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Autumn signals party time in our family. Since our sons attend preschool programs specifically designed for children who have birthdays that miss the September cut-off date, not only do my children celebrate birthdays in October and December, so do all their friends.
Now add the other parties for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukah and Christmas, and we are double booked solid each week! Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the social aspect, getting together with friends to play dress up and catch up; however, I abhor the waste of it all. We’ve already started using better choices for the things we can control like the hostess gifts and wrapping, but what about all the disposables you see at parties?
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Shhhh . . . the green police are coming.
I had a party to celebrate my 40th birthday and invited several of my “green” friends. I was so excited for them to come – some of them I only knew from blogging and was thrilled to meet them in person. But, what did I do in advance of the party? Did I clean arrange flowers, set out decorations? Not really. I did do some of that. But what I spent most of my time doing was hiding stuff. The not so green stuff we have.
I have always leaned towards green.
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Christmas is probably the number one most wasteful holiday. We go crazy on gifts, food, decorations, party
supplies, etc. So what can we do to GREEN up the holiday?
Here are ten eco-friendly tips:
1. Buy a quality fake Christmas tree and use it forever or buy a live tree to plant every year.
2. Send digital Christmas party invites and Christmas cards or buy ones that are made from recycled paper.
3. Make your own Christmas tree ornaments using natural and/or edible materials like gingerbread cookies, popcorn, and candy canes.
4. Instead of purchasing the usual lights for decoration, think about using LED lights.
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Written on
October 25, 2008 by
SusanC
It’s Gardenvisit.com’s 10th anniversary, and to celebrate they are giving away free eBooks throughout the month of October. Two titles by Tom Turner are currently available for free download: 24 Historic Styles of Garden Design and The Principles of Garden Design.
Over at Sunnybrook Farm Designs, Rebekah has an interesting post about how to re-purpose old t-shirts into reusable eco-friendly shopping bags. A creative and green alternative to simply tossing your old t-shirts!
Just in time for traditional Fall festivities on October 31st, Ecologue has a post with some great ideas for going green for Halloween, including tips on how to get the most out of pumpkin carving, and how to fashion a one-of-a-kind eco-goodie bag for trick or treating.
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Written on
October 3, 2008 by
SusanC
toothpastefordinner.com
It’s hard to believe that sweatshops could possibly exist today. But they do. And if you buy stuff without paying attention to where it comes from, you may unknowingly be supporting the cycle that causes them. In an effort to make cheap stuff even cheaper, sweatshops exploit workers with long hours, unfair pay, and unsafe working conditions. Sweatshops are most common in poorer countries where labor practices and health and safety violations often go unreported. But these factories have also popped up in the U.S., as poor workers are lured with the promise of high pay and good benefits, only to essentially become indentured servants.
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It’s a month into school, and the opportunities to become involved in my daughter’s classrooms are plentiful. There’s lunchroom monitoring, Gala planning, helping with art projects, holiday planning…the possibilities are endless. Anyway, Jessica’s post from last week about the benefits of volunteering coupled with this week’s activities got me thinking about how you can volunteer at your child’s school regarding green education and community service. Here are some suggestions about how to help turn the classroom into an eco-classroom. As we all know, school involvement is crucial to all students, and the rewards for you and your children are immense!
1.
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Written on
September 22, 2008 by
SusanC
With gas prices at all-time highs, who couldn’t use a few less trips to the pump? Of course, the absolutely best way to save gas is not to drive at all. Walk, ride bikes, or carpool instead.
But if you need to drive, the next best thing you can do is to make sure that your ride is a green as possible…and if you think that means riding around in a veggie-oil powered tuna can, think again! The market for environmentally-friendly cars has exploded over the past few years, so there is now an eco-savvy option for every family. These cars release fewer emissions into the air and help you go further on each tank of gas.
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I love getting emails from readers and recently, after I posted about Eco-friendly school lunches, I got an email from a reader asking a very “Eco” good question. Her older children don’t like to use the new earth friendly lunch boxes and wrap mats because they aren’t cool and nobody else is using them (more should be using them, grrr). That’s an issue so what is a mom to do? Her big question is whether she should use aluminum foil or wax paper and which one is safer and more earth friendly.
I answered, aluminum foil because it can be recycled and you can buy recycled aluminum foil.
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Written on
September 17, 2008 by
SusanC
My children have spent literally every summer day this season outdoors. It has been my quick solution to quiet time in the house, a way to get the house cleaned and enjoy it for a few minutes, and also keep my children active enough to tire them out by the end of the day.
For the past few months, California has been on fire with many areas burning uncontrollably. People have been made to evacuate and relocate, eventually able to return to their homes, while others have lost everything. My family recently spent the day in a town on Saturday and by Sunday afternoon, it was on fire.
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You never know what yakking about green issues is going to elicit. Sometimes it’s a “give me a break already” but when my child’s Kindergarten teacher overhears me advising my neighbor about composting tumblers, she has a surprise in store for me. “Oooh!” she says. “I had worms in my classroom in Texas! Can you set me up with a worm bin?”
I’m totally excited and totally game. But I’ve never done worm composting in my house. What to do? First step? I read Worms Eat My Garbage. Great book, recommended by my sister-in-law, who’s a master organic gardener and 10+ year vermiculturist (is that even a word?).
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