Dear Amazon,

I LOVE Amazon and LOVE getting packages. I feel like a kid on Christmas when a package arrives, even if it's just a box of coconut oil. Yes, I'm a stay-at-home mom nerd. On to my point: Our house is overloaded with beautiful shipping boxes that I feel guilty throwing out. I keep thinking that maybe I'll use said boxes, but the likely hood of me using 50 shipping boxes in the next year is not rooted in reality. It's rooted in my heightened awareness of how much garbage we create as a society and knowing that our garbage never really goes away. It just ends up filling our earth and creating space issues for future generations.
So I started wondering if Amazon has a box reuse program. I called customer service today and they do not. However the kind woman on the phone thought it was a great idea and encouraged me to provide my feedback. See below and consider sharing your voice if you too would like your extra Amazon boxes to live another life.
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Dear Amazon,
I am a regular customer and am wondering if Amazon has thought of – or can start – a box reuse program. I get a large number of packages from your company, the boxes are really nice, and I would love if there was a way to send the boxes back to you so that they can be reused. Please consider this idea as a way to lighten Amazon's and your customers' footprint on our Earth. It may even save Amazon some expense!
Respectfully,
Christina Klinepeter
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If you are a regular Amazon customer, please consider suggesting this to Amazon via their packaging feedback section by copying and pasting this into the Share Your Experience/Tell Us More comments field.

Gabe's nap time prayer today

God,
Please keep our world clean so it doesn't have any garbage in it, and please help mommy find her phone if she loses it.
Amen.

Babycakes

One of my favorite baking cookbooks! I've been searching for about two years to find a good allergen friendly cupcake recipe and at the time was trying not to think about what I would serve at my sons' birthday parties when we started having kids parties – instead of family days – to celebrate. Enter Babycakes. Thankfully Erin McKenna came out with this book in perfect timing! I received Babycakes as a birthday gift this last year and have made many batches of cupcakes and frosting(!) since. This last November we had our first friends birthday party for my older son and I made mini cupcakes using Erin's recipe. They were delish and the frosting divine! The kids loved them, the parents loved them and the two best parts: (1) my son could eat his own birthday cake and enjoy it with his friends and (2) none of the kids were hyper on sugar after too much cake.

Yum!

Less waste

I often receive Amazon packages and along with the product I ordered comes packaging material. I'm tired of throwing this in the garbage and feeling guilty because I'm throwing away perfectly reusable material.
This afternoon I did a little research. I set out to find a place close to my home where I can drop off these shipping gems so they can be reused instead of die to the landfill or be made into something else (for sure a better option than the previous but still not an optimal solution).
I called UPS and FedEx. Both are not allowed to reuse the type of material I have (AIRplus – basically air pouches). UPS is able to reuse peanuts. FedEx can only ship using their approved material from FedEx. Mail Boxes Etc. is able to reuse this material, however the closest one to me is too far to make it an environmental gain to drive there.
Finally I called STOROpack, the makers of AIRplus. The woman I talked to was very helpful and gave me this number to call in order to find local businesses that will reuse the material: 1.800.828.2214.

See Plastic Loose Fill Council.

I am pleased to report that I've found a good option and am happy that my efforts and packaging goods have not turned to waste!

Perhaps now I'll call Amazon to see if they have a reuse program for boxes.

During this process I had an idea: What would it look like if waste management companies (or an independent company) started community stores that would serve as reuse centers? This would be great to keep items such as boxes, packaging material, etcetera (I don't have any more time to brainstorm right now) out of landfills. After all, one man's trash is another person's treasure. Perhaps tax incentives can be offered to the company and to customers or the reuse centers can be based on donations or a small fee. One of the rewards for participants aside from inexpensive materials would be the fulfillment of social responsibility and helping our Earth.

Map: Where the Undernourished Live

Map shows countries resized relative to undernourished population--where the undernourished live.  

[Image courtesy of Worldmapper, 2009]

Bureau of Public Affairs

What do coal waste + food have to do with each other?

See Washington Post article.
See Wall Street Journal article.

This is an important issue and both sides have a major problem.

I wish with all of my heart that I could solve problems like this. I have a hard time shrugging off issues – with our world and its future – such as this.

One way to move toward a solution is to spread awareness of both problems:

1. Farmers are being encouraged to spread a chalky waste from coal-fired power plants on their fields to loosen and fertilize soil ultimately affecting the food that we eat. Yuck and hazardous! We need to use our voices against this.
   
2. There is an excessive amount of waste being produced. We as a society need to figure out practical everyday ways in which we can use less product from the power industry. Let's all use less electricity in an effort to lessen this ugly waste product so the power industry has less to problem solve. We need to implement the old stand-bye: reduce, reuse, recycle. 
   

Also, perhaps we can brainstorm effective ways to use this product other than in ways that it will eventually leach into our bodies through guidelines of use. Perhaps this hazardous material can be used in parking lots or locked between layers of commercial buildings... not in drywall that is cut and breathed in by construction workers and very close to the interior habitat of small children, office workers, our lovely human race! It does not belong in or near toys, food, paint, textiles, interior or even exterior building materials (think deterioration and residue developed over time left to fall on side walks and tracked into our homes, parks, environments); Let's keep this waste only in materials that will be effectively sealed and away from humans, animals, sea life and life sources.

I know and trust that we have very intelligent and brilliant people in Washington and abroad diligently working toward a solution to this problem. At the same time, I think the more people that can be aware of this issue the better.

A Paper Free Kitchen

Simple mom explains a great system for this environmentally friendly approach in the kitchen:
http://simplemom.net/how-to-create-a-paperless-kitchen/

My kitchen isn't totally paper free, but over the last few of years, we've significantly reduced the amount of paper towels used.

I call my approach the rag system. I have about 20 inexpensive white bar cloths, two hooks above the kitchen sink and a bucket underneath the sink. Here's how it works: One of the hooks holds a rag for cleaning the kids (we'll call this the kids' hook), the other hook holds a rag for cleaning the kitchen (the kitchen hook), and the bucket holds dry, dirty rags. Throughout the day and at the end of the day, the rags hang on the hooks. In the morning the rags are dry and I rotate their position. A clean rag is placed on the kids' hook, the old kids' rag moves to the kitchen hook and the old kitchen rag moves to the bucket. Once the bucket is full or I'm doing a load of towels, I bring the bucket to the laundry room and either soak them in the bucket with some Nature Bright by Shaklee (similar to Oxiclean powder only better smelling, more environmentally friendly and better at removing stains) before washing or immediately toss them in the washing machine.

Often if I need to clean a spill on the floor or wipe up melted snow that's been tracked into the foyer, I'll dip into the bucket under the sink and use a dried dirty rag. The rags are clean enough to use on the floor since I switch them every day.

When the rags get really stained, they're transferred from kitchen use to a bin of rags in our basement for household projects and maintenance (cleaning paint, washing/buffing the car, etc.)

I still need to do cloth napkins and have added it to my new years resolution list.

The older I get the more I become aware of the reality that our earth (and ultimately us) is in serious trouble. We each need to do our part to help eliminate waste and use less. This is a small way I've been able to live in a way that's sustainable.

Delicious juxtaposition

Anthropology January 2010 catalogue

Will's first prayer

The four of us were at dinner and he told us he wanted to pray.

"Dear God, Thank you for this great day and for the food that Daddy made to us. Amen."

So precious! I couldn't help but open my eyes and peek at Will saying his first prayer. I've asked many times at dinner if he wanted to pray and his usual response is no. This time it was all on his initiation. Beautiful!