The Cahaba River National Wildlife Preserve is located in Bibb County, about any hour from Birmingham. This preserve boasts one of the largest habitats for the imperiled shoals lily (known around here as the Cahaba Lily) anywhere in the world.

5 Things to Know about Cahaba River National Wildlife Preserve

1. Go in late spring/early summer. The area itself is beautiful but to get the full experience, you’ll want to go when the Cahaba Lilies are in bloom – generally early May to late June.

2. Admission is free! There’s no need to check in – just park where you find a spot and go enjoy! Be aware, there aren’t restrooms or any other amenities there. You can bring your own food but be prepared to take your trash and recycling out with you – we have to work together to keep the Cahaba beautiful!

3. You can boat or float. If you have kayaks, floats, or canoes, there are several good spots to put in. When we went, the water was very tranquil and clear so it was a fun trip even for littles. Floats and kayaks are best because there are some very shallow spots but we made it fine with our canoe.

4. Boats aren’t necessary. We had a blast canoeing around the lilies but you can get up close and personal simply by wading in from the shore. Water shoes with some grip are a good idea to protect your feet and keep from slipping.

5. There’s a beach! The refuge has a couple of little sandy spots that serve as easy entries into the water. Bring a blanket or chairs and just enjoy the beautiful surroundings. Social distancing is very doable – especially if you go on a weekday when it’s less crowded.

The Birmingham Zoo is preparing a plan to reopen amid changes to COVID-19 quarantine restrictions. The health and safety of our guests, staff, volunteers, and animals is paramount. The Zoo plans to reopen in phases, and in compliance with city, state, and federal guidelines and recommendations.

Zoo administrators are preparing operational policies, practices, and procedures to ensure a safe and responsible reopening. Parts of the plan will include increased cleaning and sanitation of the Zoo, reduced daily guest capacity, one-way pathways, restricted access to animal buildings, and signage to reinforce hand washing, social distancing and other measures to encourage the safe enjoyment of the Zoo.

All staff and volunteers will be required to wear face masks at the Zoo. Guests will be encouraged to wear face masks for their own safety. Rides and attractions will not be in operation, and animal encounters, feedings, and shows have been postponed for the first phase of re-opening.

In addition to operational planning, the Zoo has begun implementing enhanced rigorous sanitation protocols and cleaning standards to ensure that all facilities will be thoroughly disinfected.

“The Zoo will open in a methodical and safe manner when the time is right,” says Chris Pfefferkorn, Birmingham Zoo President & CEO. “We miss our guests, and we are eager to welcome our supportive community back to their Zoo under the safest conditions possible.”

Updates on the Zoo’s reopening plan will be announced at later dates via press releases and on their social media platforms at Facebook.com/BirminghamZoo, Twitter.com/BirminghamZoo, and Instagram.com/bhamzoo.

More than 13 million businesses in the US are owned by women, accounting for 42 percent of all privately held businesses, according to the 2019 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report by American Express. Gone are the days when women used to be left at home taking care of children while the men went to work. However, many women who own businesses admit that it’s far from easy, particularly those who have children. Running a successful business and taking care of children feels like having two full-time jobs, and it can be overwhelming even for women who have always been known to be great at multitasking. But, with the right approach and a few changes, mompreneurs can find the perfect work-life balance that allows them to perform their duties as business owners and mothers effortlessly.

Make sure your kids are well taken care of when you’re not available 

If you want to focus on your business when you’re at work with no worries at all, you must ensure that your child is in good hands. The best-case scenario would be if your partner is at home when you are working, but this is seldom the case. If your partner is not an option, the next consideration would be a family member who you trust fully to take care of your child. If you have nobodu in mind, you can find a reliable daycare where you’ll be dropping your child off or hire a nanny to be taking care of your child at home when you’re working. A quality daycare should have up to date licenses, a low teacher-to-child ratio, a clean and spacious environment, and flexible work hours. A good should have great references from people you know and extensive experience.

Secure your business 

In the same way that you don’t want to worry about your child when you’re working, you don’t want to worry about your business when you’re at home. As such, it’s important to take steps to secure your business against all possible threats it might face especially when you are not there. Start by enhancing physical security by installing security cameras that you can monitor remotely, hiring a guard if necessary, and installing intruder alarms. You must also build a strong cybersecurity system to secure your business against Cyberattacks that seem to be happening almost every day. To be on the safe side, make sure you have adequate insurance coverage against all the threats you face including fire, theft, or damage from natural disasters. If you have employees, workers’ compensation insurance is absolutely necessary, insurance experts at Cerity assert, to protect your assets in the event that your staff faces a job-related injury or illness.

Delegate tasks both at home and at your business 

Sometimes you’ll find that you have too many tasks to handle on your own either at home or work, or you may find that tasks are overlapping. Maybe your child has an important school play that you don’t want to miss during work hours. Or maybe you have a deadline at work forcing you to stay at work for a few more hours past closing time. Whichever the case, you must be ready to delegate some tasks both at home and at work. At work, you need to have a reliable employee who can take care of your business competently when you need a break. At home, you can talk to your spouse and older kids about how to divide the load for child-caring and household needs so that you have less to do when you get home from a long day of work. You can also outsource some tasks like house or laundry cleaning if you feel the need to.

Being a successful business owner and a great mom is a daunting task, but very much possible. Even though you may be forced to make a few changes to find balance, you can come up with a schedule that suits your duties both as a mother and as a business owner if you play your cards right.

Cleaning supplies and disinfectant wipes have been hard to come by since the Coronovirus began to spread and the stay at home orders went into effect. Here are some equally effective alternatives to use if you’re still not able to find Clorox wipes or cleaners you would normally use, in the stores.

Any product that is labeled as disinfectant and includes an EPA registration number:

Any kind of wipe, spray, or liquid disinfectant that meets these criteria is going to be effective at disinfecting non-porous surfaces. All EPA-registered disinfectants must have an EPA registration number, which consists of a company number and a product number (like 123-45). Generic “off brand” versions of a product will have the same EPA registration number as the primary product. The American Chemistry Council Center for Biocide Chemistries (CBC) also maintains a list of EPA-approved disinfecting products pre-approved for use against “emerging enveloped viral pathogens.”

Diluted Household Bleach:

This as been my go-to since the quarantine started. It’s something I always have on hand and it’s an inexpensive (and eco friendly) option to keep a spray bottle for the bleach solution and re-usable rags on hand rather than the single use disposable wipes. The CDC recommends preparing a bleach solution for disinfecting by mixing 5 tablespoons (⅓ cup) of bleach per gallon of water, or 4 teaspoons of bleach per quart of water. Bleach CAN corrode some metals so spot test if you’re concerned about any of your surfaces. It’s best to mix up a batch just before you clean, as bleach loses it’s effectiveness fairly quickly and needs to be re-made after about a 24 hours in your spray bottle. To properly disinfect, the solution needs to be in contact with the surface for at least 5 minutes.

This cleaning solution will disinfect surfaces from more than just the novel coronavirus.

Cleaning regularly can help prevent the flu, food born illness, and more which can in turn help decrease other infections which can lessen the burden on our healthcare systems.

Rubbing Alcohol:

When you buy alcohol solutions at the store, they’re already diluted with water in a specific concentration, indicated clearly on the label, usually 70 percent or 90-91 percent alcohol. The CDC advises that alcohol concentrations above 70 percent should be effective at disinfecting for viruses.

With the increase of coronovirus, the CDC recommends we clean and disinfect high-touch surfaces daily in household common areas (e.g. tables, hard-backed chairs, doorknobs, light switches, phones, tablets, touch screens, remote controls, keyboards, handles, desks, toilets, sinks)

Visit this post for even more ways to clean your home!

Stanley Steemer of North Central Alabama services the greater Birmingham Metro Area and surrounding counties, spanning from Cullman to Clanton and from the Mississippi state line to the Georgia state line.

All Stanley Steemer water restoration specialists have Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC), the most widely recognized and accepted certification program in the industry. These individuals are highly trained and prepared for any emergency water removal task they encounter. In addition to certification, our technicians attend IICRC-accredited continuing education and training programs throughout the year. We provide the time and money to train our people, and we supply them with the best equipment available.
For more information on their 24/7 Emergency Water Resmoval visit their site

Stanley Steemer provides trained technicians and state-of-the-art equipment you can’t get anywhere else. When flooding occurs, why muddy the waters? Call Stanley Steemer.

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For the past year, our family has worked to reduce our reliance on single-use plastic. But how do you stay green in the middle of a pandemic when Starbucks can’t use personal cups, your curbside groceries are all bagged in plastic, and take out comes in styrofoam containers? It’s not easy. We’ve limited our take-out to once or twice a week so we can still support local restaurants without racking up too much waste. Instead of stressing about the inevitable plastic coming in to the house, we’ve shifted our focus to other ways we can be greener. Here are some things we’re doing:

1.    Planting all the green things. We’ve just finished having some work done on our house so our yard was a total mess. Several local nurseries are delivering plants and we made use of that service to plant three small trees, blueberry and camellia bushes, flowers, and an herb garden. We also had tons of seeds we’d bought over the years and never planted. So, we planted them. Don’t know if anything will grow but it’s been a fun thing to check on every day. Planting helps our earth in tons of different ways: providing food sources for pollinators (and maybe our family if that watermelon ever grows…), giving shade during those Alabama summers, sucking in harmful carbon dioxide, producing oxygen, etc. etc. etc. Not to mention, plants just make your space more beautiful.

2.    Using what we have. Right now, it’s not safe to spend two hours browsing around Target. Our grocery trips need to be quick and purposeful, and we should go as infrequently as we can. Making use of the shelf-stable food we already have is helping reduce how often one of us has to go in public, and is making for some interesting new recipes. Work with your kids to help create new twists on old favorites using whatever you already have in the fridge. Pretend it’s some new YouTube Challenge and they’ll be all over it.

3.    Join a CSA or order directly from your closest farmer’s market. Fresh fruits and veggies aren’t out of reach even if we’re limiting grocery trips. There are a number of local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs that will deliver fresh produce weekly to an easy-to-access spot in your neighborhood. Here’s a great list of CSAs in the Birmingham area. Also, check out Pepper Place Farmer’s Market for online ordering of exactly what you need and easy curbside pick-up.

4.    Upcycle. Your kids need stuff to do besides jump on your couch and throw Fritos at each other (sorry – personal story). Set aside a basket or bin for random materials you don’t need that might be fun to make something with – paper towel and toilet paper rolls, fabric, yarn, empty spools of thread, shoeboxes, Pringle’s containers, shoelaces, etc. When e-learning is done, give them the box and some glue, and see what they come up with. A marble run? A drum set? A box robot? They don’t need fancy kits or expensive craft materials to have fun and be creative.

5.    Be nature-aware. When kids grow up spending time in nature, they are much more likely to become adults who care and advocate for it. Spend time outside, especially while we still have this amazing spring weather. Point out to your kids the different sounds you hear from your yard, search for earthworms in the garden, and try to catch a sunset. If you can do so while maintaining safe distance, go for neighborhood walks and local hikes with your kids. Point out evidence of animals (tracks, webs, poop). Consider making a list of natural things to find ahead of time and marking them off as you go.

Without question, there are a lot of uncertainties and anxieties during this quarantine period. But, we are also being given an opportunity to think about our lives before and how we may want to make changes for our life after. The reduced traffic and production has led to some really positive impacts on air pollution in our cities – maybe you’ve noticed that the air feels cleaner, the sky looks clearer, and the bird sounds are more plentiful. Consider how your family can be part of carrying these positives forward once we have the ability to go and do once again.

Children and Screens has teamed up with some of the top experts in the fields of parenting, education, and child psychology to bring you a new series of helpful hints and common-sense suggestions for navigating the uncertain days and weeks ahead. Raising young kids can be tricky, even under the best of circumstances, but as our experts share here, adaptability, patience, and understanding are the keys to ensuring healthy growth and relationship building during this crucial time in your child’s development.

Check out these 12 tips for parents of young children below, and be sure to tune in to the first installment of their upcoming interactive webinar series on April 27, when a panel of experts will chat about healthy screen habits for kids ages 5 and under and answer your questions via Zoom. RSVP here.

DON’T FEEL GUILTY
We know you’re stretched thin and doing your best to manage a whole host of issues, so please don’t feel guilty if your kids are engaging in more screen time than you’d typically allow. There are so many wonderful educational resources out there, even for very young children, and we recommend making the most of them (and getting other family members involved where possible). The use of video chat on a regular basis is also highly recommended to maintain social ties with friends and family members. – Dr. Sarah M. Coyne, PhD, Professor Associate Director, School of Family Life Brigham Young University

ROLE WITH IT
Both you and your children will need time to adjust to your new roles. In one fell swoop, you’ve become a stay-at-home parent, a teacher, and a frontline responder (aka superhero). Be patient with this transition. It may be rocky at first, but children are adaptable and will thrive with well-intentioned efforts. – Kara Bagot, MD, Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Department of Psychiatry

REACH OUT AND TOUCH SOMEONE
With social distancing in full effect, it’s impossible for toddlers to get the kind of in-person attention they’d normally receive from friends and family. In order to maintain those tactile connections, it can be helpful to serve as the “hands and heart” for your loved ones while video chatting. For instance, if Grandpa motions to “tickle” your baby’s tummy, give your child’s tummy a tickle. If Grandma leans toward the screen for a kiss, give your toddler a kiss on the cheek. By taking on this role, you can help nurture the relationship between the child and their loved ones on screen. – Rachel Barr, Georgetown University; Rebecca Palarkain, ZeroToThree; Elisabeth McClure, Lego Foundation

GAME ON
When video chatting with young children, try rhymes, songs, dancing, finger plays, and games like peek-a-boo and hide-and-seek. The more toddlers can participate in screen time, the more they’ll get out of it. – Rachel Barr, Georgetown University; Rebecca Palarkain, ZeroToThree; Elisabeth McClure, Lego Foundation

TALK TALK TALK
Be a part of your young child’s screen time. Sitting with them, holding them, and, most importantly, talking to them are all important ways to help children learn and feel safe. Make a game out of describing what different characters on the screen are doing. Point and label the objects and people that appear in the videos you watch. Sharing screen time can be an excellent opportunity to talk with and engage your toddler. – Ellen Wartella, Director of the Center on Media and Human Development, Northwestern University

ONE MORE TIME!
It’s OK if your child wants to watch the same show or series over and over again. Children learn more with each repetition of a book or a song, and the same goes for screen media. The more children watch the same show or play the same game, the more they understand the storyline and educational content. – Alexis R. Lauricella, Associate Professor and Director of the Technology in Early Childhood (TEC) Center, Erikson Institute

PAJAMA DAY (ONLY 1X/WEEK)
In anxious times, kids benefit from predictability and daily structure. As best as you can, maintain a basic schedule for things like meals, self-care, schoolwork, and screen time. Invite them to help you make and decorate a weekly schedule, and be sure to include some fun ideas for joint parent/kid break times. – Meredith Gansner, MD, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Cambridge Health Alliance

READY, SET, PLAY!
It’s a good time for all of us, kids and adults to like, to PLAY. Put on music and dance! Work on a puzzle, break out a board game! Grab those Legos and build a castle! Don’t forget how to have fun with your little ones. – Elizabeth K. Englander, PhD Director, Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center, Bridgewater State University

ONE SIZE DOESN’T FIT ALL
Understand that there are developmental differences between children of different ages. Homeschooling a kindergartener will be very different than homeschooling a seventh grader. While younger children may need you to keep a closer eye on them, older and more independent kids can set goals and check in with you on their progress. – Colleen Kraft, MD

STAY CONNECTED
Physical objects and activities can help bridge the gaps presented by social distancing. When video chatting, encourage your child’s screen partner to read a favorite book while the child follows along with his or her own copy. Invite the video partner to play with a toy car while your child rolls around in their own. Puppets and stuffed animals are great props for playing together virtually, and sharing a snack together is always a favorite for young children. Joint activities will help your kids stay connected with their on-screen partners. – Rachel Barr, Georgetown University; Rebecca Palarkain, ZeroToThree; Elisabeth McClure, Lego Foundation

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE INTERACTIVE
Screen time isn’t inherently good or bad; what matters is how we choose to use it. Screens can take us to the zoo, guide us through the great museums of the world, and keep us fit with healthy movement games. Make the most of the current situation by finding active, engaging, meaningful, fun, and socially interactive choices to invest in. – Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Ph.D Temple University, senior fellow Brookings Institution; author Becoming Brilliant

BORED IN THE USA
Not only is it OK to be bored, it’s beneficial! These days, we’re all so constantly bombarded with stimulation and entertainment that we’re left with little time to explore our own thoughts and dreams. Let’s use this time to develop that important skill, and to appreciate the healthy power of boredom. – Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Ph.D Temple University, senior fellow Brookings Institution; author Becoming Brilliant

At the end of the day, nothing is more important than making sure your child feels safe, nourished, and loved. It won’t always be easy, but we hope parents can incorporate these 12 tips, along with a little extra kindness and creativity, as they adjust to their new roles and make the most out of the unexpected.

For more tips, and to have your questions answered by experts, don’t forget to register for our virtual workshop here.

About Children and Screens
Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development is a 501C(3) national non-profit organization founded by Dr. Pamela Hurst-Della Pietra. Children and Screens advances interdisciplinary research, supports human capital in the field, informs and educates the public, and advocates for sound public policy for child health and wellness.

Earth Day is Wednesday, April 22nd. While we shouldn’t wait for this day each year to get our green on, it is a good day to remind yourself of the simple things you can do to help protect our environment. Little things make a BIG difference!

1. Turn off lights and invest in products that conserve electricity when the appliance is only plugged in. Even when not turned on, an electronic appliance that is plugged into a power source still draws energy.

2. Buy food from farmers’ markets. The carbon impact of transportation is reduced.

3. Flush less water. Most toilets wash 3.5 gallons of water away with each flush. If you can’t install a high efficiency toilet, you could try installing a Toilet Tank Bank made by Niagara Conservation, which essentially is a water balloon placed in the toilet tank and saves up to .8 gallons per flush.

4. Ditch 1 time use products like plates, plastic cups and water bottles, invest in a reusable water bottle and put those dishes to good use.

5. Shower smarter. The average shower head spits out 2.5 gallons of water per minute. That means that a person who takes a 10-minute shower every morning uses over 9,000 gallons of water a year. Cut back by installing a shower head that is EPA approved.

6. Run your dishwasher only when it’s full.

Do you have any quick green tips to share?