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...

composting.

In our house, we are composters. But don't let your thoughts get carried away as we have a lot to learn about composting. A few years ago for my birthday or mother's day, (I can't remember which) I asked for a compost pile. My husband was amused but pulled through and we have been composting on and off ever since.

We had a small compost issue when the rains came a few years ago and filled our compost with water and we ended with this disgusting mess....but we are at it again and have been for some time.

I have to say, I LOVE the idea of composting. I love the feeling of reducing what we put into the landfill vs. what we put back into the earth (literally). One of the easiest ways for us to get our compost from the kitchen to our pile in the backyard is by keeping a little makeshift pile on the kitchen counter and dumping it every few days when it fills up into our main pile in the back yard. Our biggest problem with composting at our house is our dogs-who also enjoy compost. I always know when they have been intimate with our compost pile when I look out the window to see banana peels strewn about the patio and yard. It does get annoying.

If you are considering composting, you should just jump in. We are definitely not pros by any means but there is no reason not to start and learn as you go.

oh the joys.

First of all, I have to make one thing very clear.... This is not my first time EVER recycling. Perhaps I sound like a total virgin recyclist. However, I actually grew up in a town where our recycling and yard waste bins were both larger than the trash bins....but then I grew up and moved away, had some children and ended up in a city that uses shoe boxes for their recycling program. Don't get me wrong-I have no one to blame other than myself for not getting on the ball sooner...but I am not completely clueless about recycling. I am just clueless about how this city operates their program and what exactly I can recycle because it seems I can't just recycle EVERYTHING. I have to follow some recycling rules.

Did I mention recycling has become a hit around here...I am constantly being bombarded with questions now of what can and can't go in which recycling bag. As if I didn't already have a hard enough time taking five (or thirty five minutes) away from my children to talk on the phone in my closet-now I am being interrupted to sort recycling!!! Perhaps I should have just answered the question this afternoon when I was on the phone long distance with my dear friend and my daughter was bugging me about recycling her snack wrappers. Had I just given her an answer vs. a lecture about not interrupting me, I doubt I would have had to pull those same snack wrappers from the compost bin. Recycling. Composting. Similar concepts. Who knew? I guess each new project brings more to the table, especially when you are 4 and 6 and really want to recycle and save the world too.

My concerns are growing in certain areas as I watch our house become a recycling bin. I wonder, is there a limit with our city as to how much recycling they will actually take come trash day? My husband (who ordered our recycling bins) asked them over the phone about this and they said they take what you put in the bins and "no, you can't use your own trash cans for recycling" but we are wondering if that is just what they have to say? We are certain we see people with their own recycling trash cans outside each trash day. Will I have to wait around in suspense all morning listening for the recycling truck, flying out of bed time after time half asleep to greet the man in my pajamas and ask him if he will "PALEASE" take ALL our recycling because we have bags and bags and I can't handle it anymore...of course we have more than the little shoebox bins can hold and for that matter-who doesn't? Will he reject me? And if he did, what would he do if I just threw it all in his truck anyway? I guess I will find out this week.

recycling bins....

....will be here Tuesday.

Recycling-The New Black

It is official...we are recycling in our house and my kids are FREAKING OUT! As I put some plastic bottles into a paper bag today, my oldest daughter started jumping up and down for joy "IS THAT THE RECYCLING??? LET ME SEE MAMA!!!" It was like Christmas all over again. I had no idea how extra cool I would become in her eyes when she discovered I was, well, recycling. So if you need to gain a few "cool" points in the eyes of your kids, you might try this. Grab a paper bag and put some used plastic water bottles inside.

My 4 month old son about "Freaked Out" as well when I tripped over the trash can as I was walking with him in my arms. The trash can incident would never have occurred had it not been relocated a few feet to the left, because in its old home now stands a bag for magazines and a bag for paper-all to be-well-recycled of course! This recycling business is causing quite an uproar in our home.

This morning, I stood staring into the kitchen trash trying to decide what I should go in after as I also tried to remember which numbers for who, what, when, where and why could be recycled. I could see where my obsessions with orderliness could get out of hand with all of this recycling business so I immediately shut the trash compacter and walked away.

Yesterday I called to get the recycling bins delivered to our house. Unfortunately, they were closed. I guess there is no recycling on New Years Day. On another note, I don't see how all our recycling from one day could actually fit into the 2 tiny recycling bins the city uses for up to a weeks worth of recycling. I am currently researching the recycling bin issue.

Any Thoughts????

A New Year...

It's a new year full of fresh GREEN ideas....and then some other not so GREEN ideas...

Tonight, we sat down as a family to discuss how we could be GREEN. We talked about what it means to take care of our planet earth. I asked the whole family to come up with different ideas for this year and we put our heads together and compiled a list. I can see I have my work cut out for me this year when it comes to my children understanding the footprints we leave on this earth.

Here is our Top 10 List in NO particular order other than the order they blurted out their ideas. Bella has several random (what my husband and I refer to as "Bella-isms") although we did not exactly count them in our top 10 for obvious reasons-I put them in quotations:

1. Don't splash waster out of the bathtub (Bella)
2. Turn the lights off when we are done (Jordyn)
3. Put cans and paper in the recycling (Jordyn)
"clean up our stuff"-Bella
4. Don't throw trash on the ground (Jordyn)
"and they can bonk their heads"-Bella
"spiders kill flies"-Bella
5. Take shorter showers and save water (Shawn)
6. Buy locally grown veggies/fruits/meat (Amanda)
7. Untie animals at the beach when they get caught in something (Jordyn)
8. Pick up trash at the beach (Amanda)
9. Take care of what you have so it lasts longer and we don't have to buy more and
use more resources to obtain what we already have (Shawn)
"and if we don't want it we can throw it away or give it to poor people right
mama?"-Bella

and the # 1 reason although it landed at #10 is : Teach our kids what it means to be GREEN.....