Out of the Woods

We took a hike last week, Baby E (no longer a baby) runs and laughs, she loves hiking. It was going great the first 10 minutes, everyone stayed in view. Then, I started to have an anxiety attack as all grew more comfortable, stepping off the path, going in opposite directions, what if I loose one of them? I started to become Grouchy Mom. We hiked for about an hour, it was cool out, we had bundled up.

I am inspired by the new President and I hope other are, too. He is filling his cabinet with former rivals, reaching across the aisle-he is doing things differently. I was so proud to see Pelosi and Fienstein flanking him, how great is that picture! Goodbye old white guys, your way of doing things is over, time to give someone else a chance! Michelle is a truly classy first lady, it just feels so good to finally win. If McCain was in there, I'm feel strongly we'd spiral into a bad depression, and I'd be living off the plums in my back yard.

Instead, I'm inspired to be nicer to people, to waste less, to consume less and to do more. My first task is to work with the Parks Department to no longer use pesticides at our local park. I've applied for a mini grant through my city to pay for a volunteer park clean up day to provide the workers instead of spraying to kill weeds. I'm anticipating resistance, so I look forward to working with the local government and forming a concerned group to make the entire city pesticide free. After that, I'll ask Obama to make our national parks pesticide free. It doesn't make sense to me that woman and children (the most susceptible to chemicals, the ones who use the parks most) are exposed to chemicals to keep a few weeds under control and make the grass pretty. There is a lot of work to do, so get busy!