Festive Treats

Despite my (admittedly inconsistent) efforts to control junk food, my 6 year old daughter's dentist just informed us that she has 8 (yes, EIGHT) cavities. The shame!
Oh well, I can take most of the blame, but man, they eat a lot of sugar at school! Birthdays are complete with cupcakes (that's 20 days with cupcakes), the warm weather has involved at least 5 occasions that involved freezies, and I believe the ice cream truck handed out free ice cream on the last day of school.
So, when my daughter asked if I would send something in for an early celebration of her summertime birthday, I wondered what would be appropriately "healthy" yet not be thrown in the garbage. We decided on fruit kebabs, and somehow in a moment of weakness I allowed a fruit candy to top each one. This, admittedly, is a pretty poor plan from a cavity point of view, but hey, at least it involved fruit.
Next year no candy, they are pretty enough all on their own!

Large leaps to complexity

Large leaps to complexity. That was my husband's joke right from the beginning. Anytime I made a non-green choice I was teased with this line. But I think this time we're truly guilty of it. You could also call it hypocrisy. Or, if you're feeling kind, compromise.

Here's the thing: we bought a new vehicle and it's a beast. Okay, so it's not a Hummer or anything, but it's not a tiny hybrid either. It's a minivan.

We have survived with a tiny Saturn for 10 years. It was easy on gas, had enough seats for us as we added more people, and it got us where we needed to go. Last summer, however, we discovered some major vehicular shortfalls. We decided the kids were old enough for camping but realized that packing for trips became tests of human ingenuity. This winter we also realized that we couldn't fit both ice skates and toboggans in the trunk. Surmountable? Absolutely. Pain in the ass? Oh yeah.

We have vowed for years that our next car would be a hybrid. But used hybrids are hard to find. And they're still not cheap. The fact of the matter is that we're hard on our vehicles. I have a tendency to scrape them in underground parking garages, my kids tend to accumulate apple cores, goldfish crackers and sand inside, and my husband spills alot of coffee. It's hard to justify buying something expensive when 1) we don't drive too much, 2) we will make it look 10 years old in a matter of weeks. We opted for a cheaper, 4 year old, gas guzzling van with AC, tinted window, power locks, and an automatic starter.

Simplicity? Absolutely not. Right choice for us? Unfortunately, yes.

Almost Veg Night #1

I had four kids here for dinner tonight instead of the usual two. So, as always when I don't know what to cook, I made eggs. Free range, organic ones, and sold in cardboard not plastic containers. They each got an egg, some organic cherry tomatoes, cheese and a piece of flax toast...and a kooky "potato pancake" I made to use up leftovers. The eggs were a hit except for the yolks. My "reuse the leftovers" plan failed though, because the "pancakes" were not. Me and my husband had fancy omelettes with onion, tomato, olives, and feta with an organic green salad topped with sprouts. Healthy veggie meal number one.

Okay, okay. I'm lying. I had a pack of bacon in the fridge. So we had that too. The kids gobbled it up in about 2.5 seconds...well at least they gobbled up what they could wrestle away from me and my husband. It's just as well because now it's gone and I'm sure clean bacon (if it exists) costs about as much as my house. I'll do better tomorrow.

Farewell my salty friend.

One up, One Down

Full disclosure: I bought a new camera yesterday. It wasn’t second hand, I don’t know how it was made, and I really don't need a new camera. It was a totally frivolous and fabulous purchase. I went into the store to get just a lens cap for my other camera and came out with the cap, a camera, and a ridiculously overpackaged memory card. Hmmm. Not simple, I can’t even find a way to stretch my trusty self delusion net over this one.

On the upside, today I ate 1 organic orange and 0 cheezies.