Green Options

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Breastfeeding is natural. So when my daughter Zinnia was born, I was surprised at how UNNATURAL it felt to me. Babies must have proper mouth, and nose placement in order for the “latch on” to be successful and productive. It took me a lot of trial and error to establish a good nursing relationship.

I attended my first La Leche League meeting when Zinnia was a week old. I silently gaped at all the seasoned moms calmly discussing parenting techniques as they nursed babies of all ages. Some of the children were really tucking into their evening meal, but others were just “checking in;” breastfeeding was an intimate, nurturing bond that comforted them and made mother and child feel connected.

At Zinnia’s one week check-up, she showed a slight weight gain, which is almost unheard of, since most babies actually lose weight during their first week. I was one proud mama!

Like most new moms, the first two months hurt. A lot. I cringed at the thought of the next feeding. I was a slave to Lansinoh, the lanolin nipple cream that was supposed to smooth the way and ease the pain of cracked, tender, or otherwise harassed nipples that were relentlessly utilized every four hours or so.

Editor’s note: As a user of the Diva Cup for the past two years, I’m excited to share this guest post by Juliana Tran, a student in Professor Simran Sethi’s “Media and the Environment” course at the University of Kansas. It was originally published to the course blog on March 11, 2008.

Every month it comes and goes, effecting women (and those around them) in their personal health, hormonally, emotionally and on a broader scale, in their environment.

Yes, I am talking about menstruation.

Menstruation is an issue that does pertain to both men and women. There is not an issue of menstruation itself, something that I feel should be celebrated, and not something taboo, uncomfortable, and feared. Unfortunately, there is an issue with the toxicity and disposability of the way women “take care of this problem”.

So, how is it relevant to men? If you have a women in your life, mother, sister, daughter, significant other, show them you care about their personal health by telling them about the consequences of using disposable products!

Watch Sundance Channel’s website for eight one-minute films featuring the fabulous Isabella Rossellini dressed up as a bug and having sex with paper cut-out critters.

Dragonfly, praying mantis, firefly, spider, oh my!

A video interview gives you a sneak peek. Quote from the vid: “The way bugs make love is…very pornographic.”

Today is a snow day, hooray!

My daughter and I are drinking hot chocolate and making paper beads out of junk mail. And hey, it’s a perfect day for baking, but do we have everything we need to make cookies? I have zero motivation to shovel icy snowdrifts, and my sock monkey slippers are way too cozy, so forget a trip to the grocery store to pick up almonds or tahini butter.

A flip through my recipe cards reveals the perfect solution - chocolate chip cookies made with only four ingredients. Can you guess what they are?

I asked my daughter and she correctly guessed one of the correct ingredients. Then when she came up blank for the rest, she started calling out things like, “fairy dust!” “violets!” “rainbow powder!” As you can see, it gets pretty whimsical around here.

I have paper rabies. Paper rabies, according to Douglas Coupland in his book, Generation X, is “a hypersensitivty to littering.”

Every morning I walk the neighborhood with a bag and pick up after litterbugs. I HAVE to. It’s one of my obsessions to pick up at least one piece of trash a day. Also it helps keep the neighborhood decent, like how Malcolm Gladwell points out in The Tipping Point.

There’s something called the Broken Windows [...]

A video from the folks at DeSmogBlog.com: