Turn Your Toilet Green

Ew, right?

Actually, making your toilet "green," a.k.a. "earth-friendly" or "eco-conscious" is a cinch.

Fill an empty plastic 20-ounce or 1 liter drinking bottle with water, then tuck it inside the toilet tank, below the handle mechanism.

Trial and error: anywhere else in the tank, and the bottle gets sucked down with every flush, causing MORE water usage. Oh, and duct tape will NOT hold it in place. But maybe plumber's tape would?

This trick results in less water usage with every flush, and is much less expensive than installing a low-flow toilet if you don't already have one.

The water in my toilet tank now rises to about 1 1/2 inches less depth than before. I have not figured out the volume on that - math was never my strong suit - but it seems like it is probably a significant amount!

An option my mom suggested, which was a popular water conservation trick in days predating me, is to place a brick in the tank.

If you run a business or work at an office with multiple bathroom stalls, or have more than one toilet in your house, implementing this idea has even more of an impact!

Let me know if you can think of other ideas for conserving water in your bathroom!

And This Little Piggy Got the Flu...

Swine Flu is NOT sweeping the nation. Hundreds of thousands of people die of influenza worldwide each year, and yet we are not up in arms. Here's the facts, courtesy of Tulsa Health Department.

-Swine Flu is a respiratory disease of pigs. There are regular outbreaks in pigs. Human infections do not happen often. Person-to-person spreading of swine flu was not sustained beyond 3 people in the past.

-There has been limited reporting of H1N1 (swine influenza A) in the U.S. A case count for confirmed infections in humans in the U.S. is available at http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/investigation.htm.

-Symptoms are similar to regular influenza. Fever, cough, sore throat, aching, headache, chills, fatigue, possibly diarrhea and vomiting. Pneumonia and respiratory failure and deaths have been reported. This is likely because, like seasonal flu, swine flu can cause worsening of underlying chronic medical conditions.

-If you get sick, stay home. Thanks.

-12 cases of swine flu were detected in the U.S. between 2005 and 2009, and no deaths occurred.

-There were over 200 cases with serious illness in 1976 in New Jersey. There was only one death.

-Swine flu is not spread by eating pork.

The moral of the story is not to lick each other and to continue to use soap and warm water and scrub for at least as long as it takes to sing "This is the way we wash our hands, wash our hands, wash our hands. This is the way we wash our hands, with soap and water."

If children or adults seem like they need emergency medical care due to breathing problems, bluish skin color, lack of fluids, inability to interact, fever with a rash, dizziness, confusion, persistent vomiting, etc., go to the ER or an Urgent Care facility. (Stating the obvious.) Swine flu or not!

(If you would like to be mailed a two-page handout with more information on Swine Influenza, please send me your address at ston_bran@yahoo.com. You may also visit the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website, or www.tulsa-health.com.

Free Online Literacy Program

Scholastic's Summer Challenge is a free online program created to encourage literacy in kids between the ages of 5 and 12. A love of reading is cultivated, and Scholastic aims to motivate kids to read a minimum of 4 books this summer.

At the end of the summer, Scholastic will give a contribution to Save the Children on the behalf of all participants in the Summer Challenge.

For more info on Scholastic's Summer Challenge, and for age-appropriate book recommendations, visit www.Scholastic.com/summer.

Tulsa Area Car Seat Safety Checks in June

I went to a children's health and safety fair last month and checked the installation of my daughter's booster seat. It was installed incorrectly, despite the pictured instructions on the side of the model, which I had followed precisely!

For readers who live in my area, here are car seat safety checks that Safe Kids will be sponsoring in June:

June 4th 2-4pm State Farm Insurance 12222 State Farm Blvd (51st & 129th)

June 9th 10am-noon Owasso Fire Dept. 207 S. Cedar (76th St. N & Cedar)

June 20th 9am-noon Creek Nation Tribal Complex 13000 Loop 56 (Hwy 75 & Loop 56)

June 25th 10am-noon Riverside Chevrolet 707 W 51st (I-44 & Arkansas River)

For more info, call 918-494-SAFE, or visit www.safekidstulsa.com.

Encourage Creativity - Publish Your Child's Artwork

Scholastic Parent & Child considers submissions of children's artwork, including drawings, photographs, and paintings, for possible publication in one of the magazine's issues. If they do end up using your mini-Michaelangelo's artwork in a future issue, Scholastic will send your son or daughter a complimentary box of books!

Send submissions to:
Samantha Brody
557 Broadway
5th Floor
New York, NY 10012

or

SBRODY@SCHOLASTIC.COM

Happy Mother's Day!

Can't write much...this is time that is practically sacred, but could not let Mother's Day go by without giving a shout out to all the Moms out there.

Not all superheroes wear capes!

Happy Mother's Day. :-)

Stamp Out Hunger today!

Community food banks have been hit even harder in the current economic downturn than our pantries have been.

Today is the Stamp Out Hunger community food bank drive. Donating is as easy as putting non-perishable food items in your mailbox (or in a box or paper bag under the mailbox). The postal carrier and area volunteers will pick up the donations.

Let's not punish the needy because we're feeling passive-aggressive about Monday's postage rate hike!