Tag Archives: soapbox

15 Simple Ways Your Family Can Go Greener…

Apr 22 2013

In case you didn’t know it, today is EARTH DAY! Today (and on every April 22nd since 1970), there will be thousands of environmental awareness events going on in communities worldwide. Schools, libraries, workplaces, and parks will be buzzing with festivals, workshops, and eco-friendly activities geared towards promoting education about environmental issues. For our family, it’s a good reminder to reevaluate the efforts our family has (or has not) been making to protect the earth for the past year. Why is the message of environmental stewardship important for families? On a personal, spiritual level, I believe that one of…Read the rest of this entry →

Toddlers and Helmets – From Bike to Crag…

Sep 27 2012

My husband and I have always been fans of the brain bucket. Climbing, biking, horseback riding, driving down I-77 during rush hour (one of these might be an exaggeration)…when it comes to adventures in the outdoors, many of our family photos involve a collage of hard hats. In the climbing world, this sometimes makes us seem a little bit dorky – while there are some climbing situations where I don’t wear my helmet, 90% of the time I’ve got one on if I’m more than 15 feet off the ground (for a more detailed version of my helmet stance for…Read the rest of this entry →

Climbing Rules! …and Regulations

Apr 03 2012

Recently I was asked about how our family handles Cragbaby’s enthusiastic climbing skills in and around the house – and more specifically, in areas that aren’t safe to practice heel-hooks and fist jams. In non-climbing families, its probably easiest to implement a few hard and fast rules. For example – NO CLIMBING. For obvious reasons that mixed message would cause a lot of confusion in our house. Though we are definitely learning as we go, here are a few concepts that have proved to be helpful for us – by all means they aren’t gospel, and I am very interested…Read the rest of this entry →

PETZL Helmet Campaign – Round 2!

Mar 07 2012

Those of you that have been loyal readers for a while now may remember a post I did last October about my stance on helmet usage, as part of a Helmet Campaign from Petzl and their marketing guys over at Pemba Serves. It certainly got quite the response – 107 comments even! While I’d like to assume it was my literary prowess and creative wordsmith-ery that compelled such a reaction, in truth I must admit that it probably had more to do with the fact that Petzl was giving away a free helmet to one lucky commenter. Excerpts of my post were melted into…Read the rest of this entry →

An End to Winter Recreation in our State Parks?

Feb 22 2012

So I usually tend to stay out of politics, but there’s been a recent issue that’s come up that I just can’t ignore. A lot of you North Carolinians may have seen it already, but there’s been a nasty report going around social media circles recently about NC State Parks, and the government’s latest and not-so-greatest budget-cutting ideas. The whole report can be found here, while a short synopsis can be found here. But for the gist of it, and my (fairly strong) opinion, read on. (And feel free to comment – I’d love to hear everyone else’s thoughts). Basically,…Read the rest of this entry →

“Not all who wander are lost.” —JRR TOLKIEN