Elementary, My Dear Watson

This afternoon I gave a presentation on composting to a class of 25 4th graders in Cahokia, Illinois. My niece's daughter is in the class, and she had been bragging to her teacher about her aunt and uncle who own a composting facility. As the class has just finished discussing microbes and how they help to break things down, the teacher thought it would be perfect to have me come in and talk to the class. Normally I would just discuss the composting process, but Cordelia had told them I would be bringing my "trash" along, so I modified the program a bit to include recycling.

I talk to the students about the different kinds of landfills and recycling centers available, and then each gets to pick a piece of trash out of my garbage bag. They then have to decide which of the centers that I talked about would accept the "trash". They don't always get the category right, but at the end of the day the point is that of all the pounds of trash I brought along, nothing had to go to the sanitary landfill. It all could be recycled in one way or another.

From there I talk about backyard composting, and then expand on what we do at a commercial composting center. I have large photographs showing them the equipment we use as well as some of the places around town that have used our compost. But by far their favorite part of the presentation is when I bring out our worms so we can talk about vermicomposting. Kids love worms! We have a stacking vermicompost bin at our house, so I have to remove some of the worms and their compost and place them in my traveling worm bin. Everyone was allowed to come up and gently pick up worms if they so desired. Surprisingly most of the kids were game. And my favorite part is when the kids finally figure out that they have their hands in worm poop. Priceless!

But they were great, and I think they enjoyed talking about recycling and composting. And maybe a few will take something home from today and make some positive changes in their own lives.

Those Schoolgirl Days...

Every year on the first day of school we took a photo of each of our children in the backyard. That continued even as they headed off to college.

It's been a week since we moved Katie into her dorm in Chicago. Though I use the word "dorm" lightly, as she is in a two bedroom, two bath apartment which just happens to be operated by the college. She and Kasey from Connecticut lucked out, with their unit being at the end of the hallway, away from the noise of the elevators but more importantly scoring windows in both of the bedrooms. The main living area of the apartment and the one bedroom boast floor to ceiling windows with, get this, stunning views of Lake Michigan and a small marina. Seriously? Where is the dorm room overlooking the dumpster that most freshmen get? Katie told me that two boys on the floor have offered them $200 a month to change rooms with them. As if! Katie's room is intended to house four students, but so far it is just the two Ks, while the boys are in a one bedroom, one bath unit.

Move-in day went quite smoothly, and in less than an hour and a half we had all of her belongs stored in the room, despite waiting for the elevators to take us to the 19th floor. The worst part was waiting for the elevators in the afternoon, with our arms loaded from the trip to Target. We got her room and the kitchen area set up in that afternoon, and had supper with Katie and Lauren, a fellow WGHS graduate. Then they went off for their evening activities and we walked around the city. After a late breakfast with Katie on Sunday, we made our way back to St. Louis.

For me, the weirdest part of this past week was not hearing "What's for supper?" like clockwork each afternoon. Normally Katie was in the other room every day as I cooked, and it was awfully quiet even with the news to keep me company. However, it has been really liberating to only have to consider mine and Jim's schedules, likes and dislikes. Whole grain bread, fish, cooking on the grill, eating or not eating...

Katie is probably feeling the same sense of freedom, and it has been fun to hear about her new experiences. Life's lessons are being learned every day, from dealing with overflowing toilets to budgeting and planning meals. How quickly our children go "from crayons to perfume..."