Earth Hour

We switched off the lights and the TV (this was more difficult for Mehran than it was for the children) brought out the soy candles we made last year and sat at the dining room table eating homemade apple pie and completing a puzzle of the world by candlelight. We all really enjoyed this and it was surprisingly easy when considering the fact that it was somewhat difficult to see. While Bayan turned pieces the right way around and worked on the flags, the girls tackled Asia and the South Pacific while I sorted out Europe and Africa. The result was a completed puzzle in less than an hour and an impromptu game of: "Can you find..." Not to mention the fun, really it was, of not using electricity for an hour, of getting ready for bed by candlelight and knowing that this tiny little step we took, when combined with other people taking the same step all over the world, was doing something powerful and positive to help the earth.

From this...

to these.

I have been needing new tea towels for awhile now. I have not bought more for a couple of reasons. One: everything is made in China and there is a dubiousness about the source of some of these products, especially the ones on the cheaper end. To say nothing of the fact that their absorbency is appalling. I have attempted to buy suitable fabric but have been told, repeatedly, that they do not sell tea towel material but that I can buy ready made ones in kitchen ware. Humph. Well, after reading Zoe Weil's book Above All be Kind, about raising humane children in a corrupt commercial world, (a fabulous, highly recommended, book by the way) I passed on the defective, but readily available dish towels and found a huge "new" albeit pre-owned, table cloth at the markets and viola: fresh, fun, absorbent, humane dish towels and at only a fraction of the cost...