In honor of the first day of school here in Concord, a post about lunchboxes.

I really had an Atom Ant lunchbox. Why I picked this one, and not, say, Barbie in 1966 when I headed off to kindergarten will remain forever a mystery. I’d like to think it’s because I was too cool for Barbie. More likely it was on sale.

On the one hand, the old metal lunchboxes had their drawbacks: they were heavy, prone to rusting (especially the bockety snap closures) and the glass lined thermoses rarely lasted through the month of September.

But what they didn’t have was lead.

Unlike the soft-sided vinyl lunchboxes that my kids bring to school each day. It turns out that a group very concerned with the levels of toxins in our environment, the Center for Environmental Health has tested a few hundred vinyl lunch boxes and have found that they can contain lead. According to Snopes.com, the levels of lead found were low, but still. I am sending in lunch because I question the nutritional value of  Batman Hotpockets.  Which are most likely better than lead- laden peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from home.

According to Snopes.com, the amount of lead in the tested lunchboxes is fairly low; a child would have to rub his hands on the box and then lick them, about 100 times a day for 15-30 days for there to be a health hazard.   Ok even my boys couldn’t be dared into that one.  But lead poisoning is cumulative, so for children who live in old homes with traces of lead based paint, it is worth a second thought.

It is possible to use a home testing kit on lunchboxes. It is also possible to check manufacturers’ websites to see if they have taken a lead-free pledge.

Maybe we should be scanning e-bay for some relics.

After a long debate, we decided to hold our annual Christmas Open House. What with starting GreenPoma.com both money and time are tight, and the financial company severance package isn’t going to last forever. But, the way I figure it, the couple hundred dollars we’ll be spending on cocktails won’t push us over the brink into financial ruin, and this year especially, who doesn’t need an excuse to get out and share some holiday cheer? Besides, it will be the perfect opportunity to show off how beautiful our home looks, now that every single lamp and fixture has been converted to bulbs for sale at GreenPoma.com. We were about 75% of the way there through normal bulb replacement, and now I just have to figure out what to do with the 15 or so bulbs that we pulled out that are still usable. For now they are stuffed in a laundry basket in the cellar.

The first green change I made for this party was to buy about 40 metal forks for 3 bucks from the Salvation Army the other day. I’ve never been a big fan of plastic utensils anyway, and I can just throw these in a drawer and pull them out whenever we entertain. None of them match, but since they will be on the buffet, I’m not too concerned.

Today I am going to figure out if I have enough cloth napkins to avoid buying large napkins. I don’t think I can avoid cocktail sized napkins, but I have loads left over from last year, so at least there won’t be a new purchase of disposable paper ones.

Greetings from Concord, New Hampshire.

I’d be lying if I said that starting a company in this economy was not scaring my pants right off my ample bottom.

The purpose of this blog is to share the mix of dread and excitement that accompanies our every move as we launch GreenPoma.com.  We are trying to green our lifestyle and I want to share the struggles, and successes, as we move forward.