Good weekend

Well, what a weekend it was. I had my cousin, aunt, and their nutritionist friend come for the weekend. They were in the area for a meeting and tacked a couple of days on to their trip to come up and see us. The first day, the order of the day was...play. When they got to our house on Saturday afternoon, we rushed them back out to our car and out to 3 wineries. You know, when in Rome.... We then went out for a great dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. That about did them in. Then, day two...work. First we went to church (not work, of course), then we began to prepare for a nutrition seminar that my new friend, the nutritionist, was kind enough to do for a group of people I had invited. It was so great to have someone so knowledgeable to listen to and to ask questions of. You think you are doing pretty good in the nutrition realm, and then you learn all kinds of new things. I did find out which fruits and veggies I should buy organic and which I should save my money on. For all of you, here is the list:
USDA DIRTY DOZEN
Most pesticides
1. Nectarines- 97.3% had pesticides
2. Celery- 94.5%
3. Pears- 94.4%
4. Peaches- 93.7%
5. Apples- 91%
6. Cherries- 91%
7. Strawberries- 90%
8. Imported Grapes- 86%
9. Spinach- 83.4%
10. White potatoes- 79.3%
11. Bell peppers- 59%
12. Red raspberries- 59%
Bonus– Buy organic baby carrots
These are things I will try my best to buy organic.

Then, all too soon, my company left. They may be back next year. If so, we have our plan all worked out. Play a little, work a little. I like that plan.

I'm ba-ack!

Well, after several months I've decided to dust off the blog and give it another shot. So, what's my excuse for abandoning my blog. Ah, um, well, not sure. Maybe I was busy at school. Maybe I was busy with the ever taller little boy and his various activities. Or maybe it was a certain social networking site that has taken up my computer time as of late. The important thing is, I'm back. So, here's what's been happening:
-trips to Yosemite in October (it was COLD, we had snow, then went back to being warm after we left) and St. Louis (no snow, some rain, some cold, some warm, weird Midwest weather.)
-learning about the wonderful world of Wii. We got one for Christmas and are learning how much work a video game can be.
-battling ants over and over and over again. They are probably co-habitating with us and think they have kitchen privileges. I learned that they won't go though baby powder and that we have lots of tiny holes in our house. Thank God for caulk!
-Besides teaching part time, I have been working on my business, helping people live greener, healthier, wealthier lives.
Okay, there it is...my life and ways to be green.

Reduce

We've all heard about reduce, reuse, recycle, right? I've taught this to kids many times and it usually goes something like this...We all know how to recycle by putting things in the recycle bin. Can we think about ways to reuse things. Maybe writing on the back side of paper or using an old coffee can to collect pennies or to keep pencils. And reduce, uh, well, maybe buy things with less packaging? That's always the hard one for me, reduce. I was thinking about this again the other day and realized that I am already doing 2 reduce things every day. Who knew? We switched to cloth napkins awhile ago. I thought it would save our napkins from ending up a landfill somewhere. That's reduce. I haven't bought paper napkins in over a year. The other thing I started doing was to stop buying so many bottles of water and start drinking filtered tap water. Here's a great water pitcher to buy. Again, reduce! I guess its easier than I thought. Find your own ways to reduce. Have fun!

Back to School

Well, obviously, I've had a lazy summer as my last post was over a month ago. After our time in Oregon, we had my parents visit for a week and a half. We went to several wineries (its what we do here) played some miniature golf, went to the Charles Schultz Museum, and hung around the house. About a week after they left, my aunt came from Indiana. So, it was back to the wineries (oh, the sacrifices I make) another round of miniature golf, and out to several restaurants. Then we all piled in the minivan for the 7 1/2 hour trip to Long Beach to see my brother and his family. My parents were there, too, and 2 other brothers. We all had a good time, but it was a quick trip, so it was back home for another 7 1/2. Then, it was back to work getting ready for a new school year. Which brings us to today, the first day of school. It was a half day, but the new school year is underway. I am now the mother of a 3rd grader, strange to me because I taught 3rd grade for 6 years and loved it by the way. I have an ever expanding list of computer work to do, and Joel is back to full time principal mode. So, the lazy days of summer are gone, but I think we were ready to get back to the routine of another school year.

This is also harvest time here in the Napa Valley. We have friends who are home winemakers. We help them when they ask and this year the busy time has coincided with the beginning of the school year. So, we will spend a few evenings and several weekends racking, bottling, crushing and pressing wine.

So, that's our life the next few weeks, school and wine. Cheers!

Vacation

We spent our vacation time, as always, in Oregon. It is a beautiful state with no sales tax where you can't pump your own gas. We started out in Lincoln City on the coast. My husband's family has a little house right on the ocean, but up on a cliff. It is very relaxing. We read, take naps, look at the ocean, play games, and listen to Matthew say "I'm bored." So, there were also trips to the beach to play in the waves and build sandcastles, time at the local pool, badminton in the driveway, and a hike. And, as always, a trip to the outlet mall to stock up on clothes. When our time at the beach was done, we went to Portland via the Tillamook cheese factory and, to Matthew's dismay, a couple of wineries. We spent time with Joel's family who live in Portland or where also visiting. While in Portland, we took a trip on Max(light rail) with Grandma and Grandpa to look through shops, hiking in the Columbia River Gorge, saw some friends, went to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) and when swimming a couple of times.


I always love my time in Oregon. There is so much natural beauty and Portland is a wonderful city. Here are a few of our vacation pictures.

Matthew at Cascade Head

A view down the coast

King of the sandcastle

The Columbia River Gorge

Fire and Rain

As anyone who reads or watches the news knows, the weather has been reeking havoc on our fair nation. First tornadoes, then the Mississippi and other rivers started to rise with too much rain. Then, it started getting personal when my dad's hometown, Columbus, Indiana went under water. I have an aunt and uncle who still live there as well as other relatives in the general vicinity. After a phone call to make sure they were alright (they were), then my aunt sent some pictures. Here is one of them:

After I found out that my aunt and uncle were okay, the next town I heard was in trouble was Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Well, I know a few people in Cedar Rapids, so back on the phone and on the e-mail to find out how they are. All are fine, but the city is still bad in general. Then I start to hear about St. Louis, then St. Charles and St. Peters, where my parents and grandparents live. Several phone calls later, all is okay with the people I know. Joel then took a trip to Wisconsin and Missouri and saw the Mississippi not far from the Arch. It's crazy!

Then, on Saturday, Northern California started burning. First, a fire on the Napa-Solano county line. It's not near enough to do any harm to us, but first we saw a big plume of smoke, then we couldn't see much of anything as the smoke filled the valley. Its still pretty murky as the fire is not yet out. Then, a freak dry lighting storm started hundreds of smaller fires in the Bay Area and beyond. A couple of big fires were also going in the South Bay, but have since been contained. Joel's flight home to SFO last night was delayed an hour because of smoke. It's crazy!

Hope all is well where you are.

Laundry

As I mentioned in my last entry, the laundry does not take the summer off. However, I approach laundry a little differently in the summer. A while back, I was reading Guideposts magazine, as I do each month. There was an article, written by a doctor who saw how pollution in the environment was affecting the health of people with asthma that he saw in the ER. He suggests many things people can do to cut down on the pollution they are responsible for. The one that stuck with me was hanging the laundry out to dry. Now, I live in an area where outdoor space is at a premium, so I didn't think I had the room to hang clotheslines. But, I do have some hooks outside that I started putting hangers on to air dry a few things. Then, I thought that if I strung some clothesline between some of the hooks, then I could hang some more things out. Well, in my little yard, I now have enough clothesline to put out a whole load of laundry to dry. I sometimes have to be creative, but it works. Now, it does take more effort on my part to lug wet laundry outside and hang it up. But, and this is just me, I could use the exercise. The nice thing is that I can hang things outside and bring them in and fold them when I am ready. No more reponding to a buzzing dryer or dealing with a cold wrinkly load the next day. On a really hot day, it can dry about as quickly as a dryer. On warm day, it will take longer. I have line dryed just about every load I do at one time or another, but I found that towels come off the clothesline very hard and rough. So, I always use the dryer for towels, no matter the season.

Another thing to think about with laundry is what you are using to wash your clothes. A lot of detergents have strong smells and leave residues which can irritate allergies, especially at night. I use safe, non-toxic products that work really well. Check them out here.

Here are some pictures of my clotheslines.

Enjoy your laundry!