Recognizing that there are guests among us (hello husbands, fathers, step fathers, uncles, and sons), we will cut right to the chase with regard to today's gift theme. As promised... each day for the week we are going to celebrate a different mother and the best gift she remembered either giving OR receiving. Then, I throw out a prompt (yesterday... "extravagant") and the readers share their ideas around that theme. For you men out there... consider it a focus group of women sitting right there in your office and telling everything you need to know to be a hit on Sunday, May 11. Your award winning ideas will be listed under the comment section at the bottom of today's entry (just click on "comments"). Check back throughout the day... as people post a various times.
In honor of Mother Earth... today we will look at suggestions for HOMEMADE Mother's Day gifts.
Now for the rest of you readers not in a rush to move along... I thought we could spend a couple of minutes sharing a few ideas about celebrating Mother Earth's Mother's Day... Today... Earth Day. You might be worried I am going to spout off some elaborate ideas about cookies you can bake (though I did do that with Cassie and Jessica on Sunday. See fun pic), a party you can whip up before day's end, or some fun and creative prop you could build (or better yet... decoupage) in honor of Earth Day. No, if ever there was a woman who didn't require extravagance for Mother's Day,it's Mother Earth. Au Contraire.
No. The schtick for today is SIMPLE things you can do with little to no preparation. The idea... capitalize on the things you are already doing or use small, five-minute pockets of time. I'll list a few and then maybe you'll add on... at the end of your recommendation for a Homemade Mother's Day gift (either given or received).- Take the stairs instead of t
he elevator: Saving energy matters no matter how small the effort might seem. - Catch the cold water that comes out of the spigot, while heating your kids (or you) bath water, in a bucket and then allow your kids to use it to water a plant or flower. Talk to them about the importance of conserving water.
- Going to the grocery store after work to pick up a few items for dinner? Say "no thank you" to a grocery bag. It is great role modeling.
- Show your kids the amount of junk mail you received today. Then talk to them about how much waste it translates into over time. Better yet, collect all your junk mail for the next two weeks and then have the conversation. You can top the whole experience off by canceling subscriptions by going to catalogchoice.org.
- Examine the boxes, containers, and cans you use while preparing dinner. Have a brainstorming session at dinner about how you could reuse the containers for something different (pen holder; cereal-sized boxes as magazine holders).
- Before or after dinner, walk your neighborhood with a BROWN BAG and host your own mini clean-up.
- Replace just one light bulb in your house with a LED bulb.
- At 7:00 p.m. do a quick inventory to see how many lights are on in your house. Do they need to be?
- Celebrate Mother Earth by each family member pointing out something beautiful ( a tree in your yard, ivy growing on the side of your house; a body of water; a bird nest in a nearby tree).
- Have a five minute dinner conversation about the words Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and brainstorm ways you might apply it to life in your household.
- Plant a flower.
Thanks for playing. Tune in tomorrow and as always - with only 91 visitors yesterday and 791 more hits to go... 
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14 comments:
Last week my scout troop cleaned up a small neighborhood park. We are also planting a tree we bought with our troop money. It will go on our school grounds. Along with that we plant perennials and watch them grow each year. The kids love it !
As for my own home...... we aren't as careful as we should be. We do little things like recycling, and we purchase the most energy efficient appliances. Unfortunately sometimes you cant decide what is better using the dishwasher or hand washing? Im still up in the air on that one. All of our cleaning products are "green" . I always try to turn out lights and conserve.....
There's one thing I really hate to see....
someone's sprinkler system on after it just finished raining..... They sell rain sensitive sprinkler heads but most of my neighbors refuse to upgrade.... It should be a law....
Well "Mother Nature" has made today a beautiful day here on Long Island.... It should reach 70 degrees by the afternoon.......Perfect for "Earth Day".
With Bal in Dallas, Lily and I will likely spend Earth Day by taking a little walk around the block and enjoying nature. Yesterday I showed her how to blow the dandelion seeds off (though she can't quite blow on her own yet) she thought it was hilarious. Then rather than turning on the tv, which was a challenge for those that know me well, we spent the evening on the kitchen floor banging on pots and pans. Lily loved it and Mother Earth did also as I saved the electricity.
Tonight will probably be much of the same.
As far as a homemade gift for my Mom...the one I recall the most was when I was probably 6 years old and the kids in my family (all 7 of us) worked up the song from The Sound of Music, So long, Farewell. My Mom is a big musical fan and I'm sure she chuckled at the fact that we took the time to learn the music and dancing from the movie.
More recently, I've opted to go really green for most Mother's Day gifts and give her flowers. My Mom has a green thumb and loves to plant flowers of all kinds so this is a win/win.
Nice entries so far today. I LOVE the visual I am getting on Heather's family rendition of the Sound of Music.
Maureen... the literature I've read seems to indicate that washing dishes by hand inevitably uses more water than running A FULL diswasher - especially if it is a newer, energy efficient model. That should be good news for all!
I missed so much while I was in Boston!
A few things...
The office - VERY special and the post ideas were magnificent. I am sure she thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated each one of them.
Mother's Day - this year we are making a scrapbook of sorts with the help of some family friends. We are asking each one to come up with a reason they love our mom. My sister and I have included our friends and some of their responses included "Snowball Cookies" to (from a friend from the West Coast) "The core of my east coast family." We are writing each one on pieces of scrapbook paper to post in her "Book of Love"
Earth Day - today a colleague and I passed out paper fans we made in about ten minutes at my desk. We passed them out to people to remind them to conserve energy when they can by using a fan instead of AC
My BIG GIVE update.
As many of you remember we all responded to Melanie's plea for fundraising ideas for her Belize trip with students. Patrick suggested a version of Oprah Winfrey's Big Give and volunteered to coordinate. I was one of the willing volunteers and here is what I've done with my $20.
Since I am on the same campus as Melanie I am on the block to get a pie in my face along with about 12 other faculty and staff members voted on via a penny war. My current total is right around $20 in change. I sent an email to all the other "contestants" with the information that I could use that $20 to take myself off the block (dollars count against your change total)or we could all band together by each contributing $20 and appeal to the Vice Presidents that we had $260 if they were willing to get a pie...but here is where it gets interesting...once we hit that point I'll also take it to the next level and tell the VPs that if they each contribute $50 we will take it to the President that we have $600 on the table to donate to the Belize trip if he is willing to get one pie in the face for a good cause.
So...if it all works out I'll have turned my $20 into $600!
Heather is well on her way - the other contestants are responding left and right that they're willing to contribute to see a VP and/or the President get pied. THANKS HEATHER!
Heather, You overachieving pain! If this wasn't for such a good cause... I'd have to drone on about your competitive nature and how it forces everyone around you to step it up.
In light of the fact that this is for a good cause, I will simply say... GREAT work!
Surely you could increase that $600.00 to $650.00 or $700.00 by simply taking some side wagers as to whether you or not you can get President J.M to make a personal appearance. That's got to be worth some money.
Heather and Jenna are the only two who have contributed an idea for a HOMEMADE Mother's Day gift. Our male readers will be disappointed with the sparse number of ideas.
Here... I'll kick in. There was a period of time that seemed to last about a year when each week my friend's mother - actually, MAUREEN'S mother - took us to a ceramic studio. All tolled I probably made five or six things.
One in particular I remember, because my mom still uses it to this day. It is a bowl made from a gaggle of geese. They are connected by their beaks. The only part of the bowl painted is the yellow of their beaks and the green grass around the base. My mother uses the bowl each year to display her dyed Easter Eggs.
Not the best gift I've given, but one of the funnier ones: I remember making a ceramic ashtray for my mom in first grade or sometime around then... hilarious, considering she has never smoked! However, I discovered it a few years later on her vanity holding bobby pins or some other such collection of small items, so I know she used it.
On a completely unrelated note, those cookies look adorable and delicious. You're making me have a serious craving for frosted cookies now!
I was hoping something would jar my most horrible memory. I can't remember anything I gave my mom for Mother's Day. And, I'm not particularly green either... I know, I know, I should be.
I know I made a lot of crappy, sentimental stuff as a kid but it's not anything my mom has held on to. I can't even remember anything nice I've ever given her. I know I've sent flowers and I remember giving her our family photo- well, that was only last year.
I have received the hand prints- both on paper and in plaster, little photos of the boys at school, the painted pots with either fake or real flowers- the real ones I killed immediately much to Drew's dismay.
So, with my memory being a bust, I'm a complete dud at this topic. But, I have to say- Mother's Day or not- I love getting drawings from my kids.
i gave my mom one of those typical plaster handprints. also, one year, i think i was in preschool or kindergarten, we made something out of clay or cement or something crazy like that. mine ended up as a blob with my name- "cass" on top, and then the "ie" underneath that poked with a toothpick! HILARIOUS looking, but my mom still has it on her desk and sometimes uses it as a paperweight!!
im trying to think of other handmade gifts i have given her. i know i did give my dad a ceramic "#1 dad" i made in 8th grade art class for father's day one year. we have a really neat ceramic place near my house where you go and paint pottery, frames, coasters, plates, etc and they fire it for you. that is a really neat handmade gift idea. well, sort of handmade... handmade by them, and then painted by you... it works!
I'm not a mom and really can't remember anything spectacular that I've given my own mom, to be honest.
However, I am a first grade teacher and we do a project every year for our moms that I really like and have recieved a lot of nice comments about. I go out and buy little heart shaped boxes from our local craft store for 25 cents each. They are made of some sort of heavy brown paper. The kids paint their boxes in their mom's favorite color and make a mosiac on the top using the self stick foam shapes. Then, they write as many love messages as they can to fill the box...I love you because, You are special to me because, etc.
Maybe this year, I'll make my own while the kids work and hand it over to my mom on mother's day. Even though I'm 27, I'm sure she'll still appreciate special love messages for me :)
I don't know a mom who doesn't LOVE oversized tee-shirts. Take a tee-shirt and go to a craft store and buy fabric paints and let the kids decorate it. If they arent old enough to do it themselves just make hand and foot prints for them and then paint "HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY 2008" (or something to that reference. I cant think of a mom who wouldn't love their kids own artwork. In time if she doesn't wear it anymore she can sew all the openings closed and make a throw pillow. It's a fun project..... Enjoy!
Hey Claudia it's Layne How are you. You look good. I spoke to Maureen and I always ask about you.
I hear that you have three boys I have two boys my older one is 17 and my younger one is 15. I don't live far from Maureen on Long Island. I don't get to see her much but we do talk as much as we can. Hopefully when you come to New York next time I will be able to see you. It's has been a long time. I can't believe that we are out of school 24 years already, and I have one graduating from High School in 2009. It's very scary. Good luck reaching your goal of 5000. talk to you soon.
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