It’s no secret that I’m a total stan for my sister-in-law, Angelou, and not just because she’s smart, accomplished, passionate and fly. I can’t say it enough: She’s an inspiration (and she lets me rock all her shoes, purses, and cute tops!). An attorney by trade, Angelou founded a little over a year ago her own non-profit environmental education program for kids, GREENING YOUTH, to help encourage and teach children—particularly kids in communities of color—how to be stewards of our Earth. She’s got literally a rainbow coalition of kids from the third grade through college preaching the virtues of recycling everything in sight, taking two-minute showers to preserve water, shopping with recyclable bags, learning how to clean up and preserve everything from historical sites to unused green space, and, most importantly, learning how to appreciate the lands that God made.

To further her mission—and to raise funds for her FREE six-week, hands on program that takes environmental education directly into classrooms throughout Georgia—Angelou is having her second annual GREENING YOUTH FOUNDATION GREEN CARPET FUNDRAISER. This year’s fundraiser honors the next generation of leaders in the green movement and highlights the myriad of partnerships the foundation has formed over the past two years to help enhance its work, including the Atlanta Job Corps Center’s Culinary Arts Institute, the Georgia State University AmeriCorps, the Atlanta Job Corps Center, the National Park Service, and Atlanta’s Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site.

Green Carpet attendees also get to hear from Atlanta Falcons fullback Ovie Mughelli, who will be announcing the winners of the Ovie Mughelli “Eco-Challenge,” in which participants in GYF’s 12 school-based programs were asked to present creative campaigns to tackle an environmental challenge in their community.

The Green Carpet fundraising event, which is being sponsored by REI, promises to be a fabulous evening with great food, live music and basket giveaways. The November 14th gala will be held at the Georgia Tech Student Success Center, 19 Uncle Heinie Way in Atlanta.

Tickets are $55 per person; $500 to sponsor a table of 10. To purchase tickets, make a donation, or get more information, click HERE, call 678.252.2187, or email Catina Fynn at cwhite97 at aol dot com.

I don’t do fish. I mean, I’ll eat ‘em. But I’m not baiting hooks—ew, worms!—and I’m definitely not pulling those suckers out of the water and watching them flap around in a bucket and then taking them back home to be beheaded, scaled, and filleted. Uh uh, no ma’am—not me. (Honestly, I don’t know how I would have survived the olden days on the farm—shout-out to Ms. Sharon in the fish department at my local Kroger for making it so all I have to do is rinse, season, and toss the tilapia in the pan. I’m just sayin’.)

Anyway, I don’t have a problem standing around and watching other people fish, especially if it involves watching kids who’ve never been. On a recent weekend visit to my mother-in-law’s brother’s house, Nick’s Uncle Marvin took the entire family on a fishing trip to a fish farm, where the bass and trout were hoppin. Here, a recap of our Sunday morning fishing jaunt:

The fish farm, in the suburbs of the city of LaGrange, GA, was so beautiful and peaceful and serene. Though there were 11 of us there, Uncle Marvin had only two fishing poles, so he borrowed some bamboo sticks from the fish farm owner and MacGyvered them into working fishing poles. My brother-in-law James, Angelou’s husband, also purchased $2 worth of worms and let the kids make quick work of ripping them in half (to make them last longer) and skewering them onto their fishing hooks. Of course, no fishing trip is complete without a friendly wager: Everyone put $1 in the pot; whoever caught the biggest fish would get all the fish and the loot. Game on!

The kids were amazingly patient—who knew they could stand quietly and perfectly still for so long? Of course, neither Mari, Lila, Miles nor Cole were fast enough for the little buggers, which kept eating the kids’ worms and getting away before they could tug them out of the water. James even replaced the wiggly worms with a tub of slimy liver—supposedly harder for the fish to grab—but it was of no use: the kids had no luck. My mother-in-law, Helen, on the other hand, is a fishing pro. She caught three fish—boom, boom, boom, just like that. Wherever her bamboo poll was, the fish seemed to hop on—so much so, that even Uncle Marvin abandoned his favored spot for Grandma Helen’s much hotter one. Yeah—didn’t work. Alas, Grandma Helen was the one who took home all the fish and the pot of cash. (BTW: We’re not really clear why, but the fish farm housed a small fence full of Emu. Strange. Very, very strange.)

When it was all said and done, everyone seemed to have a fantastic time—including me and my father-in-law, who sat back, watched the action and proudly proclaimed our “city roots” a little too, um, delicate for the country life. (Frankly, I’m still a little traumatized by our camping trip with Angelou’s Greening Youth crew.) But Papa Walter was going to be privy to some good eating, courtesy of his country girl wife—the Fisher Queen.

To read more “Wordful Wednesday” posts, click the magical button!

You have to understand: My people had me in the woods from a Friday to a Sunday, roughing it at a beautiful but dusty campsite where the bathroom was full of bugs and the public shower wasn’t an option. Let’s just say that by the time I dragged myself back to the house from our first big family camping trip, I was in serious need of some pampering.

And, as if the pampering gods heard my cry, a package full of organic, handmade products from Vintage Body Spa was waiting on my doorstep when I got home. Vintage Body Spa owner and product mixologist Alyssa Middleton sent the products to me, Christie of My Life, A Work In Progress, Lorraine of Ask Wifey, and Jennifer of The Baby Makin(g) Machine to try out before and during The BlogRollers BlogHer or Bust Road Trip we took late last month, sweet, generous soul that she is. And I made quick work of putting what was in that box to some good use.

In my box was a cornucopia of scrumptious scrubs, facial masks, and lotions that brought your girl back from the camping dead. The Citrus Blast Whipped Sugar Scrub was absolutely divine—the citrus scent provided the perfect pick-me-up for my tired body, and managed to moisturize and exfoliate without leaving that annoying oily residue all over my body and my shower tiles (score!). The Rhasoul Clay, a centuries old natural clay harvested from the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, was absolutely decadent as a facial mask—a much-needed elixir for my seriously stressed out face. And you know the Shea Butter Lotion handled the ash, sans the greasy, slick feeling Shea Butter tends to leave when it’s in its natural state.

In no time at all, it was bye-bye camping funk—hello, scrubbed, rubbed, shined-up and smelling right me!

I know what you’re thinking—you want some, don’t you? Don’t you?! Well, I just happen to have a really nice Vintage Body Spa “Spa to You” Gift Set for a lucky reader. The set includes full-size samples of the following:

Butter Beans (moisturizing bath fizzies)
Suga Lips Lip Balm
Wherever Body Cream (rich body lotion)
Whipped Shea Butter
A few extra goodies from The BlogRollers

All you have to do is leave me a comment… yep that’s it. I will give you an extra entry if you friend Vintage Body Spa on Facebook and/or follow her on Twitter. Don’t forget to come back here and let me know you did it…m’kay?

The winner will be announced on The ChatterBox Show on FRIDAY AUGUST 7th at 10:00 AM EST. Be sure to tune in!