More Political Polls!

These are interesting. These will make you bite your nails, if that's something you do when you get nervous. Maybe you eat sugar when you're nervous. Maybe you go shopping! Those are all bad habits. Just try to have faith that it will all work out, even if you are nervous.

Here, we see how Obama has passed up Clinton and it looks promising for him.

I should say LOOKED promising for him, because guess what? He won Wisconsin!! Woot!

Here's a poll for Ohio. Obama's closing the gap...at a snail's pace. Hopefully he can do it in Ohio just like he's done it in the last 9 contests. CORRECTION: 10 Obama won Hawaii too! Aloha Obama!

Texas is looking great. I'm sure Obama will win it there.

And here we come to a screeching halt in Pennsylvania. Hopefully, this will turn around.

Those are the numbers.

Recently, there's been a discussion about words. I think words do matter and I think Obama's facility with them matters a lot. The way he weaves words has been what has given all sorts of people a sense of hope and inspiration. How can anything ever change and grow and improve without those good feelings as a base? Obama has admitted to "borrowing" words from his friend the governor of New Jersey--with his permission I might add. Here's a quote from December 21st about his own electability,

"But you know in the end, don’t vote your fears. I’m stealing this line from my buddy (Massachusetts Gov.) Deval Patrick who stole a whole bunch of lines from me when he ran for the governorship, but it’s the right one, don’t vote your fears, vote your aspirations. Vote what you believe."

Although there is criticism--read that as an extreme reach--coming from the Clinton camp of Obama's words, accusing Obama of plagiarism, it just is not true. Words do matter and when the words you speak are true you can get support for your ideas. When the words you speak are false, people will eventually catch on...

Hola Nicaragua! Hej Sweden!

Hello overseas visitors!

Como esta usted Nicargua? Estoy muy bien, gracias!

Hur star det till Sweden? Trevligt att rakas.

Hasta luego! Hej da, Adjo!

As a Lunch Bag or for Kitty Litter Removal...

That title got your attention, didn't it? Nice juxtaposition.

A while ago, I asked the wise people at mothering.com in the Decluttering, Organizing & Simplifying sub-forum of the Mindful Home Management forum how in the world they get rid of kitty litter waste without using plastic bags. I know we shouldn't use them, and now that I'm not shopping very much at all, my supply has really dwindled. Whole Foods has recently pledged to phase them out soon. People know that plastic is no good. We all know that--it stays around for several years, or more, does it have a half-life of hundreds of years? I don't know, I just know that plastic is terrible, unless it's being used for removing kitty litter clumps or being formed into Playmobile characters. Playmobile rocks.

Some of the people (men are certainly welcome at mothering.com--it's a great resource for everyone really) suggested I use a flushable kitty litter or a wheat based one or a newspaper based one or pine or something that is already more environmentally friendly in the first place. But, none of those choices will work for me with a 23 year old cat who hits the litter box only 80% of the time already. A radical change in her litter box niche would upset the ecological balance to the extent that I think her hit rate would drop to maybe 25% at the most. That's not good, but she has all of my sympathy and when I am the comparable age of 104 years old, I get to pee wherever and however I bloody well feel like. Nobody better have a problem with that either. Heads up, progeny.

Many people countered the flushing suggestion with the reminder that if you live on the west coast, sea otters are dying from toxoplasmosis found in sewage. Cats are the carriers of toxoplasmosis and periodically shed it in their feces. So DON'T flush away your kitty litter waste.

What to do?

Aha!!

Enter the bag that was once used for something else...

Behold the sprouted wheat bread bag from Trader Joe's!! Look at that plastic bread bag that could be used as a bag for something else!

I NEVER thought of that. I'm sure I'm dense and others of you HAVE thought of this. I think it is just brilliant that what I have always thought of as merely garbage is actually a supply of plastic bags that can be used over and over again.

Look at it. It's just ready to carry clumps of used kitty litter to the garbage can. Or maybe it wants to hold your lunch, which you should make for yourself any way as it's healthier than eating at some fast food joint, and can easily accommodate a grass-fed beef sandwich (not conventionally raised) and an organic apple--that sounds good...

Maybe you're going to go to a homeschooling conference somewhere. Maybe there will be a pool. I bet you could stuff a wet swimming suit in that bag before putting it in your suitcase for the long ride home. Couldn't you?

You could use all sorts of bread bags. You could use tortilla bags. You could use the plastic bags that your newspaper comes in. Or, you could use a bag from the phone directory that gets thrown in your driveway. This is a huge, for me, heretofore untapped resource. Which concerns me greatly because I bet there are all sorts of simple, easily changed things in my life that I could be doing for the betterment of my own family and the earth. How do I not know this easy, basic stuff?? When you know, you do, but how do I not know?

Enlighten me please. What else could I be doing, that maybe I'm not? Go ahead. Rattle off a few things that we all could do that would cumulatively end up making a big difference. I'll start, because I have ideas too, even if I DIDN'T know about the whole bread bag thing.

1. Don't buy anything new. Ha!
2. Where you can, take public transportation. Where you can't, try and bicycle as much as possible. Carpool as much as possible.
3. Eat organic. Buy organic. Support local farmers.
4. This a small one, but if EVERYBODY did it, it would make a difference. Use cloth to wrap gifts instead of wrapping paper or even reusable gift bags. There's a big push for this in Japan, and there are many beautiful and easy ways you can use cloth to wrap things.

Please share your ideas too! I bet you have some gems that we could all benefit from...from which we could all benefit. You know what I'm saying!

If We Don't Buy It, Then What Do We Do?!

Our homeschooling group is very active and we try to have a few holiday parties scattered throughout the year. Recently, we had a Valentine's Day Party. E., a friend of mine, agreed with A., another friend of mine, that they both like my blog. Thanks guys! I'm glad that you do. E. made the point that I'm not always on topic here. I have plenty of posts that don't have anything to do with not buying anything new. In fact, I realize that I have whole categories, don't I? Overseas Visitors. Politics. Polls. Nature. Internet. Vitamin C. Somehow in my mind it's all interrelated. It's all the positive correlate to NOT buying anything new. It is all the stuff that we DO do. If we don't buy it, then what do we do?

We go into the city to the museum of Science and Industry with Mom and Dad and Dad shows us stuff.

We see a DNA strand on the floor in front of the genetics section and realize it looks just like the macrame bracelets that we make!

We mock the Republicans...well, actually we mock the Republican powers-that-be who try to get our vote...


We go to the new Goodwill Store and eagerly await its opening!

And then it does open, and we do go and we check out everything and even get a cute dress for $4! If we wanted a computer monitor, we could get one for $4.99!

We could get a stair climber!
Or shoes!
Or clothes!
Or even a book--check it out kids!!
We photograph the trees covered with beautiful snow.
We go to a snow sculpting competition while Mom is home sick and we see a great dog.
And, we see snow sculptures:





Pretty good, aren't they?


Doesn't this giant penguin remind you of the Monty Python penguin on the telly? It's just there. What's it DOING there? Standing! I can SEE that!! My kids don't know about that yet, but Husband and I think it's pretty funny.


We go to a Chinese New Year celebration at a local community college. We wait for the festivities to start by practicing some trick photography...I mean, we magically shrink my daughter and my son photographs the result. Yeah that's it.
See how easily she can stand on my hand?

My son was also able to get the Queen's guards at Buckingham Palace to all line up and stand on his finger!!
That kid is magical, I tell you! He must only use his power for good...

We saw dancing, twirling, whooshing lions!


We play in the snow in our driveway.


We go sledding with the homeschooling group, and Dad meets us during his lunch and climbs the GIANT mountain of snow that has been plowed into a big pile!


We go to the homeschooling Valentine's Day party where we exchange homemade valentines and my daughter wears her kicky new dress from Goodwill!


We play Harry Potter where my daughter is Hermione Granger and reads junk mail, pretending it is mail she just received from an owl at Hogwarts.


We have a photo session with Mom where a certain kid starts cracking himself up by being as wiggly as he possibly can, which then infects his sister with the same silliness and a powerful fit of giggles.


And then, all of sudden, the world is slipping off its axis!!! The world is tilting!! We. Can't. Hold. On!!!! Aaaaaghhhhh!!


We don't buy it, but we do have fun!