Online Environmental Activism? We’re Just Getting Started!
It’s the day after the election, and I figured by now I’d be exhausted from staying up so late watching the returns. Or perhaps I’d be practicing the remarks I’m making on Green PR at DC’s PRSA meeting tomorrow.
But no.
Barack Obama is not the only one who immediately turned his attention to setting the agenda for his administration. My group of green online activist friends is already planning how to best advance the green agenda in the next administration.
This morning I received an email from Big Green Purse author Diane MacEachern, who has become a good bloggy friend since her interview on OrganicMania. Diane was reaching out to all of the Green Moms Carnival participants to invite us to participate in a new online forum she created called “The Prevention Agenda.”
Diane is hoping to create an agenda (or series of agendas) focused on preventing environmental and human health threats, rather than just cleaning up after them. As she says, “My hope is that the forum will help create a groundswell of support for changing our approach to threats to human health and the environment. Hopefully, response to the forum will be strong enough to lead to a series of Prevention Agendas on specific topics that can be presented to the Obama administration before the inauguration.”
I immediately jumped online and registered (Member #1), posing a question about one of my main concerns: the chemical soup of ingredients that are allowed in our personal care products. You can read and respond to my question here.
The emails started flying. The Green Moms are charged up. You ain’t seen nothing yet!
Come check it out The Prevention Agenda. Because as the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
What do you think about this? Leave a comment and share!
— Lynn
Copyright 2008 OrganicMania
Filed under Blog, Cancer, Consulting Business, Green Ideas & Stuff, Green moms, Green Moms Carnival Home Page & Calendar | Wordpress Comments (4) |Green Moms on Gratitude
Today is the first Monday in November. Yes, it’s the day before Election Day, but it’s also the launch of this month’s Green Mom’s Carnival. Check out all the great submissions on gratitude and green things today over at Best of Mother Earth.
Filed under Green moms | Wordpress Comment (1) |Finding Time for Gratitude Amidst the Chaos of Everyday Life
I normally approach the Green Moms carnival topics with gusto. Global warming? I’m all over it. Back to School? Sign me up. But when my bloggy friend Karen of Best of Mother Earth asked the Green Moms to blog about gratitude, I paused. I procrastinated. As the days ticked by and the deadline passed, I found myself making excuses. I’m sick. The boys are sick. DH has been away on travel quite a bit lately. I’m behind. I have major deliverables for three different clients due within a few days of each other. Oh, and we’re bidding farewell to our well loved nanny of six years and transitioning my youngest into a part time day care situation. I’m stressed.
Busy, behind, call it what you will, but I wasn’t feeling particularly gracious or full of gratitude. Sure, I went through the motions. In our family, we say grace before the evening meal. We go to church Wednesday evening and give thanks again. And sometimes, when we don’t oversleep, we all make it to church on Sunday.
But the fact is, when things aren’t going the way you expected, no matter how good things are – no matter how much better off you know you are than so many others – it can be hard to feel truly grateful. By truly grateful, I mean something deeper, simpler and more profound than that twisted form of Schadenfreude that strikes Moms who think “Well, the whole family has been sick for two weeks but at least it’s not cancer.”
At times like this I think of my friend and rector Margaret Guenther, who in her many books has written about the need to be still. You have to get away from all the everyday madness before you can look inside yourself and have the capacity to truly think, reflect, and yes, appreciate.
Perhaps that’s why one of my favorite green things (back to the Carnival theme!) is to steal away to my CSA. I love the simplicity of the place. The clean garage stocked with bins full to overflowing of fresh, mud splattered produce. Sweet beets, stocky carrots, fresh baked bread and more. A chalkboard with the day’s share carefully written for all to see. Old fashioned hanging scales ready to weigh our shares. I always feel refreshed by the time I leave there, canvas bag filled to overflowing with biodynamic produce. It’s like a trip back in time.
But that’s just one green thing for which I’m grateful. The other two?
That’s easy.
OrganicMania and the Community of Green Moms who participate in the Green Moms Carnival. Why? Because of the wonderful people I’ve come to know through both of these online communities.
And I know, I know…I have lots to be grateful for. It’s just that sometimes, it’s hard to stop and really, fully appreciate all that we have been given. But I did stop. Finally. And I do appreciate these three green wonders and so much more…
What about you?
Leave a comment and share!
And don’t forget to check out all the Green Moms carnival posts on Monday over at Best of Mother Earth.
— Lynn
Copyright 2008 OrganicMania
Filed under Blog, CSAs, Green moms | Wordpress Comments (9) |BlogHERs, Green Moms, and Film
People who know me “in the real world” know I’m not shy. You can still tell that I was the girl voted “most talkative” in my high school class! Yet when it comes to the blogosphere, I haven’t always been my normal gregarious self. I’ve been ribbed about not having a picture up on Twitter, and for trying to pass myself off as Catherine Zeta Jones here on OrganicMania.
There’s something special about connecting with other like-minded souls though the power of our words. When I read blogs, I think about the blogger’s sentiments. I don’t look at someone who may or may not share my race, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, or age.
Yet as I prepared for BlogHER DC and my first face-to-face meeting with some of my Green Mom’s Carnival friends, I reverted to the old stereotype that I poked fun of in this post, BlogHERs Worrying About What to Wear. Of course, I had more to worry about than just meeting a bunch of cybersisters for the first time – I was also self-conscious about appearing on camera for noted documentary film maker Min Sook Lee’s upcoming film.
I couldn’t avoid the camera this time. This was something different – something worth doing. Min Sook is trying to raise awareness of the toxic products marketed to the most innocent among us – our babies.
She first spoke to Sommer Poquette aka Green & Clean Mom about her film project, and Sommer suggested that Min fly to DC’s BlogHER conference to meet several of the other “Green Moms Carnival” Moms. Although we email each other on a near-daily basis, it was the first time we had all met each other – Jenn Savedge of The Green Parent, Jennifer Taggert, aka SmartMama, Diane MacEachern of Big Green Purse fame, Jess, formerly of SurelyYouNest and late of Green Phone Booth, and Sommer.
So I put aside my fears and put on my lead-free lipstick and marched out to the conference. We enjoyed BlogHER and met up for dinner afterwards, joined by C. Levine of FoodieTots.
It was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve had in my journey as a mother. These women are so bright, and so committed to making a difference and to empowering other women to make the right decisions for the health of their children.
And as I looked around the BlogHER conference room at all the women I didn’t know, I smiled at a few of the BlogHERs. As I looked at their faces, I wondered about what was going on inside their heads. What words of wisdom would pour out of their blogs the next day as they reflected on BlogHER?
In some sense, I wish I hadn’t been so preoccupied with Min and the cameras – I missed much of the conference as Min filmed The Smart Mama testing Big Boy’s toys for lead. (Be sure to read Jess’s great post about what turned up in the lead testing). But next year, there will be another BlogHER. The opportunity to be a part of Min’s film and to connect with these very special “Green Moms” was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Just one more example of how blogging truly has changed my life.
— Lynn
Copyright 2008 OrganicMania
Filed under Green moms, Parenting | Wordpress Comments (10) |Green Moms Carnival on Monday!
Tomorrow be sure to head on over to Green Bean Dreams to read a compendium of some of the best green bloggers talking about how to fight holiday commercialism. Curious to know more about the Green Moms Carnival? Read on or get the full scoop at the Green Moms Carnival Home Page.
It all started when I wondered why Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop had a list of top green blogs that did not include Green Mom bloggers. After all, Moms not only control the household purse strings, but we’re largely responsible for raising the next generation and influencing their adoption of green, eco-friendly habits.
I put together a list of what I considered to be the top Green Mom blogs, using Technorati’s “Magic Middle” ranking as a guideline. Next, I proposed that Alltop launch a new category – Green Moms. Alltop accepted all of us and added us to green.alltop.com
Then I set about contacting the Moms. Some I knew well, but a few were new to me. We started an email list and had a great time emailing back and forth. Then Alana of GrayMatters mentioned that it would be a shame to lose contact, and that we should think of a joint project. That’s when I proposed the Green Moms Carnival…and we were off and running. Very soon we added what I dubbed “Mothers of the Earth” – some other fantastic green women bloggers who are not Moms. And as soon as we publicized the carnival, we received submissions from “fans of Moms” and “sons of Moms” so we included them too!
Who are the Green Moms of the Green Moms Carnival?
- Best of Mother Earth
- Big Green Purse
- Crunchy Chicken
- Eco ‘Burban
- Enviromom
- Fake Plastic Fish
- Going Green
- Gray Matters
- Green and Clean Mom
- Green Bean Dreams
- Green Style Mom
- Green Talk
- In Women We Trust
- La Marguerite
- Mindful Momma
- Organic Mania
- Surely You Nest
- The Green Parent
- The Not Quite Crunchy Parent
- The Smart Mama
Curious to know more about the Green Moms Carnival? You can learn everything about how to participate at the Green Moms Carnival Home Page. Please spread the word or join in!
— Lynn
Copyright OrganicMania 2008
Filed under Green moms, Green Moms Carnival Home Page & Calendar | Wordpress Comment (1) |Holiday Mania Approaches: Take Control
Outside it may be Indian Summer, but step foot into your local stores and you may think we’re just days away from Halloween or even Christmas.
But the fact is, the holidays are not here yet. They’re actually a long way off. This means that you have time to give some thought to how YOU want to spend the holidays. What type of traditions would you like to establish in your family?
Every year we hear people complaining about the commercialization of the holidays. So many of us wish there was something we could do to turn the clock back to the simpler days of years past. There is something you can do – as a parent, you’re in control of what traditions are introduced to your family. It’s never too late to start anew.
Take Halloween. What used to be a simple holiday dedicated to trick-or-treating and bobbing for apples has morphed into a commercial extravaganza featuring everything from outdoor electric light displays to “gift bags” at Halloween parties. Have kids changed so much in a generation that candy is no longer a big enough treat at Halloween?
No, it’s not the kids that have changed. It’s the marketing messages that have changed. What was once a simple holiday aimed at children has now become yet another holiday extravaganza full of sophisticated marketing messages urging adults to buy, buy, buy more cheap and tacky stuff that somehow promises to make our holidays all the happier. But the truth is, the only things this junk will do is pollute our earth and empty our pocketbooks.
If you’re looking for some tips and tricks on how to fight consumerism this holiday season, check out these resources:
– Center for A New American Dream, which has loads of resources about fighting excess commercialism;
– GreenHalloween.org, which has tips on going green at school and at home;
and be sure to visit the Green Moms Carnival on Monday over at Green Bean Dreams. My sisters in arms will be posting about ways you can help retake the holiday spirit by fighting holiday commercialism.
How will you plan to celebrate Halloween this year? Leave a comment and share!
Lynn
Copyright 2008 OrganicMania
Filed under Cheap Plastic Crap, Green moms, Holidays, Parenting, Savings Tips | Wordpress Comments (10) |The Night Time Trash People
We all know kids rebel. As a Green Mom, I’d like to believe that my children will absorb at least some of our family’s eco-friendly habits. But sometimes I worry that my green parenting practices might lead my eldest son to rebel like Alex P. Keaton.
So you can imagine how I felt when I overheard this conversation between Big Boy and his cousin, as my DH, his brother, the wives and kids enjoyed a picnic dinner at DC’s Southwest waterfront.
Big Boy: “There’s a lot of trash around here.”
Bigger Boy Cousin: “Let’s pick it up!”
Big Boy: “Awesome, dude. Let’s be the Night Time Trash People. We’ll run around picking up trash.”
Laughing, screaming noise, as two six-year-olds and a nine-year-old run around picking up trash.
On the walk back to metro, Bigger Boy Cousin says, ”You know, there’s too much trash in the world and it’s really bad for the environment.”
Big Boy: “Yeah, because it weighs so much, it could like split the Earth in half. Then the continents would just split down the middle with a big crack.”
Bigger Boy Cousin: “Yeah, and then the world would heat up too much and there would be no oxygen and we would just vaporize and die.”
Big Boy: “Yeah, then we’d just float around like floating skeletons like aliens or something. Cool. We’d all be alien floating skeletons.”
At this point, I made a mental note to make sure that we weren’t terrorizing the kids with overheard tales of looming eco-tragedies.
The next morning, Big Boy informed me that he needed to make posters telling people to recycle. He wants to hang them on trees all around the neighborhood.
I wondered about the wisdom of hanging posters from trees. But off he ran, soon to come back with 60 copies expertly run off on my office printer. NOT double-sided. I took a deep breath, and decided his heart was in the right place.
And we’re off to hang posters. Anyone need about forty extras?
— Lynn
Copyright 2008 OrganicMania
Filed under Green Ideas & Stuff, Green moms | Wordpress Comments (2) |Dealing with the Schools: Coping as a Green Mom
It’s not often that I’m taken by surprise, since I tend to research issues to death. But want to know the reason there have been so few posts of late? It’s this back to school thing. I honestly thought that my life would get easier when my son started first grade at the local public school. Instead, I feel like I have another job.
Between morning melt downs, afternoon crying fits, folders stuffed full of papers to be reviewed by a responsible parental unit, and my continued Green Mom Culture Shock at the many environmentally unfriendly practices common to one of the most progressive school systems in the country – well, I’ve been exhausted!
For nearly a year now, but never more so than since the launch of the Green Moms Carnival, I’ve enjoyed the company of a like-minded sisterhood of Green Moms. These sympathetic souls include Green Moms with college-age kids– La Marguerite, Karen Hanrahan, Anna from GreenTalk and Diane MacEachern – as well as many with elementary school age kids like my Big Boy – the Not Quite Crunchy Parent, Surely You Nest, Sommer from Green and Clean Mom and even a few like me, still dealing with diapers – Alana from Gray Matters holding the honor of having the youngest baby among us.
Between the Green Moms in the blogosphere, the Green Parents who find their way to leave wonderful comments on OrganicMania, and my growing list of wonderful green clients, I thought that Green was everywhere.
Well, Green is not everywhere. So here I am, trying to figure which issue to address first. The mandatory plastic ziplock bags? The throw-away Styrofoam trays? The forced bussing past shuttered schools? The high fructose corn syrup laden lollypops handed out by my son’s math teacher? The cheap plastic crap toys given as rewards for good behavior? The environmentally unfriendly school fundraisers?
Hey Green Moms, how are you doing in week three of back-to-school? And have you been successful in “taking on” any of the environmentally unfriendly practices at your local schools?
And, yes, I am co-chairing the school’s Green Committee, so my question is serious. For those of you who have been successful at bringing about change, what’s worked? And what hasn’t worked?
— Lynn
Filed under Green moms, Green Schools | Wordpress Comments (8) |Green Mom Culture Shock: Back to School
As a seasoned mother of a six-year-old and a nearly two-year-old, I thought I was past the point where much could shock me. But then school started.
And suddenly I went from the friendly confines of the Green Mom blogosphere to the public school system, where teachers routinely send home “supply lists” containing environmentally unfriendly items such as (gasp) plastic ziplock bags and Purell hand sanitizer (2 bottles, please!), where students use thousands of styrofoam lunch trays each day, and where fossil fuels are burned sending children to school on buses that drive past shuttered schools near the bus stops.
I feel like a creature in a strange land.
How’s it going in your world?
— Lynn
Correction: This post originally stated that the styrofoam trays were thrown away. That is incorrect. They are re-used and then after they break are sent to the incinerator.
Filed under Green Ideas & Stuff, Green moms, Green Schools | Wordpress Comments (17) |An Oldie But A Goody: Healthy, Organic & On The Road at Crunchy Domestic Goddess!
Crunchy Domestic Goddess is one of the blogosphere’s original “Green Moms.” Our goddess Amy was green before anyone called it green! So it’s a special thrill to have one of OrganicMania’s favorite posts, “Healthy, Organic & On The Road” featured over at Crunchy Domestic Goddess. Check it out!
Amy’s been blogging since ’04, is a contributing editor at BlogHer and API Speaks, a reviewer at Green Mom Finds, a contributor to 5 Minutes for Going Green and she’s the “Eco Diva” at Blissfully Domestic. She is one of the most outspoken and well informed voices in the Green Mom blogosphere on issues including natural living, extended breastfeeding, and natural birth.
This week, Crunchy Domestic Goddess is featuring some of her favorite posts from other Green voices around the blogosphere. So go take a peek – it’s a great way to catch some of the best green posts around.
Thanks, Amy, for all you do, and have a great vacay!
— Lynn
Filed under Blog, Green Ideas & Stuff, Green moms, Parenting | Wordpress Comments (2) |
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