can I get that to go?
By annemarie on March 2, 2010 | Filed Under eco friendly, guest bloggers
When I heard about the TakeOutWithout Campaign I loved the idea. Then when we had sushi with the grandparents one day and they took their own containers to pickup our take out I was reminded about Take Out Without. I really wanted to write about them but couldn’t find the time. So I asked Lisa Borden, Chief Catalyst of TakeOutWithout to do a guest post about it instead. After all, who can say it better? Still feel a bit silly taking my tiffin to pick up my takeout. But kinda cool too.
We know how busy the schedule of a mum can be, and take-out is a fast and easy option when there just isn’t enough time in the day to pack a meal from home or grab a treat from home. Since restaurants add so much to our waste-line (read waist-line too!) and we frequent them regularly, help your favourite restaurant reduce their waste (so that we will have enough resources so that our grandchildren can take their future kids to visit that restaurant too!).
Here are eight easy things that mums can do that will be great for our health, wallet, the world, and your children’s world (because as we know, mums are always the ones who make the difference!). Don’t worry about taking notes or memorizing the list, you can download free wallet cards and pass them along to everyone.
- Use reusables instead of disposables for everything possible. Yes, people might stare, but remember, you are a trendsetter and it’ll soon catch on – just like reusable water bottles have over the past years. Your child is never too young to teach them the importance of reusing and reducing!
- Encourage others to use compostable, safe options for their required disposables.
- We get that restaurants don’t want to give takeout patrons a cloth napkin, but no need for them to use virgin paper all bleached and processed! Ick!
- Reduce the amount of packaging you take to what is only absolutely necessary. No double bagging please. If you aren’t going to use them, don’t take a handful of ketchup packets, soy sauces, straws or cutlery! Supply and demand. If you are taking your takeout meal home, we’re hoping you have cutlery there?!
- Join www.takeoutwithout.com, the campaign to reduce restaurant waste. It’s free, helpful and will fill you up with some great ideas and free downloads
- Suggest restaurants sell smart & safe solutions (reusables) such as bottles, containers, straws, bags etc. Imagine seeing an amazing container or a glass straw. . .it might inspire you. You may buy one or more. The restaurant will make money while encouraging new habits and creating awareness. If they offer an incentive to keep bringing the container back, you’ll be a more loyal customer. The restaurant will have less of a need for disposables, saving them money, and saving our precious resources. Win, win win! Encourage restaurants to incent their customers to bring/use reusables by offering a discount or something for free (they should be able to afford it – see #5 above).
- Who doesn’t love getting supersized? Wouldn’t you bring your own mug if you were getting more? Or bring your own bag if you were able to get something for free because of it? Applaud people doing good! Change comes from without.
- Tell them how great they are and send customers their way because of all the good they are doing. Encourage other mums to be TOWO champions. They will want to inspire others just like you’ve inspired them!
Our children depend on us in every way. As parents, we can give them all they deserve – and that includes pure food, clear non-toxic information, meaningful love and complete appreciation for all that they are, and the for the planet they live on. Together we can change the outrageous amount of unnecessary waste we create everyday as well as drastically reduce it so your great grandchildren have a beautiful place to live. Your power lies in your wallet and your voice matters. That’s got to be worth trying for!
by Lisa Borden
Lisa Borden is an eco-advocate and mother of three, whose business is a direct reflection of her commitment to better, more responsible living. She is a dedicated workaholic, admitting that it takes a lot of time and effort to change the world, especially in her non-preachy, fun, engaging and inspiring ways. Lisa consults, writes, engages the media, runs private workshops, and enjoys speaking to large and small groups. Her full-service marketing firm, Borden Communications + Design Inc. is based in Toronto, Canada and takes great pride in being an ethical business providing exceptional ideas.
We’d love to hear your Take Out Without Experiences, feel free to share!
DIY Project: Button Flowers by Ink & Button
By annemarie on February 24, 2010 | Filed Under faces & places, guest bloggers
We asked Lisa from Ink & Button to share this fun, springtime craft with us!
Last May, I created a few bouquets of “button flowers” for the cupcake table at our wedding reception. Before the wedding, I brought my project to a babysitting job and was surprised how much fun the kids had helping me assemble my button flowers! I am so delighted to share this project with you today and hope that you and your child will also enjoy these blossoms of spring that you can make yourself!
Materials:
- Buttons (Look around the house for buttons that you might own, cut buttons off old garments . . . ask your child to go on a scavenger hunt for buttons, buy an inexpensive bag of buttons at a sewing or craft store, or look for a bag or mason jar of buttons at an antique store)
- Wire cutters
- 24 ga. wire (I like to use green floral wire found in the floral dept. of a craft store)
- 18 ga. Floral cloth wire stems (also found in the floral dept. of a craft store)
- Vases to show off completed flowers
Begin by selecting your buttons for the flower. A flower might have anywhere from 3 – 6 buttons, depending upon your preference. You might ask your child to select a combination of buttons that he/she likes and stack them together (largest on the bottom, smallest on the top). If you would like to include a shank button, (no holes) that button will become the top button.
Cut a piece of wire with your wire cutters that is about a foot long. Fold the wire in half. Poke the ends of the wire in both holes of the top button first, and then proceed through the rest of the buttons. If using a shank button on top, slide the loop on the back of the button through one of the ends of the wire, before adding the other buttons. Push the buttons to the end of the wire and then begin to twist the wire tightly together. As you are assembling the flower with the wire, you might ask you child to select the buttons for the next flower or organize the buttons according to sizes, shapes, colors, etc.
Once the entire length of the wire is twisted, use a green floral stem to strengthen the flower. Place the stem in one of the holes in the bottom button, and then twist the wire around the stem. Cut the stem to the desired length and arrange the flower in a vase. Enjoy!
You can find more crafty inspiration from Lisa on her blog or in her Etsy shop.
olympic gâteaux
By annemarie on February 22, 2010 | Filed Under faces & places
We couldn’t resist posting this photo of the Inukshuk cake that cookbooker founder and dad Andrew Gray recently made for his seven-year-old’s birthday party.
His goal was to make something vertical but alas, chocolate cake isn’t strong enough for building upwards so he has to settle on a two dimensional cake.
Check out his feature on Healthy Mum, Happy Baby too!
sleep glorious sleep
By annemarie on February 16, 2010 | Filed Under faces & places, guest bloggers
Is there anything more talked about by new mums than sleep? Here guest blogger and local yoyo afficionado Erin Jeffery talks about being a sleep deprived new mum with a lucky twist!
In the last few months of my pregnancy, during the July and August heat wave of ridiculousness, many people asked me how I was sleeping. The answer was always,
“Like s*** – I am really uncomfortable and its REALLY FREAKING HOT”
Every one of these individuals…and I mean EVERY ONE…would respond with,
“Well, you think you aren’t sleeping NOW, wait until the baby comes”
Jerks.
Prophetic, soothsaying jerks.
For the first six weeks of my beautiful son Maxton’s life, he was colicky and incredibly uncomfortable. He would wake up a few times a night screaming in pain, and getting him to sleep in the first place was a herculean feat. Once he was six weeks and a day however, he started sleeping through the night, like a tiny little angel.
Ah, bliss I thought.
Remember what your mother used to say about counting chickens?
When the beautiful boy turned 4 and a half months old he started waking up every 2 to 3 hours…ravenous. Or cranky…or needing a cuddle.
Just…not…sleeping.
We read books. Many of these books gave us advice that lead us to believe we were horrible parents and had broken our son. We talked to friends. Many of them recommended the aforementioned books. It was an endless cycle of insanity.
My husband and I decided that sleep was for the weak, and really, life is better slightly sleep deprived. The fuzzy haze gives the world a kind of shiny look.
And of course, we aren’t alone. Everyone with an infant has some kind of sleep issue. And everyone looks for some kind of magical solution.
Imagine our delight when we discovered the Rocky Sleep Study.
This study, being run out of UBC is a Canadian Institutes of Health Research funded project. It is currently recruiting families with babies between five and a half and eight months old who have sleep troubles (wake two or more times a night). And, importantly for us, it doesn’t involve letting the babies ‘cry it out’.
We signed up in a heartbeat.
This study provides the parents involved with much needed information and resources to help them teach their infants to soothe themselves to sleep. Additionally, the data gathered during the study will be used to show whether how important sleep resources are to new parents in BC, and hopefully will pave the road for training for public health nurses across the province.
Our involvement is simple. Starting in March, we will be visited by a research assistant who will provide us with a motion sensing bracelet for our son to wear for six nights. He or she will also ask us some baseline questions about fatigue, mood and what we are currently trying to do to help Maxton sleep. After all the baseline information is gathered from the bracelet and our questionnaire, we will be randomized into one of two study groups.
We look forward to providing more information on this study as it continues.
But more importantly, we are really looking forward to getting some sleep.
Erin is a new mom of a giant baby named Maxton. She has developed a new passion for lifting heavy, squirming things. She also enjoys exploring the city with baby in tow, writing, all things ‘yo’ and discovering new things through the eyes of the worlds largest baby.
dinner a deux
By annemarie on February 11, 2010 | Filed Under parenting
It can be harder to manage a night on the town for Valentine’s Day once you have tots, so when I was sent this recipe which works for both the day or love and Chinese New Year I wanted to share it as I’m always on the lookout for new recipes to try and I’m a bit of a sucker for anything that combines the flavours of garlic and lemon. Yum!
Citrus Sesame Shrimp
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes
Makes: 4-5 servings
- 16 oz Jumbo Shrimp- raw, peeled and deveined
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Cooking Spray
- 2 Tbsp Garlic, minced
- ½ cup + 2 Tbsp Green onion, finely slicedDind
- ½ cup Red bell pepper, sliced
- 2 Tbsp Sesame seeds, toasted
- 2 Tbsp White wine or vegetable stock
- 1 bottle VH Lemon Sauce
- 1 Tbsp Toasted sesame oil
- 8 oz Rice noodles
- In a mixing bowl, pat shrimp dry and toss with salt and pepper to taste.
- Spray sauté pan with cooking spray. Heat pan over medium-high heat. Working in batches, sear both sides of shrimp to golden brown. Remove from pan and set aside.
- Cook rice noodles according to package instructions and keep warm.
- Add garlic, ½ cup green onions, red pepper and sesame seeds to pan. Sauté about 1 to 2 min. Deglaze pan with wine or stock.
- Add VH Lemon Sauce and sesame oil. Bring to a simmer and add shrimp. Serve with cooked noodles immediately. Garnish with remaining green onions.
If you try it let me know what you think, it sounds yummy! I wonder what they’d recommend for a wine or beer pairing?
baby you can drive my car…
By annemarie on February 9, 2010 | Filed Under eco friendly
Last weekend I was invited to take a little test drive of the Chevy Volt, an electric car that has, and I quote, an “instantaneous torque engine that can keep pace with any traditional or hybrid car on the market while travelling up to 64 km without a single drop of gas.”
A cluster of us gathered round while a rep from GM gave us a little spiel. I was there with the girls, so I was a bit distracted. Luckily the lovely Ms. Crunchy Carpets was there too with her hubby and three kids and her beautiful baby kept the girls amused while we perused the vehicle.
To be honest it looks like your average average-sized family car, we tend to favour imported rather than domestic vehicles and I’m not a car person (aside from an addiction to Top Gear) so I’m not the right person to ask in regards to horsepower and V6 engines and things like that but I can give you a mum’s perspective on it.
The Volt we drove was one of only two prototype vehicles – the Volt will be on the market in 2011 – in North America and you’ll be seeing it all around town during the Olympics. It has a surprising amount of trunk space, much more than you’d expect. And I was very taken with the fact that you can set it up to let you know via your iPhone how much battery power it has, if it’s time to charge it etc. I’d buy it for that feature alone – assuming it’s competitively priced, which they say it will be. To see more photos check out Crunchy Carpet’s report and the more in depth pix her husband took.
The other amazing thing about it is that it’s completely quiet to drive. I didn’t even realize it was turned on, it’s like a stealth vehicle. It has a little power booster switch (aka sport button) if you need a little extra juice and you can put it into a drive mode that repowers the battery while you’re driving, which is interesting as you can feel the drag when you do that.
It would be great for commuting or if most of your trips were short and around town. I just want them to make an electric equivalent to the Mazda5 and I don’t imagine it’ll be long in coming.
And here’s M’s review of an electric car from a six-year-old perspective: It was very quiet. And it had cup holders in the back. And I enjoyed chatting with the man who was sitting next to Mummy.
It’s so interesting to see the appealing alternatives people are coming up with to traditional vehicles. Let’s hope the Volt is just the thin end of the wedge.
my (long) road to loving lunapanties
By annemarie on February 3, 2010 | Filed Under eco friendly, live and learn, things
So this has to be a blog post rather than an article as there’s simply too much backstory here to fit into 300 (ish) words and anyhow I suspect that I might need more than 300 words to convince you to join me in my newest love affair.
So when I first heard about Lunapads, a local company with an international reach that sells reusable menstrual products I thought, “Really, there are some things in life I shouldn’t have to reuse and ‘feminine protection’ is one of those things.” I didn’t do cloth diapers. I try and eat organic when it fits in our budget. I reuse bags like mad and I use non-toxic cleaners and detergents but I figured a girl had to draw the line somewhere.
But the two amazing owners, Madeleine and Suzanne, quietly, unobtrusively and unassumingly, chipped away at my prejudice. First I was given a few of their pantyliners to try but they languished in my dresser till one day I was out of regular pantyliners and turned to them in a pinch. Hmm….that wasn’t so bad I thought. The mess and ick factor wasn’t overwhelming. And I saved money on disposables. Plus the cotton was more comfy than whatever absorbent gel stuff used with “mainstream” menstrual products.
After a few months on that roll I thought I’d try the DivaCup. A reusable alternative to tampons it’s made of health care grade silicon (no latex in sight) and it’s hypoallergenic plus you can wear it for up to 12 hours. Well – and only read the rest of this paragraph (you’ll be safe after that) if you’re a fan of too much information – I tried it and lost it. Inside me. Up there. Yurp. A friend who’s used hers for years thought that was a fallacy until I assured that no, in fact, it could happen. After I found it again, which involved way more self exploration than I was comfortable with, I put it on the shelf where it sits to this day. I suspect that one day I will try it again when I have a tampon emergency, but I’m not putting any pressure on myself.
Which brings us to Lunapanties. I am seriously in love with these organic cotton undies that have an absorbent layer of fleece in the gusset which is like wearing a built in pantyliner. Plus they have handy cotton bands in the gusset so you can add liners to give yourself added protection. I mean really, what woman out there doesn’t need a bit of backup sometimes? Whether you’re having a “light day” or you haven’t been doing your kegels and you leak when you sneeze or you want some added back up for your tampons (or DivaCup) these are brilliant. They’re also comfy, come in fun colours and come in a thong if that’s your style.
Thanks to Lunapanties I’ve cut down on my feminine protection budget, I’m more comfy and I get that little glow one gets from doing something better for the environment and, I suspect, my body.
And are they are little messier? Umm, yeah. And do they take a little more time to use in terms of rinsing etc? Yup. And do I need a full week-long compliment of them so I’m not doing extra laundry during that time of the month? I do.
Which reminds me I’ve got to tell the Lunapads girls about Buncha Farmers All Natural Stain Remover which works non-toxic wonders at keeping my Lunapanties looking less than grotty.
I suspect that I am not alone in my slow but zealous conversion to their products – I gifted my mum and sister with Lunapanties in their stockings and they both love them too. “They’re also really warm!” commented my East-coast based sister, which frankly hadn’t occurred to me as a selling point but then we’ve had a very warm winter on the West coast.
So what have I learned from my Lunapads conversion? Never say never and you don’t have to do all or nothing. I now get through my cycle with a combo of Lunapanties and LunaPad’s pantyliners, Natracare organic feminine hygiene products and mainstream/traditional products. And maybe, just maybe, one day I’ll unearth my DivaCup. Or not.
this is how we roll
By annemarie on January 25, 2010 | Filed Under events, faces & places
So this Sunday we were inspired to visit both the Museum of Anthropology as they celebrate their grand reopening and ride the Olympic Line streetcar from the Canada Line to Granville Island.
We headed out en masse to the MOA in the morning but I was disappointed. Not by the museum, which is such a fabulous space packed with amazing stuff, but by the fact that the kids wouldn’t listen to the music and stories or watch the dancers and just weren’t that into it. I always have high hopes of lovely, cultural excursions where the kids totally engage but the reality rarely lives up to my expectations. Admittedly they did love Bill Reid’s Raven carving, in part I’m sure because you could run in a circle around it and there’s a bare bum (their words not mine) sticking out of the shell. A museum guide also told them the story of which they loved.
There is also a very cool installation called Becoming Rivers – a series of boats that winds it’s way throughout the interior and exterior of the museum that they loved following through the museum and into the outdoors. This is one of those cases where I think I should probably be satisfied that any of the art spoke to them on any level – even if was the level of bare bums and boats.
ffter a pause that refreshes at home, in the afternoon the girls and I headed out again and braved the elements – which were very elemental – to ride the streetcar from Cambie to Granville Island and buy a ham for Monday’s dinner. Our adventure included lots of wandering around the island, the main market and the Kids’ Only Market too. I don’t find Granville Island, the market in particular, very relaxing with two kids in tow. It’s busy at the best of time but add two tots getting distracted by the candy and bakery counters and being rather lethal with their umbrellas and it’s all a bit stressful. However I tried to channel some zen energyand rolled with their pace and we all had a good time.
As for the streetcar we all agree it rocks! No more worrying about parking issues on the island. It’s quick, it’s quiet, it’s free and it’s fun. Everyone talks to everyone else on it and the conductors/drivers are very friendly and forthcoming. We are already sad that the cars have to go back to Belgium after March 21st as we think this is a great way to travel.
It’s recommended that you take the Canada Line to connect with the Olympic Line but I just couldn’t bear to pay bus fare to go one stop, so we parked nearby. Had I know they had a handy parking lot right next door I would have parked there so don’t make the same mistake I did! And do make sure to hop aboard before it’s gone!
p.s. you’ll notice the lovely MOA shots accompanying the first half of this article and well, nothing for the streetcar. That’s because I bumped into a friend and fab photog mama at the MOA and she shared her pix with me. I always have the best intentions to take pix but they fall by the wayside when I’m child wrangling…
peace out
By annemarie on January 20, 2010 | Filed Under contests, events, faces & places, guest bloggers
Congratulations to Stacy Calogero, yoyomama reader, who won our copy for Listen to the Wind. And thanks again to Shoni Field for the donation.
fter our review of Greg Mortenson’s Pennies for Peace campaign last week, Shoni Field, a yoyomama subscriber and lucky attendee, sent us both this review and a copy of Listen to the Wind to give away. Keep reading to find out how to win!
Greg Mortenson took his message of peace and hope to three sell-out crowds across the Lower Mainland late last week. He’s the American mountain climber/nurse who stumbled into the tiny and remote village of Korphe in Pakistan after a failed climb of K2 in 1993 and didn’t leave before promising to build them a school. He did, and has gone on (with the Central Asia Institute that he founded) to build over 130 more schools in the most remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
I’d got tickets to last Thursday’s event for my mom for Christmas and so we set off in the rain to meet the man whose books and work have so inspired us.
There were lots of kids (even quite young) in the audience. Not only has he spent the last 16 years with school children, he has two young kids of his own, so Greg was right at home. He had the kids up on stage, answering questions and helping him read quotes. Seeing them attentive and engaged I could see why some of the first money Greg every raised came as $623.45 in pennies from an elementary school. I’m hoping I can introduce Pennies for Peace [www.penniesforpeace.org ] at my six-year-old’s school – what a powerful opportunity to not only teach the value of philanthropy but also help children understand others – an important building block on the road to peace.
It is hard to fit 16 years of awe-inspiring work into one post so I strongly recommend reading Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools. But here are a few things really stuck in my mind from the evening:
The Central Asia Institute requires that communities actively work towards getting at least 50% of girls enrolled. There are many reasons why educating girls is so important: basic equality, the impact education can have on a families health and nutrition to name a few, but there is one that speaks to the larger political context of Greg’s work in the area. Sons have to ask their mother’s permission before joining a jihad. Mothers, with even basic education, are less likely to give that permission. Giving future moms opportunities can change the world folks!
Something else that stuck: Greg says whenever he asks women what they want the answer is the same: we don’t want our babies to die; we want our children to be educated. Who can argue with that?
And finally, a picture: two men, tribal leaders, fierce-looking, robes, beards…and giddy with laughter swinging on the swings at a CAI school. Men who were taken out of school at age 12 to fight the Russians and have been fighting ever since. The thing they want most is for their children to get an education…and have a playground.
A great night spent listening to a warm and genuine man who would clearly rather be deep in Taliban territory than putting himself in the public eye. But, he believes that the best way to peace is through education, and so there he was on a rainy night in January speaking to a sellout crowd in North Vancouver, far from his family in Montana and even farther from his work in Central Asia. Thank you Greg Mortenson.
When I got our books signed Greg asked if I could find a home for a second copy of his children’s book. There was such great feedback to the yoyomama article last week that I immediately thought of all of you, so accepted a signed copy of Listen to the Wind to give away.
Listen to the Wind is a beautiful storybook about how Greg and the villagers of Korphe built their school. Both my six and three-year-old have requested the story several times already – enjoying both the story and the photos at the end of the “real” kids of Korphe.
To enter to win a signed copy for your home library check out how www.penniesforpeace.org helps builds awareness of the larger world and philanthropy for children and then comment below on what ideas you might use with your own child.
You’re got a week to get your entries in. Somewhat fittingly the cut off time will be midnight on January 27th (aka Family Literacy Day) and we’ll pick a winner randomly.
dads (& kids) in the kitchen
By annemarie on January 18, 2010 | Filed Under guest bloggers, parenting
To my mind – and the mind of most mums I know – there’s something trés appealing about dads in the kitchen. So when I was talking with cookbooker.com founder Andrew Gray who lives on the island, I asked if he’d write a column with his top tips for cooking with his kids, something he does frequently:
I’ve been cooking with my kids since they were old enough to stand on chairs in the kitchen and steal chocolate chips from the bowl. Now, my main accomplice in the kitchen is my four-year-old daughter, L, who has developed an abiding interest in cooking. In the time I’ve been doing this with her and her older sister I’ve developed a few basic tips to make cooking with kids easier. It is a great thing to do – it’s time together in a shared task, it lets them help out at home, and might spark an interest in cooking and food that will last a lifetime.
Tips:
- Have fun. Above all, what you do in the kitchen should be enjoyable for both of you or nobody is going to want to do it. (editor’s note: I’m a destination person. My kids are more about enjoying the journey. When I cook with them I have to let go of getting the muffins in the oven asap and just enjoy mixing the batter.)
- Embrace imperfection. The first tip depends on this. If you worry too much about mess and mistakes, you’ll be tense and so will your kids. They need to learn how to mess up and learn from it.
- Manage imperfection. Embracing imperfection doesn’t mean ruining your recipes. L has been cracking eggs since she was two – she does them one at a time into a separate bowl so we can remove any shell fragments before adding the egg into the larger recipe. Similarly, I let her scoop flour and other ingredients, but just double check the measurements before they go into the mixing bowl.
- Pick the right recipes. Start simply with foods they like which aren’t too complicated to make. You can’t fail with pancakes, cookies, muffins and cakes. They can start by helping to measure, stirring batter, sifting and cracking eggs.
- Let them taste everything. If you don’t want fingers in your batter, put some ingredients in a little bowl for them to snack on as you go – fruit, nuts, chocolate chips are all popular. L will even snack on flour. . . (editor’s note: my kids both love to snack on flour. I think it’s weird. And not tasty. So I’m glad to hear it’s not just them.)
Cookbooks
There are some great cookbooks out there for kids. We’ve particularly enjoyed C is for Cooking, the Sesame Street Cookbook. It’s bright, well laid-out, and has healthy and very tasty recipes. Their chocolate cake, for example, can be made in one bowl and has become our birthday standard. For slightly more advanced kid chefs, Phaidon has just released The Silver Spoon for Children, a selection of recipes expertly adapted from the famous Italian cookbook and aimed at kids 10 and up who want to try cooking for themselves (though I think L will be getting into it a bit earlier than that!).
Andrew Gray is the founder of Cookbooker a website where people rate and review their cookbook recipes.
