Weather Alert: Midwest faces Super Ugly Super Tuesday

[This is not a political post.]

This morning I leapt from bed to the sound of a tornado alert siren. Jim and I know from experience that it beats the hell out of awaking to an actual tornado.

I was already awake when the sirens began wailing. I've been sleeping fitfully since the storms arrived around midnight. Our regional radar has been on my screen many times throughout the night.

So, half asleep, with my stomach in my throat, I lurch into a long day of hazardous weather forecasts.

Anyway, it seemed a good time to remind our fellow Midwesterners (and everyone else) of some of our daily habits concerning emergency preparedness.

And here are some good tornado safety tips from NOAA.

Take care. I'm off to dig out some helmets and flashlights in case things get bad this afternoon and evening. Plus, I think the helmets spur your will to live. Who really wants to be caught dead in a helmet?

***Baby Toolkit is the independent, unsolicited opinion of geek parents presently operating on limited sleep and uneasy watchfulness. We're definitely not professionals at this.

Putting the Heart Back in Valentine's Day... and Chocolate

We're on the cusp of another gigantic choco-holiday: Valentine's. As child slavery and other despicable labor practices plague the chocolate industry- I ask that you avoid the purchase of commodities (non-Fair Trade) chocolates. (See our November post explaining the issue in more detail.)

Here at Baby Toolkit central, we're celebrating with homemade sugar cookies and cupcakes. We're even having a decorating party with friends on the 13th. That gives us a bonus party!

But chocolate abstention isn't necessary. There's a third path: Certified Fair Trade chocolate. Fair Trade costs noticeably more out of our wallets, but it doesn't deprive children of homes, education, families, food, safety, freedom, love, and, well, childhood. In essence, non-FT chocolate is heavily subsidized at the expense of kids and communities in Africa. Fair Trade Certification confirms that the labeled product is produced in a manner that is legal and just.

So, if you want to invest in a better future for chocolate, Africa, and the world buy Fair Trade.

***

My brother and I were discussing fiction the other day, and he said "The people in fiction are the only ones who give me hope for the future."

Well, not to be a total sap, the real people on these fabulous interwebs play a similar role for me.

When Jim and I gave up chocolate in 2001, we encountered universal resistance. People would say "Why resist? You alone can't change this." And when we said, "So, join us..." they gave us incredulous looks like we were proposing splitting the atom with salad tongs and silly putty.

And I would wonder how our culture could shrug off CHILD SLAVERY (is there much more odious?). People in fiction were looking pretty amazing by comparison.

But you, Internet, brought me new hope. Here are some friends who've also quit commodities chocolate:

• Chief Family Officer- a great finance-conscious family blog. Her comments have already inspired others causing a truly awesome ripple effect.
  
• Z Recommends- Jeremiah would appreciate a few more FT chocolate suppliers in his piece of Texas
• Gaming geek & friend Ronin Kakuhito
  
• superblogger mod*mom has also taken up the banner though she hasn't had chocolate or coffee in years and she organized a HUGE Fair Trade chocolate GIVEAWAY in honor of Valentine's day. So go enter!

Beyond mod*mom's awesome contest- how else can I get Fair Trade products. Some churches have Fair Trade chocolate & coffee partnership programs: Lutheran (inter-synod via Lutheran World Relief), United Church of Christ, and Catholic. Not all congregations are aware of these programs... yet (you can change this).

Manufacturers like Global Exchange, Equal Exchange, Divine Chocolate, Dagoba, and Dean's Beans have online stores and listings of local retailers.

Happy Valentine's, everyone!

***Baby Toolkit is the independent, unsolicited opinion of some random geek parents. We're definitely not experts at this. We have no relationships with any of the chocolate companies represented within this post. Baby Toolkit, (c) 2008.

A Few Grains of Sanity: Rice as Kitchen Distractor

Ranger, my chief assistant, shows endless enthusiasm as kitchen help.

The problem is that, at two, he's more of a kitchen danger than a helper. I dread seeing him dragging a chair toward the sink when I'm up to the elbows in very hot water.

So, I gave him an important job at the kitchen table. He's to rearrange about 2 cups of long grain rice in a variety of containers.

He was a bit distressed when some of the rice fell on the floor, so I stopped washing dishes and got out the broom to reassure him. Once he saw the broom- it kept him entertained until all the dishes were done.

I shook the rice on the towel back into a container and labeled it "Play Rice." It's sitting on top of fridge waiting for Ranger's next burst of kitchen apprenticeship.


***This is the unsolicited, independent opinion of the geek parents at Baby Toolkit. We're definitely not experts at this so take it all with a grain of rice, er.... salt. Baby Toolkit, (c) 2008 (photos and text).

For the Love of the Game: Board Game Resources

If you have read Baby Toolkit for a while, you know that we like to play board games. We particularly love games that are typically classed as "German games" or "Euro games,".

The only problem is that there are so many and they are often kind of pricey. We can have a talk later about whether a game is worth such a price (we think they are given the amount of entertainment you will receive in the time that you play versus the price you pay). With the advent of podcasting and blogging in all its forms, there are quite a few resources that you can use in selecting your next purchase.

Four particularly good resources that we recently found are "Board Games with Scott" and three podcasts, "Family Night," "The Game Kennel" and "King's Court," from the Pulp Gamer site.

"Board Games with Scott" is a regularly updated video podcast in which the host, Scott Nicholson, usually focuses on highlighting one game, its components, the basic rules, general gameplay and provides a mini-review about who the game might appeal to.

To get an idea of the types of games that all these resources are talking about, Scott created a handy Board Games 101 episode that gives an overview (with MANY examples) of what these types of games are all about.




Pulp Gamer produces a number of excellent quality game-related audio podcasts; each focusing on a different audience. Generally they discuss the components of the game, the general quality, the cost, general game play, and give a starred score (using a scale that they repeat in each episode), and a justification for the score. "Family Night" focuses on family oriented titles and activities that they think will help entertain the family as a whole. "The Game Kennel" is a general game review podcast as is "The King's Court."

For all of these resources, it is worth checking out the back catalog of episodes if your reader doesn't pick them up.

If you have any board game resources that you enjoy, let us know in the comments. If you have any games that you have recently tried and enjoyed, let us know that as well.

Happy gaming.