We had a very productive and eco-friendly weekend. After dropping Owen and Dad off at gymnastics Brandon and I took some of the boys baby toys and clothes to Once Upon A Child. This is a wonderful place — they take your gently used baby toys, clothes, really any baby items, sort through them and then give you cash right away — no waiting like traditional consignment stores. The location on 137 ave and St Albert Trail has a wonderful selection of things and I usually leave with something! To shop with just Brandon was an experience. He held my hand as we walked through the parking lot to the store. Brandon took his time, stopping to check out a pebble, see a car go by or look way up into the sky. Once inside the store Brandon walked through the aisles with me, pausing when I paused to look at something and then leading the way. It was so quiet and peaceful just Brandon and I.
Brandon has been wanting to help more around the house, so I found that helping with the empty bottles and recycle was something Brandon could handle. He takes one item at a time and walks the the garage door — all the while repeating “recycle, recycle” — we open the door, walk down the few steps and put the item in the blue box….then repeat. He has his big grin plastered on his face and you can tell he is just so proud of himself.
Owen has grown just enough that he can reach the light switches now. So this weekend I have been teaching Owen the importance of turning out the lights when he leaves a room. If you can turn the light on then you have to turn the light off, right?! Owen ate it up and is the first to run into a room and switch the light on, turning the light off takes a few reminders, but so worth it! Owen says “oh ha I almost forgot!”
I am tired of paying the electricity bill….Sunday we went out to Canadian Tire, Home Depot and then finally Rona to find some eco-friendly light bulbs for the house. Sean insisted that if we were going to outfit the house with eco-saving light bulbs we would need “instant on” bulbs. These are very hard to find, thus the several trips to find them. In addition to the “instant on” bulbs we also needed very small bulbs for our kitchen fixtures (even trying to find regular bulbs is tough). Our trusty Rona store had everything we needed. We found our itty bitty kitchen light bulbs and everything is an “instant on” — very satisfying trip! Now I did notice that the box indicated an 11 year warranty. Does this mean I won’t need to buy replacement bulbs until 11 years from now? Now for my electricity bill — yes I realize I will have to continue to pay but there is going to be a noticable impact on my bill, right?
And now some pictures of our boys….what’s a blog without pictures and what’s better than pictures of our boys!?
