Sustainability Success Story

The movement towards sustainability continues to be a larger concern in our world as the years progress.  Recently, I had an experience that turned out to be easier instead of more difficult related to sustainability.

Our school is focusing on sustainability where possible throughout all facets including the student's day, materials that had historically been printed for the parents and the staff and administration needs.  When we first started at the school I remember noticing the little basket in the adult bathroom for paper towels.  There was a note that said, "deposit used paper towels here for the guinea pigs." 

This year, we're trying to go further than prior years by reducing consumable usage and encouraging families to bring their own plates, cups and utensils for school events.  We don't expect to have one hundred percent success in the first year, but we're hoping to see good progress in comparison to last year.

 Last weekend, we hosted the staff and board retreat at our house.  Shortly before, the head of school emailed me and asked if we had enough plates, utensils and cups so that we could avoid plastic and paper waste.  I checked and yes, it would be tight but we had enough to serve lunch and breakfast to thirty six with the exception of coffee cups.

I was glad we had the items, but I was not looking forward to the washing of all those dishes.  What happened though was the opposite.  By the end of the day everyone had chipped in, one load of dishes was already finished and there was almost no trash to speak of from the event.  Instead of it being harder, it was just as easy and we all felt better about the day as a result.

The Big Boy Update:  My son likes to let you know when he wants to talk to you.  He's in that stage where he doesn't understand it's not polite to interrupt anyone and everyone when they're talking.  He frequently says, "hey, listen to me," or "daddy, hey listen to me."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Last night she was walking around with me in a house under construction.  She looked into a back room in the unfinished basement and said, "I see dark."

Tri-A-Lot

I did my first triathlon today and before you wonder how I trained up for it and how I snuck in biking and swimming practice in between all the running, it was a mini-micro-triathlon.  That doesn't mean it wasn't meaningful or significant, just that the lengths of each segment weren't overly long.

I signed up with my niece, Olivia.  The swimming was four-hundred meters, biking followed at seven miles and then we ran one point eight miles to the finish.  I felt confident that I could do all three lengths with ease so I didn't do any training. 

I'm glad I went to the preparation clinic the coordinator held, because I was not aware at all how the transitions from one event to the other took place and the requirements for when you could bike and when you had to walk as well as what was recommended to take or wear and what was going to be a hassle as you progressed through the race.

At that clinic we did a bit of swimming, biking and running to get a feel for the transitions and it was at that point that I decided I hated the swimming first leg.  I had run eighteen miles earlier in the day so I was tired, but I didn't expect to be gasping for air while doing a one hundred meter swim. 

This morning, my niece wisely suggested that I do some warmup swimming and I decided that was good advice.  I swam five hundred meters to warm up for the four hundred meter swim in thirty minutes.  That warmup made a big difference in the comfort I felt during the swim.

I transitioned to the biking portion of the race fairly easily and biked the seven miles (three laps around the shopping mall.)  Then I moved into what I thought would be the easiest leg of the race, the running.  But no, my legs were unexpectedly tired from the other two activities and how they were used differently.  My shin splints came back with a vengeance and I had a hard time just running for a while.

When I crossed the finish line,  I had a surprisingly new perspective on how multiple exercises, combined together, can be more challenging than a single exercise over a longer period of time.

The Big Boy Update:  In the car today he sang, "A-B-C-D-E-Your Buggers..."  I promise, he didn't learn that verse from me.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Yesterday at the lake at Nana and Papa's camp ground she discovered how to pee in the grass.  She would take her pants down and we'd try to hold her up over an invisible potty but that suited her not.  She preferred taking her pants off, sitting down in nature and going on the spot.  She did this more than once and was very happy about it, no matter what uncomfortable surface she was sitting on.

Fitness Update:  First mini-triathalon:  Four hundred meters swimming, seven miles biking and one point eight miles running with my niece, Olivia, who beat me hands down.

Party at the Lake

My in-laws decided to camp out at a lake near us this weekend.  They're avid campers and they thought this would be a good opportunity to give the children a chance to see what camping was like during the day as a first camping experience.  Since I have no camping experience other than the days of summer camps back when I was a child, it was a first for me as well.

We met them at their camp site this morning.  They had arrived yesterday, had set up camp and were ready for us when we got there.  My children liked their camping spot right by the lake; they went down to the shore and tested the water.  We did a small hike through the woods to get to a playground that also had a swimming area cordoned off.   That's when the first nakedness of the day happened...

My son saw the other children taking off their shoes and socks to wade in, so he began to do the same.  He had on jeans and I didn't want them to get wet so I took them off as well.  As he splashed around, Papa and I thought we might need to take the shirt off too and at that point my son decided underpants were overrated and just got naked.  We pondered the legality of nudity in the park and decided a three-year-old probably didn't qualify and we'd slide by.  

After some lunch there was some attempts at napping in when lots of sand got into Nana and Papa's sleeping tent and no naps were taken.  Naps were not taken in the car seats with the doors open and naps were also not had in the double stroller as a long walk was taken around the park.  Running, jumping and getting exceptionally dirty in the sand, dirt and rocks was had by all children though.

What did happen was more nudity.  My son finally got the hang of going in the "wee wee bushes" or watering the trees.  He's been resistant to going out of doors for some time now but today was a success three times.   His sister also figured out how to go in the grass.  After a bit we just kept her in her underpants and if she needed to go, she'd take her underpants down, sit in the grass and be utterly happy that she had gone.  One time she sat in the rocks and peed, which looked uncomfortable to the rest of us but was completely satisfactory to her.

We ended the evening with a bonfire roasting marshmallows.  Both children ate lots of s'mores and then fell asleep immediately once they got in the car.  We had to wake them when we got home for a bath, which they were both irritable about, but suffered through.  They then went to sleep a whole hour before bedtime without a whimper or complaint.

Oh, did I mention it's my husband's birthday today?  The s'mores were his request that his mother made sure happened.  We also had cup cakes and sang the happy birthday song over a citronella candle that he blew out.  I hope daddy had fun on his birthday.  It was a nice day at the lake camping with Nana and Papa as well.

The Big Boy Update:  Wee wee bushes and pee pee holes.  My son has finally decided it's okay to pee outside on a bush.  This afternoon he even peed on the sand at the shore of the lake.  After going, he looked to Papa and said, "I made pee pee holes."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter spent more time today working with the small pebble rocks that were on the campsite ground.  The rocks were laid there to make a nice foundation for parking and camping and were about a quarter to a half-inch in diameter.  She would pick up handfuls of them and spread them all over the bench on the table.  Then, she would brush them off and giggle.  She did this over and over.  She got a cup and would fill the cup up and pour the rocks on people's knees, chairs, other areas of the ground or anywhere else that looked interesting.  She spent more time on little rocks than any other single activity I've ever seen her focused on before.

Super Reese

My daughter has absolutely no interest in being a princess.  She has an older brother who is into cars, trucks, excavators, dump trucks and super heroes and that has some impact on her.  But don't tell her she looks like a princess, because she'll have none of it.

We had several super hero shirts for my son, mostly because he likes them and they're easy to find for boys.  I didn't realize my daughter wanted to be a super hero too until one day she wanted to wear his super man shirt.  After that, I made an effort to find her some super gear of her own.

I now have a super girl dress, replete with cape.  I also got her two "night night" outfits that have what looks like a super girl with a cape on it.  I asked her if she wanted to be "Super Reese," and yes, indeed she did.  She loves being a super hero.  One of the outfits has different super girls all over it with different faces, races and hair styles.  She likes to point to them and say, "Super Reese" and then point to herself.

She really likes being a super hero and I like having Super Reese around to save the day too.

The Big Boy Update:  Stuck.  Somehow, I don't know how because I wasn't there, he put a felt trash can on his head and then got his arms through the handles and got stuck.   He walked down the stairs without falling, arms sticking in the air, went to the garage and was trying to find daddy (who was at the grocery store.)  Uncle Jonathan got a picture and then saved him.  Apparently he was saying, "daddy, I need help.  Daddy, I stuck."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  She is my Super Reese household super hero.  She loves wearing her super girl outfits far more than any other clothes she has right now. 

Fitness Update:  22.25 miles and a new distance record.  We're coming in at just under eleven minutes per mile on average.  But that includes stops to drink and stretch and today, we ran far enough that we got to the next city over and made it to a junior high school.  We went in and got cool water (so wonderful) and even used the facilities.  So, I'm guessing we'd be a little faster on our times when we're running the marathon in November.  

A Year of CL and the Fading Ice Cubes

We've had an issue with our ice machine since we originally purchased it. Or at least we think we've had an issue. We didn't know about the issue for a good while because we didn't understand how the machine worked and what the little CL that flashed meant.

At first, I'd open the door and see first, "Ice" and then "CL" flash shortly afterwards.  I didn't remember it doing that before, but we'd only had the machine for about eight months.  I told my husband it looked like maybe it was doing a clean cycle and was letting us know. 

A few months later I realized it was always doing the clean cycle so I did some more investigating.  The manual didn't answer all my questions.  It talked about putting the machine into clean mode and most importantly about how you had to use the manufacturers cleaning solution, because it was special and formulated and, of course, they made money from you buying their specific product.  (It didn't say exactly that in the manual, but I got that impression.)

So I called the company for more information.  I got a very nice lady on the phone and she explained that that little flashing CL was the machine telling us it needed to be cleaned and could we please schedule it into our week to empty the machine of ice, pour in a pack of cleaning solution and then press the magical combination of buttons to put the unit into a forty-five minute clean cycle.

After talking to her I did decide to order their cleaning solution.  The price was reasonable and I couldn't find a similar product online that was more competitive.  Then, when the solution arrived, I prepared the machine to be cleaned. 

And this is where the problem started.  Because we couldn't get the blooming thing into clean mode.  We read the manual, we followed the instructions, we went online and read forums, we watched the YouTube video.  We were doing everything you needed to do to put it into clean mode, but the display wasn't registering.

Here's what you need to do:  Hold down the power button.  Wait, it's not a button, it's a touch-sensitive panel.  While doing that, press the Light button three times.  Hold for ten seconds.  Boom, cleaning mode is activated.  Only our buttons flickered.  We would try to press the button once and we would get seven fast flickers.  Or, we couldn't get the power button to register we were touching it.  In short, it was a picky display. 

Finally, after about thirty minutes of button pressing, swearing, closing the machine, another twenty minutes of button pressing (or contact pressing rather) we somehow got clean mode initiated.   When it was done, I wasn't sure it was all that different in the ice we got, but hey, it didn't flash CL anymore.

The representative told me it would need to be cleaned every six months or so and when it started flashing again, I was ready.  Only we've never been able to get it into clean mode since that initial time.  It's been close to two years now and the main issue is thinning ice cubes.  Our cubes were very thin and we needed to do something. 

With another issue on another appliance as well, I called service.  The technician said he was well aware of the issues with these touch screens and that the company will most likely replace the control panel.  I called and yes, they would be willing to replace the panel for their newer model, one with real buttons (which makes me think we weren't the only ones with the problem.)  In the meantime, he told the repair man to disconnect the control panel, wait forty seconds, reconnect it and see if we could get it to work better.

And that did it.  We had unplugged the machine, but that didn't change things and yet this worked.  We got it into clean mode and the very next cubes that came out felt like little bricks of ice in comparison to the diaphanous cubes we'd been getting the day before.  We have a replacement panel coming in soon, but for now, we have sturdy ice again.

The Big Boy Update:  Napping in the box that's a house that held a car.   We had a large cardboard box that had a children's car in it.  The children colored on it and their teacher cut out a door and windows.  Yesterday, he had a nap in the "house" with his blanket and Mickey Mouse

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Home in the same pair of pants from school.  This doesn't happen often: my daughter comes home in the same pants as she was sent to school in.  This is largely due to her desire to do water work at school coupled with not making it to the potty in time.  I hardly recognized her in the same clothes at pick-up it was so unexpected.

Fitness Update:  The ten miles didn't happen because my neighbor's husband had to unexpectedly go out of town.  We plan to run long tomorrow afternoon.  Today I ran three miles with my neighbor who's training up to run the army ten-miler next month.

Everybody Is Dead Dave

My daughter is at this stage where she'll ask you a question and after you answer the question, she'll ask you the question again.  She'll then ask you the question in a slightly different way and then, after that, she'll ask you for the same information again.   Every time this happens, it reminds me of the first episode of Red Dwarf, a BBC Science Fiction series from the 1980's.

In the first episode, The End, the main character is on a space ship and has to be put into stasis.  No time passes to him from the point the door is shut and then opened, but much time has passed, three million years.  The computer, Holly, tries to explain this to Dave, the main character who has a difficult time understanding.  The computer tries to phrase the same answer to the same question differently, with increasing exasperation as the queries continue:

HOLLY: They're dead, Dave.
LISTER: Who is?
HOLLY: Everybody, Dave.
LISTER: What, Captain Hollister?
HOLLY: Everybody's dead, Dave.
LISTER: What, Todhunter?
HOLLY: Everybody's dead, Dave.
LISTER: What, Selby?
HOLLY: They're all dead.  Everybody's dead, Dave. 

<LISTER is still trying to understand what HOLLY is saying.>

LISTER: Petersen isn't, is he?
HOLLY: Everybody is *dead*, Dave.
LISTER: Not Chen?
HOLLY: Gordon Bennett!  Yes!  Chen, everybody.  Everybody's dead, Dave.
LISTER: Rimmer?
HOLLY: He's dead, Dave.  Everybody's dead.  Everybody is dead, Dave!
LISTER: Wait.  Are you trying to tell me everybody's dead?
HOLLY: I wish I'd never let him out in the first place.

That's how I feel when my daughter starts to ask me, "where's daddy?"  "Where's daddy gone."  "Where's daddy?"

The Big Boy Update:  Yesterday my son told me, "hi mommy, I have a skirt."  I said, "you do?"  To which he smiled shyly and said, "yes."   (He was wearing pants.)

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I learned something yesterday.  It was one of those C-minus parenting moments.  My daughter is very interested in feeding the dog, watching the dog eat and even helping the dog eat her food (yes, I've caught her with dog food in her mouth.)  I saw her holding and carrying over the very full water bowl I had just replenished.  I yelled out, "no ma'am!  Put that down!"  She looked immediately stricken and dropped the water bowl right where she was and started crying.  If only I had walked over and assisted her, calmly, in putting the bowl back in its spot, everything would have been fine.  Alas, next time hopefully I'll remember.

Fitness Update:  One mile.  I know, right?  Only one mile?  There were technical difficulties with the morning schedule and that's all that got run.  Tomorrow I think it's a ten-mile morning.

Adventure

I had some friends growing up that had parents working in the computer and technology industry when things were new and exciting and the breakthroughs were big and yet slow at the same time.  I wish I could figure out exactly what year it was when this happened to me, but I'm going to have to make a guess.

My friend's mother worked at SAS.  I don't know what she did, but she frequently would go over at night and do things for work.  Her son and I were friends and we played together a lot.  It must have been around  1982 when we went to her office one evening.  It was dark outside and I remember being impressed with the big open center area of the SAS building in which she worked.  We ran around the atrium and her son showed me some big machines that were computers doing computer hings.  Then, he took me to a terminal and introduced me to Adventure.

It was a game.  It was one of the first computer games I had ever played and I was entranced.  You started the game and it told you, in text, where you were.  You were in a woods somewhere and there was the entrance to a cave in front of you.  You would then enter a cardinal direction (N/S/E/W) that you wanted to move in.   After entering that, you would be given a description of your new location.

You could die if you moved in a direction that turned out to be inhabited by a fierce monster.  Then, you would have to start over.  I don't remember how far we got and I don't think we could do more than move in directions, but my memory of the game experience itself is one of a rich world underground with exciting things happening in all directions.

Was it exciting?  To me, certainly, I have loved video games ever since.  Were a few lines of text on a terminal truly that exhilarating?  No, but the mind has the capacity to fill in the details and my mind, at twelve-years-old had plenty of imagination to do so.

The Big Boy Update:  Food stealer.  He was reaching over and taking his sister's food off her plate.  She was looking away and didn't notice at the time.  When my husband asked him what he was doing, he said, "I  was just borrowing it" as he chewed on the food he had just taken.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Head stand.  She is like me in that she likes to do things like forward rolls, climbing, jumping, and anything that an almost two-year-old can do that's in the realm of gymnastics.  Last night she had her head in the crack of two pillows on the sofa and was standing in a piked position with her butt in the air.  She worked for five minutes to be able to kick her feet backwards and do a head stand against the sofa.  And she succeeded.  We were all impressed.

Fitness Update: Five miles.  Tomorrow we're planning for ten.