I asked my kids for this elegant composting veggie and fruit scrap vessel for my birthday ( today!) and was gifted its elegance and wonderfulness.

Who knew that composting would please me ever so simply. Yet it does.

At first expression, it was a bit of a conundrum however as to what to do with the scraps, we’d use a bowl in the fridge.
 
This lovely receptacle notches the experience up a bit.

Would you agree?

Happy one year older to me!

The theme for this month’s Green Mom’s Carnival is Commercialism of the Holidays hosted by the lovely Michelle at Green Bean Dreams

When the theme was announced I was immediately reminded of this event:

In the country there was a farm I used to take my kids to where we would purchase our pumpkins. They had mountains of glorious orange globes.  Picturesque hay stacks, rows and rows of sunflowers where the kids could pick the seeds and eat, piles of knotty eclectic gourds, and colorful indian corn.  They pressed apples into cider there and someone was always there making homemade cider doughnuts.  It was elegantly simple and charming.

One year when we arrived the entire mood of the place had changed, there were lines of cars to get in, the parking had become remote – we actually had to pay a fee to park! There were carnival rides spewing smoke into the air, and vendor after vendor selling cheap manufactured craft like items.

All I could think about was that I had to pay a fee to buy a pumpkin?

My kids were lured into the entire scene.

I want to go on the carousel…

I was absolutely furious.

I wrote a letter to the farmer, who to his credit wrote me back on very nice pumpkin stationary.  Mind you, he didn’t particulary appreciate my discust for his whole new commercial approach to pumpkin farming.

I told him I came for a very specific feeling and expression and that I could no longer find there.

I also told him I didn’t buy a pumpkin.

He told me how sad it made him that I didn’t purchase a pumpkin. 

He then for about 3 pages explained the demise of the american farmer and that the pumpkin festival was the only way he could break even from the whole thing.  He mentioned how he had trouble feeding his family, the tone of the explanations were defensive and angry.  He told me I didn’t know what I was talking about. He was right. I knew nothing about the american farmer. His comment about not being able to feed his family floored me. Not the image I think of with food growing all around. I felt even worse. 

I never did go back to his farm. I tried to grow my own pumpkins and didn’t have much luck. As my kids got older Halloween changed for us and the control I tried to have as a parent shifted; at some level  the sugar, commercialized store bought costumes and foreign made decor won.  I gave in. 

Looking back and thinking differently now about consumerism or even thinking about becoming an empty nester and having to move all that crap, I feel ashamed that I made some of those purchase decisions, lured by the oh buy me call. 

I wish I could take back the money I wasted – it would have made a nice contribution to the college fund.  I wish I had been more thoughtful of the impact my purchasing has on the environment. Or what machinery my dollars were contributing to.  Recently it occured to me that the special unique thing I might be attracted to buy at Target is available to millions of people around the country. Certainly doesn’t make me an individual anymore. It makes me just like everyone else.  I took so much of that for granted before. I wish I had thought about it more instead of just going along. 

I think the choice to consume or not to consume is a conscientious one – choosing not to get caught in the hum of it all, choosing local homemade, homegrown, and back somehow to the simplicity of these holidays isn’t as easy as it sounds.

I have decades worth of halloween decor in my basement.  In recent years I have tried to give some of it away. At least at the local resale shop the purchasing goes to cause. Truth is I just don’t need it anymore 

Do we really need that plastic tray with the cute pumpkins all over it? 

Would the world end if we didn’t get it?? 

alluring vintage plastic halloween from flickr

K a r e n     H a n r a h a n
Wellness Educator/Nutritional Consultant
Mentoring YOU to Health Success
708.482.0678
 
Websites:
Nutrition
Weight Loss

Member of BNI – West Suburban BNI: “Chapter Mentor”
Member of West Suburban Women Entrepreneurs www.wswe.org
WSWE Board Member and Programming Chair

 

I don’t think there is a single lesson that can prepare someone for natural disaster.

Do you?

As a mom when crisis occurs there is this very automatic place one goes that has us be resourceful, brave, tireless and courageous.  I have been there.

Hurricanes however have me feel helpless.

How about you?

Two weeks ago a business colleague had a biopsy on her leg, she mentioned cancer and surgery. My heart went in a panic and I thought to myself please don’t let her see me loose it.  In the weeks to follow I found the best way for me to help was to be the voice of care. I let folks know when meals on wheels were needed and coordinated as best I could. When I visited her, I had to be brave as I felt all jiggly inside. Last thing she needed was to have to offer me support instead. 

Devastating illness has me feel helpless.

How about you?

A few yrs ago my uncle died. I was so remarkably sad about the news that I started to cry.  My aunt said I can’t take this right now.  How could I not be there for her when she needed me? 

I feel like perhaps I am not good at this crisis stuff.

What about you ?

A remarkable friend of mine lost her husband suddenly. Her grief had her retreat on a mission trip to a place of extreme poverty. Out of that she found a way to help, a way to bring food to starving children in Haiti, the What If Foundation was born.  8 years ago it began as a weekly program feeding 500 kids, it became a program that fed 1000 children daily and more.  In the recent wake of the hurricane there they are doing their best to feed more with less. I thought to myself what is it I can possible do?

A few weeks ago she began touring with her book she wrote – On That Day Everybody Ate – One Woman’s Story of Hope and Possibility in Haiti. Prior to her tour a loving hand signed copy of her book found it’s way to my mailbox. The story had me weep.

I do not know this level of poverty or this world of hatred. 

There are many cause organizations out there.   This is one I give to. I do so because I know the monies I give actually feeds someone. I know that all of it goes to the cause. Every penny

I can’t give very much but when I can I do

I also know that I CAN tell and I CAN share

Last week a woman contacted me through my blog, she has been helping children and parents understand how they learn for the last 30 years.  She just survived the devastation of Hurricane Ike in Texas. This weekend knowing it was coming, knowing the home she was visiting was being boarded up, I couldn’t get her out of my mind… Sure it rained here for 4 days straight and we had local flooding and sure I sit on the second floor of my home – safe. How was she?

She called today and shared the devastation. As a Californian, she had no idea how to prepare for a hurricane. Her brother in law, a life time resident took the warnings casually. We never get hit here. Their area got hit hard.

Did you know that if you duct tape the windows that when the break they break differently?  Did you know that if you fill the tub with water that will help you flush the toilet. What do you do when the water in the tub runs out?  How long can a dozen of eggs last?  People are stealing gasoline out of people’s cars. Millions of people have no electricity and may not for weeks.  What does 100 MPH winds look like  — let alone feel like.  What when the lightening strikes does it turn the sky an aqua blue? I was astounded by the things she shared. 

Again I felt absolutely helpless. 

She wrote a post on her blog Raising Smarter Children about 10 Things Children Learn From Tragedy.  I admire that out of all of this she is finding a way to say how can we find the good.

What do these tragedies teach us?

She asked me to share.

I can do that.

Please get the word out…our state of Texas needs us.

pre hurricane wave flickr image credit

 
Karen Hanrahan ~ Wellness Educator/Nutritional Consultant/Blog Author
708.482.0678 ~ Websites: Nutrition, Weight Loss, and Green Clean

A young man inherited a 20 acre parcel of his grandfather’s farm. His siblings got some too, they all sold it off, he kept what is now the last of the McDonald Farm, I could not help but sing to myself EIEIO!! 

He and his lovely new wife grow orgranic vegetables.  In one of the barns is a skateboard park, the double wide trailer, their new home landed this year. He’s a cabinet maker off season. She too seems to be a creative. I happened  to be there for a party with truly awesome live music over the Labor Day weekend.

I find myself intrigued with farm, youth, organics, expression, creatives – all of which I experienced here.

corn scape

in a row

busting with kernals

Karen Hanrahan ~ Wellness Educator/Nutritional Consultant/Blog Author
708.482.0678 ~ Websites: Nutrition, Weight Loss, and Green Clean

David Cassidy the iconic star of TV series Partridge Family is going to be singing in our area next week. They expect 2000 adoring fans all paying $100 a pop

I had a brief interlude with the rock star during my tween years, that lovely pre adolescence “in between” awkwardness of youth

I don’t know exactly when the shift  was, you know when boys go from cute to dreamy.  I remember thinking Jeff Krebs face full of freckles were really dandy

David Cassidy however was my ulitmate tween fanstasy.  I was 10.

Sharing a room with a sibling and also being completely embarrassed by my mad crush on David, I hung an 8 1/2 x 11 picture of him on the backof my head board with a piece of gum. I’d visit that picture as often as I could staring at it ever so dreamily, popping the gum in my mouth for a rechew so that it could be used again as a sneaky adhesive.

My mother had a real hoot of a time once she discovered the picture. She and my sister did a really good job of teasing me about it 

Of course once my secret was discovered I couldn’t really go about my ” oh he’s so beautiful ” staring ritual anymore.
 
I personally thought the use of the gum was brilliant!

The paper mentioned the 1970 best selling song ” I Think I Love You”  and I thought to myself, my god that was a really queer song!!

david cassidy!!!!! Flickr Image Credit

Karen Hanrahan ~ Wellness Educator/Nutritional Consultant/Blog Author
708.482.0678 ~ Websites: Nutrition, Weight Loss, and Green Clean