I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a smidge excited when, a few weeks ago, Tim from CREDO Mobile contacted me about featuring their company on 5 Minutes for Going Green. You see, while I’m currently contractually obligated to one of the major U.S. cellular companies — and truth be told, even though CREDO offers a contract buy out option, I’m not entirely prepared to switch since my current company is one of only two carriers that offer my beloved Palm Pixi — CREDO doesn’t offer just phones. They also carry the Solio Solar Charger. A smart little device that I have been eying for quite sometime.
Here in the Pacific Northwest we have had an unusually mild winter and an early spring. Many of the plants in my garden that normally die off have not, including my parsley and celery, and now in late February they’re coming back with new growth. Flowers are blooming, buds are budding, and people are working outside in shirtsleeves.
(I know that not everyone has had a mild winter this year. Last year winter in the Pacific Northwest was long and cold, with record snow accumulations. If you have struggled through the snow in the South you have my sympathies.)
This sunny, warm weather has me thinking of spring and my garden.
Let’s see. I have been going green now for about two years. Since that time, I have gone from being really rigid in everything I do to the point where my house started looking like a garbage dump – minus the rotting food – because I was saving everything (ex: cereal boxes, bottle tops, popsicle sticks, etc.) believing each item had a second or third life in it before meeting its maker in the trash. On the flip side, I recently declared my latest compost bin a wash after it became infested with worms, other than red wigglers, and have been unashamedly tossing kitchen remnants into the trash and becoming an apathetic contributor to our local landfill.
Three winning recipes my (picky) kids happily eat:
Egg and cheese sandwiches:
2 packages English muffins (I buy wheat)
2 dozen eggs (I go with free range)
24 slices cheese (cheddar for our family)
Optional: ham slices or the veggie equivalent (we like Yves brand)
Fry the eggs individually (we cracked them right into circular cookie cutters on the griddle to keep their shape).
Valentine’s Day is getting close and that means lots of chocolate. The annual world consumption of cocoa beans averages around 600,000 tons per year. But do you know how your chocolate was made? 70% of the world’s chocolate comes from the Ivory Coast where most of the chocolate is farmed using child labor.
Don’t worry though, you can give up child labor without giving up chocolate. By buying fair trade certified chocolate you can be sure that your chocolate is child labor free and those who made it were paid fair wages. Fair trade chocolate is becoming much more common as people are learning how most chocolate is made and are demanding a change, keep pushing and someday all can be fair trade!
I live in suburban Vancouver, BC. This week the 2010 Winter Olympic Games will open in my region, and people are excited. The Torch is making its way through local communities, people are wearing their Team Canada gear, and dozens of cultural events are kicking off. The city is ready to celebrate and capitalize on the international attention that we are receiving. As someone who has lived in this region my whole life I am proud of the show we are about to put on.
At the same time, we cannot forget that a major event such as the Olympics comes at a cost.