Not co-operating

Friends, I'm sorry I've been so neglectful (or is that negligent?) of you lately For all I know none of you are out there any more. It's just that in between all this frantic working, pureeing, commuting, greening, popping upstate and of course as much Dotting as humanly possibly, not to mention getting drunk with some green girlfriends last night (it was legit - we were brainstorming ideas for my work initiatives) it's really hard to squeeze the blog thing in. But I'll keep trying for at least twice a week.

We were up in Milanville for the weekend. I took the opportunity to catch up on a bit of green reading, particularly the latest from No Impact Man (http://noimpactman.typepad.com/ - sorry no links as am on the hubby's mac), of whom I am in equal parts deeply envious and in deep admiration.

He's forced me to admit something that's been wafting round in the back of my head lately - that I've been getting slack, and that going back to work is no excuse (well, it is, I mean I'm constantly knackered and barely have time to pee, but when I do pee I'm using loo roll which is more than he is, and so I need to get back with the program. And in case you wonder what he's doing instead of loo roll, he's using rags and laundering them along with his baby's nappies. You can imagine how the hubby reacted to that little idea. And anyway we don't have a washing machine, so that's that one out the window).

So, inspired by Colin I had a weekend of green stuff. Since I'd run out of facewash and toothpaste, I followed his example and used baking soda for both. It makes for crappy toothpaste (makes me gag; I never could stand baking soda toothpaste either) but I think it might acutally be a great facewash - mildly exfolitating, it left my face feeling soft and glowy, like a Clean and Clear ad; it might be the last time I buy a plastic bottle of facewash. I also washed in a bowl with a flannel instead of having a shower Saturday morning (this was salutory - I got quite clean enough for a day of raking leaves and shovelling compost, with practically no water at all; maybe I wouldn't do this on a school day, though). Then, since the child development class I attended Friday made me feel like I was a dreadful mother for not having Dot on her tummy on the floor with her legs bare 24/7, I mopped all the floors with water and vinegar to excellent effect and plonked the little lady down. Later we stocked up on leeks, spuds, eggs, carrot and meat from River Brook farm (Alice told us she's going to have 24 varieties of potato this summer. 24 potatoes! Who knew?). I tended to my compost heap, mixing it up with lots of dead leaves from the garden to make it all nice and welcoming for the future worms (still too cold for them, though) and, as usual, chased the hubby round the house turning off lights after him.

By the time we left I was feeling fairly virtuous. Which is probably why I got up on my high horse with the hubby about the co-op on the way home. This involved me going on and on about when were we going to join and him coming up with a million excuses for not doing it, until he confessed under substantial pressure that his main objection was to having to spend one of his two spare afternoons a week 'stacking shelves next to some middle class wanker'.

I think I then went off on one about the ethos of a co-op being all about co-operation and how two and a half hours a month really wasn't much, etc. etc.

"So you're going to leave Dot again when you're not at work to go and do it, are you?" he challenged. "Or are you going to do it after she's in bed when you're so tired you can hardly stand up?"

Oh. I sulked for a bit after that because he had a point. We drove the rest of the way in silence. I'll warrant this debate will be continued...