My Sudden Social and Environmental Conscience

...or rather, not that my social and environmental conscience is new, but my level of commitment to doing something about it is. So, if you'll allow me to step onto my soap box for a bit....

Maybe it's just me, or maybe this is the natural progression of things, but, you know, when you're young you're...young and some of the larger social issues, while on your radar perhaps, are eclipsed in importance by what you're wearing to school, who's asking you to prom, or what will be in your next final. Then, as you get older, more mature and responsible, you have kids and they're... needy. So, for the first few years after baby, you're so focused on the little things to just keep them alive and well that you really have no time for much else, even sleep. Thus leading to a phenomenon called, "Mommy Brain," a temporary loss of vocabulary, common sense, and easy access to memory. And just about the time when your baby turns into a toddler and you might have a minute to recover, you look back nostalgically and decide, well, maybe it's time to have another. Therefore, while you may feel a pang of guilt at shoving your groceries into plastic bags at the grocery store, the thought is interrupted by a hungry baby crying, a toddler wreaking havoc on the candy racks near the cash register, or etc. And that fleeting moment is quickly forgotten.

Well, with my oldest starting school this fall, and my youngest being old enough to entertain himself for a few minutes at least, I find myself becoming much more aware of the world outside my little house. And I just see how wasteful we are as a nation, myself included. It's how the past several generations have been raised really. As a country, we have embraced "progress" and technology and celebrated those things that make our lives a little easier, a little more convenient, and make unpleasant or time-consuming tasks go by a little faster. It's true, mass production makes items readily available. So much so that we have forgotten, or in my case, never known what it was like before whatever we wanted was virtually at our fingertips. We don't have to farm, slaughter our own animals and so on. If we're hungry, we go to our pantry, pull out prepackaged food from it's plastic or cardboard container. When we have waste we don't want? Well, throw it in the garbage and it gets conveniently carted off so you don't have to see it or deal with it again. So no wonder in the U.S. we are totally out of touch with nature. We don't interact with the natural world anymore. We don't see how our food gets to our table and we don't see where our waste goes or have to stare at it after it's gone. Everything comes to us in tidy, sterile packages. But while quick and easy can be nice, it's also pretty empty really.

Lately, as a nation, we are starting to become more aware of the consequences of our lifestyles. We are waking up to the price that we are paying for the "conveniences" of modern day living. The "eco-friendly" movement is growing larger every day, helped along most recently by having an economy where people are looking for ways to make the most out of what they already have. Yep, like it or not, being green is in. Opulent, wasteful lifestyle? Well, that's out (unless you're famous, a CEO, or a jackass).

So, maybe you're reading along here and thinking, okay, that's nice, but why is she going on about this on a blog about her kids? Aha! Well, because, the fire under my rear about all this was sparked by, yep, my kids, for several reasons really. First off, there's the fact that I want them to inherit a nice, clean planet to live on. Although in and of itself, that reason is usually not enough for most people to make a change. We're human, we're inherently selfish, and doing what's right for future generations is almost too far down the time line to resonate with many asking, so what, I'm here right now. So while an altruistic future generations type thing does play into my change of heart, what really resonates is consumerism. Yes, that's right.

I know, supply and demand, the consumer, is at the heart of capitalism and the economy of our nation. So, it's not totally bad. We need things, other people provide them, we buy them. We can't all be experts in every field and be completely self sufficient. I get that. But... we are over-consumers. We have more than we could ever use in a lifetime, more than we need and still we want more. A fact that was made clear to me in watching my children. They see ads on TV and every single one that comes on it's, "Oooh, Mom, I want that! Oh, I want that too! Look how neat that is! Can I go online to www.whatever.com, that commercial said to ask my parents if I could!" Well, they're kids, they don't have the self control yet. But then, how can I expect my kids to learn any if I am going out and buying them everything their little heart desires? A trap I admit to falling into, and recently.

This past Christmas, Bree had a long list of items she had seen on commercials that she wanted. Now, I couldn't afford, nor did I plan, on buying her everything on the list. But I did go out and get quite a few of them. Because, we all want to see our kids' face light up at Christmas. We all want to avoid having a child in tears not having that one thing they really wanted, it's only natural. So we all run around in a frenzy of purchasing fervor. In my case, come Christmas morning, things were great. Each present was opened with joy and appreciation....for about 5 minutes. Afterwards I was left with piles of cardboard and plastic trash from the packaging, and an even bigger pile of plastic "trash" went into the kids' room... the toys. Toys which hardly ever get played with and only contribute to the mess in their room.

The problem is that many toys only really do one thing. So, the kid plays with the item, making it do the one thing over and over, and it quickly gets old, there's not much left to the child's imagination, not many different ways to play with it. Then on the shelf it sits. In our rush to provide our children with the most and the best they don't know how to appreciate what they have. My own kids, being the first grandchildren, first great-grandchildren, first neices and nephews, are very spoiled. They get a lot of things from loving relatives. They have so much though, that they don't even know what all they own, it's overwhelming. They would have so many presents to open on any given event, that they would tear into one present, get it open, glance at it, throw a casual mumbled "thank you" out there, and then pounce on the next item. Ultimately, I started to worry that the "gimme and gimme now" mentality was a losing battle. I want my kids to appreciate and feel grateful for the things they have, and not always have their eyes on the bigger, better version.

So...all that lead up to say, I am making some changes around here. The first thing I decided is that I am giving all handmade gifts. This is something that's been on my agenda for awhile now, but I was dragging my feet. I always had an excuse, couldn't find the time, didn't have the skills, etc. But, this year I just couldn't stomach bringing more plastic into the house to sit on the shelves and get dusty. I was ready! But, then I got stumped. I don't know how to make toys...what could I possibly give to my kids that would keep them entertained? To get inspiration, I cruised around Etsy (a great site for buying and selling handmade) for ideas. I was looking for things that I could make on my own and that would encourage imaginative play.

The first thing I spotted was this, a "playscape," and I immediately knew I wanted to make one for Bree. I got started months early to make sure I could complete it on time. (And yes, that's one of the reasons my blogging has suffered.) Ultimately, this was my finished product:

It's basically a mat made of green felt with fabric trees, mountains, flowers, and a little cottage.
The great part is, most of the parts are movable, so she can set up the forest differently every time.
A few of the pieces. They're just stuffed fabric shapes which I weighted down with a rock at the bottom to help them stand up. The house is an old cardboard box I cut up and covered with fabric.

What's nice is, after she's done playing, it cinches up into a bag that carries all the pieces inside.

It took me awhile to make. But I had so much fun along the way. On my part, the excitement and anticipation of giving things to her I was making, lasted so much longer and was so much more fulfilling than grabbing something off the shelf. You know the saying it's the thought that counts? Well, I spent so much more time thinking about and planning my hand made gifts than I would have shopping in a store, so on my part at least, I found it much more meaningful. Not to mention, I found it amusing to hold fabrics up and ask Bree which one she preferred, so without knowing it, she was designing her own gifts in a way!

Once I got rolling I decided to make a few more things...

A bean bag chair, because every kid should have one.
I found a great pattern online (you can find patterns for just about anything online). So the bag even has an inner lining, allowing the outer lining to be removed and washed if needed. I thought buying new Styrofoam pellets for stuffing would be sort of counterproductive of my goal, so instead, for filling I had my husband ask the shipping section of his work place to hold onto their used packing peanuts for me.

I made a crayon roll, a quick and easy project.

And finally, I wanted to do a paper doll/felt board combo thing and ended up with this...
That's the front.

The inside... (aren't those dollies adorable!)

And the back where I added pockets to store dollies' cloths when not in use.

Of course, along the way there have been other holidays and occasions I needed gifts, and I thought, why not?

I made my mom (a coffee lover) two coffee cozies. Because they cover the bottom and sides, they act as both a coaster and insulator to keep your coffee warmer longer. Plus, they're like cute little coffee cup sweaters.

And for my friends birthday (an avid Scrabble player) I made this sweet Scrabble themed pillow.

Anyways, now you see what I've been up to instead of blogging. It's a lot of fun and allows you to make much more personalized gifts. But then, I like crafting, I can sew, and I like figuring out challenges. If that's not you, or you don't have the time on your hands, you can still give hand made. There are tons of skilled home crafters out there offering their wares for sale on sites like Etsy, selling one of a kind items that you can't find anywhere else. I've bought from there, and you may pay a little bit more for something, since you're buying from an individual and not a huge chain that can buy bulk and get dicounts on materials, but I for one, feel so much better knowing I'm giving money to a person vs. a big corporation who may end up getting bailed out anyway! :)

So that's my story. Not to toot my own horn really, or to preach at anyone, but just to share my own little green revolution.

Along with going handmade for gifts, here are some of my other goals and plans for being more green at my house:

-- wrapping gifts in fabric. You can either make or buy pretty scarfs or tea towels, or just use plain old pretty fabric as wrapping. Depending on what you use, the wrapping then becomes part of the gift, or, it becomes something that is re-used to wrap another gift. It's like how some people save and re-use the paper gift bags. If we all give gifts in fabric, we can each save the fabric to use to wrap another gift. Saving us all money on wrapping paper and gift bags.

-- switching to energy efficient light bulbs (you know the coiled ones). I have been slow to do this because the bulbs are significantly more than the standard ones. But, since they use less energy they lower your energy bill and they last longer, also saving you money on light bulbs in the end.

-- getting rid of as many plastic bags as I can around here. This means I want to make or buy some form of reusable fabric sandwich/snack baggies. There are all kinds for sale on Etsy that have cute patterns and are totally wipeable on the inside. Think of the money you won't have to spend on boxes of baggies! I also want to make the switch to fabric grocery bags. I'm going to make my own. I know you can buy them at the store, but those are pretty ugly and they're quick and easy to make at home... in fact, I actually just joined morsbags.com where you can find a great bag pattern to make and share.

-- recycling within my own home as much as I can. For one, I want to use old cloths to make dust rags. So not only will I be re-using clothing I might have thrown away but I won't be using paper towels any more. Old unwanted clothes are also a great source of fabric for sewing projects. (Get inspired by checking out this book I just recently purchased.)

-- using thrift store fabrics for my sewing projects. Vintage table and bed linens are great!

-- make some of our own clothing for myself and the kids. Although I'm really not a wonderful clothing sewer, there are some wonderful and simple patterns out there, like Bree's pillowcase sun dress.

-- line dry laundry when I can.

-- make some of my own cleaning solutions. Cheaper and less weird chemical ingredients.

I don't have all these points in action yet, but those are my green goals for this year.

So that's it. Hopefully, I haven't bored you too much and maybe even given you a few ideas for simple eco-friendly things to start on around your own house. They may take a little more time and effort to do, but, it's the right thing, and it just feels good. :)