Category Archives: Kids and Eco-Living

How can you get your kids involved in eco-living?

Victoria Day Long Weekend

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Victoria Day long weekend (or May 2-4) is one of my top long weekends throughout the year.  It is the first long weekend that, more often than not, has great weather for outdoor shenanigans.

When we were much younger, this weekend was about finding a place to throw a party.  Now it is all about fun outside and resisting the urge for mid afternoon naps.

To kick of our weekend, we took Little Man to visit Grandma N and Grampa A on Saturday.  Grampa A had a huge pile of manure to mulch into his gardens, and we had an exciting surprise for Little Man.

Tools!

Not crappy plastic tools to dig and rake to his heart’s content, but real metal and wooden tools. Continue reading →

Cloth Diapers Part 3: Our Experience

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Today is the third istallement of my series on cloth diapering.  First I wrote about the “ew” factor and other myths of using cloth.  Next I wrote about the different types of cloth diapers.  Today I want to tell you a little bit about our experience with cloth diapering Little Man.

We knew we wanted to use cloth diapers from the get-go.  It seemed like a good thing to do for Continue reading →

Cloth Diapers Part 2: Different Shapes for Different Babes

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In part one of the Cloth Diapers series, I talked about the “ew” factor (how cloth diapering is not as dirty and gross as people think).  This week’s post is about the different types of cloth diapers available today.

Ah the complicated world of the modern cloth diaper.  Flat diapers?  Prefolds?  Pocket diapers?  All-in-one’s? It’s enough to make your head spin.  If you know that you want to use cloth diapers with your little one, but Continue reading →

Cloth Diapers Part 1: The “Ew” Factor

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A friend of mine requested a post on cloth diapers.  Because disposable diapers are still the norm, there is a lot of misinformation out there about using cloth diapers.  So I thought instead of doing one post about cloth diapering, that I would do a series on the topic.

For the next few Fridays I will post about different aspects of cloth diapering.  Today’s post is on the “ew” factor.  Cloth diapers are not gross, but Continue reading →

Learning to Grow

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Happy Earth Day!

At the moment we have remnants of the snow that fell on Friday.  I am still hopeful that it will be completely gone by this afternoon so that we can get outside and enjoy Earth Day in a drier setting.

Yesterday, along with being wet the wind was pretty fierce, so we ended up planting Little Man’s seed paper inside (from Little Man’s copy of the awesome book “The Tiny Seed” by Eric Carle).

This was LM’s first time planting anything, and it ended up being a huge hit.  I can’t say that he knew what was  going on exactly, but he definitely figured out that dirt is just as fun to play with as to eat. Continue reading →

If You Ate Today, Thank A Farmer

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Now that we are into spring, barbecuing season is back.  Sure, you can barbecue in the winter, but it is not something one generally thinks of doing in a snowstorm.  With the last of the snow gone, April’s sun shining, and relatively warm weather in our area, the Dreamboat has emerged from his bbq hibernation.  Now you will find our grill often fired up with burgers, ribs and, my favourite of all, roasting veggies.

I have always enjoyed veggies, but ever since we joined a CSA, my appreciated has developed into full-out love.  What is a CSA, you ask?  It stands for community supported agriculture (or sometimes community shared agriculture).  It is a program in which you pay for a seasonal “share” from a local farmer in the spring, and in turn that farmer provides you with a weekly supply of veggies throughout the growing season (June to October in our region).  The produce is all organic, and it tastes amazing!

The farm we have the privilege of buying veggies from is Dalew Farms, located in Lavigne, ON.  The owners Dave and Chantal are incredibly nice and very hard-working people.  They believe in organic farming, and produce incredible fruit, veggies, eggs and meat.  I had a friend in university who had a sign in her kitchen that said “If you ate today, thank a farmer.”  How many of us can say that we have met the farmers that feed us? Continue reading →

Curing the Sniffles Naturally

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Last week was the birthday bash for Little Man, and we had a full house for the festivities.  Of course this meant that he spent most of the time in the arms of a loving friend or relative.  And invariably, this lead to Little Man developing the sniffles.

There was no high fever, but he was warm to the touch, with a runny nose and a mean case of the grumps.  On top of this, he had been teething very slowly since January.

When I saw my son sick and in pain, my first reaction was to Continue reading →

Until Next Year, Ice Hut

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Waving hello from outside the ice hut.

Yesterday the Dreamboat and Grampa A went onto the lake to haul away the ice huts for one more year.  It is the end of ice fishing season, it seems, and I am feeling rather wistful.  Along with the happy memories of the time our family spent out on the ice this year, is the usual regret that we didn’t get out more often.  But more than that is a small degree of sadness at the time slipping by so quickly.

It’s not that winter is over (it’s likely that there will be some snow lurking in the shadows through to the end of May).  It’s the series of warmer days that jump up from out of no where reminding me that the seasons are fleeting.  With the arrival of the usual odd bursts of plus 10 weather, comes the end of Little Man’s eleventh month.  Which means that very soon this little tornado of laughter, frustration and endless pooping, will be a year old.

How is that possible and who is this boy?   Continue reading →