themom

My family has done little things... like turning the water off while we brush our teeth. We reuse as many products as we can, such as ziploc bags. We switched from bottled waters to a Brita water filtration system, and we bottle our own and use the same container. We sort our trash and take it to the appropriate recycle center. I use natural products as weed or bug killers in my gardens instead of chemicals. We have a water barrel that catches rain water, and I water the gardens during the hot dry months from it. We no longer use styrofoam products, but instead we use recycled paper products. Small steps, yes.. but important ones. What does YOUR family do to "go green"?

I am in the mood for Hoppin' John! I know how to make it, and have made it previously. What I am in search of here is something different or new, some little ingredient your family may use that I hadn't thought of. Can you help? I want to rev this up some tonight!

Lest you quickly decide the answer is the past, remember the recent instances of heroic rescues in New York; or the incredible actions of those caught up in the horrors of 9/11; or the strides we have taken in racial equality and religious freedoms. And lest you decide too quickly that the answer is modern times, don't forget how it used to be when back doors didn't need to be locked, and your neighbor took as good care of your family as you did their family, or how television was only 3 channels of family oriented programs. So... what do YOU think?

In the course of speed-reading the yahoo main page several weeks ago, I ran across a short-cut tip for a cake that I THINK came from the Pennsylvania Dutch community. The author takes a chocolate cake mix and adds brewed coffee instead of the water called for in the recipe. Does anyone know of this recipe, and what icing you would use for this cake? It sounds easy and wonderful, but I can't remember what it was I actually saw! HELP!

About 5 years ago I visited a friends home and found a seed pod from one of her shrubs. It was dried, looked almost like a pod of okra, and it rattled when you shook it. I absent- mindedly stuck the seeds in a potted plant and forgot them, but they grew. Now I have a shrub/tree(?) in my yard which has large, glossy, bright green leaves and a strange, dark reddish bloom which looks similar to the starburst flowers we drew as children, and has no discernable fragrance. What is this thing? I like it, and want to know more about it if possible. If I remember correctly, she may have called it a sweet shrub? She is not available to help me, and I would really like to know what I have. I have looked up sweet shrub, and come up with nothing. That is either not it's correct name, it's not what she called it, or that is it's common name and it won't come up without the botanical name. Can anyone take a shot at this?

I have a huge iris bed that my mother brought to South Carolina nearly 50 years ago from Ohio. I recently began to break up the bed, as the roots and bulbs were so prolific they were sticking up out of the ground. I transplanted some of them, but I still can't get them to bloom,so something must be missing from the soil. Is there anything I can put on the beds to encourage blooms?

I have a lab mix female and a toy poodle who may have mated during the females first heat. My vet says that even if they mated,which he doubted, the puppies would die. I have seen some pretty incredible mixtures of dogs in my time,and I see no reason why it wouldn't work out. The female shows some signs of pregnancy, but I've never had a female that may have mated before I could get her spayed,and so am not even certain IF she is pregnant. HELP!!!