Earth Day

The road to hell is paved with good intentions, right? If that's truly the case, I must be headed there in a handbasket. Last weekend at a conference I attended, one of the vendors was distributing a seed mat as a free gift for visiting the booth. Don't worry if you have no idea what a seed mat is- I hadn't heard of one either until I saw these. Basically, it's a huge piece of paper (5' x 1') and you're supposed to dig up a plot of earth approximately 1/4" deep and bury the thing. Add some water and voila~ you have a flower garden. I picked up 4 of the things because no one else wanted them and was planning to plant them with the boys today as an Earth Day project. Unfortunately, I had to stay at work a bit late, then once I picked the children up from their respective schools I realized we had nothing for lunches for the rest of the week, not to mention dinner for the children tonight while Jason and I had dinner with friends. By the time I made it home from the the-chain-superstore-that-I resent-due-to-their-super-low-prices-that-force-me-to-shop-there-and-directly-support-their-unfair-labor-practices-and-their-surreptitious-attempt-at-world-domination-therefore-I-refuse-to-name-it-here (minus one bag that I managed to leave there and will have to go back and get tomorrow~ how I forget things with 3 little angels who stand by so sweetly polishing their halos while I check out is beyond me.)~ it was after 5:00 (sorry- that was a long sentence. I was ranting. It's my blog.). I had to bathe all the children and start their dinner before the sitter came, so planting seeds was out the window (no pun intended).

However, before you accuse me of being the sole antecedent of global warming, be encouraged that Earth Day was not a lost cause in the Sturgeon household! In the store parking lot, on our way into buy the aforementioned groceries, I look down and see the my oldest son had picked up a rather nasty looking, albeit empty (except for some crumbs), Pringle's can. Having a temporary memory lapse of exactly what day it happens to be, in my most nuturing, yet affirming mommy voice I immediately said "Micah! Put that down!" Here's where it gets good- if you're a parent you know how humbling it is to be put in your place by your child. Micah quickly responded, "But mommy, it's Earth Day!" So here I am with 3 children in the parking lot of the-store-who-must-not-be-named trying to figure out how to encourage my children to take care of the earth while simultaneously giving them the message that litter is perfectly happy laying where it lands. Just so you know, it's not possible. I had no choice but to agree that Micah could carry the Pringle's can to the trash can near the store door. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your view of litter, Earth Day and global warming, allowing him to carry one piece of trash set off a chain of events that led to both the boys picking up every single piece of trash in the parking lot from our car to the door of the store. And there was quite a bit, including a piece of paper Micah picked up from a rather suspicious looking puddle. In my happy place I choose to believe it was just water.

Looking back, I know they did a good thing. I'm glad the boys want to be good stewards of the earth's resources. We said a short prayer together tonight thanking God for the earth and asking Him to show us ways that we can continue to take care of His creation. I guess we'll get to the seeds another day. Now that I think about it, we don't even have a shovel, so how exactly was I planning to dig up that plot of earth? Happy Earth Day everyone!!