sigh! One day again, I will have my chickens.

6. I'm loving blogging. I started this blog so that I can share with my family and friends bits and pieces of our daily life that distance prevents them from experiencing as well as having a journal of sorts, to remember all these cute things my kiddos do when I'm old and senile. I find myself thinking through out the day..."Oh, this will make a great post!". 

7. I really should be in bed. It never ceases to amaze me how tired I am at the end of the day. Running my own business, working full time while being a full time student...nothing compares to keeping up with 2 silly boys all day long. Phew! They wear me out...as Tripp would say.

Okay, well there ya' go!

Now, TAG, you're it!

Maybe some of you slackers ;), will take this as a hint to blog...

like you're busy or something!

1. Laura

2. Alisha 

3. Julia

4. Kellye

5. Melissa

6. Kristi

7. Lisa

8. Alissa 

9. Clara

10. Clare

11. Amy  

Joan Visits

I kept my friend Alisha's little girl, Joan, aka the love of Tripp's life, tonight while she and her hubby had a little date night.

She is such a sweetie and these kiddos had a blast. 

Between the jumping, running and incessant shopping, Tripp and Joan should sleep WELL tonight!

I'm pretty sure this was their first date ;)

 Charlie didn't think it was very fair that he had to eat in his high chair while these 2 had so much fun.

Oops...

ya' move

ya' lose!

Your pb&j roll-up, that is.

Lots of silliness...I told ya' they should sleep well tonight!

They needed a drink/snack break.

I can't imagine why!

Now, for some shopping. 

They filled that cart up!

You think it's instinct?

A lady making the man hold her purse??

He happily toted that purse and pushed the very full cart around for Miss Joan.

We had a blast with your sweet girl, Alisha!

She's welcome anytime :)