Societal Dilemma or Not?

Lately, I can't stop thinking about plastic bags.  They are a pernicious evil that everyone in the retail business wants to push on me.  Oh, you want to buy a bottle of water - here let me put it into a plastic bag for you.  At one store when I asked for paper, the bagger actually put my paper bag into a plastic bag.  They must have been worried that I wasn't doing my daily part in contributing to pollution and global warming.    

As a family we are going to try to completely eliminate the use of plastic bags this year.  So now we have some problem solving to do.  Do I have to give up freezer bags?  And what should Addi carry her sandwich in - perhaps a retro waxpaper wrap?  I'll need an alternative in the produce department for my apples and loose carrots.  And what about the meat department?  No more placing my meat in individual little plastic bags.  Then there is the dry cleaners - do I have to stop using their services - heaven forbid! Clothing retailers usually offer plastic bags as well. Target (one of my most frequented stores) doesn't offer paper bags.  And then there is the garbage bag question - what do you replace those with? 

I'm not sure yet how we will solve these dilemmas.  My guess is that we will probably discover that there is no dilemma - that it is all in our heads.   We'll start carrying reusable bags and feel slightly superior to "regular" shoppers as we're buying our disposable diapers and carrying them home in our cloth bags.

Blog Slacker

We've been in Utah for the past week and I have been a big bloggin' slacker. I plan on posting when we get home.
It's been both a relaxing and a not at all relaxing week for me. Family time can be that way. In fact, going on vacation with three small children is almost exactly like being at home with three small children. The only difference is, Grandma's house is much bigger with MANY more valuable things that can possibly break. (Thankfully the only casualty so far has been a mouse, but we're still here so I'm not out of the woods yet!)
Secondly you feel obligated to cram three weeks worth of activities into one week so that "vacation time" is not wasted. (Laura, I think the quotations marks are appropriate in this instance.) This really messes with my nap schedule. Oh, and of course, the children's naps as well.
On the plus side - Grandma's house has a "sleep chamber" (I know, again with the quotation marks). This house has a basement bedroom that is dark and quiet and has been assisting Mason to learn to sleep through the night, aka cry it out, without waking up entire apartment buildings in the process. He has learned very well and I am hoping it will stay with him when we return home.
Another plus has been seeing my dear friend Valerie's new home and visiting with her while our children ran wild in their humongous backyard.
So overall I will be happy to return to my own home knowing that I have put a few more wonderful memories into my children's bag. Good mommy, good mommy. Now, when can I spend a few days alone at a spa inTahiti?

Happy Pi Day

Yesterday, on 3.14, we celebrated the famous ratio pi.  Math enthusiasts the world round stop to contemplate the significance of this little ratio.  Mostly I think we spray as many digits of pi as we have possibly memorized and then eat pie.  

Our family had pizza pie and then lemon merengue pie for dessert.  This and Thanksgiving are probably the only two days of the year that I ever eat pie.  (Oh, maybe strawberry pie in the spring for Easter or Mother's Day).  Anyway, I hope everyone had a fabulous pi day!

Spring Marches In

My farmer's market spoils. Here is what I will do with these yummies, click here.
Looking at gooseberries.
Hurray for spring!

African American History Month

The Pasadena School District holds an annual African American History Bee.  Contestants come from each elementary school and compete in teams of two according to their grade level.  Addison and her classmate, Carola, represented the third grade for our school.  They had an eighteen page packet of facts to study.  Not only did they have to be familiar with national heros in politics, music, the arts, and sports, but they also had to know definitions, inventors and local history makers.  These girls studied very hard.  They were the first third-grade team from their school to ever make it past the third round.

Here are the three questions the judges posed to them:

Round 1:   I used a network of hiding places called the underground railroad to help over 300 slaves escape to the North and Canada. (click here for the answer.)

Round 2:  I was elected by my fellow Board members as Mayor of Pasadena in 1982, the first African American woman mayor of the city.  (by answering this questions, the girls eliminated 3 other teams who had been unable to answer.)

Round 3:  In 1965 she became the first African American woman admitted to the bar in the state of Mississippi and is the founder, president, and spokesperson for the Children's Defense Fund. (And this was the question that finally knocked them out.)

These two girls are very proud of themselves and are raring to win next year!