Dryer Balls

Yep, the title of this post is Dryer Balls.

I used to love line drying clothes, but when our little guy came along I just couldn't make the time. Since then, we've been using the dryer without fabric softener sheets. It's been fine, but in the winter I find our clothes a little static-y. I learned that wool dryer balls can help prevent this. By drying clothes with dryer balls (some people use tennis balls), you can reduce the amount of time required to dry, naturally soften laundry, and reduce static.

My original plan was to make my own. When I started shopping for wool yarn, I discovered already made organic wool dryer balls for cheaper from The Willow Store. So I bought some, and tried them out tonight while drying A's diapers.

They are obnoxiously loud (but our dryer is directly below our living room), but they did the job. The diapers came out dryer and softer. I'm looking forward to seeing if they help dry our clothes faster, but laundry day isn't until Friday night. 

My Prius Buddy!

The absolute highlight of my week is that my brother got a Prius! My republican, conservative, military "all man" brother got a Prius! I'm practically giddy with "I told you so" attitude. He claims that it has nothing to do with being green, but I know I'm rubbing off on him. He says it has everything to do with the cost of gas. He figured that with how much he and his wife drive, he'd safe over $1800 a year! I told him he'd have to burn a lot of plastic chairs to compensate for all the good he's doing on this planet by driving a Prius.

I'm so thrilled to be such a good influence on my family :)

Pillow

During my consumer buying rampage on Black Friday I got sucked into buying myself a pillow that appeared to be made purely of petroleum. I did return the pillow because I didn't want the chemicals in the house, or on my face every night. In addition, I got a fantastic deal on a pillow from Natura on Cyber Monday. I've been sleeping on my natural wool pillow for a couple months now, and I am loving it!

In addition, N has been coveting my pillow for a while, and his was more beat up than mine, so he also has a "new" pillow because he's now sleeping on my old one. Reuse is the 2nd "R"! 

Buying American

On my drive home from work yesterday, I caught the middle of a report about KEEN shoes and how they were opening a factory in the United States. It got me thinking about the economic aspect of social responsibility. The reporter was polling people asking if they knew products were American-made, were they more inclined to buy the product? Most of the consumers in the report stated that yes, this was important to them. I realized that without really thinking about it, this has become something I look for, in addition to environmental and health responsibility, as well.

A few years ago my brother and sister-in-law requested gifts that hadn't been made overseas. My brother had just returned from a military deployment in Korea, and there was a scare with chemicals in some toys with China. It was nearly impossible to find reasonably priced toys that were American made, or even simply not made in China.

Since then, I've been more inclined to buy from company's that proudly boast their American made products. With my brother's recent deployment in Iraq and the economic downturn of our own American economy, I continue to find it more and more important to support manufacturing in the U.S. In addition to financially supporting my home country, I find it more environmentally responsible because the goods don't have to travel quite as far.

I bought my own pair of KEENs this summer simply because I wanted the toe protection while walking my dog. Now I will wear them even more proudly this coming summer, knowing that KEEN is doing more to invest in American manufacturing.

What to do with your old meds?

It's been nearly a year since I was all doped up on giant Ibuprofen and Tylenol with Oxycodone (because of my c-section, not because I'm a recovering narcotics addict!), and as I was going through the bathroom closet, I noticed my old prescriptions. I pulled them out to remind myself that I had to figure out how to dispose of them. Interesting timing, because the next day I was diagnosed with the most painful strep throat I remember ever having. The doctor offered me some Vicodin, and I said if it was okay with her, I could just take my Oxycodone. Clearly, you need to be in more pain (like post-surgery pain) to not notice the major side effects of this drug, because I don't remember being so looped when I took it last year.

Anyway, I'm digressing. After I took one of those for my strep, I decided the side effects were worse than the pain, so I re-shelved the drugs and made a mental note that I had to figure out how to get rid of them.

It used to be recommended that you flushed your old drugs down the toilet so that little kids and addicts couldn't get a hold of them, but then they figured out that all the little water microbes and fishies and animals that eat the fishies were getting doped up on our old narcotics. So they had to come up with plan B. Thanks to Representative Paul Gardner, new regulations have helped solve the problem.

Conveniently, Ramsey county sent me a little postcard around this same time explaining how to get rid of our drugs. They now have a medicine collection program in which you drop off your drugs, and they dispose of them by burning them and converting that to energy.

Here are more reasons why we need to dispose of our drugs this way.

I'm sure there are programs in your city/county/region that allow you to dispose of your drugs. I encourage you to find out how to do it. Or, you know, wait til you have strep and knock yourself out for a few hours.