Quiet week

News flash: I'll be a little quiet this week.

There's a lot going on the next few days:

• We're rapping up planning for a long-anticipated retreat this weekend.
• I'm behind on my online fall gardening class, and trying to catch up before it ends! (Have learned some great tips that I can't wait to share.)
• I'm busting my butt at boot camp and hobbling around to prove it. (Great for the body, not so great on a limited time schedule.)
• And of course, there's work and family as well.

So if I'm quiet, there's a reason or two!

August APLS Carnival

The APLS Carnival is back!

Join us for a discussion of "Green on the Cheap" in August.

Has the economy impacted how you live green? Do you buy fewer green products to save money? Or have you redoubled your efforts to live sustainably? What have you learned about living environmentally friendly on a budget? Let us know your thoughts!

Please send links to your posts by Aug. 15 to goinggreenmama@gmail.com. Even if you're not a regular contributor to the carnival, we'd love to hear your voice.

We'll post a wrapup of what other writers have to say here on Aug. 19.

Squash recipes redux

I will not eat them here or there. I will not eat them anywhere!

Dr. Seuss may have been badmouthing Green Eggs & Ham, but the latest banned food in our house is none other than the humble yellow summer squash.

Let me first state for the record that it was my oldest who was attracted by the bright yellow vegetables on the plant label. Apparently, she should have stuck to admiring the pictures.

As my squash keep growing, I've been trying desperately the last week to find some kind of squash recipe that the kids will tolerate. What I'm finding is you can dress them up, but squash is still squash. Raw, sauteed, even fried, those kids know it's squash on their plate.

It didn't matter that a cooking show this weekend featured fried zucchini as a recipe. I thought it was the perfect opportunity to show my little chef what the recipes actually turned out like in person. Right. One bite, and she was done. I even stretched things and tried a recipe for fried squash blossoms. The kids were all for that - and why wouldn't they be? The flowers are so thin it was basically fried flour.

No matter what I've tried, I haven't succeeded in convincing my kids to try more than a bite without tossing it on the floor. However, I've made a meal out of summer squash with toasted garlic and lime and experimented with a summer squash "pasta," of which no one really enjoyed. (Sorry, the julienned squash was just too mushy for this al dente girl.)

Right now, after my vast experiment with summer squash recipes, I'm about ready to simply call a truce. I think I have some coworkers who appreciate a little free food!

Site worth sharing: Sierra Club trails search

Hiking is a favorite activity of our family, though one we don't get to do as often as we'd like. We are always on the lookout for regional trails to check out when the hiking bug bites.

The Sierra Club has recently launched a new site, Sierra Club Trails. It houses descriptions of trails across the country - which you can rate and add your own feedback on. Best of all, it's a wiki, so if you see things that are missing (like I know there are more than six trails in the state of Indiana--heck there are probably at least that many in Brown County alone, which stands out in its absence!) you can add your information to the site.

And it's more than just "this is a nice wooded trail." A Sierra Club rep told the Green Phone Booth:

So if I post a trail in, say, Yosemite, and you've been there recently and saw that part of the trail is really muddy, or the bugs are bad this time of year, or if camping spots are getting really popular and should be reserved in advance, you can update that.

The site is very easy to use and search for the trails you need. (Note to techies: It needs scripts enabled, or you're completely out of luck, especially in FireFox.) It's definitely worth bookmarking for future use. Thanks to the GPB for pointing this site out!

Another reason I'm mother of the year

I confess. For all of my talk about limiting TV in our home, we make friends with the electronic babysitter from time to time. OK, maybe more than I thought.

We've tried to limit our kids' viewing to children's shows we've screened and cooking shows. Sports were fine, until we realized that the commercials for some of the movies and video games out today were scaring the 4 year old, causing some of our bedtime battles.

And we thought that decision was OK. Until yesterday.

My daughter was doing her usual cooking with water routine - typically it's making "chocolate chip tea." Or so I thought.

Lined up on our kitchen table were two child-size tea cups and her brother's sippy cup, which she picked up and started shaking up and down. "I'm making cocktails," she proudly said.

What?? We're not teatotallers by any means (we have the occasional glass of wine or beer), but we certainly don't have leisurely chats about "cocktails."

"Sandra Lee on the cooking show makes cocktails," she informed me. "I'm making water cocktails."

Yikes. They keep you on your toes, don't they? Time to rethink what they're watching, yet again!