Repurposing

I like to say that I repurpose or reuse items instead of saying that I'm Going Green!  Unfortunately there are some extremestis out there that go so green and then make the rest of the population feel like worthless, heartless, mean human beings.  I guess I'm somewhere in the middle on the whole thing.  I usse pesticides when needed, I don't buy organic exclusively (note on that later on) and the list continues. 

However, in the last few years, mainly since I started staying home to raise Benjamin, I've realized how much waste I have....both good and bad.  So slowly over the last 3 years I've been trying to tweak alot of what I do, how I do it, and mainly how I keep it.  Here's a very small list of some of the things I've changed or repurposed!

• I don't have a plethra of storage area so hanging Benjamin's clothes are best for us right now since they are relatively small.  I take old large polo shirts and cover about 5-8 items in the hangers to keep the dust and random crayon marks off of them.  If I need more, I go to a thrift store and pick up a few.  This is perfect for storing coats and out of season items. 
• I rotate Benjamin's toys.  I have a large tub and I rotate his toys from time to time to keep them clean, new, and exciting.
• I use paper plates.  After staying home I realized how much time and energy I used in washing dishes....paper plates for the simple stuff.
• When I made my vegetable garden this year, I planted small.  4 onion plants, 3 tomato plants, 1 cucumber plant.  And it's been the right amount for us and nothing is going to waste. 
• Also in the garden, I haven't need to use any pesticides this year but I have used soapy water...that has never happened!

• To prevent weeds in my garden, I didn't kill the grass prior, I just layed about 4-5 layers of newsppaer under about 2-3" of soil mixed with sand.  I have pulled one weed out of the garden.  ONE!
• Instead of buying a trellis for my plants, I used the old wire shelving that we removed from Benjamin's room earlier this summer.  Anchored them to the fence and they haven't come down.
• My entire garden was constructed out of materials lying around the house.  It may not look purty but it sure is functional!
• Instead of buying clothes for dusting, mopping up those 'accidents' and other little jobs, I cut up old t-shirts of ours and even keep some of the toddler shirts whole and use them as a mit to dust the blinds.  Haven't bought rags since Benjamin was born.
• Benjamin's old crayons.....take the stubs and melt them in a oven appropriate container or even a 'bowl' made of tin foil to make one large crayon.  I remember this from preschool and enjoyed doing it. 
• I use liquid fabric softner in my washer but I only use it every other week.  I normally wash the same clothes week after week so I only add the fabric softner ever other time and never for towels. 
• Since I use liquid fabric softner, I can cut all of my dryer sheets in half and they work just as well.  By my estimate, I go through a regular sized box of dryer sheets about every 4-6 months.  Sometimes longer.
• I don't buy face scrub, I use cornmeal and if you have some lavendar you can use that too!

It's not a life changing list but I do find that it has made good changes for us.  And for my note about organic food.  Benjamin can't eat organic eggs because he breaks out in welts and his face swells.  That's a new one on my but trust me, it's happened enough to make me never buy organic eggs.

Such a Slacker

It's been a whole year since I've posted.  I'm not sure if it's because I've been slackingly lazy or if it's just because I have no time....maybe what little time I do have, I want to take a bubble bath or watch tv, not type about my day.  Regardless, it doesn't matter.  Too often moms 'beat' themselves up about what they don't get accomplished instead of what they DID accomplish.

So, for the last year, what did I accomplish?  Hmmm, that might take a minute but I have to say it's not just me that accomplished it, it was my whole family and of course the Big Guy upstairs (Hi God!).  Looking back over the last year, I see that I was accepted to a local college into their Teacher Education Program and survived my first year in a college with nothing but girls.  Did I mention that a majority of them were 10 years younger?  That's a whole new post all in it's own!  We took Benjamin for his first zoo trip to the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden....it's where I grew up and I wouldn't have taken him anywhere else.  He also went to the circus for the first time, hit a huge growth spurt....I'm talking about 3.5 inches in less than 6 months.....

Oh!  Probably the biggest accomplishment was that Benjamin has 'graduated' from speech therapy.  Our speech pathologist gave our son a roar to speak with.  If you have ever dealt with a speech delay/impairment, then you know how frustrating one. single. question. can be.  We couldn't even communication basic needs for him and I got so frustrated, not with him, with me because I'm Super Mom and I understand everything.  Benjamin is now at the cusp of succeeding without any other intervention or severely regressing but I am confident that August 11th brings us a whole new light on the 'situation' at hand.

So what's August 11th?  PRESCHOOL!!!  Benjamin doesn't really have a concept of what it does but he knows that peeschool (as he calls it) is on the same property as Sunny School (Sunday School) and Bible School (VBS).   We are sending him to our church's preschool where I am so blessed to be sending him.  I'm on the board for the preschool and this past year we hired an amazing director.  Sitting in the interview my heart just screamed HIRE HER.  I knew that her vision for what preschool should be was the exact thing that Benjamin needed.  Even our pediatrician said to get him into preschool...asap. 

Benjamin has become the typical boy.  Now in some ways I hate saying that because there is a very negative sterotype about boys out there.  They are all gross, messy, wild, loud, bouncing off the walls, exceptionally rough, stinky, and the list goes on.  And yes, my son is all of those things but let me also add that he is so compassionate, loves to be affirmed, aware of others feelings, sees life through positive eyes, makes friends wherever he goes, he's not intimidated by others, especially older boys, he finds life, loves his PopPop and his Sadie Bugs (our dog), and he touches my heart like no one else ever will. 

I will always remember the day at the local water park where in one part of it, is the spray yard where the water comes shooting out of the ground and out of pipes. Benjamin learned to love this thing this year and it's also where the older boys hang out.  One time, some older boys were standing over one of the stronger sprays coming out of the ground and they were taking their turn standing over the pipe and making the water come out of their shorts in every possible direction.  Benjamin just walked right on over and much to my surprise, the older boys helped him stand on top of it and showed him what to do.  That right there is the essence of boys.  They don't care about age, how you talk, or what you wear.  They just want to have fun.  Those boys could have shoved him away or have been rude but they weren't, they took him like a younger brother and showed him what boys do.  That has made my summer!