Environmental watch
Earth Day Lover
We thought about listing Earth Day ideas–like drive less, walk more–but instead of inspired we felt ho hum. Then, Sunday afternoon as we gathered the kids’ gardening tools strewn across the yard from a worm collecting mission, we realized that what we’re craving this week in honoring the planet is to reflect on how far we’ve come in our own little patch of earth awareness.
We recycle (Ok, hopefully everyone recycles now, but it counts), plant vegetables, take five minute showers, bring our own grocery bags, let the kids play with a bucket of water instead of a running hose, filter our water and use aluminum water bottles (current favorite for the lightweight kid size: Ecousable), clean with green household products, buy recycled toilet paper and paper towels, set the table with cloth napkins (colored washcloths for the kids) and compost fruits and vegetables in the clippings bin as our garbage collector allows. Whew!
Reminding ourselves of these positive changes makes it easier to continue on our greener path. Instead of feeling inconvenienced, we can consider trading in our paper towels for reusable rags as an experiment. And bringing our own bags to the store leads to toting along cotton sacks for produce too. The best part is our natural progression towards this simpler lifestyle–each step evolves into the next.
And don’t forget us washing out those pesky zip lock bags to reuse or folding up the tin foil for later instead of throwing it away. We also try to bring our own coffee cups if we get coffee out