Going Green

Yes, everyone has been trying to "go green" over the last few years.

I like to think I've been attempting to do it my whole life :) I loved the show Salute Your Shorts and imagined myself as a Z.Z. character. (love her earth earrings!) I believe I even help start a recycling club in elementary school (right mom?) Which is funny b/c Joe was kicked out of a club in H.S. for not helping out the recycling club!

I even was a member of Keep Savannah Beautiful, a city council group while living in Savannah. Named the Secretary right before we moved.

Living in Portland has taken living green to another level!

One of the biggest changes that we've made while living her is NO paper towels, napkins etc. We use only rags. I have to admit it was hard at first. But we have been doing it for three years now. I don't even notice that we don't have paper towels. (unless we have guests and they go looking for them!) We have a whole cabinet devoted to these rags (some are nice, some aren't). We use them for everything....food, counters, spills, even when the dogs get sick! When we finish using them they go in a can in the laundry room. When the can is full, they get washed.

Another thing we do that I'm proud of is cloth diapers. It's such a great feeling knowing we aren't throwing away diapers. It's not as hard as I thought it would be. Once you get into the routine of washing them it's not so bad! We don't use any name brand. We actually buy them at our local baby store Zoom Baby Gear. It's a teeny store, locally owned and besides getting things brand new, they also have used cloth diapers. Calais's first diapers were all new, but for her next size up, we got all used. (I have to say, the previous owner did a MUCH better job of rinsing the diapers before washing them!) I'm happy to say that we use cloth and that we are saving our local landfill from disposable ones. (I should also mention that we love calling them NAPPIES :) ).

Here a few other things I would like to try in our quest to GO GREEN...

make our own babyfood
grow more of our own veggies in the garden (which means we need to come up with a way for Muddy to stop thinking it is her outdoor bed!)
bike more (getting something for little Calais to ride in, we used to have a Quick and Easy but it didn't fit our new bikes!)
volunteer a few times with the St. John Association to help keep the neighborhood clean.

Any thing you think we should add?