Category Archives: Just My Thoughts

Improve the World: Celebrate Earth Day Every Day!

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By Jodee Weiland

Today is Earth Day and people all over are talking about it! There are activities for children in their schools. Various cities are have activities planned for today that encourage recycling things such as, bicycles for restoration, Apple products, and so much more.  Museums, botanical gardens, and zoos have exhibits that will focus on environmental issues of all kinds for us to learn more about our planet and how to preserve it for future generations. Today is a day when we all can learn how to Improve the World: Celebrate Earth Day Every Day!

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You can easily Google what is happening in your city or cities nearby to you to help celebrate this day. In Chicago today, 5 NBC Chicago has posted a list of places to drop off items for safe recycling at Earth Day E-Waste Drop-Off Locations. ABC 7 Eyewitness News has posted a fun activity for families to do at home with their children at Earth Day Family Fun: Dirt dessert recipe. WGN TV has posted a fun outing for for young families here in Chicago and the suburbs at Earth Day 2014; What the Field Museum’s Dioramas are Teaching Kids about Conservation. These are just a few of the things being talked about here in Chicago, but as I searched the web, I saw so many posts from cities everywhere.

Remember, today is a day when we all can learn how to Improve the World: Celebrate Earth Day Every Day! If you can’t find anything near you, you can check out all the ideas for activities you can do with your family being posted on the web today or make the Dirt Dessert recipe from ABC 7 Eyewitness News listed above. Also, Pinterest has whole boards that contain Earth Day activities for children if you search for them. The EPA Environmental Protection Agency has a downloadable free eleven page coloring book for children called The Happy Earth Day Coloring and Activities Book. There are so many options out there if you just look. So have some fun on Earth Day, learn something new, do something to help the environment, and enjoy!

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Bitsy’s Brainfood co-founder, Maggie Patton encourages families to involve kids in Earth Day, to teach them that they can make a difference.

“When it comes to my own family and taking action on Earth Day, we like to think globally, and act locally. There are so many simple ways to get the whole family involved in celebrating Earth Day,” Patton says. Below, she provides 19 kid-friendly Earth Day activities that can extend into loving the environment every day.

19 KID-FRIENDLY EARTH DAY ACTIVITIES

  1. Compost your fruit and veggie scraps and watch your garden bloom!
  2. Buy, fill and refill reusable water bottles — help keep millions of single-use plastic bottles out of landfill.
  3. Save a tree! Use both sides of your notebook paper.
  4. Visit a zoo or farm and learn how to care for animals. It’ll promote local food, too.
  5. Go for a family walk or bike ride and help keep the Earth cool.
  6. Get everyone a pair of work gloves and pick up trash in your neighborhood or town.
  7. Buy or make your own green cleaning products and spring clean your home.
  8. Grow a community garden and nourish your neighborhood green spaces.
  9. Plant more trees in your town — they’ll help clean the air.
  10. Help remove stuck plastic bags out of trees. And switch to reusable bags instead … for everything!
  11. Make an appointment with your town leaders to add more neighborhood trash cans and recycling bins — or start a recycling program.
  12. Collect glass food jars to paint and turn into candle holders (and use soy-based candles!).
  13. Love surprises? Plant bulbs and flower seeds and keep a weather eye for spring blossoms!
  14. “Turn off the lights!” Make switch plate reminders for your whole house.
  15. Show your kids the beauty of the beach. Collect shells and rocks for art projects.
  16. Make extra food for dinner then ditch BPA-lined plastic and get glass storage containers instead for leftovers.
  17. Transform colorful magazine pages, comics and more into artful projects and gift wrappers.
  18. Learn how to donate/recycle old computer equipment and post instructions (with permission, of course) at your local library, cafes, electronics stores and more.
  19. Breathe in nature: Turn off the a/c and open a window to the world.

Bonus activity: Just get outside and play!

 More Ways to Recycle:

 

Learn from yesterday, live for today…My Blog Celebrates One Year on April 12th!

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By Jodee Weiland

One year ago on April 12th, 2013, I decided to make it official and took my blog, Learn from yesterday, live for today…, to the next level. I had actually been blogging for about a year before that on my previous site, but mostly only for family and friends. The goal was to share my recipes, travels, and thoughts with my targeted readers. Very few people outside of my immediate inner circle ever visited that site. There were a few visitors, who happened upon my site, but not nearly as many as there are today. I really did very little to promote my blog before that time, and any traffic other than family and friends was coming from search engines.

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That all changed when I finally admitted to myself that I actually had something to share with other people, outside of my family and friends, that might be of value to them. And so it began…I took everything off the old site, and began reviewing and rewriting it all one piece at a time…eliminating any pieces I felt weren’t good enough. From there, I went forward with my plans and began writing new ones. I started researching and learning about what I would need to do to make my blog more professional. I even began looking into how to create a blog environment for my readers that would be more user-friendly and make it easier for them to navigate my blog. But it didn’t stop there because I continue to do all of this and more every day!

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I just attended my first conference for bloggers this past weekend in St. Louis, Missouri, the Bloggy Boot Camp with The SITS Girls. This wonderful group of young women not only taught all of us some great things about blogging, but were inspiring and left everyone in attendance motivated to do more! Mirassou Winery gave a lovely reception for all of us at the end of the day and gave us an opportunity to connect with them as a possible sponsor. All of this was a wonderful experience and opportunity to learn more about the blogging process, while being able to connect with other bloggers. The bloggers who attended would become an invaluable source of support and information as well, but most importantly, they would become new friends!

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Improving my blog, Learn from yesterday, live for today…, doesn’t stop there though, because I am also taking various online courses to improve different aspects of my blog, such as photography and artisan bread making. While attending the conference, I purchased the book, Social Media Engagement for Dummies to help improve my skills in that area of blogging. I want my readers to love coming to my blog to visit and to know how important each and every one of them is to me, so I want to make it the best I can in every way! How will I do this? As I approach the one year anniversary of my blog on April 12th of this year, I will be celebrating, while I continue working hard to make it even better in the coming year ahead! So what do you think? Is this a blog you want to come back to often?  If not, what can I do to make it more appealing to you? Hopefully, all of you will continue to come back and share your thoughts with me as I move forward with my blog, and always remember to enjoy!

 

Christmas Traditions…Saying Thank You to Those Who Protect and Serve!

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By Jodee Weiland

When my children were little, we had a very special Christmas Eve tradition each year.

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Of course, we did all the things most people do, like reading Christmas stories, putting out cookies for Santa, and more.  But of all our Christmas traditions, my favorite was teaching my children to say thank you to those special people who work on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to keep us all safe during the holidays. The people I am referring to are the men and women of the police department and fire department in our local area.

https://learnfromyesterday.comEvery year, we would bake a variety of Christmas cookies.  On Christmas Eve, my children and I would put together a Christmas plate loaded with all the different cookies we made that year. We would cover the plate and put some ribbon on it with a card wishing our local fire and police department a Merry Christmas and thanking them for taking care of us over the holidays.  When we finished preparing the plate, we would drive over to the local police and fire department in our area and deliver the plate of cookies.  The children would thank them personally for taking care of us and keeping us safe, and then they would hand them the plate of cookies as a gesture of our gratitude. Needless to say, it was wonderful to see the smiles on the faces of these men and women as they accepted the cookies and told the children how much they appreciated the gesture.  Even better still, were the smiles on the faces of my children!

https://learnfromyesterday.comIf I had small children today, I might consider doing this a little differently. Sadly but true, these days the police and fire department in your areas may be somewhat reluctant to accept a plate of homemade cookies, unless you live in a small town area where everyone knows each other. But if homemade cookies are a problem, there are so many other ways to let your children say thank you. They could write letters and hand deliver them to the fire and police departments with a box of store bought cookies or candy that are sealed. Another idea would be to have the children help you create a gift basket filled with packaged nuts, cookies, candies, popcorn, coffees, teas, and more.  You can even have the children write and illustrate a Christmas story of their own about how the police and fire departments help keep them safe.  Or perhaps have the children draw Christmas pictures and frame them, so they can be used as holiday decorations. It doesn’t matter what they do to say thank you.  What matters is letting your children know, it is important to say thank you to those who protect us.

https://learnfromyesterday.comWhatever your children decide to do to say thank you, it will make a difference for these men and women because everyone likes to be told they are appreciated and especially, when the message comes from children. Too often, we forget about those who are not home celebrating with their families, so we can be safe with our families. If you should decide to add this gesture of gratitude to your Christmas traditions, I’m sure many of you can be very creative in coming up with ideas and ways to do this.  Just keep in mind that the members of the police and fire departments will remember this gesture fondly. Teaching children appreciation and respect is important, so consider taking the time to do something like this with your children. You won’t regret it, and it really is fun to do.  Make a memory, and enjoy!