lights burnin' out

You know you are totally onto something when a light bulb suddenly burns out and instead of thinking-"oh man....." you think "oh cool, now we are saving more electricity!!" And then you think "Maybe we should start taking out one or two light bulbs in each room?" And then you start thinking about what people are going to think when they walk in to your house and see half your light bulbs missing or burnt out....

I blew it-not really....

I have been asked...where did I go? Well...we are so busy recycling I have no spare time...not totally the truth but just go with it.....seriously recycling a lot. We have our bins...the girls use them and my husband uses them and I use them. Sometimes I get lazy and then I hear my friend who told me how she can't stand NOT recycling and she thinks about a piece of something sitting in a land fill not going anywhere for years and years and years all because she did not recycle and that does it...I tear it out and recycle. It has created another arm of anxiety in my life I really don't need. But a good one.

There have been several changes in the house both good and bad.....the bad news is we have had an increase in these annoying bugs...yea-gross-I know-my over zealous juicing habit has created a HUGE amount of compost vegetation that can't seem to make it from the kitchen to the back yard in time. The bugs are really uncool. I swear we are not dirt ball but the bugs-ya-that is a problem I am working on. Add that to my to do list....and anxiety level as well.

Then there was the minor problem with the recycling taking over the house. Bag after bag was filling up. It is not like plastic bottles crush down like the soda cans we stepped on as kids for that great crunchy sound effect..they just layer until they fall out and then we start another bag and then another...well the bins came as I said previously and I was all fired up with my abundant supply of recycling when suddenly I realized the abundant supply was MIA. I had actually lined it all up-bag after bag after bag-we were making serious progress with the recycling organization....I finally asked my husband "Where did all the recycling go?" I was so ready to be mad at him...in fact...I was already mad...Here I was totally trying to make this positive change, teach the girls, educate our family, etc. etc. and he had gone off and thrown it all out. As if swimming in recycling is not acceptable? And I was totally organizing it anyway. What did he care? His reply "The girls and I loaded it up to take to the recycling plant but it was closed so we went to the skate park instead" say WHAT? My husband totally took the kids and the recycling to turn it in? I was so stoked! I couldn't believe it. I had gone out for a few hours and left him with the girls and they went on a mission to recycle. No Way! I had a moment of realization that my little quest was making waves in our home.

So where have I been? Totally at home-recycling-doing our thing and trying to keep up my quest for change. It really is working.

they arrived

The recycling bins came today....they are here...and guess what...I have NO idea where the recycling is. It was everywhere...It is now MIA...seriously? I have been so super busy and not home for days....and now...

recycling in the work place

Today I stopped by my husband's office, where he was working/babysitting/being a dad. I love the idea that dad's think they "babysit" their own children. This is a really funny FUNNY thing to me....and it was even funnier when my daughter told me a few weeks ago that she did not want daddy to "babysit" her anymore because he was mean. My point? First of all, dad's do NOT babysit-they are dads-to their children. My other point-my husband has no recycling set up in his office. My other other point? I don't have one but I wonder how many work places actually have recycling set up and if so, how they take care of this sort of thing? I was a little freaked out walking around with my empty guava juice can and no where to put it-besides the trash can. I admit-it did end up in the trash after trying to figure out where I could put it as I was loading up three kids, holding the baby, the diaper bag, the sunglasses, the car keys, the doors, the kids pictures that daddy threw away "on accident" and they dug back out of the trash in a fit of rage (which by the way could have been the recycling bin had there been one in place). Do you see what I am getting at? I feel terrible for throwing away my can. There HAS to be a better recycling solution for the office...and many other offices. This had me thinking all the way home-even after I almost got hit by another driver who was NOT thinking about the car (me) he was about to hit when deciding to merge into their (MY) lane...I was just driving, minding my own business and pondering recycling.....and now following a car with its left hand turn signal on...who seconds before just tried to hit me...

When I got home, I sat down in the kitchen and immediately asked my husband-"Did you see that I almost got hit on the freeway?" and then "How can we get recycling into your office?" I was so surprised when he came back with an immediate answer "We can probably call someone to come out once a month-a shredding/recycling service maybe?"

Now I will have to put that on HIS agenda (and mine)....helping him find some sort of business recycling service to come and take care of his office recycling needs....I wonder if the city has some sort of recycling program that comes by businesses?

....to be continued....

no junk mail?

The strangest thing happened today. I went to the mailbox and there were only 2 envelopes in there....two...2...the thing is I spent last night researching how to eliminate the junk, I printed up the letters, I signed my name, I stuffed the envelopes, I addressed them and I left them for my husband to mail today and he forgot them....and then I went to the mailbox and there was ZERO junk mail. Isn't that strange?

On a side note-I have totally helped save water the last two weeks by doing absolutely ZERO laundry....as in none zero zip zilch....however, I think I will have to regress and do some tomorrow...it is fun to save the world and skip laundry all together-a joint effort :)

the green gods...

Well, the green gods have had me thinking tonight...since not dropping off our recycling bins and keeping the recycling in house around here-we have a LOT to recycle which is yes, very good...but it is also a sign of how much we are taking in vs. what we can keep out. As I watch things piling up-the majority of it being water bottles, paper, magazines, junk mail, etc. I realize we can do something about eliminating all of these things entering our house in the first place. For example, there are ways to eliminate junk mail-(which I just did through the following website) http://www.donotmail.org/article.php?id=86 I went to their website, signed up and was able to download and print several pre-made letters to send to 17 different companies to keep them from mailing me their junk. And while it might be a little tedious, and it will take me a few minutes to sign my name and stick them into an envelope, the time saved in the long run from leafing out all their trash from my mailbox will be better used...not to mention the environmental impact from the trash I did not ask for in the first place :) Gee-I feel better already!

I have nothing to say...

....other than they did NOT drop off our recycling shoe boxes-I mean bins today...The green gods are not on my side right now...I won't even mention how many times I ran into the front yard to talk to the recycling man who was not there....but I totally heard him...in every other neighborhood but MINE....whatever...