green living

Local Mysteries

August 6, 2009

This plaque is nearly buried in the grass at Powderhouse Park, a short walk from my house. The park is full of memorials to pieces of history. There’s a plaque commemorating the Massachuset campsite that was there in the 1600s and a bronze statue of a lamb to mark the former site of a farm [...]

Tagged as: nature, somerville

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Good news, bad news

July 29, 2009

Good news: WIC is expanding their offerings to low-income Massachusetts families to include vegetables, eggs, cheese, rice and beans (among other things). What did they cover before? I shudder to think. But they seem to be allowing people to use their food vouchers to buy food now, so that’s all good. Bad news: Crazy firefighter [...]

Tagged as: biking, food, news

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Extraterrestrial Circus Experiment this Friday

July 8, 2009

Two of my kids are participating in Somerville’s Open Air Circus this summer, a local circus produced by and for kids. My teenage stepson is taking a leadership intensive and teaching classes in everything from unicycling to juggling, while the five-year-old in my life has become an instant expert at balance beams, tumbling and running [...]

Tagged as: circus, education, ian, rio

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Strawberry Jam!

June 17, 2009

The kids and I made half our haul of strawberries into a tasty jam this afternoon. Rio and Serena were both great helpers, as was the morning preschool gang. They washed the berries, cut the tops off them with a safety knife, and put them into bowls for mashing. Rio even helped stir the sugar [...]

Tagged as: food, homeschooling

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Serena helping in the garden

June 17, 2009

IMG_4206.JPG, originally uploaded by MzMuze. Serena, like most toddlers, loves to mimic everything Mommy does. Especially the things Mommy does that are not generally available to toddlers. Like operating a spray bottle full of cleaning chemicals, or using the garden tools. Today was her day to do it all, just like a grown-up. A few [...]

Tagged as: food, garden, green, parenting, serena

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Strawberry Picking!

June 16, 2009

Today the girls and I went to Red Fire Farm, the organic farm that provides our vegetable CSA. The bulk of the CSA comes to us in the form of a weekly drop-off at the Growing Center, but we also have an open invitation to go pick some crops at the farm. It’s a long [...]

Tagged as: food, green, homeschooling

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The Compact

June 15, 2009

I started doing The Compact about a month ago. The Compact is simple: for one year, buy nothing new. There are exceptions of course. These things were written into the Compact as exceptions: perishable goods (food, cleaning products, personal care, medicine) underwear and socks I’m a generous sort, and I think five is a nice [...]

Tagged as: frugality, green, money

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Biking with kids: what bike to choose

June 14, 2009

So all the discussion of biking with kids has given me some exciting new options to consider. Right now, I have a two-seater Burley trailer that I use almost every day to haul my kids around, and a tag-along tandem attachement for Rio. I think these two things will get us through the summer. But [...]

Tagged as: bike

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Go play in traffic: Bicycle Safety on Busy Roads

June 4, 2009

A friend just posted a link to a great site about bicycle safety. I can’t recommend strongly enough giving this clear, simple page a read. Especially if, like me, you have a crazy habit of putting your kids in harms way, er, riding your bike with your kids. To my knowledge, there are two basic [...]

Tagged as: bike, safety

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Beltaine Festival tomorrow at the Growing Center

April 30, 2009

When I posted my list of May events, I should have included this one, which I am leading at The Growing Center tomorrow at 4 p.m.: Wheel of the Year Festival: Beltaine A series of family-friendly festivals celebrating the turning of the wheel of the year. Through song, story, art and play we will explore [...]