Wednesday, January 30, 2008

If I had a bazillion dollars

I would go around and buy up every piece of farmland that I see for sale in my state. It literally hurts my heart to see beautiful forests, fields, and farms destroyed, clearcut, and turned into soulless neighborhoods with identical houses and no trees.

The other day I was driving and saw a sign that said "For Sale: Great Development Property". It was a gorgeous field backed with woods. Looked like it had been some sort of cattle or horse farm at one time. I assume that if I drive down that same road in 10 years, I'll see a neighborhood there. Or a shopping mall. Or worse yet, a parking lot.

It's such a waste of beauty.

There used to be this big horse farm in my hometown. The property was outlined by a white picket fence. There were 2 very large ponds and areas of both woods and meadow. The little white house stood right in the middle of the property, and the horse stables were off the side and back. In the summer, the fields shone yellow with dandelions, and the horses roamed in peace throughout the property. I used to dream that I could live there.

That farm is now a neighborhood. The white picket fence has been replaced with a very tall stone wall with landscaping along the exterior. There's a big gate declaring "Luxury Homes" and inside are over a hundred homes built from 3-4 master plans. They have sidewalks, 1/4 acre yards, homeowners rules and regulations, but no trees. No playgrounds. No ponds. No woods, no horses, no nature. No fun.

No thanks.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Limited Growth

I posted a while back about an amazing article that I love by Lori Taylor - http://www.fuzbaby.com/articles/businessarticle_smallering.htm.

I was at the kids' dentist office today, feeling the stress I always do there. One of my girls has a problem with the enamel on her baby teeth. Well, the problem is that she doesn't have any. So she has had to endure way more dental work than any 8 year old should have. This, and the fact that I have 2 more children, means that at almost every bi-yearly checkup, a cavity is discovered in someone's mouth. When I go to schedule the filling appointment, the nasty receptionist always makes me feel like an inconvenience to her and her time, and there is NEVER anything less than a month away. This morning took the cake... no free appointments for THREE MONTHS,

So what does that have to do with Ms. Taylor's "smallering" article?

How have we allowed this sort of business to thrive and grow? No personal attention, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels offices like this care more about my money than my child. Obviously, this office has taken on more patients than is reasonable. At least, reasonable to me. I understand that malpractice insurance is killing doctors, but the cause of that would warrant a whole 'nother rant from me about our "sue crazy" society.

So the point of this post? Search out local, small businesses to support. Even doctors and dentists. I know they are still out there- the small local office with 2 or 3 docs. The place that remembers your name.

This is what I've been doing as part of my quest to live more consciously. I used to go to a big, big doctor practice. I delivered 3 babies with this practice, but after 6 years and 3 deliveries, no one in the office knew my name. There were 7+ midwives and 4+ doctors. They were all very nice, and individually, I liked them, but they didn't *know* me. So I set out for a change. I found a local doctor. One doctor in one office. She calls me personally to give me test results (the old office used to make me come in for an appointment just to tell me everything was fine! And charge my insurance $70). After that, I set out for a more personal dentist and found one in my old hometown. Next, I will start searching for the same for my children's dentist.

Go local. Go small.

I just don't believe that a company HAS TO grow. What's wrong with staying the same? What's wrong with getting enough clientele to pay all your bills and then some and STOP? I know that's totally against "the american way", but that's how I feel.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

My girls

Yesterday I took my girls to a birthday skating party. I was positively appalled at all the commerial junk flowing. I'm no purist- we buy the children plastic toys, and we love movies. But the funny part is that we are still considered "weird" by most people. We cancelled our satellite TV because we couldn't take the bombardment of advertisers telling our children they needed to lose weight and wear makeup. Even on harmless channels like The Nature Channel, the quality shows were being interuppted by NutriSystem and ProActive commericals. And don't even get me started on Nickelodeon. I have no problem with the cartoons, but the commericals would literally give me a headache. Bratz dolls. I can't even comprehend how a parent would give them to a child.

Anyway... back to the party. Three of the girls there were wearing Hannah Montana or High School Musical tee shirts. The birthday girl had Hannah-inspired hair extensions. Now, don't get me wrong, there's probably nothing wrong with Ms. Montana, but when I was an 8 year old girl, we were still into CARTOONS, not "real life" tv about high school girls and all the boys they are crazy for. I think when my girls are more into the 11/12 year old bracket, that sort of thing will be more acceptable to me.

It made me feel really proud to see my girls having a good time with the other girls and knowing that they had never watched Hannah Montana or High School Musical. And it made me feel even better to know that they didn't *care*! They show minimal interest. They are way more into playing and doing artsy things.