Category Archives: My Life

Am I asking too much?

As I’ve mentioned in a couple of posts recently, our apartment hunting has been fraught with disappointment, and I feel pretty discouraged about the whole thing.  I admit that we have rather high standards and lengthy list of requirements and wist list items, many that reflect our preference for a greener lifestyle that includes active transportation, cooking healthy meals from locally grown food, and living in an energy-efficient space.

Requirements and Ideal Features

  • Smoke-free BUILDING — not negotiable.  Potential landlords, if you say it’s smoke-free, and it’s not, we will know, trust me.
  • Two bedrooms — that’s kind of the point of moving
  • Second-floor unit
  • Hardwood floors — so much easier to clean than carpet, better for allergies, no vacuum required
  • Garage — I could care less about my car, but I’m tired of lugging Bub up and down the basement steps, and I imagine we’ll be adding some kind of bicycle trailer to the set-up in the near future
  • Functional kitchen — we spend a lot of time in this part of the house
  • Dishwasher — With all the cooking we do, having a clean-up shortcut is VERY helpful, plus using a dishwasher can use less resources than washing by hand
  • Good storage space — can be combination of closet space and storage space in basement, if the basement is clean and dry
  • Energy efficient furnace — I’m sick of seeing places where they say, “Oh, your apartment has a brand new furnace,” and we look at it, and it’s an 80% efficient model, which is pretty much the least efficient you can buy these days, when for just a bit more, they could have had a 95% efficient furnace (huge energy savings)
  • Insulation in the attic — we know from experience that it’s hard to get a landlord to add this once you sign a lease, so ideally it would be there from the get-go
  • A sunny yard to garden — perhaps one of our most negotiable points, given our competing desire for city living
  • Located within walking and/or biking distance of amenities such as grocery store, library, parks, etc.

So, what’s the verdict?  Are we asking for too much here?

I’m thinking about giving it a break for several weeks, and continuing the search in April when there might be more rental stock available.  I’m not sure I can take anymore right now.

Mama-to-be’s reading list

It was over a year ago that I made this reading list, and a few of the books were on the, “I want to read eventually, but not relevant right now,” list.  Well, times have changed 😉

Your Best Birth, by Rikki Lake and Abby Epstein, was the first book I read post finding out that I was pregnant, and I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.  Even if you are not pregnant, have no plans to become pregnant, and can’t see any way this subject applies to you, I encourage you to read it, because current maternity practice in our country does affect us all in some way, and you may know someone who will be making choices about childbirth and could directly benefit from the information in this book.

I just finished reading The Diaper-Free Baby by Christine Gross-Loh, and I’m totally intrigued by the idea of Elimination Communication (EC).  Loh’s book makes the concept very accessible and straightforward.  Whether you’re using cloth or disposable diapers, using fewer diapers will be greener!

I also enjoyed Labor of Love: A Midwife’s Memoir, by Cara Muhlhahn, and I’m currently reading HypnoBirthing — The Mongan Method.

So, what’s still on my list?

  • The Happiest Baby on the Block, by Harvey Karp
  • Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth, by Ina May Gaskin
  • Diaper Free!: The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene, by Ingrid Bauer
  • The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, La Leche League

I think this represents a decent balance between total information overload and being completely unprepared, although I’m sure there will be many moments for which I feel completely unprepared.  Now, if someone could just tell us what you do with that little flap on the corner of receiving blankets  — we’re split among it being a spot for baby’s head, baby’s feet, or neither (just decorative) 😉



These boots were made for walking

But unfortunately, these streets were not!

Saturday afternoon, we walked to an apartment viewing.  I knew it was less than a mile away, and the streets were in no condition for biking (for those of us without studded tires), so we laced up our boots and began the trek.  Unfortunately, the most direct route took us down a major arterial with lots of businesses.

I expected unshoveled sidewalks.  What I didn’t expect were the mounds of piled-up dirty snow and ice we encountered every time we came to the driveway to one of these businesses*.  The snow plows did a great job of clearing the streets and parking lots for drivers, with no regard whatsoever to any other users or means of transportation.  And we were not the only ones navigating the obstacle course, as a major bus route runs along this street, which means more pedestrians.

Despite the less than ideal walking conditions, I’m glad we opted to walk.  The apartment was another bust, which just made me extra glad we didn’t waste gas driving.  After viewing the apartment, we ventured just a bit further and had a lovely, snowy walk in Tower Grove Park — a great way to redeem the outing 🙂

* I don’t have photo evidence of the snow “removal” transgressions, but if there’s snow where you are, just look around when you’re out and about — I’m sure you’ll notice plenty of examples — especially if you’re out on foot!

Pregnancy thoughts for the week

This week, at least one person, possibly more, found this site through the search engine term “preggo booty.”  I’m not exactly sure who searches for that phrase, but I have some ideas, and I imagine he left this site disappointed.  So sorry!

I have my second prenatal visit next week, and given the condition of our streets after Tuesday’s ice storm, I don’t think I’ll be biking there 😦  However, I don’t plan to resort to the car — walking and public transit should do the trick, it will just require a bit more planning.

I read about Six Items or Less a few months ago — though their focus is not sustainability or the environment, the experiment shows that we probably need far less clothing than we own — and buying/owning less is green!  Now, I am not officially participating in the experiment, but between my [slowly] expanding belly and my winter itchies, my wardrobe is greatly diminished.

I have two pair of “work” pants that still fit, which I pair with my two or three sweaters that are not tight (tight =  itchy) or my two employer-branded polo shirts, so I’m unintentionally pretty close to “Six Items or Less” with my work wardrobe.  It really simplifies things in the mornings, and I plan to go through my clothes and really pare things down, though I will probably wait until after the baby, to see where my shape and weight settle, before getting rid of too much.

Depending on who you consult, my developing baby is the size of a turnip, an onion, or a hockey puck.  The food comparisons are odd, because every individual fruit or vegetable varies so much in size . . . or maybe that’s the point.

The three of us went sledding last night (4th time this season).  Given the current conditions, we renamed Art Hill.  Ice Hill was much more fitting.  The upside was an awesome sled run that took us over a foot bridge at the bottom of the hill — and drew a good bit of admiration from other sledders.  The downside?  Walking back up the icy slope!

Snow removal dilemma

I don’t mind the work involved in shoveling snow (especially not the relatively small quantities we get around here), but it presents a bit of a dilemma to my green sensibilities.  Sure, it’s the neighborly thing to do, but a shoveled walk almost always requires some salt to keep the newly snow-free pavement from being covered with hazardous icy patches, whereas the snow on an unshoveled walk usually provides plenty of traction, even if there is a layer of ice underneath.  The salt is not exactly the best thing environmentally, as it can harm plant life and usually ends up in the water supply, not to mention speeding the demise of the sidewalks themselves.

I dutifully, though somewhat guiltily shoveled the sidewalk in front of our building after the first two snows of the winter and pondered my dilemma during many snowy walks to the Y.  Assuming you’re an able-bodied individual with a decent pair of boots, walking on snow-covered sidewalks is not that big of a deal — I’d rather walk on the snow than on cleared, but unsalted and icy surfaces.

However, I realized that in addition to leaving out those who didn’t have (perhaps cannot afford?) boots, my thinking also left out people using wheelchairs, walkers, or other assistive devices to get around. I imagine snowy sidewalks are no fun for these folks.  People walking with small children would also fit in this category of “maybe not so easy to just tromp through the snow.”

Since I am all about promoting alternative and active means of transportation, I conclude that shoveling, along with the requisite and maybe not-so-green salting, is the best option.  That said, I use a light hand with the salt and don’t use salt for what could be accomplished with a shovel  — no need to overdo it!

What are your thoughts on shoveling?  Have you used any eco-friendly salt alternatives?  If so, are they effective?