A Going Green Checklist:
- Learning to conserve energy? Check.
- Reusable shopping bags? Check.
- Shopping local? Check.
- Making greener choices at the market? Check.
- Using greener cleaning products or natural alternatives at home? Check.
- Reducing water waste? Check.
- Growing our own produce? Check.
- Driving less? Check.
- Treating my body like an environment worth preserving? Ummmm……check?
Did that last one stump you? In all your efforts to go green in your life, home, and community, have you forgotten something very important? We spend lots of time greening up our homes, our communities, and learning to eat better. We make choices everyday to put the environment first and preserve nature and habitats.
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Soon after my oldest son decided he was done breastfeeding, he began to have fits in his sleep where he would thrash back and forth and bang his arms and legs against the crib. After receiving my videotape of Jack sleeping, Dr. Weissbluth assured me that Jack would not hurt himself and we continued to monitor him closely. He recommended a pediatric dermatologist that informed us how to change our daily routines and environment to accommodate Jack’s newly diagnosed eczema. I followed every single one. This is where I first got up close and personal with organic products. Remove everything artifical in everything!
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Birthday parties are all too often lavish and excessive, even when they are for small children. Sometimes it seems like it is a competition for parents. Who can throw the biggest most lavish birthday party ever?! The birthday boy or girl usually ends up with too many toys that they don’t need. They probably aren’t the best quality, and they might be hard or even impossible to recycle. The sheer amount of waste generated at these parties might be staggering with disposables for eating and drinking as well as party streamer, deflated balloons, excessive toy packaging, and wrapping paper. Add this mountain of garbage to the stress created by all day sugar highs and the inevitable sugar blues that follow and it is easy to see why many parents are making the switch to greener, lower impact birthday parties.
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I love to read. If you’ve read my blog, you know this because I allude to it often. I read parenting books, fiction and now going green titles. Last week, I wrote about how to start going green and I thought it would be a great follow up to recommend some of my favorite green reads that have helped me on my journey, thus far. I’m sure my list will continue to grow. Mind you, these aren’t all the books that I’ve read but I’ve compiled my top five reads for the new greenie. A few are downloadable from Eco Brain where you can just download the book onto your desktop or laptop and save a tree.
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Paper and paper products are among the most recycled items that we dispose of according to waste disposal statistics. However, considering that the average American consumes roughly 7 trees per year in paper, wood, and other products made from trees and that our combined dependence on trees equals a total of 2 billion trees each year, there is much we can do to reduce the number of trees cut down to support our costly paper habits. So, where can we start? Here’s a few easy ways to reduce your paper use and save a few trees:
1. Choose recycled paper products.
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I’ll tell you it is easy to be an organizer if you have no limits. But what about an ecochic organizer like me? My boundaries are simple. I will try at all costs to use what I have already in my home first before ever buying something. I’ll go to my recycling bin, think of how to sew something or just plain rethink a way to make it work. If I do buy something I usually try to purchase second hand. The last resort is buying local if possible, fair trade, environmentally friendly, organic materials.
Some simple thoughts on organizing:
- Since sewing has become a new obsession for me, I have taken outdated purses and filled them with supplies.
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Annabelle sits in her booster seat, smiles at her dad and me, raises her hands above her head until her fingers touch, and says, “T-wee!” My husband laughs but his eyes betray his curiosity. “What is she doing?” he asks me. “Yoga,” I tell him. “She’s showing you the “tree” pose.”
Our summer has not been slow, to say the least. Between making out-of-state visits with family, building our first vegetable garden, working on our house, and seeing friends, we are on the go 24/7. The result? A tired and frazzled family in serious need of a break, or for us–an activity that allows us to reconnect with our surroundings and each other.
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I must confess, I have never written a confession post. When I was invited to write for 5MFGG, I was eager to express more personal feelings about being green. As much as I love writing at teensygreen about eco-products, services, and activism that helps all of us, being eco is also simultaneously a deeply personal part of my life (as I know it’s probably yours if you’re reading this). That being said, I do have some ranting I’d like to “put out there” in a purely hypothetical, non-offensive manner.
My oldest daughter is turning six in October. I’m not ready to let go of birthday parties just yet, so we’re going to have a small gathering of some friends and family.
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If you happen to live in a place that has one solid outdoor growing season like I do, then the harvest is fast approaching. Here and there you’ve probably begun to pick a few things out of your garden already. Soon, though, your garden will be overflowing with produce and it will be a good idea to have your food preservation methods ready to go.
What? Preservation methods? I can’t just eat it all fresh?
You’re going find out quick that you cannot eat everything fresh out of your garden, and your friends might get tired of you popping by with baskets of offerings.
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When I had my son, four years ago I was far from green, but my husband was–kind of. He was the one that hassled me to recycle or to not go over board on purchasing and consumption. I was the wife that threw the soup can out verses cleaning it and recycling. Sorry, but I just wasn’t in to it and frankly, I didn’t get it. Now, I’ve got it. Funny thing is, it took having my second child for me to wrap my head around toxic chemicals and how bad they are and how I want to be more earth friendly.
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