Science 101 with MacGyver

MacGyver's a hands-on kind of Dad. He believes kids learn best by doing. In fact, yesterday we went to Home Depot to pick out new sinks for our master bathroom. When we got out of the van, Toddler pointed at the store and yelled "Ho Dedo!" with as much enthusiasm as a two year old can muster.

But on to my point. Today at lunch Eldest asked about volcanoes. First she wanted assurance that there were none in Ohio. Then she wanted to know what and where the biggest volcanoes were. MacGyver told her about Vesuvius, Olympus and the Hawaiian volcanoes. Then he told us about Yellowstone. Apparently there is a volcano there that scientists say has the potential to completely wipe the entire earth of life.

Eldest became quite concerned about this. Fortunately we were able to point to the Bible's assurance that God has everything under control.

I guess because I've always lived within the protective comforter of God's care, I've never really considered the power of nature. That there is pressure within our earth that has the ability to destroy life within minutes and hours. I think of Pompeii, who didn't wake up the morning of their demise wondering if it would be their last day on earth.

I guess my only point today is that something so powerful should be respected and taken care of. It's the right thing to do. I've mentioned a few of the things we've tried to start doing to be more respectful of our planet: Switch to cloth diapers, recycle, use less garbage, eat organically grown food. We aren't always as consistent with this as we need to be, but every step we've taken has been rewarding. I'm not sorry we have done any of it, and we've gained a great sense of accomplishment through our efforts.

Anyone have any new ideas? Goals? Concerns? Post them here.

Going Green or Going Insane?

You will find men who want to be carried on the shoulders of others, who think that the world owes them a living. They don't seem to see that we must all lift together and pull together. - Henry Ford

When MacGyver and I got married, he introduced me to recycling. I did a lot of eye-rolling and huffing and puffing and such, but I learned to go the SO burdensome trouble of walking to the garage door and throwing glass, plastics and paper in the bin to be recycled. To be honest, I really didn't think it mattered. I really did not care where my garbage went when I was done with it.

I have to say, I see things differently now. MacGyver likes to say "there's no reason to fill up the dumps" and he's right. If we can go an extra inch or two (as opposed to a mile) and save the next generation the job of cleaning up our mess, isn't that worth it?

So we have always recycled. I'm interested to go a bit further in this and try to only buy packaging that can be recycled. At least do my best. So in the next year I'm going to make a conscious effort to make our "dump" pile smaller. I'm going to look into cloth diapers, at least on a partial basis. I'm going to start a compost pile (just a pile of organic material such as apple cores, banana peels, egg shells and coffee remnants) that is left to sit and turn to fertilizer.) I'm going to attempt to use re-usable bags when I grocery shop, and I'm going to do this by purchasing one every week until I have enough. I'm also already using all natural cleaning agents and beauty products, and I hope to keep that up and maybe find some ways to save money by making soaps/shampoos, etc.

Have I left anything out? If you can think of something I'm forgetting post it. And if you have some further goals please post them here so we can keep each other accountable.