Earth Hour is next Saturday

How will you mark it?

Briefly, Earth Hour is a global movement to reduce carbon emissions for one night. One of the best parts of this is just getting people to think about it and what we can do, individually, to save the Earth for our children, and their children. Even Las Vegas is jumping on board to this, big time, this year!

Switch off your lights and enjoy some family time together. While you are enjoying your family time, don't forget to take pictures and then come back here and share them with our flikr group. We will add ours as well.

When we were kids in UT, the power went out all the time. Every storm it would go out it seemed. Sometimes we would light the fire and sing, sometimes we would play with our flashlights. One time when we had a Monsoon in Arizona, the power went out. So Dad with his amazing voice (he was a radio jockey back in his school days and ladies would come to the station to redeem their prize and be surprised that the deep amazing voice was his) read the Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde. Anytime after that, when the power would go out, we all requested he read it again. We all would sit around with either lit candles or flashlights and listen intently. There is something about my dad that mesmerizes me. He is an amazing story-teller.

Last year for Earth Hour we turned off all the lights at my parents house and gathered in their family room in a circle in front of my Dad. The grandkids all had flashlights and dad had gotten us some glow necklaces. And he read. When he got to the end of the story, he had to stop a few times and collect himself. Sweet, sweet story. I have added a link below for those of you that are not familiar with The Selfish Giant. As soon as Dad stopped reading it, my then 5 year old right away said how great it was. I'm not sure exactly how much he understood.

We had brought over a constellation book and dad read that. I have a question. Do you pronounce it Cassie-opea or Cassie-O-pea? I say it without any emphasis on the O, but both my dad and my sister say it with an exaggerated emphasis on the O. Anyway... after he read the book, we took it outside held it up to the sky and found quite a few constellations. It was fun. My oldest son can always find Orion.

When we were kids we would go star gazing with dad and the family. Those are some of my fondest memories. He really did bring a broad spectrum of educational experiences to our lives.

Last year's Earth Hour was a fun night and I'm so glad my parents asked us over. I am looking forward to next Saturday, when we do this again. We ended up leaving the power off for much longer than an hour because we were having such a lovely time together.

I'd love to know what your plans are for this year's Earth Hour. Did you turn everything off last year?

The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde