Summer’s half over! Don’t worry, there’s still time to make some fantastic family memories, even if you don’t have the money or time to head off on vacation.  But don’t wait. The key is to get out a calendar and schedule the things you really want to do.

Start at dinner tonight by asking everyone what they've loved most about this summer so far.  Then ask each person to pick one thing for the whole family to do that will make their summer complete.  Set parameters before you start.  For instance, no hotel stays, and the total cost of each activity must be under $40 (or whatever your budget is.)   Here’s a list of ideas to get you started:

Buy a badminton set and have a weekend tournament for all your friends and family, complete with a potluck barbecue.  

Set up a water festival in your backyard that includes dunking, running through sprinklers, a water balloon toss game, a slip ‘n slide, and a water balloon fight.  Let your kids invite all their friends, and invite a few of yours, too.  Celebrate the end of the day with watermelon.

Rent bikes and follow a local bike path you’ve never been on.  Stop for ice cream cones.

Go camping. Go hiking, catch fireflies, roast marshmallows, sing songs, snuggle on a blanket and watch the fire together.

Go tubing.  Or canoeing.  Or rafting.

Have a dinner picnic and watch the sunset (bring the bug repellant.)

Go to the beach and spend the day body surfing.  When you get cold, collect shells and use them to decorate your sand castle.  

Go to bed really early some night when you’re tired, and get up for the sunrise.  Bring donuts and coffee.

Make homemade ice cream. (You don't need an ice cream maker, just rock salt and plastic bags, there are recipes online.)

Buy a mess of crabs and cook them up with some corn on the cob.  Invite a crowd and let the kids stay up late playing tag as it gets dark.

You get the idea. Be sure to toast the family member who chose the activity, and take lots of pictures.  The last week of the summer, print out the photos and make a Summer 2008 album to look at together over Labor Day weekend.  If you do this every summer, you’ll create precious family heirlooms, not to mention a family tradition that will have your kids bragging about how great summer was in their families….and begging to look at the Summer albums with you every Labor Day, even once they’re teenagers.

Did you know that many toys have phthalates in them?  Hundreds of independent studies published in respectable, peer-reviewed scientific journals over the past forty years have linked phthalate exposure to serious health effects in children, including reduced testosterone levels, lowered sperm counts, early puberty in girls, and genital defects in baby boys.  And yet many soft plastic or vinyl toys, including teethers, have phthlates in them.

More than 20 million toys have been recalled over the last six months, most because of lead contamination. Fortunately, the Consumer Product Safety Commission Reform Act (CPSC Act) is addressing high levels of lead in children's toys.

An amendment has been proposed to the CPSC Act which would prohibit the use of six toxic phthalates in children's  toys.  It's a no brainer.  In fact, the European Union and 14 other countries have already passed similar phthalate bans as have California, Washington and Vermont.  Even Mexico has more protective standards that the USA regarding phthalates in kid’s toys!

The toy industry isn't fighting the phthlate ban.  But guess who has suddenly come up with studies -- paid for by the plastics industry -- showing your baby will be just fine sucking on that teether with the phthlates?  That's right, Exxon Mobil – one of the world’s largest producers of phthlate DINP  (the primary plasticizer used to make soft plastic kids' toys), and its trade association – the American Chemistry Council.

It isn't that Exxon can't come up with other, profitable, products.  After all, Exxon made $40 billion in profits last year – more than any other U.S. company.  They don't NEED to sell phthlates to the toy industry.  But they'd rather drag this out for another decade until the proof -- in the form of our children's poisoned bodies -- can no longer be denied.

If you'd like to be sure your child's favorite rubber ducky isn't going to deprive you of grandchildren, tell your congressperson that  you support the Feinstein Amendment to the House/Senate Consumer Product Safety Commission Reform Act, which restricts  phthalates in toys.  Remind them that parents shouldn’t have to worry that we might be exposing our kids to a dose of toxic chemicals when we give them a rubber ducky in the bath!

And if you want  to use your cell phone while you're shopping, or look online, to search a database of over 1,200 toys and other products to see if they contain toxic chemicals, MomsRising.org can tell you how.

You did it! A couple of weeks ago,thousands of mothers emailed their U.S. Representatives urging them to vote YES for the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act (HR 5781), and... the bill passed the House!

If this bill passes the senate, federal workers will finally receive four weeks of paid leave when they birth or adopt a child. If we pass this bill for federal employees, we'll be one step closer to paid family leave for everyone.  We might even catch up to England, France, Canada, and every other country we usually compare ourselves to.  Who can argue with the need for mothers to bond with their new babies?  Did you know that when you have a baby in France, you not only get paid time off to bond, the government also sends someone to help with housework and laundry so you can rest?!

The organization taking the lead on this is MomsRising.com, which recently helped New Jersey and Washington state  make history by passing paid leave policies.  A special thank you is also due to the National Partnership for Women & Families for all the amazing work they're doing on this and many other issues.  And in my own home state, New York,  Working Families has been keeping paid family leave on the agenda and pressuring the legislature.

The next step now is to push this bill through the U.S. Senate. We need your help.  Your Senators need to hear from you now, while the bill is hot out of the House, to show that moms care and to give this bill a boost forward.

Take action at MomsRising.org.

If you need more info, here's some background:

Everyone needs paid family and medical leave and it's past time to start putting this policy in place.  We know that paid family leave helps provide children with a healthy start and keep families out of poverty.  Yet, the United States lags behind every developed country in the world in offering paid leave to new mothers. 

It's time for the federal government to become a model employer by offering their workforce paid parental leave, and to pave the way for the rest of the nation to follow.  With more than 1.8 million civilian employees, the federal government is the nation's largest employer.  Currently, federal workers don't have any guarantee of paid leave for the birth or adoption of a child.  Some have accrued paid sick or vacation time that they may be able to use while on unpaid FMLA leave.  However, others, especially younger workers who haven't accrued sick or vacation time, have no choice but to take unpaid leave.

If passed, the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act guarantees qualifying federal workers four weeks of paid parental leave for the birth or adoption of a new child.  It would also enable federal workers to use up to eight weeks of accrued paid sick time immediately following the first four weeks of parental leave.

First federal employees, then the rest of the people in our nation!