10 Great Earth Hour Ideas
What are you doing March 24 at 8:30pm? That’s Earth Hour, you know, the event when the world shuts off the non-essentials for an hour in statement of solidarity in support of our planet.
What Happens When the Lights Go Out?
This past December our electric bill was over $500! If there are about 730 hours in a month, shutting off my house would save me less than a dollar. That’s not much, but that’s the beauty of the Ripple Effect. There are about 24,920 households in my town. If only half of them observe Earth Hour, that would be a savings of over $8700 in this town alone.
1 Minute Rant About the Information Industry
Last week my mother cut out an article from the New York Times touting how a gluten-free diet is dangerous to your health. It frightened her because I eat gluten-free. And, for goodness sakes, it was the New York Times, so it had to be true.
10 Jokes for the Road
I was known to do both, depending on what I was teaching. But, on the days when we had a minute to spare, my students were charged with making me laugh. A good joke, especially a science joke, was their ticket out of my room before the bell. (That was actually frowned upon, but the kids never went too far because they were listening to the others jokes.)
Guns or Guidance Counselors?
“The American School Counselor Association recommends a student-to-student counselor ratio of 250:1.” That means your child is vying for counselor time amongst 249 other kids… if you live in one of the 3 states that meet this criteria. “The national average is 491:1, while in California and Arizona, it’s 822:1 and 941:1, respectively.”
And they think guns are the problem?
10 Ways to Nurture the Mother
This year, I’d like to suggest an outside the box twist on the traditional Valentine’s Day. Normally, February 14th celebrates that special love between a man and a woman. But for the nearly 12 million widowed women in the USA, Valentine’s Day can represent a day of loss. It can also be painful reminder that they are alone for the more than 53 million women raising families by themselves.
Let’s nurture the women who nurtured us, the women who are raising our next generation. Let’s take them out for Valentine’s Day, or spend the evening with them.
Here’s 10 ways to turn the day that ignores those without a significant other into a celebration of appreciation. Enjoy some quality one-to-one time, or gather a posse of your constituents, and celebrate in style.
Perfect Timing
I didn’t cry when my daughter left our Connecticut home for a Massachusetts college. I was fine when she later left for California to attend law school. When she transferred to a different law school in Washington, DC, I thought it was really cool.
But this week I kissed her goodbye from Houston, Texas, where we were attending our niece’s wedding. As my darling girl boarded a plane bound for England, where she will be spending her final semester at law school, I cried.
Supermom or Awesome Mom?
Supermoms are supposed to single-handedly juggle jobs, families, and love, while tending to our own self-development and growth. In case you believe this fairytale, let me get rid of that pressure for you right now. That’s an impossible myth. Don’t buy into it. Don’t let other people seduce you into buying into it, and definitely don’t let them guilt you into it. It’s a fallacy. Supermoms don’t exist, either. Period.
When Caffeine Becomes Creepy: 10 Surprise Sources
Nowadays, caffeine is the drug of choice. Did you know that chocolate has added caffeine? You can find it listed in the ingredients as Other Flavors or Spices or, my favorite misnomer, Natural Flavorings (which are all code for “we aren’t going to tell you what’s in here”). According to Honor Whiteman in Medical News Today, so are things like jellybeans, waffles, chewing gum and syrup. That’s crazy (in my humble opinion).