Loose Leaf Kitchen: Food for thought - hamburger with a side of plastic.

Day 3 of the DrawDown EcoChallenge coincided with a case of the homeschool stir-crazies.  When the wiggles became to much we declared "working lunch!" and headed to Market of Choice.  And WOW  did our usual lunch stop look different when viewed through our newly affixed plastic-awareness goggles.  Yikes.  We did our best in our choices - where we felt we had them - but we were two plastic clam shells, three sample-size plastic spoons, and a small plastic ice-cream cup in the hole by meal's end.  We added that to the fact that we had meat in the mix (thanks to world water day a few weeks ago we all know how much water it takes to make a hamburger!) and we quickly saw the cost of our human consumption.

Real world math education for the day - check.
It was a lesson that I guarantee they will always remember.

Although the food was tasty we all felt uneasy (I'd even call it queasy) regarding the environmental impact of our lunch outing.  When Baanko realized she had 3 small plastic spoons and a plastic cup from her ice-cream treat she made a small gasp.  It was as if she had just accidentally stepped on a bug or small flower and she was flooded with compassion.  She used her go-to "Well now I know" affirmation to magically shift her mistake into a lesson and we followed her lead by getting curious and asking questions.  What can we do differently when we eat out?  Can we ask the store to give us more environmentally friendly choices?  How the heck are we going to solve this clam shell problem!?!?!

Food for thought.  

I smell a (earth friendly) potluck cooking up in our near future where we can dig in and discuss.

Mother's Nature Journal: Fashionably slow (before we're too late)

Today was Day 2 of the Drawdown EcoChallenge as well as the end of our cousins' spring break visit.  
On top of three kids, ski gear, and a dog my sister managed to lug all of her family's carefully saved hand-me-downs to pass along to our kids.  Baanko was thrilled especially with the fancy dresses.  Winter wear for next year was what made me squeal with delight.  The planet and our personal pocketbook once again dodged a big ding.  Clothing, especially fast fashion apparel AND microfiber rich active-wear, are taking a huge toll on the environment.  We made that fact our focus today for the EcoChallenge and our homeschool afternoon.

We started our learning journey with the story of microfibers
https://storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-microfibers/

and our deepening curiosity led us to reporting about the cost of fast fashion:
https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/blog-post/why-fast-fashion-needs-slow-down

We brainstormed while sorting through a pile of the problem right in front of us.  (Even though the fleeces and leggings avoided the landfill, we now know that each additional wash we wear into them will release more and more microfibers into the ocean...)

"What can we do about this microfiber problem?"  I asked E.P.

The kid who naturally effervesces with wonder full ideas was flat.

"It feels too overwhelming to even start."

I knew what he meant.

It was time to get simple.

We powered down from unenvironment.org and poured a cup of tea.  We needed a refresher:

As we paged through our well worn favorite our overwhelm settled like dust.  Nothing like a picture book from the children's section of the library to source the most important lessons in our learning.  Grey pages warmed toward a golden conclusion. What you do with a problem, we were relieved to remember, is look for the opportunity that it holds inside.

The question we finished the day with came after we asked, "What do we do?"  After we felt the familiar overwhelm.  After we steadied and refreshed ourselves.  We dug deeper and asked  "Who do we want to be?"