September 2008

Today’s guest is Velma, from a A Smeddling Kiss. I met Velma on Twitter and she was gracious enough to fill in for me today... She is one amazing mama!

Velma lives with her family on Cape Cod, where she attempts to blend in with the normal folk. She stinks at writing these bio things because it takes a large amount of fancy words to convey the complexity of her life, and 8 years of motherhood has made her forget all her fancy words. With has a son on the autistic spectrum, a husband who spends most of his waking hours fighting cancer, and a daughter who is like most 8 year old girls (charming and delightful to everyone but her mother), she’s making it up as she goes along, just like you.

As moms, we all care about the environment. We teach our kids to conserve electricity, consume wisely, and recycle. Newspapers, cardboard, cans, glass, plastic – at my house it all sits in our garage waiting for a convenient day to take a trip to the recycling center. The pile can get pretty big before a trip becomes necessary, and if you have the same situation, I have a suggestion for you.

It’s not an original idea, but why not give it a little extra home recycling with your kids? Call it “pre-cycling,” if you will. When my kids come to me and tell me that they are sick of games and Playdoh and all their toys are booooring, I know it is time to check out the treasures waiting in the garage.

The recycling corner has come to my aid many times. When our Girl Scout troop was having one last meeting at the end of the school year and none of us moms could muster up the energy for a big project, it was the giant stack of newspapers that came to the rescue. All it took was a couple rolls of masking tape, and 8 little girls spent a fun afternoon making hats and props and statues out of newspaper. My personal favorite was the pirate ensembles, complete with hats, spyglasses, and even a parrot:

Now it’s become a routine for my family. When my daughter’s friends come over, hopefully there will be some cardboard boxes to make a clubhouse to hang out in. Lunch tastes so much better alfresco, doesn’t it?

For my son, the recycling pile is a great source of experimentation. A bowl of water and some shredded paper and bits of cardboard to watch fall apart is his idea of fun. We’ve filled small water bottles with sand and juggled with them. Soda cans make an excellent noise when you bang them around in a storage tub, and then you can stomp on them! It’s heavenly for little boys to be allowed to smash things, isn’t it?

With a few simple items, you can try some really cool stuff. Electric scissors make short work of cutting cardboard. Masking tape is great, and one of our favorite accessories for recycling fun is one of these cool cyclone tubes:

Really, the possibilities are endless. It’s a valuable lesson in conservation and creativity for the kids, and with so many families in financial difficulty these days, it’s cheap as well. Since I try to get the most out of my purchases, why not try to wring as much fun out of the stuff that it comes packaged in as well? It’s a nice thought that when all the fun has been sucked out of the creations, they can be disassembled and head off to the recycling center well used and ready to become something else.

For more from Velma, visit her at A Smeddling Kiss, where she blogs about her complex life.

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Kristin has become a good friend through our blogging adventures. She is one of my co-founders at Mommies United, and blogs at An Ordinary Life about her not-so-ordinary life!

Kristin is the mother to Kai, a two and a half year old spunky girl. She’s a busy full time college student living in Oregon. While Kristin is not married, she takes time to enjoy her time with her fiance, Delfino. Together they spend time learning and growing as a family. Kristin loves fashion, and often talks about her favorite products at An Ordinary Life. Kai is the light of her life and she enjoys telling everyone about the exciting changes happening to her family.

Currently I live a life with one child. I watch John and Kate, and I read Christine’s blog, here, to get a small taste of how life would be with more children, and I often think about how different my life would be.

You know, last year I swore up and down I didn’t want another baby for five years. That was the plan, and now I can’t believe I am trying for baby number two. How does a person go from not wanting another baby to wanting another, so quickly?

I think it’s partly the shows I watch! I’ve always been a fan of A Baby Story and Bringing Home Baby (both on TLC), but more recently I started watching them again. They show you all of these small beautiful babies, and the excitement of bringing your new baby home and it brings me back. I even find myself in tears (what I really needed was chocolate) watching these shows.

Mostly, though, I think my desire to have another baby is due to the fact that I don’t want Kai to grow up alone. Is that bad? Mind you, I don’t know if I could ever afford a big family, but I am one of five children and I loved the big get-togethers and all the love I had growing up. I wouldn’t trade those memories for anything. Christmas was a huge event in our house and, although it was crowded, there was lots of love.

So, yes, I want another baby to love. I swore I would be one of those moms who only wanted one child, and that was it. But life changes, and I want more… For me, for Kai, for Delfino, and for another little person!

For more from Kristin, visit her at An Ordinary Life.

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