Ten Resolutions for 2010

I was looking up some statistics on how many new year's resolutions are kept, and found highly-variable numbers, from 46% to 3%. One site said that "going greener" is the ninth most common resolution. That's a pretty vague resolution, and bound to put one in the failure column when 2011 rolls around. There are lots of resolutions you can make, however, that are easy enough to be successful and specific enough to give you a real goal to shoot for. Here, then, are ten easy resolutions that can make a difference in twenty-ten (I'm not suggesting you do all ten. Picking one or two is a great start. If you're successful at those, why not try something else in February? Who says new year's is the only time one can make a resolution?)

1. Turn off the lights when leaving the room. This seems like a no-brainer, but when to turn off the lights actually depends on the type of bulbs you have. The Dept. of Energy has this guide to help you. For incandescent lights, they recommend turning them off whenever they are not needed.

2. Turn off the computer. It's become common for folks to leave computers on almost all of the time. Putting it in sleep mode saves about 70% more energy than a computer without a power saving feature; however, when a computer is on it still uses energy. Why not try shutting down and unplugging when you're done for the night?

3. Avoid drive-thrus. Idling your car wastes gasoline. And besides, have you ever noticed that it seems as though it's often faster to walk into a store than to go through the drive-thru? Click here if you want to read some more energy-saving tips for driving.

4. Go paperless. If you're still paying bills by check, see which ones you can pay online. Most banks and cell companies also allow you the option of getting statements only electronically. If you've simply forgotten to change to a paperless account, new year's is a great opportunity to do so.

5. Go glass. We all know by now that using disposable plastic bottles for water is a no-no. Some re-usable plastic bottles, however, also contain chemicals which may be harmful. As a cheap alternative, buy a bottle of Voss Water. It's about $2, and comes in a glass bottle, which you can re-use for all eternity (well, until, like me, you break it. But then the pieces are recyclable!). Click here to read more about the dangers of plastic bottles, but be prepared to be scared.

6. Give up paper towels. I'm not saying that you need to give them up for everything. There are certain gross situations (dog poop in the kitchen, say) for which a paper towel is a good option. However, for most day-to-day cleaning, rags made from old T-shirts or towels work as well or better. Cloth napkins can also replace paper. Click here to read about the best options for towels and napkins.

7. Walk more. Most of us just don't live in a world where we can walk everywhere. Our cities and suburbs weren't designed for it. However, I bet there are places to which you can walk, but you still choose to drive. For me, it's the post office. I can walk to the post office, but sometimes I don't. I'm going to try to walk there more often, and I'll get some exercise too.

8. Eat less cow. A recent study recommends that carnivores cut meat consumption by 10%. While it may seem like everyone you know is claiming to be a flexitarian, mean consumption is rising around the world as people in developing countries gain access to red meat. Greenhouse gases are produced by the stinky little cows themselves, so the only way to reduce these gases is to decrease demand itself. Maybe say that you'll save red meat for weekends only, or for Wednesday steak night at your favorite pub.

9. Take shorter showers. A nice long hot shower is one of my great vices. According to this site, however, the average shower uses 7-10 gallons per minute. Most Americans, according to a few studies, take showers of around 8 minutes. Using a low-flow shower head, or shower timer set at 6 minutes, will save water and expense.

10. Chill out. Most of your laundry will get clean in a cold water wash. 90% of energy use from laundry goes to heating water, and you can get a lot of savings by switching from hot to warm -- but warm water is rarely necessary. Click here for more laundry energy-saving tips from the Dept. of Energy.

100 years ago, would the people who sent this card have dreamed of the world we're living in now, both the problems and the blessings?

Coming up this week: My resolutions for 2010.

The Auntie Chronicles -- Treaties for Sweeties

Parenting Advice for People Who Aren't Parents

This time: how to cook with kids without losing your sanity.

First of all, I'd like to welcome a new little "niece" into the family of nieces and nephews that I've adopted alongside my one "real" nephew -- welcome Carys, born this week to my dear friend Caitlin! I'm so excited for them and so jealous of those that get to meet Carys before I do.

Now, onto business. The holidays are times when families get together, and aunties and uncles pull double-duty, being expected both to listen to siblings rant about condo associations or jackass bosses after drinking too much "egg nog" (Jack Daniels out of a flask in the bathroom) while simultaneously entertaining the rowdy little "cherubs" (sugar-fueled demons who someone warped from another dimension and body snatched once darling little family members)

(As if to prove my point, my nephew just started banging on the TV, at which point I told him to stop and he punched me in the boob multiple times, earning a time out.)

Cooking with kids is one way to occupy the sweeties during holiday gatherings, particularly now that the official holiday is over, but vacation is still going on. There's one school of thought that says kids should have free reign in the kitchen, being at liberty to experiment with food in order that they don't have eating issues later on. But let's face it -- issues are unavoidable, and if kids get to experiment freely with food, your holiday cookie plate is going to include marshmallow-red hot-chocolate chip-ham stacks. Another philosophy holds that kids can participate in the kitchen, as long as the only thing they are allowed to do is stand next to the stove and watch. There is a middle ground, however, between being a free-lovin' hippie in the kitchen and being Stalin with a whisk.

I've rounded up three projects that are easy to do, along with a break down of what you - the auntie, uncle or other loved one - should do yourself, and what the kids should do for maximum fun and happiness all around. Just don't let drunk Uncle Al into the kitchen, or you're liable to have anatomically-correct gingerbread men.

Gingerbread People (or animals, for the PETA crowd)

You do: Make the dough, according to this recipe from joyofbaking.com. The dough has to sit in the fridge for two hours to overnight. When it's ready, you roll it out.

Kids do: They use the cookie cutters to cut shapes and place them on the cookie sheets.

You do: Bake the little guys and gals.

Kids do: When the cookies are completely cool, set out icing (the recipe includes directions to make this, but go ahead and buy store-bought) and other decorative items (red hots, mini-mallows, raisins - but none of the kids will use those --, those little silver dragees that are supposed to slowly poison you). Give each kid a piece of wax paper to mark out their work space and let them go to town decorating the cookies. As they finish each one, have them set it on a cookie rack until the icing is dry and hard.

Look! Excessive icing is the hallmark of a well-decorated gingerbread homo sapiens.

You do ... not tell them how to decorate. They might want a couple of pointers, but for the most part, let them be as crazy as they want; just tell them to keep their mess on the wax paper.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

You do: Make the dough, according to this recipe. It chills for about an hour. If you don't care about kids getting their hands in the dough, then ...

Kids do: Roll the dough into balls and roll these in sugar.

You do: Bake the cookies

Kids do: While all that is going on, have the kids unwrap the 48 chocolate kisses required by the recipe. Provide them with a bag to throw the garbage in as they work, and a bowl to put the unwrapped kisses in. This is an annoying job, and demands a certain amount of dexterity, so it's a real time-killer if you have kids work on it for you. Once the cookies are baked, have the kids help place the kisses onto the cookies -- be sure to show them once or twice how to do this.

Peppermint Bark

I've been making this winter treat for years, but lately I've been noticing that stores are selling a pre-made version. That's kind of silly, as it's the easiest thing to make, and people are always happy to receive it as a gift. Here's the recipe:

You need:
6 candy canes (peppermint flavor)
12 oz. white chocolate - either chocolate chips or baker's squares. You want to look for the kind made with cocoa butter, not the sort made with palm or other vegetable oils.
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate or chocolate chips

You do: Melt the semi-sweet in the microwave. Line a baking pan with wax paper and pour the chocolate in, using a knife to spread it around. It should be about 1/8-1/4 of an inch. Put it into the fridge for about 15 minutes.

Kids do: Put the candy canes in a zip plastic bag. Put the bag on the counter. Then the kids need to take a rolling pin and smash the hell out of the candy canes until they are all broken up into tiny shards. (The technique that works best is to hold the rolling pin by both handles parallel to the counter and bring it down at a right angle, repeatedly and extremely sharply.) Oldsters may want to turn their hearing aids down while this is going on.

You do: Melt the white chocolate. Pour half of the candy cane pieces in and stir. Take the semi-sweet out of the fridge and pour the white chocolate over it. Spread with a knife until it reaches the edges. Sprinkle the remaining candy canes over the top. When this is done, put the whole thing in the fridge until solid and break into pieces to serve.

If you follow this advice, you're guaranteed to occupy the little ones for a good 30-60 minutes, and you'll have the added bonus of returning your nieces and nephews to their parents all sugared up and ready to crash!

Coming up this week: Easy green resolutions for the new year, and my resolution for 2010!


Happy holidays to all of the loyal light greenies, to my family and friends. It's been a great year and a difficult season for many of us, so I wish you love and light in the upcoming year.

About the Auntie Chronicles: I have 10 or so nieces and nephews. Only one of them is actually related to me. The rest just know me as Auntie Catfish. As a former live-in auntie and former elementary school teacher, I've acquired a lot of kid-centric knowledge. Some of my friends have said, you should write a book for people who have to deal with kids but don't know how (either new parents or the friends of new parents). I'm too lazy to write that book, but I do have some stuff to share for others who might be entering the years when all of their friends are having babies.

Jump on the Christmas Crazy Train

Every time I see FoxNews, I feel a little woozy. You know, most of us who don't watch it are happy to just say, "hey, they're crazy. Don't pay any attention to them."

But I think it's easy to forget exactly how crazy they are and how they revel in being uneducated about the facts. Thankfully, John Stewart's writing staff does our dirty work for us, and watches so we don't have to.

Watch this clip of Samantha Bee interviewing a FoxNews correspondent. And remember that there are people who take this SERIOUSLY. And then get excited because the kids in this clip seem to have been inoculated against bs. Congratulations to their teachers and parents for raising some awesome girls.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Obama's Socialist Christmas Ornament Program
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

(Watch the opening tag for a Yeats reference! W.B. woot! woot!)

Why Indeed?

This morning, my nephew and I were making bread.

He said: "This is going to be so good because I'm a great chef."

And I said: "Yes. And it will be healthy because it won't have any preservatives or chemicals."

He giggled. "Why would they put chemicals in bread?"

5 Things to Love About Copenhagen

1. "Copenhagen" can be adorably changed to "Hopenhagen." Hopenhagen is the name of a movement to connect real people to Copenhagen, site of the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Hopenhagen has the fabulous motto: "when people lead, leaders follow." Their idea? That if real people speak up for the planet, leaders will have to listen. Unfortunately, real people don't seem to be quite ready... yesterday I clicked on a link to an AOL Survey asking people "Have you made any lifestyle changes to address global warming?" The results: 29% Yes, 22% No, 49% "I don't believe in global warming." Umm ... I know these things are self-selecting, but over 13,000 people responded. And almost half don't believe in global warming. Even scarier are the 22% who apparently believe, but have made NO changes in their own behavior. Hopenhagen indeed. I "hope" you join the grassroots movement to get out the word that climate change is happening. And even if you don't believe in that, the EPA has determined that greenhouse gases are also dangerous for our health. If you don't care about polar bears, you've gotta care about your own lungs.

2. Copenhagen is the home city of my great hero, Soren Kierkegaard. Isn't he handsome?

Good ol' Soren was one of the fathers of existentialism, a philosophical movement that emphasizes our complete freedom to choose our actions. Kierkegaard focused on our freedom to make leaps of faith -- or as wikipedia puts it: "No ... evidence could ever be enough to pragmatically justify the kind of total commitment involved in true religious faith or romantic love. Faith involves making that commitment anyway. Kierkegaard thought that to have faith is at the same time to have doubt." What can we learn from that? Maybe Climategate is swirling all around you, maybe your family members dispute the good that you're doing by recycling, maybe every time you go to a bar you get chatted up by some guy who works for an oil company (I do live in Houston). In Copenhagen, though, we've got to hope for a global leap of faith. We may not get it, but we can live like we will, through our daily actions.

3. Copenhagen is a model of Cleantech for the rest of the world. Since the 70's, Denmark has been attempting to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, increasing the usage of wind, solar power, and biofuels. They also have used high taxes on energy use to help reduce the amount of energy people are using. This has been good business for them, as they've been able to turn their innovative energy solutions into exporting power.

4. Copenhagen is the name of a brand of smokeless tobacco. Don't use it. It is can contribute to gross mouth cancers. But it did inspire kids to start using the funny phrase, "I'm going to Denmark" when they wanted to sneak out and chew. Who did they think they were fooling?

5. Copenhagen is the place where the world's leaders might be bold and make a change, at the UN Climate Change Conference. There are a lot of issues to wrinkle out, rich nations and poor nations vying for money and attention. There are world citizens who don't want to change their lives. But the bottom line is, the world is getting warmer. Though I've made my leap of faith and made changes in the way I live, it won't make a huge difference unless governments get involved and big systemic changes get underway. Hopenhagen, indeed.

Top photo courtesy of Kaare, at wikimediacommons.

MY Favorite Things

Eco-Conscious Gifts for $5 and Under

So, you know how every year, Oprah has her "Favorite Things" show, where she talks about great gifts and everyone goes into a screaming frenzy of commercialism? And since she's a kazillionaire, the things tend to be pricey -- like some Williams-Sonoma cupcakes for $59, even though you can, you know make cupcakes for a couple of dollars.

Well, I thought I would put together my own gift guide, but all of these gifts are eco-friendlier and cost $5 or less. Why so little? Because all of us need to have a few things on hand for hosts and hostesses, co-workers, and White Elephant gifts. And because I would like to get any of these things, even though they are cheap.

First up:

Method holiday hand wash - $2.99 at Target
Mrs. Meyer's hand soap - $4.49 at drugstore.com


People I know get a teeny bit obsessed with method's holiday-scented hand wash -- in fact, my friend Amanda uses it year round. The Mrs. Meyer's version ("Iowa pine") is pretty great as well. Both have extremely intense scents. Any hostess would love one of these with a ribbon around it.

Re-usable WWF Shopping Bag - $1.99 at Half-Price Books


This bag, featuring adorable polar bears, would make great gift wrap. It also does good. $1 from the sale of each of these bags goes to the World Wildlife Fund to help polar bears. They have other polar bear merchandise as well, including a calendar and note cards -- all under $5!

Red Heart Eco-ways Yarn, made from 30% recycled plastics, $3.29 at Amazon.com



Lots of knitters are snobby about acrylics, but since I'm allergic to wool, I can't be so choosy. Acrylic yarns are also getting much, softer, like this Eco-Ways yarn. It comes in a variety of colors, and is partially made from recycled plastic.

Various Organic Lip Balms, $1-5 at drug stores and natural groceries

I like to have chapstick everywhere -- in the car, at my desk, in my backpack. Regular chapsticks, however, often contain alcohol, which can actually dry your lips. These yummy brands are made with beeswax, cocoa butter, or other natural ingredients to keep your smile supple.

A song, $.99 to 1.99, at iTunes

When you give the gift of a song, there's no shipping, no packaging, and no CD's filling up landfills. You can also gift TV shows and movies, though those are more expensive.

And those are a few of my favorite things.