Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!  I am sleeping in, resting lots, enjoying my family, flowers and bird song.  I hope if you are a mother you are too.  If you aren't I hope you are helping a mother to do something similar.  Have a great one!

Celebrating with Mother (Nature)

Earlier this week I talked about ways to celebrate adult birthdays in a less waste, less consumerism kind of way.  I would like to expand on that idea today in thinking ahead to Mother's Day and encourage a conversation on how to celebrate one of the most (if not the most) important women in your life and celebrate and support Mother Nature at the same time.

Many of the ideas from the earlier blog apply here.  Sometimes it just takes rethinking how you celebrate and what you consider a gift.  We gave my mom tickets to a dinner theater event.  Something that she could go to, enjoy, celebrate, and not necessarily leave a consumers footprint with.  Here are some other ideas:

• Make her gift, or buy handmade.  We all know that some of the most precious gifts we have received have been those that have been made with care by our loved ones.  If you don't feel crafty or inspired enough to make it yourself, buy something made with care and support small artisans.  Check out Etsy for more info.
  
• Donate to a charity on her behalf.  Don't know what to get the mom who has everything?  How about the gift of helping others.
  
• In a little more literal interpretation of helping/giving, what about giving your mom a tree or plant to cherish for years to come.
  
• And similarly you could gift her with a bird feeder, bird house, bat house, or bee hive to help nature thrive.
  
• Do something of service for her.   Mow her yard, weed her garden, clean her house; any woman can tell you these are the greatest gifts.

What do you plan on doing for Mom?  What do you wish were being done for you?  

Green Grab Bag 4.8.09

Welcome to Mother's Day weekend.  I hope you all have big (or small) plans in the works for honoring the mothers in your life this weekend.  More on that tomorrow.  Here is this week's Green Grab Bag, enjoy!

• Condo Blues had a great idea for homemade Mother's Day gifts with sugar scrubs.
  
• The Green Parent has more waste-free gift ideas for mom.
  
• Maybe you couldn't celebrate Cinco de Mayo on Tuesday, maybe you just need a good drink this weekend, maybe mom does, try eco-margaritas.  
  
• Maybe you could clean the house for mom with these great earth-friendly cleaning tips.
  

Before you let your fingers do the shopping this week, do a quick check of your computer settings and make sure you are doing all you can with them to save energy.

• It has been raining a lot here, and my son broke my umbrella...so I have my eye on this 100% biodegradable  one.
  
• It might just be because I love all things Willo, but I think this is adorable.
  
• ToGrandma'sHouseWeGo is my new favorite upcycled store on Etsy.
  
• How cute is this skirt?!?  I don't know that I could pull it off but I think one of you should and send me pics!
  

Finally, this Mother's Day weekend, I give a big cheers to Beth Terry at Fake Plastic Fish who, when she couldn't birth a child, birthed one of the biggest, bravest efforts in environmentalism.