Do you know what is lurking in your kitchen cabinets? Do you?

Let me start off by saying you're welcome. Because when this post is over you are going to be thanking me and radically changing your life. Or possibly rolling your eyes. But deep, deep, deep down you'll be thanking me. 

Now let me back up. Do you hear that banging sound? That's the sound of my kitchen being torn apart. Today is Day 1 of the Recession Renovation and I am gaw-danged excited about it. Bring on the dust! Bring on the inconvenience! Bring on four weeks of pizza night! Now this isn't a gut-job; it's a prudent aesthetic make-over peppered with reuse and eco-friendly products (and one very not-eco-friendly product which has caused me much duress...but I'll post more when we're through.) But what has really blown my mind was discovering how much STUFF was lurking in my cabinets (and no doubt in yours, too.)

Yesterday, to get ready for this project, I had to completely empty out a few cabinets and clear out all of the furniture and the crap off of the countertops. I could not believe the stuff I found lurking in the depths. Those Duncan Hines cake mixes were, well, cake! compared to the THREE containers of partially-used and long-expired protein powder I found and SIX baggies of half-eaten crispy snacks that had been tossed into the snack cabinet for future noshing and never eaten. That's just the tip of the iceberg, my friends. Well, hello there, espresso machine! Top of the morning, instant marinator! You're looking shiny, expensive mandoline purchased eight years ago and used once! And do you have any idea how much space ten martini glasses take up in a cabinet? Do you think we've ever had ten friends over for martinis? Do you?

Lost and then found: my sense of smell

Lately I'm getting reacquainted with my nose. Apparently my nose has been AWOL, and I didn't even know it. Really, I can't believe my husband or Heather didn't say anything... But this isn't one of those physical nose travesties like Michael Jackson has inflicted upon himself, more of a disappearance then reappearance of my sense of smell.

Way back when we started the greening of ourselves via launching EnviroMom and forming a GreenGroup, one of the first things I got was a list of The Green Guide's Dirty Dozen: 12 ingredients to avoid in personal care products: with fragrance/phthalates being one that really jumped out at me. Honestly, I remember thinking "Well geez. That's a bummer. All those clean, fresh, breezy smelling scents! I love those!!"

Food confessions

Three little known facts about me:

1. I know all of the words to Copacabana, and I just might sing them for you after my second margarita.

2. My six favorite words in the English language are, "A duck walks into a bar..." If my doctor ever needs to inform me that I have three months to live, I hope she leads with that.

3. At least once a week (sometimes more) I feed my kids this for dinner:

I know. Collective gasp. The horror!

EnviroMom on GreenHour.org and Babble.com, and some updates

We're sending lots of EnviroMom love out to GreenHour.org and Babble.com for interviewing Heather and me for some recent features. On GreenHour, we talk about our love for the outdoors and why kids need to get outside even when the weather is crummy! On Babble, we outline the three most common mistakes in going green. Thanks for letting us share our thoughts, and if those sites brought you to EnviroMom, we welcome you and hope you'll join our community.

A couple of other updates:

• You know how some days you just feel like an overwhelmed soccer mom -- the one who always forgets to bring a snack or who sends her kid to school in the shirt with toothpaste stains because you haven't managed to do the laundry in, oh well, a long time? Then other days you feel like a rock star? I have had far too many of the latter lately, but in the rock star department (drumroll please...) I've had several serving people/waitrons at restaurants actually compliment me on bringing my own takeout containers. So I thought I'd share that. Yes, clearly. It was just Mothers' Day. But we moms really don't get enough positive feedback. So if you have been resisting the DIY takeout kit because you think you'd feel weird -- just try it. And maybe you'll get some compliments for doing so like I did.
• Preschool rummage sale as fundraiser? Now, I didn't do anything for this, so I can take no credit for the result. But the rummage sale kicked, er, booty! This is the year for the rummage sale. Like in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Return of the Rummage Sale! If there's anything good about a recession, people are WAY into reuse and bargains. We made the most ever of any rummage sale. If you have things to donate, find a nearby non-profit planning a rummage sale, and donate to them. Or if you're just wantin' to shop, check your local Friday paper and scout out the rummies! Woo-hoo! Reuse and bargains and fundraising, oh my!
• 'Beans? Yes, we can!' I really think that should have been Obama's campaign slogan. It's catchy, no? I did make beans. They were delish. Great for several meals. Not as much work as I anticipated. Soaking overnight was key. In my ideal world, I will remember to soak beans on the night before we're going to have a "home-body" kind of day. Thank you all so much for your encouragement and recommendations. I could not have done it without you! You guys rock! Sniff! I also did really enjoy Andrea Chesman's 366 Delicious Ways to Cook Rice, Beans and Grains. The overview about different types of beans and grains was really helpful.

I think that's all for now. I really should go do the laundry. Hope everyone had a fabulous Mothers' Day!!

National Bike Month? Make it a National Bike Summer...

Well, I've kicked off National Bike Month in a rather typical American way. On my rump. Reading a highly informative book about bicycling! I've mentioned the book before: Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists are Changing American Cities, by Jeff Mapes. I've biked in The Netherlands, so in a sense, I've seen the holy land. I've often wished our biking culture was more like that. But it'll take an awful lot more than wishing for that to happen. There are great programs out there aimed at getting us off our butts and into the saddle, such as Safe Routes to School. The book traces the history and hopes for this program and helped me to understand some things I got one one level but wasn't entirely getting: i.e., there is safety in numbers, thus the push for "walking school buses" -- especially helpful in areas such as ours that lack sidewalks. And that biking is harder than walking (so, if biking has too many safety concerns for your skill level or route, everyone can at least try walking). Getting kids on bikes is important, otherwise we risk raising a generation that doesn't know the joy of the wind whistling in your hair as you zip around on a bike; or more importantly, doesn't see biking as a viable means of transportation. Thus, we've been working hard to teach our kids to ride bikes safely, and let me tell you, we can easily come up with a list of excuses a mile long on why not to bike:

• Narrow, hilly streets are hard to practice on
• Cars present major safety hazards at intersections and on shared streets
• The wind and snow and rain!

Do my kids bike to school? No. But I hope they will someday. I hope we can teach them the necessary safety skills now, and that we can practice diligently to build up strong legs and lungs so that they will lust after a really great bike instead of a car as they earn the right to drive. One thing in the book that really jumped out at me:

'The great biking cities of the world, such as Copenhagen and Amsterdam, have no gender gap when it comes to bicycling. But in the US, where conditions are more dangerous, men predominate in most cities.'

KidTip: watching & tracking birds

It all started when my son hollered from the kitchen, "Mom! You have to see this bird!"

I was pretty sure it was a dove, which is not a common sight in our backyard, so I understood his excitement. Luckily, several years ago I placed a copy of the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds (Western Region) in our kitchen for quick reference. I can probably count the number of times we've actually used it. No that's not true -- there was a six-month period when we used it daily to whack the top of our television set in order to get a clear picture. Let me tell you, this book is PERFECT for that job. It fits nicely in your hand and has a solid heft, perfect for smacking household electronics. Ever since we replaced the TV, the book has languished on the sideboard collecting dust. Until the appearance of the dove -- the Mourning Dove I should specify. Zenaida macroura.

Baby step: creative paper reuse/double-side printing

The dream of becoming a paper-free home was looking really do-able, then my oldest started in elementary school. Overnight, she began bringing home what seemed like reams of paper: worksheets, drawings, newsletters, permission slips, bus schedules, classroom updates, ad infinitum. Now, I get that they need paper to support the important work of learning that they do. And I truly appreciate all the notes the teachers send home to communicate what's going on in the classroom (I also appreciate when teachers opt for emails now instead of paper!). Yet I needed a way to manage all the paperwork. Given my feeble attempts at keeping baby books -- which I don't believe I've updated since the births of my two children nearly 5 and 7 years ago -- there's no way I can't possibly keep all of these papers. It'd be like that scene at the end of the movie Brazil where Robert DeNiro's character disappears under layer after layer of paper. My current system is: review papers, provide positive feedback to appropriate child, recycle papers. Sometimes trickery is required (i.e., hiding school papers deep in the recycling bin, otherwise the kids dig them back out, loudly proclaiming how hard they worked on this one particular addition worksheet and that I really need to keep it for their memoirs).

Recently, I've added in a new step. Many of the school worksheets are printed single-sided, so I've now got a small bin near my printer to keep these papers. And they become my primary print paper supply. Now, I don't print very often. But when I do need to print up a recipe or bank statement, it is embellished with some especially fine classwork on the back, which certainly makes filing more enjoyable. Whenever I get around to filing. Maybe after the baby books...

Reader garden: great reuse & cool design

Kasey sent us a photo of her raised garden, and I love the design of it. After I posted the photo of the gutter garden, which a homeowner erected in the one small sunny spot around her house, Kasey gave us the down-low on her dirt. She wrote:

We have a similar narrow spot on our patio that gets sun, so we've built a two-foot deep garden using left-over 4x6 wood and trellis. I got this idea after reading the book, Square Foot Gardening. While not as cool as using gutters, so far, it's working for us.

Right now, it's sitting directly on the flagstone of our patio, but I'm thinking about putting it up on cinder blocks to keep our dog from sticking his nose in the plants. We built it with a plywood bottom (with drainage holes) so we could move it if needed.

We're just growing the basics: tomatoes, onions, eggplant, basil, chives, several varieties of bell peppers and hot peppers.

The trellis is mostly decorative but also helps with space planning. This is the first year I've tried the square foot gardening method. I hope it works!

Me, too, Kasey! Think I'm going to steal that trellis idea. We'd love to see more garden photos from readers, so send them in and tell us what you're growing this summer.

Star Wars: Reuse Strikes Back!

We have a basket of recyclable items in our playroom that the kids refer to as the reuse bin full of egg cartons, empty food boxes, cardboard toilet paper rolls, bottle caps, etc. The reuse bin is constantly in use because that stuff can become whatever the kids dream of. Lately our house is all Star Wars all the time, so naturally light sabers were in need. Amazingly, the kids have not requested actual toy light sabers with beeps and blinks and batteries (I keep wondering if this will happen) but instead enjoyed some instant gratification by making their own:

Baby step: teaching kids to take a 5-minute shower

In the early days of EnviroMom, Heather got all excited about taking super quick showers after getting a shower timer from the water bureau. At the time, I was like: 'Hmm. Well. Good for you. Enjoy those quick showers. I'd rather get my water conservation points for not flushing the toilet, if at all possible. I'll keep that timer far, far away from my shower, thank-you-very-much!' I've got rationalizations a-plenty when it comes to the sanctity of my shower:

• It's almost the only time my kids ever leave me alone.
• Thus resulting in some very necessary time for relaxation, privacy and self-centering.
• Sometimes I don't shower every day -- so that means I can use up more shower time on the days I do shower!! (way to turn a negative into a positive!!)
• Oh, and did I mention it's almost the only time my kids ever leave me alone!?

So the whole shower timer thing? Not happening with me.