Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Earth Day


Today is Earth Day. I didn't even realize it until we were getting my 7-year old ready for bed last night and he stated that he needed an Earth Day hat for today. "I won't be allowed to be in the Earth Day parade if I don't have an Earth Day hat made out of recycled stuff!"

(Ugh!) "Go tell your dad."

I went upstairs to put my daughter to bed and found my husband folding, taping, and cutting the comic's section of the newspaper. I looked at him with a blank look. THAT is going to be his Earth Day hat? Then I looked at my son. He had a HUGE smile on his face.

"Can I wear it on the way to school tomorrow?"

"Sure! And what a great job YOU did on that hat!"

"Dad made it."

(I know.)

I didn't realize that today was even Earth Day, but I find myself being more and more environmentally conscious all the time. What's on my mind mostly now is using less gas. I'm trying to drive as little as possible. I've been walking my son to and home from school every day. My husband even rides his bike to work. It's pretty far, about a 20 minute drive across town.

I also try not to give my kids ride to places that they can walk. Yesterday my daughter asked me if I could drive her to her friend's house that was about 5 blocks away. "No. You can walk or ride your bike. And on your way could you stop at Grandma's house and pick up her paper for her (to save me a trip)?"

Then my 12-year old son's friend called and asked if he could go golfing. "Sure. Why don't you guys walk there?" It's only a few blocks away. His friend replied, "I'm not allowed to. And could YOUR mom drive us there?"

15 comments:

Maria (also Bia) said...

My best friend's daughter is doing a recycling project with the Girl Scouts. She made a skirt out of empty caprisun containers, and earrings out of aluminum cans. It really was clever.

I wish we could walk to school!
God bless.

dawn klinge said...

That's a pretty great hat! :) I really need to cut back on driving also- my motivation keeps getting stronger as the price of gas goes up.

Anonymous said...

What an AWESOME hat!
We have cut WAY back on Driving.

We try to lump everything together in one outing every few days....it saves on gas and time. We are blessed though...we live VERY close (within a mile) to walmart, target, Kohls, the mall.

We do live about 15 mintues from Eric's college. He wants to purchase a bike soon so he can bike to work...

Great Post!

Burgh Baby said...

That's good thinking on Dad's part with the hat. It turned out pretty darn good!

I want to drive less, I just haven't figured out how to do it. Darn Pittsburgh and it's completely worthless public transportation system!

Amy said...

We cleaned up the empty lot across the street. My boys and my neighbor's boys all picked up tras - they were really cute.

Don Mills Diva said...

That's a pretty cool hat for short notice - nice!

Tammy said...

Pretty nice hat for needing it last minute.

Driving and saving gas....I agree. We are trying to do more walking as well and running errands only once a week instead of every day.

Kellan said...

Hope you had a good Earth Day, Maria! Hope you have a good WEdnesday too - take care - Kellan

Jenny said...

What a cool hat! I would be proud to wear it too, it's a very clever idea!

I also think it's great that you're walking and riding bicycles more. Litte changes make a big difference, good for you!

Ice Cream said...

Boys are so easy to please.

I had forgotten about it being earth day too until my kids came home from school with all this earth day stuff. I didn't know kids needed so much stuff (that we would later throw away) to learn about earth day.

Nan Patience said...

Needing an Earth Day hat, and what your husband assembled, very funny.

Karen said...

Kids just don't get the walking thing anymore, do they? Sadly, we live so far out in the country that walking anywhere is just out of the question.

Kila said...

Cool hat! :)

Becky said...

I love that you said, "Go tell your dad", lol.

Your son sure looked tickled with what dad came up with, lol!

Amy said...

Good for you! I keep trying a little at a time too. I should be walking the kids to school as well...you may have inspired me!