We tend to be pretty quiet up here in Canada. You'd hardly know that we have an election coming up, for example. Nor is it obvious that we spend a lot of time worrying about things like the environment and our children and when the hell the Stanley Cup is going to take its rightful place in Toronto. (I kid! It would also look very nice in Vancouver!) You'd hardly know that we can get pretty gung ho about causes. Which is why it's time to remind you all about BlogHers Act Canada.

This just in: childbirth can be traumatic.

I gave birth six weeks ago. Since then, I've lost a lot of the baby weight. Partly because the baby that I was carrying was so huge that his expulsion from the womb represented a massive weight loss, and partly because I've hardly been able to eat anything since he was born, what with his unremitting need to be held ALL THE TIME HOLY HELL. Hardly anything but cookies, that is, and maybe the odd bagel or two. Which, you know, is not the best post-partum diet.

Every time I open the newspaper or click open a news feed these days, my heart breaks. Breaks. War, crime, natural disaster: there's always something. And in recent days in particular, with the death toll in Burma climbing while authorities there continue to stymie aid efforts, and now the earthquake in China... I can barely stand to open the newspaper or follow the news links because I know that I'm going to have to hold my breath and press my fists to my eyes to keep from crying.

Narcissists, my ass. Bloggers are the new social movement, the swelling wave of social change, the next generation of activist-artists who put their figurative money where their literal keyboards are.

It's April now, which means that it's officially spring. (I know: spring officially begins in March. But does anyone actually buy that? APRIL is the month of daffodils and crocuses and spring rain and green.) Which means gardening and spring cleaning and breathing in the fresh clean goodness of an earth renewing itself. Which means: EARTH MONTH.

Like I don't already have ten gajillion things to worry about as a pregnant mother. Toxins in my daughter's toys and sippy cups. Toxins being blown around by garbage incineration.

The other day, an e-mail landed in my inbox with links to a couple of articles on 'Eco-Moms.' "I'm curious what you might think about 'Eco Moms'" wrote the sender, "... positive trend or just another stereotype (like soccer moms, security moms, etc)?"

This month at BlogHers Act Canada, the eco-challenge of the month is Go Green With Style. That is, we want you to make your wardrobe, and your family's wardrobes - and your pets' wardrobes, I suppose, if you're into that sort of thing - as eco-friendly as possible. And then spread the word, and share your strategies, and tell us all about it, etc, etc. How do you make green the new black?

As I've mentioned in this space before, my husband and I recently moved our family out of the city, to a small town in the country. We were looking for wide open spaces, fresh air, quaint village bakeries, the sort of healthy-crunchy-outdoorsy thing that we assumed to would better serve the end of raising of a healthy and well-rounded family. And we certainly found it, in spades.

I'm the sort of person whose first reaction when she hears bad news is to stick her fingers in her ears and chant la-la-la-la-la. Economy taking a turn for the worse? Cow farts burning up the ozone layer? La-la-la-la-la-la. But if the news is really scary? I take my fingers out of my ears and go running around like a madwoman looking for information. To the point where I get somewhat obsessive and - my doctor tells me - prone to anxiety. The thing is, though, sometimes one has good reason to be anxious.

I'd better just admit this right up front: I am terrible at limiting the number of plastic shopping bags that cross our threshold. It's not that I'm not committed to reducing our consumption of plastic bags - I have multiple recyclable shopping bags stashed in closets and cupboards all over our house - it's that, well, I'm just not so good at the whole remembering thing. As in, remembering to bring said recyclable shopping bags with me when I, you know, go shopping.