Guest Post Book Review

Check out my book review of "Good Night Sleep Tight" today on Just Talk!

Guest Post- Recycling Facts You Should Know

Recycling Facts You Should Know About


Why recycle you ask? The benefits of recycling have a tremendous impact on the planet. Why do we care about the planet? The future of your children and their children are depending on it! With the way the economy has been lately, more and more people have started to recycle. It can be a great way to earn a little extra cash but the economy will eventually get better (hopefully). We as American's need to continue to recycle not just for monetary reasons but for planetary ones also. As American's we produce a lot of waste. We're the leaders in having a GIANT carbon footprint. It's outrageous. They're are plenty of reasons to recycle- know the facts first, then start with the basics and let your recycling imagination take over. Once you learn about all the recyclable's you can start to manage them and dispose of them properly. Many people think recycling is time consuming. It's really just another step added into your day- like anything else, once you incorporate it into your daily routine it becomes part of your life. Recycling should be mandatory, especially in places where landfills are at their maximum. I just heard the other day somewhere that Oregonian's recycle 50% of their waste - good for them! I live in California, and would love to say we're recycling fools...and top the 50% number...!! Someday maybe.

Every little bit counts- which is why I'm encouraging you to start recycling and making a difference. If you don't already have a recycling bin provided by your local trash company (not sure how it works in each state). Here in Ca., Waste Management provides us with a bin strictly for recycling. I can't even begin to tell you how much of what we would've considered normal trash goes into the recycling bin- it's amazing! There isn't a need for us to put our trash can out every week either. It doesn't fill up as fast when you're monitoring what's trash and what's recyclable. You'll soon see that your recycling waste will become the majority of regular trash that was normally being thrown away! On top of that, if you're composting a lot of your kitchen scraps that will eventually turn into methane gas in landfills (major contributor of Global Warming) become nourishment for your garden or worms if you're vermicomposting- We're doing both! You can get tips on how to compost here- http://www.composting101.com/composting-tips.html

For now, remember that when you're recycling you're cutting back on the amount of waste that would otherwise enter a landfill. The majority of items in a landfill are recyclables...I witnessed this recently, when I took a trip to our local dump! We need to be more eco-conscious of the waste we're creating and stop the potential toxic chemicals that could enter the Earth. I try my hardest to buy things that are unpackaged and try not to buy plastic whenever possible. Purchasing less packaged items, especially individually packaged items- means less waste. When I do buy packaged, I purchase items that are favorable to recycle such as glass. Plastic = Chemicals, no good! Unless, it's BPA free but even then...opt for a more sustainable option. Plus, a lot of the plastic used for packaging does not have a redemption value which and most recycling centers will not take them- but luckily, some do! Which is why it's important to have the recycling bin through Waste Management or other trash company in your area because all numbers are accepted! There's no worry.

What should you be recycling and keeping out of landfills!
Any and all...
E-Waste- Batteries, Cell Phones, Computers- E- Waste is a biggie because these items are highly toxic! Car batteries, motor oil and paint
Paper, Plastic, Glass, Aluminum, Steel, and Copper

When you think about paper it's not just the newspaper it's all the junk mail, phone books, magazines, toilet paper and paper towel rolls, cardboard boxes, note paper- etc. A great thing to know, too, is that you don't have to worry about scraping out the peanut butter jar or mayo, just toss right into the recycling bin! Be sure that you keep these separate from your paper items because you don't want to contaminate a load. I learned this when I did an article for local paper in town about recycling and contacted Waste Management. One big reason why pizza boxes aren't allowed in the bin. Paper products cannot be recycled when they've come into contact with moisture. Remember, deodorant and chopstick containers can be recycled too-and as for razors- Green Daily recently posted on 5 ways to recycle them!! Don't forget to add aluminum foil or aluminum take out trays to your crate of cans. Soup cans or any canned item can be added to your curbside recycle bin. Otherwise, find a recycling center near you that accepts it.

Check out these facts and remember to RECYCLE. IT'S RAD!

- Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours - or the equivalent of a half a gallon of gasoline.
- An aluminum can that is thrown away will still be a can 500 years from now!
- If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we would save about 25,000,000 trees a year.
- The average American uses seven trees a year in paper, wood, and other products made from trees. This amounts to about 2,000,000,000 trees per year!
- Approximately 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away ever year in the U.S.
- Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incinerator.
- A modern glass bottle would take 4000 years or more to decompose -- and even longer if it's in the landfill.
- Motor oil never wears out, it just gets dirty. Oil can be recycled, re-refined and used again, reducing our reliance on imported oil.
- About one-third of an average dump is made up of packaging material
- More than 20,000,000 Hershey's Kisses are wrapped each day, using 133 square miles of aluminum foil. All that foil is recyclable, but not many people realize it.
- Every year, each American throws out about 1,200 pounds of organic garbage that can be composted.
- The US population discards each year 16,000,000,000 diapers, 1,600,000,000 pens, 2,000,000,000 razor blades, 220,000,000 car tires, and enough aluminum to rebuild the US commercial air fleet four times over. On average, each one of us produces 4.4 pounds of solid waste each day. This adds up to almost a ton of trash per person, per year.

Leslie, aka- La Mama' Naturale is a green mommy blogger who stay's at home caring for her eco wee one and is the author of Recycle Your Day. She currently blogs about environmentalism, going green and natural mothering.

Guest Post from Dana!

Hey Guys.... It's Dana from Just Talk. I'm Guest Blogging for Danielle today while she is off enjoying her lovely vacation!

I was trying to think of a good parenting topic to write about and I started thinking about things I have observed while being in the classroom!!

While you all love your kids, in this day and age of two working parents and insane schedules, people tend to cut corners and neglect important things because it's easy.. Being a teacher I see these things each and every day, and unfortunately it makes my job a little harder!

Today I'm blogging about the 10 Mistakes parents sometimes make and I see very often being a teacher...



1) Spoiling kids - There is no doubt that parents love their kids and want them to have all the things they didn't. However, this comes at a price. A ton of well-intentioned parents have ended up spoiling their kids to such a degree that the kids aren't even happy with all the stuff they have.



2) Inadequate discipline (which I see A LOT of at school.. And come on people this makes my life hard, very hard - LOL) - When you're too tired or lazy to discipline your kids, and you pass the little devil you've created on to your relatives, coaches, teachers, and his friends' parents. It's not OK to let your kids treat your house like it was a Bouncy House because that's exactly how they'll treat other people's homes. They should also be much better behaved when they leave the house and visit elsewhere. I know my mom used to scare the crap out of me so I would behave in public or at a friends house and I turned out fine.. I think so many parents are afraid to discipline their children because they are afraid the child won't love them as much.. But you are really doing a disservice to your child by not teaching them right from wrong! And I've found if you don't discipline your kid, someone else will—and you won't like it! That's when it makes it hard for me - being a teacher some parents think, "Oh, not my child!" or "He's never done that at home!" and I think to myself "Well, if you disciplined him/her once and awhile then they wouldn't react to me saying NO!!"



3) Failing to get involved at school - School is where your kids will spend more time than any place besides your home. It's also the place that will have the most responsibility for shaping their life—from teachers and their peers. That being said, how can you not want to be involved in what's going on there? It doesn't matter if it's you or your spouse: Your family needs to have a presence at that school. And don't use work as an excuse—take a vacation day if you need to. You'll see immediately that it's time well spent. You should also have at least an e-mail relationship with their teacher. It's a great way for that teacher to see that you're interested in your child's development, and the teacher can alert you to anything concerning that may be going on with your son or daughter. Your kid's teacher may take a much more active role with your child if they know you're keeping close tabs.



4) Praising mediocrity - While we all want to encourage our kids to do well and build their self-esteem, there is a point of going too far. Building a child's self-esteem is great, but having a big party for a mediocre accomplishment skews what they view as a real achievement.



5) Not giving kids enough responsibility - Your kids shouldn't be expecting any payment for doing chores around the house. It's a home, not a hotel. That being said, an allowance is a great idea … for extra work. They should be pulling their weight as part of the family. If they grow up without enough responsibility, how in the world do you expect them to hold down a job, or get through college? When they get "of age," make sure they're taking some of the burden off you around the house—from unloading the dishwasher to picking up dog poop in the backyard. While they're not your slaves, they sure aren't on vacation, either.

6) Not being a good spouse - How you treat your husband or wife is very important to the way your kids will develop relationships, especially as adults. If you treat your spouse poorly, or if your only way to settle any kind of dispute is to yell and scream at each other, you're teaching your kids to handle themselves the same way. Kids learn from watching you much more than they learn from listening to you. If you treat your spouse with love and respect, it will also show your kids the value of their family. It will also make them feel their family is a safe haven in what can be a dark, scary world.

7) Setting unreal expectations - I see a lot of this at school and it really bothers me! When dealing with kids, you need to set reasonable expectations for them—especially the little ones. If you want to go out to a nice dinner and expect your 2-year-old to sit there like a little prince, you are setting yourself up for major disappointment. Also, if you have visions of a football star and your son weighs 80 pounds and likes to play the clarinet, you need to reset those expectations. Don't have unreal expectations for your kids: The expectation you should have is for them to be happy. There is so much stress out there in the world when you grow up - just let them be kids for as long as they can!!

8) Not teaching kids to fend for themselves - Many parents tend to baby kids these days and cater to their every need, and that eliminates the value of hard work and becoming independent as they grow into adults. I fear that we're raising a generations of wimps. Kids nowadays expect everything to be done for them, from cleaning their room to band-aids for hurt feelings. Teaching them to toughen up and do things on their own doesn't mean that you love them less; it means you love them more.

9) Pushing trends on kids -Let kids be kids. Parents shouldn't push their trends or adult outlook on life on their kids. Personallly I think it's a little trashy! Just because it was your life's dream to marry a rich guy doesn't mean we need to see your 4-year-old daughter in a "Future Trophy Wife" t-shirt. The same goes for the double ear piercing—that's what you want, not them. Teaching kids about your passions is great, but let them grow up to be who they are. And yes, this goes for you pathetic stage parents as well. It's hard enough for kids to figure out who they are in the world without you trying to turn them into what you couldn't be.

10) Not following through - I have trouble with this one sometimes. If you're telling your kids that they'll be grounded if they paint the neighbor's dog one more time, you'd better follow through. Unfortunately, following though on punishments or promises makes your life a little more difficult, but building trust is what's most important. If you're not true to your word, your kids will assume anything you say is just talk. Then you have a real problem on your hands. You'll also end up with kids who don't trust their parents.

What do you think? Any of you teachers out there run into the same problems I have? Or how about you parents, did one of your children's friends ever come over to play and totally disrespect your rules or your house!?! I want to hear your stories!!! Bring them on - and thanks for listening today!!

Dana

What My Toddler Taught Me

Hi all! Danielle here. Amber from Babywearing Buzz is my first guest blogger while I am on vacay! She is totally awesome. Make sure to check out her online babywearing store Heavenly Hold!

I’m the mommy to a 17 month old little girl. I do my best to teach her new things each day, but I find more and more that she is teaching me! Isn’t this kind of backwards? Actually, I think it’s quite common for parents to learn life lessons from the ones who haven’t lived much life yet!

Anyway, I’ve recently learned the lesson of patience from Kaelin. Now, she’s not always the most patient person in the world, but she has her moments when she is very focused and calm. Recently she was trying to figure out how to get the laptop opened when it was closed. She sat there for probably 3-5 minutes (hours in toddler time!) fiddling with that laptop and trying to open it up! I figure if she can give that kind of concentration to something, then I should be able to as well…in fact, I should be able to do better! I have trouble being patient with…well…just about everything!

Another lesson I’ve learned is to just be happy! Yes! Kaelin walks around the house with a grin a mile wide on her face all day. She does have brief moments of meltdowns, but they are usually over very quickly and she’s back to smiling and laughing. She is happy to be here and happy to be with me and just happy in general. I got to thinking about her constant state of happiness and realized that I should be that way, too! What do I have to be unhappy about? Plus, what will being unhappy about stuff get me? Nothing! I should share Kaelin’s joy and spread Kaelin’s joy by smiling and laughing and being happy all the time, too.

The last lesson I’ll share (but not the last one I learned) is to give things a chance. I will often reject an idea, statement, object without even considering or hearing it out. I have the tendency to be a little on the judgmental side (whew! That was hard to admit). Kaelin will give just about anything at least a chance. She’ll try any food that I put on her high chair, she’ll pick up any object I set before her, get in any baby carrier I put her in and she will smile at any friend of mine. She may not end up liking the food, carrier, toy or person, but she will at least give them a chance.

I hope that as the years pass, I’ll continue to learn from my daughter. But, I hope to become a better person, so that she will also learn more from me!

Amber Stevens