Earth Day

Yesterday, as some of you may know, was Earth day, and we as a family decided to do some things yesterday to honor it!



For about a year now, we have been slowly doing things to go "more green".

• Almost all of our lightbulbs now are changed to cfl's (except for those that havent blown out yet).
  



• We started doing heavier recycling and now have about two smaller bags of garbage a week and therefore don't have to take out the garbage to the curb every week because its never even full.
  



• JJ is also cloth diapered now, and with Jaden being potty trained, we are hardly ever buying diapers. We still use disposable diapers for nursery at church or if we are leaving the boys with someone.
  



• We have pretty much eiliminated all fast food from our diet....which is a huge waste creator in itself. And we feel better AND it helps with money for groceries!
  



• We reuse as much as possible within the house too and have gotten creative with some of the stuff we would normally throw away.
  



• We stopped drinking bottled water and bought a water cooler last year, which has eliminated the use of so many plastic bottles and waste.
  



• All of our junk mail and paper we would throw out is shredded and recycled....a space saver AND it helps reduce the chance of identity theft!
  



• We keep our water heater at warm instead of hot...helping with energy usage and the life of the water heater (although it still seems like super hot water coming out!)
  



• Our windows are open as much as possible to not use the AC but we shut them all as soon as the ac is turned on. We dont keep our house as cold as we used to (or as hot as we used to i nthe winter) but its actually not as horrible as I thought it would be!
  



• We use rechargable batteries as much as possible and I dont remember the last time we have had to buy any (except maybe on the fly but I cant remember when we did that).
  



• All computers are shut down at night and nothing is kept plugged in if we dont use it often.
  



• We skip as many bags at the store as we can and will eventually be using only canvas bags (as soon as i can find affordable and durable ones)
  



• Our plants are also becoming more "desert" landscape, which helps on water consumption.
  



• And because of the price of gas, we have really taken a step back on how much we use (although this is still very unavoidable) but we try to never take two cars somewhere and carpool as much as possible.
  



• As long as its affordable, we also try to buy as much recycled products as possible.
  

It is sad however, that a lot of things that we would like to be able to change to are just too expensive for us to do.

Not only are all of these changes helping the planet, but its also helping with our pockets! It is so expensive just to live these days and we are trying to do what we can to help in all areas of our life! Plus, we are trying to take care of God's planet!



...and the corny quote of the day....we do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, but instead we borrow it from our children and grandchildren!
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So now that you know probably more than you care to about our views on "going green" (and not just doing it because its the "trendy" thing) here's what we did yesterday!



First, we kept off the computer. Shocking, I know, but we actually didnt miss too much.



Jaden and Jackson woke up super early with a pretty high fever (Jaden's was 102 and Jacksons was 101.6 for two days) so they hung out in our bed all morning until we went outside to plant some seeds for a vegetable garden. Tylenol kicked in and they felt a lot better but still werent quite themselves all day.



So we went outside and planted seeds:..the whole project was about 4 bucks (we already had the seeds) and if we can get vegetables from it, it will save so much money and eliminate all those yucky pesticides from the store!

Jaden's pumpkinsReady to grow!

Then before church we had to do some errands so we went and got new bpa free sippy cups *a toxic chemical used in most plastics ....even baby bottles. ...side note, Canada just banned this and the US may be right behind them* The boys have their names on them and these will be their main cups now. Plus they are a lot sturdier platic and wont fall apart like their other ones we are always replacing.

Thats all for now! I'll have non earth day stuff to post later :)