Moms Gone (Almost) Wild

This may not be a big story everywhere, but in New Jersey whatever happens in New York is a big story and I live in New Jersey, so this is big news. A mom, fed up with her bickering tweens (ages 10 and 12), tossed them out of the car at a downtown suburban shopping district, three miles from their home, and drove off.

One kid made it home on her own. The other was picked up by a good samaritan who found her. Now the mom has been arrested and had a temporary order of protection placed against her. Today, the story gets a slightly different twist because apparently the kid who 'made it home on her own' was picked up by the mom who had circled the block. When the mom couldn't find the other kid, after circling a bit more, she went home, waited awhile for her to show up and then called the police, who were already all set to pay the mom a visit.

Now, this mom could be a wonderful mom who did a really stupid thing (yes, wonderful moms sometimes do really stupid things and our kids are resilient enough to survive those stupid things and not end up the human equivalent of dented cans of green beans) or she could be a bad mom who does really stupid things all the time - I don't know. This story does make most moms uncomfortable though, because we have all dreamed of doing something similar or dreamed of tossing the keys to our oldest (who happens to be eight at the time) and taking a nice leisurely walk, sans children, home ourselves, but of course we haven't actually DONE it.

This reminded me of an incident with my own daughter a ways back. She was about the age of the girls in this story and she was not home on time and it was not the first time she was late. I drove to her friend's house to pick her up- which was a few blocks from our own- and I was mad that she was late again. About half way to her friend's house I spied her, walking along the sidewalk in our small town, like she had all the time in the world.

She got in the car and quickly explained to me that her watch had stopped. I said, "give me the watch" and she did. I could see that the watch had stopped and I could also see that the little, windy knob was pulled out (she had the kind of watch that pulling out the little windy knob would make the watch stop working) and I knew that she was a very clever kid ... so I said "you're right, it's broken" and I tossed it out the moving car's window (I wasn't quite as environmentally responsible in those days). She sat there with her mouth open.

Now, this isn't quite the same as throwing HER out of the window and it is not one of my proudest moments but she did get home on time after that (at least for a while) and luckily there were no police around to arrest me for littering (I did, without telling anyone, go back to that spot that night with a flashlight and look for the watch, but never found it).
Almost Mother's Day - some gift ideas for a wild (or not so wild) mom
1. BarbaraGordon - Mom's Motel
2. EnveJewelry - Lavender Blue Earrings
3. PennyGlassGirl - Purse Hangers
4. SherryTruitt - Believe Necklace
5. DolaMakes - Child Silhouette Plate
6. TannerGlass - Key / Jewelry Holder

3 Things for Earth Day

I have always been a bit of an Earth Day skeptic. Being environmentally focused for 24 hours and then rushing back into our modern, fast-paced, disposal lives seems as fake as those 'green products' that keep popping up and are anything but.

Earth Day does, though, give us an actual date on the calendar to renew our commitment to saving this planet's amazing beauty and diversity for our children and for their children and it does help us to get focused.

Each year we try to commit to 3 new practices (last year we switched to compact fluorescent bulbs, gave up paper towels, paper and plastic bags -and take out containers- when shopping and started composting kitchen scraps more consistently).

This year our 3 new commitments are : 1. Reduce our garbage to 1 bag a week (with a family and two businesses we are continually challenged with this) 2. Send one letter each month to a politician -local, state or federal- concerning an environmental issue (this will also challenge us to be aware of these issues) and 3. grow more of our own fruits and vegetables and can them for colder seasons (I have never done anything even remotely like canning - no idea why this is even called canning when we use glass - we do use glass, right?), so this will be my biggest challenge yet. Hopefully I can do this without putting anyone in the hospital, or at least anyone I like in the hospital.

To celebrate Earth Day I am offering free shipping on any jewelry order in both my shops- Uncorked and Polarity through Friday midnight. Just write Earth Day in the comments to seller section of your order and I will refund your shipping!

1. Artwork by KD - Flower Ring
2. Pouch - Recycled Brooch
3. 2ReVert - Earrings
4. Infusion - Toddler Slippers
5. zJayne - Recycled Wristlet
6. Knitstorm - Tea Cup Cozy

NOT a Loser Part II

Ok- so the last time I was in an Etsy 'contest' it was called the Handmade Kids Contest and I entered my totally amazing (if I do say so myself and I am apparently the only one saying it) See Jane Run magnet board which was bumped from the competition by Etsy admin when the contest went from 35 entries to 30 and I am still kind of sore about it.

So- when I got an email today from an Etsy intern saying my Mother Knows Best locket is in their Mother's Day Contest I started to sweat. I mean I do NOT expect to win this thing, but I am hoping to stay out of the bottom 5 again, if you know what I mean. So, if you do not have a sister, cousin, best friend (or well even if you do and you do not really like them that much) in this contest- how about voting for my Mother Knows Best Locket to keep me from total Etsy hari-kari this time- so here's the LINK what do you say? UPDATE - Thank you to everyone who voted for my locket - I had a very respectable showing and no need for hari-kari...this time.

You are NOT a Loser ... (I am pretty sure)

OK- so I have some serious blog goodies to be given away on four blogs right now- that's right you are not seeing in quadruple - I said FOUR!

I know this is going to take you a few minutes to enter all of these, but these little lockets used to be cars (or car parts actually) and I think it would be worth a few minutes to win a car (uhm... part), right?!

Plus entering all four of these has got to increase your chances of winning, by what, at least a gazillion percent, right? I mean, if you enter all four of these and you don't win anything, well, I mean that still wouldn't exactly make you a loser ... but I would start to worry about you a little bit....

1. Noelle over at Xenotees in giving away my Kendra Zvonik Locket
2. Jen at IndixFix is giving away my Jess Gonacha Locket
3. Tia at CleverGirlGoesBlog is giving away my Unconventional Ida Locket
4. The amazing Helene at Helene's Dreams is giving away my Dilka Bear Locket


You gotta be in it, to win it, people!

Seed to Table

Instead of growing more and more of our own food, my hubby and I seem to be growing less and less. Partly because so much of it ends up in the bellies of the rabbits and groundhogs that get past any fencing we devise and partly because although our heads and hearts are green, our thumbs have not caught up. But this year we are determined to improve our output and get more home grown goodies to our own table.

We are hoping to get at least some of the the seeds into the ground this weekend. I am also planting a large cutting garden of zinnias. Having flowers to bring in each night with the veggies will make the effort more worthwhile for me.

When we can't grow our own it is often worth it to buy organic especially if the foods you eat most often are ones that tend to be the most heavily treated. More pesticides are found on apples than any other fruit (36!) - if you can't find organic- rinse them well, peel them and look for little produce stickers that saw New Zealand (they use about half as many pesticides as the United States).

You should also choose organic grapes, because grapes ripen quickly and tend to mold, growers hit them with multiple applications of various chemicals. The worst are Chilean grapes which are treated with as many as 17 chemicals (90% of the grapes eaten in the U.S. this time of year are Chilean). The key is always a very thorough rinse in cool or warm water.

You should even rinse your cantaloupes before cutting since your knife can drag exterior residues through the fruit as you cut it and cantaloupes often contain five of the longest-lasting chemicals including one banned in 1974 that still persists in soils and is taken up by the fruit. When you can - choose local and 100% organic.

Here's a few "organically" grown Etsy beauties:

1. Xenotees - Good Luck Fork T-Shirt
2. afiori - 4 Mini Pictures Il Giardino Segreto
3. SpoonerZ - Fork Top Family Necklace
4. Kootsac - Reusable Food Bags
5. BCStoneDesign - Mushroom Planter
6. CustomEyes - Vintage Egg Beater
7. BovineBubbles - Assorted Jams and Jellies