Greenfully Grateful


This is my entry for this month’s Green Moms Carnival.

The theme is about gratitude and the three green things that you absolutely love the most.

Look for the entire gathering of gratitude posts next Monday. Hosted by none other than…me!!

I don’t know why autumn brings me to a space of flowing thanks, but it does. Is the annual season of death swirling color of leaves, dips in temperature and the comforting cocooning of winter meant to have us pause and reflect??  Well if so, it works for me every time.

Thinking greenly there were indeed three things that struck me that I will be forever grateful for…

The shining beautiful green eyes of my daughter speak to me. Her love, her reflection of me, her spirit and her youth inspire my very day. She started out blue eyed, equally beautiful and I have a picture of her then to remind me that once they were blue. I don’t know when they went green truthfully. That they are. Greenly

She and I are close. I treasure that immensely.  We both are taking strides for a different more separate closeness as she prepares to leave for college. I don’t feel anxious about her leaving my nest, as I didn’t when her brother moved out on his own. He was ready. She will be too. As will I


Summer 2008


Once upon a time a remarkable forward thinking man pioneered a revolutionary green cleaning product created in his personal lab from soy. It was organic, it was non-toxic, it was bio-degradable  AND it was WAY before bio-degradable was even in the dictionary. His 1956 premise was to ship concentrate.  You add the water, and save on ooodles of plastic bottles in the landfills.  What a green visionary he was!  Two drops of this liquid concentrate cleaning wonder in a 16 oz spray bottle of water is all you need for a product that makes windows sparkle.  Two drops!  Take that one bottle of concentrate and apply it to just making window cleaning and it will make thousands and thousands of bottles of glistening window wonder.  Thousands! Think of the plastic bottles NOT  going into the landfills.  A product with over 1001 uses – you barely need anything else. I simply adore this product. I marvel at it’s cleaning capacity and I am in awe of how long one bottle lasts me.

As science has the ability to move forward the original recipe has shifted from soy to corn. DOUBLING the concentration!! Seriously Cool Greenness.


glorious greenness flickr image

This summer my landlord opened up her rolling composting drum to me and said have at it – dump your veggie scraps away.  New to the idea I saved what I’d normally throw away in the garbage and put into composting instead.  My garbage at the curb reduced by about 75%! 

It occurs to me that composting is an absolutely huge organic multi-function solution to our landfill concerns. Rotting fruits, veggies , eggshells, tea and coffee grinds can be put to use to create a purposeful nutrient rich mulch that can be used again and again and again. I had no idea of the personal impact composting would have not only on reducing MY personal contribution to the garbage pile, and to the reduced costs of garbage stickers but on the planet.

Why isn’t community composting the norm?  


the beauty of scraps flickr image 

K a r e n     H a n r a h a n
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This entry was written by Karen Hanrahan, posted on October 27, 2008 at 2:24 pm, filed under Creativity, Green and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.

11 Comments

  1. Mary
    Posted October 27, 2008 at 4:47 pm | Permalink

    What a lovely tribute to good parenting – kids who take your calls!Re: composting in Kalamazoo, MI I remember fields of leaves piled and rotting (getting turned via bulldozers) and then the compost was available to everyone. That can’t happen out here in OC – it’s so dry that nothing breaks down – it’s like straw inside a barn.

  2. nadine sellers
    Posted October 27, 2008 at 6:41 pm | Permalink

    oh what beautiful scraps you have my dear!all the better for the bacteria my dear…and the best for the garden and the herbs also.

  3. Karen Hanrahan
    Posted October 27, 2008 at 8:26 pm | Permalink

     I would love to see that image around here, bulldozers pushing piles of leaves and compost for all – we need to get you back to the midwest.

  4. Karen Hanrahan
    Posted October 27, 2008 at 8:27 pm | Permalink

    ahh and the all  better for growing more food next spring my dear….

  5. Diane MacEachern
    Posted October 28, 2008 at 2:29 pm | Permalink

    I really connect with your comments about your daughter. My “little girl” is the light of my life, too, even though she’s not so little any more.

  6. Ira Goodman
    Posted October 28, 2008 at 8:29 pm | Permalink

    A low cost, green eco friendly, natural healthy way to clean your body, house, car, etc. is to make a homemade liquid from <a href="soapberry“>http://www.healthynaturalcleaner.com/”>soapberry which grows on the Chinaberry tree and has been used for thousands of years. It works very effectively.

  7. Karen Hanrahan
    Posted October 28, 2008 at 10:21 pm | Permalink

    They are amazing aren’t they ??  I am glad that what I wrote reminded you of that connection

  8. Lori Friedman
    Posted October 28, 2008 at 11:30 pm | Permalink

    Hi Karen,For the 20 years we had a house in NJ, we had a composting center – where we could bring our compost to a huge area and where you could take compost. They still have it.As for Kate’s eyes – you can see the sparkle – from the time my son was born I would always stare at his eyes (they are my father’s eyes – same shape & color, and they fill my heart with unspeakable joy.Lori

  9. Karen Hanrahan
    Posted October 29, 2008 at 3:15 pm | Permalink

    I think community composting should be part of all communities environmental initiatives.  I am so glad your son brings you such unspeakable joy.  I agree our kids eyes sparkle – twinkle – glisten – shine …..

  10. JessTrev
    Posted November 4, 2008 at 1:22 am | Permalink

    I’m in love with compost at the moment too, so you may also want to try your hand at worm farming. It’s similarly addictive!

  11. Karen Hanrahan
    Posted November 4, 2008 at 4:38 am | Permalink

    Seriously? You are going to have to tell me more about it!

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