Photo by: Alfonso Romero

Thank you so much to everyone who submitted articles for this month’s edition of the OGD Blog Carnival.

With Father’s Day just around the corner, these articles will be a great treat for many dads out there looking for tips and advice on how to be a better dad in a world turning green.

I am amazed by the explosive growth in this blog carnival in just our second edition.  Last month we had 4 published articles; this month we have 16 featured articles.

Several articles stuck out to me as excellent this month.  I particularly enjoyed not the jet set’s blog about Rain Barrels, vegoftheweek’s checklist of fruits and veggies ranked ordered from most dangerous to tolerable, if buying organic’s not always an option, and all of the articles in our “BEING A BETTER DAD” department are great, particularly Parenting Squad’s blog about Stay At Home Dads.

So without futher ado, I present this month’s slate:

Being a Better Dad

Sonja Stewart presents Last Man Standing posted at Parenting Squad.

Jeremy Neal presents 20 Kinds of Dads – Which One are You? posted at Discovering Dad.

Kevin Heath presents Tips For Helping Our Kids Grow Up Green posted at More4kids.

Jeff Tincher presents Bookshelf: How to Teach Your Child to Be Eco-Friendly | Daddy`s Toolbox posted at Daddys Toolbox.

Green Living

NtJS presents How To: Build a Low-Cost Rain Barrel posted at not the jet set, saying, “The lawn is typically daddy’s domain. Tired of paying the city for their over treated water just to have to deal with their watering schedules when the mid-summer shortages occur? Me too. In one weekend, you plan, build and install a residential rainwater collection system that will keep all your plants healthy and happy in those harsh times.”

J.F. presents R-Rated Fruits And Vegetables: Your Guide To Buying Organic Produce posted at vegoftheweek.

Lane Wright presents How To Find Your Local Farmers Market posted at Vegan Bits.

Amanda Harris presents What You Need to Know About Buying Organic posted at eFamilyBlogger.

Davexplorer presents Cell Fuel Cars posted at Your Greeness,

Davexplorer also presents The Eco Bedroom posted at Your Greeness,

hank@myinvestingblog.com presents A New Investment Idea – Pay Someone To Pick Up The Phonebook That Gets Dropped On My Door Every 3 Months That I (And Millions Of Others) Never Use! posted at My Investing Blog, saying, “What a better way to stay green than helping get rid of the big daddy phonebooks!”

SpiKe presents 7 Ways You Can Stop Wasting Food And Help Save The Earth posted at Organize IT.

Praveen presents Alternative to Throwing Your Cell Phone in A Landfill posted at Tao of Simplicity.

Gardening and Lawn Care

Sarah presents Organic Weed Control Methods And Herbicides | Spring Lawn Care – Lawn Care Tips posted at Lawn Care Tips, saying, “Organic methods to keep those pesky weeds from ruining your lawn.”

Amy L. presents Organic Pesticides For A Safe Lawn posted at Housekeeping Tips, saying, “The advantages of using organic pesticides for your lawn”

Woman Divorce Support presents Using Organic Fertilizers For A Healthy Lawn | Spring Lawn Care – Lawn Care Tips posted at Lawn Care Tips, saying, “Many people want to have a beautiful lawn without all of the harmful effects of synthetic fertilizers.”

That concludes this edition.

NOTE: This blog carnival is focused on the themes of Being a Better Dad, Conscious Parenting, and Green Living.  Only articles pertaining to those general topic areas will be published.

Submit your blog article to the next edition of “Organic Green Daddy!”  Use our carnival submission form.  To submit to this carnival, simply click on the drop-down menu and find,  “organic green daddy”  (They are listed alphabetically!)  Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: organic green daddy, blog carnival.

NEXT ISSUE: July 1st, 2008! 

Adam and his boys

by Adam, Central Coast, California

I am a (Organic Green) daddy of two boys, a six (and a half) year old and a two year old. Both are very demanding and require a lot of attention. For the six (and a half) year old Little League season has just started and I am one of the head coaches for his tee ball team. He’s in first grade and it seems like his load of homework equals mine of fourth grade. Luckily I have my wife to help out; she does the writing part while I prefer the math and reading. There are also the organic lunches we make for him because the school lunches just don’t cut it. The two year old has preschool 4 days a week for an hour and a half. My job is a little less demanding than my wife’s so I’m there for two of those times while my mother-in-law makes it to the other 2. He must be paid attention to and played with while my older son is doing his homework.

With all this going on I have a full time job at an engineering firm here on the Central Coast and I do part time work for another engineering firm. I’m also studying for the test to get my professional engineering license. On top of that I just upgraded to the newest version of AutoCAD civil 3D and I’m learning the functionality of that while still getting all my work done.

Then there are the everyday things that we all have to do: dishes, laundry, making dinner, paying bills, cleaning up, shopping, staying up with the latest news and sports, working out, and not to mention down time to relax and enjoy my wife. All this while still being green and organic.

While attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo as a senior I thought I had it bad. I was taking on my senior project, I was the secretary for the club Society of Environmental Engineers, I was on the Student Fee Initiative Committee, I had my full load of classes, and I had two part-time jobs. I’d like to think that all that responsibility I took on prepared me for now. Of course, back then I didn’t have a family to take care of and the well being of my kids to worry about. All I had to worry about was making sure I ate and slept enough to get me through the next day.

I’m not going to pretend that I know the secret to making this all work. I just know that what matters most is that my children are healthy and receive the physical and mental nurturing that they need. It doesn’t happen all at once, there’s planning and prioritizing that goes into the things that we can control. There’s also taking care of the things that come up that we can’t control. I like to make a mental checklist, my wife likes to have things written down, and we end up talking and discussing small tasks throughout the day to get it all done. Granted, not everything gets done when we want it done, but it all works out in the end. Our children are happy, healthy, and educated in the way we believe benefits the environment and the world.

Photo by Carlos Gustavo Curado

 Welcome to the May 1, 2008 Edition of the

Green Living

Steven Chang presents Paper vs Plastic? Or Cotton vs Canvas? posted at Gagazine.

Gerald presents Turn off your computer! posted at Precious Water.

Lane Wright presents Vegan Eating Trumps Eating Locally posted at Vegan Bits.

Amanda Harris presents When Your Baby Comes Home: Choosing a Green Pediatrician posted at eFamilyBlogger.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of organic green daddy using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: organic green daddy, blog carnival.

What it is a Blog Carnival?  From blogcarnival.com…“A Blog Carnival is like a magazine. It has a title, a topic, editors, contributors, and an audience. Editions of the carnival typically come out on a regular basis (e.g. every monday, or on the first of the month). Each edition is a special blog article that consists of links to all the contributions that have been submitted, often with the editors opinions or remarks.”