No Impact Man

Aside from becoming recently addicted to Facebook, I have also been spending some of my time visiting my new favourite blog.

http://www.noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/

It's fascinating stuff. This guy is living his life for a year attempting to make no impact on the earth and our environment. This Saturday he turns off his power - yes, like all his power. He's going to generate his laptop from a solar panel!! He cleans his own laundry in his bathtab, stomping his shirt stains clean with his feet! All the power to him (no pun intended), I'm completely in awe.

I like to think of myself as an environmentalist, within reason. I use cloth diapers. I compost. I recycle. I reuse whatever I can. I try to limit my garbage. I finally swore off plastic bags. And chemical cleaners. I have a low-flush toilet. I rarely use my air conditioner in the summer. I hang all my clothes on my line to dry. I pick up my cocker spaniel's poop and flush it down the toilet. I buy organic food - well, sometimes, when it is convenient and not overly expensive. I'm trying to remember my refill coffee cup when I head out for java so I don't need any of those useless Starbucks and Tim Horton's cups.

But give up coffee like No Impact Man and his wife Michelle? I'm so not there yet I'm afraid. Give up my mini-van? The large gas-guzzling machine I swore at age 22 I'd never own, yet which has become a bit like a close knit member of my own family, a necessary evil which enables me to transport 2 toddlers and a dog and a husband and potential cargo all over the city? Or the country for that matter? Nope. Can't give it up yet. Cannot do it.

There's not even a moral to my story. Just that I'm enjoying reading No Impact Man's blog and it is making me re-think various choices I make each day. And sadly, I'll still ponder these daily thoughts with my sometimes-not-fair-trade-bought cups of coffee :-)

Ever had one of these in your backyard?

We had a nasty windstorm last week and at around midnight Paul and I heard a gigantic thud in the backyard. We were sure a tree had come down, it was so loud. We jumped out of bed to check out the backyard, and found our neighbour's *makeshift* garage had flipped over our 10 foot hedge, ripped down our cable wire, tore some siding off the house and landed upside down in our backyard.

Upon further review we learned these garage-wanna-bes are actually not legal here in our city. But the neighbours were great, fixed everything and tidied up the yard quickly. Not to mention they entertained the boys with all this for close to 60 minutes :-)

April scrapbook pages

Since I'm way behind I'll post some scrapbook pages that I did at a crop in April - got lots done and LOVED a day away on my own. It was productive and fun . . . can you ask for more? I'm getting rusty though and really need some new inspiration before I tackle any new pages!

I took a blog-cation

Yes, here I am alive and well and back from my much extended blog-cation. To be honest, I don't have an exciting and dramatic excuse for my absence, I've just simply been busy doing other things. And haven't had much earth-shattering news to share. And have admittedly become worse than a heroine addict lately on my new found online pleasure, Facebook. If you're not there - do it, join. It will needlessly suck away endless minutes and hours you could be spending working on more productive ventures. And I should note, I was floored at the number of messages I received from people disappointed the blog was barren - but thanks for the interest and keep it coming!

We are all doing well and spring has arrived in Ottawa. Thus we spend much of our time outside and are all better people for it! The boys are sometimes playing nicely together and now that David is 18 months it is interesting to watch them interact and communicate with each other.

Here is "cool dude" David. Note the still bald head and several battle wounds on his face.


Pete with one on his ninja turtle "weapons" from my vacuum cleaner . . . we never leave the house without that thing!

Partners in crime . . .
David and I before walking the dog . . .