It is such a beautiful day that although I have to catch up on this past week's happenings, I now choose to go outside.

So there, blog!

Final Week of "Project Green"

So, I never did a follow-up post on our PROJECT: GREEN. This week was a "Clean the World" week. (That sounds so cheesy!)

The task was simple: to clean up all the garbage that blew into our yard over the winter and also at a nearby park.

Give me a moment to vent...

I can't believe how disrespectful some people are when it comes to the environment. We found huge soda cups, magazines, paper products, and even empty juice cartons at the playground. Seriously people?! There was a trash can about 20 feet away. Besides the fact that it's a huge eyesore, most of the junk does not just bio-degrade itself away, it takes manual removal. It was a little disheartening to see that at such a nice park, there could be so much trash lying around.

It only took me about 3 minutes to get all the garbage collected from the little playground. Not long at all, right? Well, if I've learned one thing from this experience, it's that it does not require a huge sacrifice of time or resources to act responsibly. It just takes a conscious effort.

If you followed us throughout "Green Month", you may now feel up to this simple challenge:

1. Conserve- eliminate wasteful energy usage
   
2. Recycle- get creative by using the same thing in a variety of ways
   
3. Preserve- keep the earth looking beautiful by lending a hand

It really has been so rewarding as we have made a conscious effort to do this. If anyone decides to give it a try, keep us posted on your progress via blog, Facebook, or even with blog comments. Good Luck!!

Second Day on the Eating Job

I can't believe she's already this old. We fed her rice cereal about a week ago, but she refused it. So we tried again last night and this morning. She likes it... well, the "eating" part, not the "taste" part.

I was trying to record it on my phone at the same time as feeding her, and well, it wasn't a perfect recording job OR feeding job. She kept rocking back and forth (she likes to do that, and sometimes she even gets violent,) so it was difficult to land the spoon in her mouth.

*Qiana, if you see this when you are older, I hope you see what a funny little baby you were.

Beautiful Week in Review:

We were lucky that this last week brought the most perfect Spring weather because our family came to town. My cousin Nicole, her husband and son were able to come visit Jamie and us. Little Russell and Siena became immediate friends, and by the end of the week, Siena was bossing him around like an older sister. (She keeps asking for them every morning and night still.)

The itinerary:

1. Cheesesteaks at Tony Luke's and gelato and Capogiro
2. Historic Philadelphia (Independence Hall and all the surrounding historical sites, i.e. Liberty Bell, Betsy Ross House, Ben Franklin's grave, Old Quaker Meetinghouse, Elfreth's Alley)
3. Toured the U.S. Mint (*yawn)
4. Chinatown and Reading Terminal Market
5. Took the subway, which is quite an experience for most newcomers to Philly. You really get the 'spirit' of our part of town when you ride the subway. ;^)
6. Lancaster County Amish Mud Sale
7. Shady Maple Smorgasbord (they let you eat free on your b-day!)
8. Rita's Water Ice... a must on the first day of Spring!
   
9. Stake Conference, Museum of Art ('Rocky') stairs and Waterworks
10. Dinner at the B----'s with Jamie. She's their nanny.

It was a fun-filled week and I'm sure they are exhausted. Thanks for coming out guys!

Qiana van Beethoven

(I've decided to use my phone to take little videos like this, because it is a MUCH faster upload onto Blogger.)

Watch for the part when she gets her "stroke of genius!"

We Made It!

I really don't know how we made it through the entire week without the TV, but somehow it was done. I really thought I would have had accomplished a lot more during the times we normally would watch a show or two, but the time somehow slipped away. Oh well, the point was that we gave up a source of energy usage for a spell, so I feel better about the whole thing. (Incidentally, Juan has been watching a special report on Savants for the last hour or so. It's really interesting, but I personally think he's just trying to show the TV a little attention so its feelings don't get hurt.)

This week is a week of RECYCLING! We are strictly using the plethora of *reusable shopping bags we've collected for any purchases requiring a bag; we are also bringing the entire collection of plastic grocery bags that, quite frankly, we will never use again (minus the few that will continue to serve as trash can liners throughout the house,) back to the grocery store to be recycled. I love that they offer to take your old bags back!


*I've blogged about this before, but I will re-state my love for the BAGGU bags. They're fantastic and so versatile/handy! I throw mine in the diaper bag or purse every time we go out and it nearly always comes to my aid. Our other grocery bags aren't as cool--one even says "Colgate".

She "Stands" At 5 months!

(Okay, she "stands" with a little help.)

Wow, We're Finally Ready

Ready for GREEN Month! This week, as I mentioned before, we are keeping the TV off! We are also going to start recycling again (we stopped when someone stole our recycling bin, but that was no excuse.) As to our water usage, we are not going to shower next week..... okay, not really. We will turn off the heat to our house whenever we go out, which will be to our advantage anyway ($). We have changed all of our lightbulbs to energy-saving bulbs and have tried to only run full loads of laundry. These may all seem like small things, but we needed to start somewhere and March was so fitting to the cause.

Gave Her A Marker And Paper...

...and this is what happened:

Such a GIRL!

Recent Pics

Siena's Crazy Face

Yes, this is what it looks like; and here I thought I was a little more discreet when I fed Qiana. (Oh, that's probably why she "covered up" with the blanket.) Luckily, Siena doesn't quite get the concept- she thought she could feed her baby through her belly button. By some stroke of luck, I happened to have the camera when she did it.

This was all Siena's doing as well. She grabbed the flowers and tablecloth from her play kitchen, and this is what she did with them. For a while, she called herself Maria whenever she had something on her head (she got that from this Christmas when we taught her about Joseph and Mary), so to steer her away from innocent sacrilege, we turned it into "India Maria". Juan tells me it's the name of a girl from an old Mexican show who moved from a small village to the big city (the Beverly Hillbillies concept.) This time, I think she was going for the bridal version of India Maria.

So Much For Our Green Month Kickoff...

Besides being a little homesick to see our family, all of us girls are home, sick. We were supposed to start off March as a "Green" month in which we would do things to eliminate frivolous energy usage. Now this is not going to turn us into these hippies who don't shower, we were just going to TRY to put a little dent into getting rid of some of our more wasteful habits.

Week One (this week,) was supposed to be our designated "NO TV" week. Well, I asked Juan if we could postpone the "protest" until next week because I knew I would go crazy being stuck in bed with a toddler and a nursing baby without TV. Needless to say, he was more than willing to go along with that proposal; he was extremely hesitant with the whole goal in the first place. Sadly, we have watched TV all morning: Clifford The Big Red Dog, Sesame Street, Ask Aida/Leave It To Beaver (I love when the commercial breaks don't overlap,) Emeril Live/Leave It To Beaver, and Easy Entertaining/Leave It To Beaver. (If it isn't apparent, I love Leave It To Beaver. Jerry Mathers is so adorable, and although the humor is only chuckle-worthy, the show makes life back in the 1950's look like "good, clean fun.") Anyway, that's how the morning has been, and since I had to cancel piano lessons for today, it looks like it's heading in the same direction for the evening. I hope we can feel better soon because the unkempt house is getting on my nerves.