Keeping the Holidays Green

We try to improve our "greenness" a bit every month.    We try to reduce our carbon footprint over time.   And we try to be better citizens of the planet each year.  This holiday season however, we're going "green" in a way we hadn't anticipated.

It's that time of year at school when the children get the first runny noses.   The noses start to run late fall and continue until what seems like the start of shorts and t-shirts season late spring.    This year my daughter started the runny nose trend at our house.    My son has it, but he seems to be keeping it all in his head.    We can tell this from the noises he makes from time to time.   We can ask him to blow, but things don't come out.   Still, we know something is in there.  

My husband and I got whatever this head congestion strain is and both he and I are seeing quite the interesting output in our tissues.    I've heard people say, "it's green!" but I'm always a skeptic.   I would think to myself, "I bet it's just a darkish yellow."   My husband shouted out from the shower yesterday that something frightful and was now on the shower floor and did I want to see, just to have confirmation on actual greenness.   I declined.

I declined, because I, too, was experiencing the same thing.   It's green, and it's not pleasant.    Hopefully we're on the tail-end of whatever this is.   My father phoned yesterday and told me he had it as well from our visit at Thanksgiving.

Let's hope for a little less-green Christmas than we're experiencing right now as a family.

The Big Boy Update:  My son said some very unkind things to me in the car the other morning.   I told him I didn't speak to people who were rude to me and began ignoring him and talking with his sister.   He wanted to apologize, but he was having a very hard time doing so.   He tried for about five minutes to say, "I'm sorry" without actually saying the words.   He said things like, "Aye shashhie" and, "eie swwashhi."   I explained that I would know he was truly sorry when he said it in clear words and sounded like he meant it.   It took another five minutes but when he gave in, he did a nice job of apologizing.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter wanted to do some cooking this afternoon.   She got her play blender, two small carrots out of the refrigerator and some water.   She selected some pretend pieces of bread from her kitchen toys.   She started blending that carrot up in the blender (it really spins things around) and told me, "I'm making you a sandwich cake, mom."