sarah's blog

Oh sunshine. I never appreciated you until you went away for what seemed like a million years. I know I’m not alone in this and dozens of studies have been done to prove this point but when I wake up on a sunny day after a week of drizzling, cloudy blah-ness I feel like it is the first time I have truly woken up in days. My whole body feels more energized, optimistic. I feel like cleaning things and moving furniture and taking the kids outside doesn’t seem like such a chore.

Today is a sunny day and despite everything else in my life being just the same as it was before the clouds parted, everything feels different. I can’t wait for Spring. Oh and Summer. I think we may finally manage to truly stay in Lower Mainland for the whole season and that thrills me to bits. Having almost-two-year olds in Vancouver in the Summer fills my head with ideas for memory-making family fun.

Maybe our kids will get to touch grass for the first time in like 6 months.

But that’s still months away, today I’ll just enjoy today. Sure, the kid who was falling asleep in her highchair is now wailing in her bed rather than taking that much needed nap, and it’s almost noon and I’m fully debating microwaving the coffee I haven’t finished (I feel the Gastown shame upon me) but somehow even all that seems less of a big deal.

Maybe it’s all the vitamin D I’m absorbing.

Here’s some randomness for ya. I’ve probably been asked 5 or 6 times over the past few months how to make something that I’ve had success with: a fruit fly trap. Gosh my life is glamourous.

But seriously I once had a fruit fly problem, the first time I had dealt with this, and I researched solutions online. I perfected one that worked for me so when we moved into our new place and found that they show up pretty easily (it’s true living downtown we’ve noticed more flies of all kinds because of the close living situation and the dirtier streets) I attacked the problem with my technique and am able to keep it under control.

So because you asked, and begged and pleaded, for my secret, I’ll go ahead and reveal it here. For only three payments of $99.99 I’ll send you two traps handmade by Sarah herself. Think about it.

First I get a small glass bowl (like very small or else you’ll have to use too much vinegar and that’s a waste), clear is best for attracting flies and viewing your catch. Pour in about two or three tablespoons of white wine vinegar. You’re welcome to try other kinds but I’ve tried balsamic and plain white and never saw near the results. Fruit flies are classy.

Add a couple drops of dish soap in the center. I’ve used lavender, orange and other scents, it doesn’t seem to matter.

Finally I pour tap water directly onto the soap so it creates a lot of bubbles. Turn the water up pretty strong to make this happen quickly so you only add enough water to approximately double the amount of liquid in the bowl.

Some people tell you to cover it with plastic wrap and poke holes in it. Don’t bother. You’ll drive yourself crazy trying to figure out of the holes are the right size or if the plastic wrap is keeping the bugs away. The soap bubbles are specifically to coat their wings and keep them in the bowl, you won’t have a problem with that.

Now set your trap near a problem area, usually near where you kept some fruit out or the sink where it’s moist and warm. Moist. Yuck. Make sure though, that it’s also not going to be disturbed so the flies stick around. I’d show you a picture of all the flies I caught but then you’d know how many flies were in my kitchen and I just realized that’s what this post implies and I’m kind of regretting it.

Plus Marlow just took a bite out of a business card.

Charity:water is doing it again this year, their forth annual September Campaign, a tradition since their founder first gave up his birthday four years ago. This year they are doing a live well drill at 4:30pm EST, the first of their committed efforts for the Bayaka people of the Central African Republic.

I’m still raising money for my birthday, I’ve got 23 days left and we’ve raised $131 of my $280 goal. I’d love to see our goal reached, but in the mean time, check out this video about the well that will be drilled in a matter of hours, and the people whose lives it will change.

charity: water 2010 September Campaign: Clean Water for the Bayaka from charity: water on Vimeo.

If you’d like to donate to something like this, you can give through my birthday campaign here. 100% of our donations will go towards a well, very likely drilled for the Bayaka people of C.A.R.

Watch the live drill at 4:30pm EST

I have been saying I want to see this documentary since I first read about it I don’t know where. After seeing this trailer I am DYING to see it. The documentary maker observed four babies in four different cultures through their first year of life, never getting involved, only recording their lives as though animals in the wild.

As my mother said, babies are the same everywhere, they all speak the same language.

The film’s official site

I only have one more day to reach the goal I set before Christmas, of raising $500 for clean water in developing countries. It’s not much in comparison with the $80,000-something someone recently raised. But it’s big to me, and to each person who gave.

It’s big to the 25 people who by this time next year will take a drink of water that will nourish their bodies and not make them sick.

If you’ve got 20 bucks, or 10 or 50, put it towards changing life for the people of the Central African Republic, and many other communities who have been through so much.

Donate to my campaign here and watch my favorite new video from charity: water. So good.

charity: water promo featuring “Time Bomb” by Beck from charity: water on Vimeo.

Wrapping ideas with personality!

Week 6: Create a Family Tradition

I had a good conversation with my friend Claire the other day about remembering to incorporate activities that John and I want to do, not just the ones we’ve “always done”. It is easy, especially when faraway family necessitates spending the holidays in someone else’s home each year, to forgot that the two of us are a family too.

The day is coming when we’ll be able to wake up Christmas morning in our own house and shape the day together, but for now we take part in what our extended families do, and we have to be intentional in defining our little family in these years. (more…)

I forgot to post about it last night but yesterday the medals for the upcoming Winter Olympic Games were unveiled. I think they are beautiful and rich with meaning, if you take time to hear the heart behind their creation.

… The medals, revealed today, each feature a different crop of larger contemporary Aboriginal artworks and are undulating rather than flat — both firsts in Games history.

The dramatic form of the Vancouver 2010 medals is inspired by the ocean waves, drifting snow and mountainous landscape found in the Games region and throughout Canada. The Olympic medals are circular in shape, while the Paralympic medals are a superellipse, or squared circle… Their significant weight — between 500 grams to 576 g depending on the medal — represents the magnitude of the athlete’s accomplishment…

The medals are based on two large master artworks of an orca whale (Olympic) and raven (Paralympic) by Corrine Hunt, a Canadian designer/artist of Komoyue and Tlingit heritage based in Vancouver, BC. Each of the medals has a unique hand-cropped section of the abstract art, making every medal one-of-a-kind.

For example, each medal will include its own signature elements of the orca and raven artwork, such as the suggestion of the orca’s eye, the curve of its dorsal fin, or perhaps the contours of the raven’s wing. A silk scarf printed with the master artwork will be presented to each Olympian or Paralympian with their medal enabling them to see how their medal connects with those awarded to other athletes at the Games to make the whole design.

On the reverse side, the medals contain the official names of the Games in English and French, the official languages of Canada and the Olympic Movement, as well as Vancouver 2010’s distinctive emblems and the name of the sport and the event the medal was awarded in. On the Paralympic medals, braille is also used…

The Games motto With Glowing Hearts/Des plus brillants exploits is written in white lettering on the medal’s blue and green ribbon where it will rest at the base of the neck. (read the whole article on vancouver2010.com)

I think they did a great job pulling together many elements to make a meaningful award for the athletes. If you’re interested, CTV has a slideshow of Winter Olympic medals since 1924.

I’m getting so excited for the Games, I just know we’re going to finally win gold on Canadian soil. And you’re all probably getting Olympic gear for Christmas so just be prepared.

Here are some shots of the medal unveiling…

Olympic Games medals

Paralympic Games medals

I haven’t done one of these in awhile but I thought I’d resurrect some of my early posting trends.

This week’s eco tip: read a couple environmental articles:

Can you be an atheist and an environmentalist?
7 Tips for going green

As Conservation International says living green is not a trend, it’s an ethic. Being conscious of the impact my choices have on the health of the earth and taking responsibility for my actions is something that has become very important in my life.

For me, caring about the impact I make goes hand in hand with my faith in God. He gave us this earth and the plants and animals who inhabit it with the responsibility of caring for all of it. He values disciplined habits, wise use of the material provisions He has given us and generosity towards those in need.

I know it’s hard. You don’t know where to start. Going 100% organic would break your grocery budget. You have to use the dryer or your towels will be like sandpaper. I get it. So I want to start collecting realistic resources, practical tips and economic ideas to encourage even the least earth-friendly person to start somewhere.

To quote CI again, don’t wait. Do something differently today.

Educate yourself
Do you know your eco-footprint? (take a look around this site, it’s a good one)
Calculate your personal carbon emissions

Do one thing differently from today on

1. Purchase compact fluorescent lightbulbs. They cost more initially but will save you an average of $30 each in electrical costs and 2000 times their weight in greenhouse gases over their lifetime. It’s win-win.

2. Switch laundry detergent and start washing in cold water. 80-90% of the energy used in washing clothes goes to heating the water.

3. Say no to the plastic bags! Most grocery stores offer reusable bags for about $1 and you can take them everywhere and use them for anything. According to reusablebags.com, “Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year”.

4. Take the stairs. We don’t get enough exercise as it is so every step helps, and you won’t be using all that electricity to lift you up a floor or two.

Bible Backup:

• Look around you: Everything you see is God‘s—the heavens above and beyond, the Earth, and everything on it. (Deuteronomy 10:14)
• O Lord, what a variety of things you have made!
  In wisdom you have made them all.
  The earth is full of your creatures.
  Here is the ocean, vast and wide,
  teeming with life of every kind,
  both large and small.
  See the ships sailing along,
  and Leviathan, which you made to play in the sea.They all depend on you
  to give them food as they need it.
  When you supply it, they gather it.
  You open your hand to feed them,
  and they are richly satisfied.
  But if you turn away from them, they panic.
  When you take away their breath,
  they die and turn again to dust.
  When you give them your breath, life is created,
  and you renew the face of the earth. (Psalm 104:24-30 NLT)
• Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. (Ecclesiastes 1:4 NIV)
• What is the price of two sparrows—one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. (Matthew 10:29 NLT)

“We are care-takers. ‘The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till and keep it,’ Genesis 2:15. The Hebrew words shamar and abad, usually translated as ’till and keep’ in this verse, could be just as accurately translated as ‘serve and preserve.’ The word shamar is also used in Numbers 6:24: ‘The Lord bless you and keep you.’ God desires that we treat the creation in the same way that God treats us.” (Target Earth International)