Family

Earth Day is tomorrow on Good Friday. Two special days combined into one. What a wonderful day this will be!

You know, I love that we do have Earth Day celebration once a year because it brings awareness that our Mother Earth needs our attention as well. Sometimes it seems that she gets shafted to the side unfortunately, we need to realize that although we recognize her on one special day a year, she actually needs recognition all throughout the year.

Here are 5 simple ways that you can help celebrate Earth Day everyday with your family.

1. Use reusable bags when shopping: I just recently made this change because we were busting at the seams with plastic bags and I knew this couldn’t be good for our beautiful Earth. The reusable bags are actually so much more stable too as I have not lost a jar of pasta sauce on the sidewalk lately due to a ripped bag. So many companies have their own reusable shopping bags and they are priced low.

2. Create a bento lunch for your children: I have been using the bento lunch system for 2 years now. My girls actually refuse to eat the in cafeteria at school because they love the bento lunch system. There is never no trash at the end of the day to toss from their lunch boxes. The creativity with the lunches also are so much fun as they love to see what mom has come up with each day.

3. No more store bought water: Do you know how many water bottles we had around the house? Yes, we tried to recycle as many as we could but there would always be those certain bottles that would end up in the trash. We purchase a water filter for the kitchen sink every 3 months and use our own reusable water bottles to fill up with water each day. They also have now the four water bottle filters you can purchase. This is on my list to purchase next so the girls can have water bottles ready as soon as they come in from playing and head straight to the fridge.

4. Turn off the water: That is right! I have finally successfully taught the girls to turn off the water when brushing their teeth. Do you realize how much water is wasted by leaving the water on the whole time you are brushing? It is a lot and it is so easy to just turn off the water. It does take time to teach them, but now they automatically do it each time.

5. Set-up a recycle bin and trash bin: If you have a recycle bin right beside your trash bin, then it is so much easier to recycle. When you go to place something in the trash throughout the day at your house, then stop and think a moment, can that be recycled? Once you get in the to routine, it comes as second nature as where to put things.

These are all simple tasks that can be done and get the whole family involved to help ensure we keep our beautiful Mother Earth just that beautiful.

Happy Earth Day… How do you plan to celebrate?

Total devastation are the two words that keep entering my mind as I continue to see so many terrible and heart wrenching pictures/video come across the internet and news wires.

Let’s set up this scenario for my family. I am out of state in New Orleans helping build a playground for a group of kids with Kaboom. I began to receive text messages, phone calls and voice mails alerting me that I need to check in back home as there is a tornado heading right for our area. I tried to call my hubby, but he would not answer so I just begin to start freaking out. My wonderful boss who I am so very thankful for, talks me down and says everything is going to be okay Jen. Just keep calm. I go back to building a picnic table. Finally, my hubby calls me and in the meantime, I receive another text that the tornado is right at our home. I tell hubby get the girls and go take cover. Right, then on the television comes up our exact address the tornado is going to hit to take shelter NOW. Our girls and hubby immediately go into the bathtub to take cover.

Hubby says our youngest daughter L, was so silent. She would not talk at all. It breaks my heart knowing that I could not be there to comfort the girls but I am so proud of my hubby for staying so strong. Hubby said the walls were shaking and our oldest daughter M said mommy it felt like a earthquake. I am so grateful to say that my family is all safe. We did lose power for a couple of days and lost all our food in the two freezers and fridge, but I could honestly care less. I have my family and so many more families lost so much more. Please keep them in your prayers.

As soon as hubby picked me up from the airport, we went riding down our road. The sights I saw, I could not believe my eyes. Our apartment manager said he could not believe how the tornado just skipped over our apartments without doing devastating damage. Look at these pictures at the end of our road and a couple from my girls’ school road.

And our part of town did not even get hit the worst and it still left this kind of damage. A whole mobile home park was completely destroyed in which it killed 3 small children and one was still holding a flashlight. It chokes me up each time, I hear this. So so so sad!

Three of the food banks here in my city serve the areas that were hit the hardest by these tornadoes. They really do need our help. To help now, donate by clicking this link. If you can help volunteer to help in the communities that were hit, Raleigh has a page on how you can help.