It's official. We're still playing baseball.Like pretty much all the other mothers, we have seen the end of the school year along with it's field trips, class parties and graduations. School related sports, band and special talent shows are long gone. But, the mothers of our Little League just can't get into summer relaxation mode just yet. Why? Apparently because my kids are good at baseball. It's playoff time and my darn kids keep winning! If you keep winning, you keep playing. Until you lose. Twice. Want to know a secret? As much as I love winning. As much as I love my kids. As much as I love watching them. I am ready to lose.
I am tired. Making batch after batch after batch of organic lemonade in glass pitchers, only to pour the entire pitcher into open and thirsty reusable bottles on the counter gets old, quickly. Last year it was just a matter of grabbing plastic bottles out of the fridge and throwing them into bags. Now, when I am making all of the drinks I realize how much they actually DRINK! They don't just need one bottle for a game in this heat, they need two. Don't forget the bottle I need to pack for the youngest, the dad and myself. That's 9 bottles a game or practice, per night, six days a week.
Then of course, there is the business of dinner before we can leave for the game, which has to be made after I get home from work. Let's just say the all-local pancakes I made and then froze one weekend when I had some extra time, have been qualifying as dinner. Does that count?
We only take one car to the games these days, cutting down on both carbon emissions and fuel consumption. That means the youngest has to stay for the entire game. An added green feature to this, is that we are saving tremendous amounts of water at bath time. He just doesn't take one. I am actually not even sure what day he took his last bath. And, that's pretty yucky considering at baseball games he is petting random dogs, digging holes in the dirt with other random kids and eats candy handed out by other random mothers.
And, we're not done yet! After all this is said and done, there is the business of washing the uniforms that smell. Really bad. I have to tell you, the socks can smell so badly, I am tempted to make the wearers ride on top of the van on the way home from games. I have been resisting the temptations to use warm water or bleach or traditional laundry soap. It's the end of the season, the uniforms are looking pretty dingy. I can't exactly remember if they looked this way last year too, when I was still spraying, pretreating and bleaching? Did that do any good, or really is one uniform worn 3-5 times a week to play in the dirt and eat ice cream and pizza in, just going to be dingy no matter what?
So, while being green is good, sometimes it's really tiring. We have another couple of weeks to go before the championship game and I hope I can hold out. If so, by my estimates, we will have saved over 220 plastic bottles from the recycling bin, washed 35 loads of uniforms in the cold cycle with natural detergents and saved 320 miles of driving by taking one car. Now, I need a break. Being green is hard. Now, I just need to find a green way to clean my van...
6 comments:
Pancakes for dinner TOTALLY counts! Good luck in the championship!
I'm glad you've figured out those statistics, because that's where you get your reward. Boy, I don't envy you all that work. Mine were all runners. They trained all summer for cross country (lots of sweaty clothes!!), ran all fall, then, after a short break in the winter, indoor track season commenced. Healthy, but never-ending. At least marching band season was reasonably short.
Your doing a great job sticking to your priciples!
Wow, now you make me really appreciate all the hard work my mom did when I was a kid. Three of us in swim practice plus band plus other hobbies. In the summer, swim practice was from 6-8 am AND again from 4-6 pm. As you can imagine, growing kids getting that much exercise ate mountains of food. And she made much of it from scratch.
You're doing great things for your family!
Damn them! Why can't they lose!!!!!
Oh, and I'm betting their drinking more because your homemade lemonade probably tastes alot better.
Oh, and forget about baths. He's building immunity. You good mommy you.
Oh, and, yeah, I guess living the green life can be hard. It is more rewarding though . . . isn't it?
Heather - Good, 'cause it's pancakes on the menu tonight! I have two with practice and another with a game. On two different sides of town and hubby is working late. Eat up, boys!
Joyce - I have a runner too... One the oldest ran track at the same time as baseball. Oh yeah, he also runs cross country, plays basketball and indoor baseball. He is single-handedly causing global warming I think. Between driving here and there and washing all his clothes and packing all his drinks, he's a lot of work!
Chile - I can't imagine any practice of any sort beginning at 6 a.m. I am NOT a morning person. This is why my kids don't play hockey. Mommy is not getting up at 4:00 a.m. for ice time. No way. I'm a meanie, aren't I?? And, you are so right about the mountains of food. My boys eat too dinners a night - one before a game, one after. Did you know I am also a short order cook? :o)
GB - Ooooh, so that black crud under the fingernails is immunity. WHEW! And all along, I just thought it was dirt. He will be in excellent health until he is 32 then. And, you are right, the green changes in our lives are hard, but it does feel good at the end of the day. Our last trip to Costce was almost liberating. I realized how much stuff I didn't even need or want to buy. All those other poor moms with carts loaded down with cases of gatorage, water, chips and cookies. I had my softner salt, dog food and fruit leathers and it was quite nice!
With teens, the busier the better. It's when they don't want to do anything but loaf on street corners that you have problems.
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