Happy Earth Day and a Giveaway!

Happy Earth Day and a Giveaway!

I woke up this morning and was feeling pretty bummed because I hadn’t planned anything special to celebrate Earth Day. I started to feel guilty about how much I’ve used disposable diapers this month and how I have two separate car trips planned today that could have been consolidated into one if I’d done any sort of planning. I was feeling like a pretty terrible wannabe-tree-hugger. Noel and I were discussing my disappointment as he got ready for work and he said something  like, “You know, a lot of people think that being environmentally friendly means driving a Prius or putting solar panels on their roof and so they just don’t do anything. While those things are awesome, the thing that would make the most difference is if everyone just did a little something more everyday.” I thought about that as he drove our car away to work so he could fill the trunk with free compost. (What, doesn’t your employer give away free compost on Earth Day?) I may feel like I’ve failed sometimes because  we still haven’t followed through on our goal to compost or because I just can’t get into a habit of using cloth diaper wipes, but I am doing some things. Already today I’ve saved four diapers from the landfill and eaten leftovers for lunch even though I really wanted to just go pick up fast food. And hopefully the feelings of disappointment that come and go will keep pushing me to make baby steps of improvement. Realistically all any of us can do is start where we’re at and try to be a little better. Over the next five days we’re going to share some of the things we’ve learned and would love for you to jump in with any of your own ideas or experiences.

Also, we thought it would be kind of fun to do a little giveaway. (And maybe test the readership of this here blog . . .) I’m going to be giving away a set of my reusable bowl covers.

BowlCoversSimply leave a comment on this post sharing a small thing you do to be more Eco-conscious by Thursday night. Friday I’ll select a winner at random and make an announcement on our final “Earth Week” post. If you’ve never left a comment on our little blog before, now’s the time to reveal yourself 🙂

17 thoughts on “Happy Earth Day and a Giveaway!

  1. *cram as many errands as possible into one car trip

    *specifically choose not to get the newspaper to avoid having to recycle it

    *re-use things to the point it drives my husband insane (17 yr old ugly ‘tupperware’)

    I love your blog…I just never comment. =)

  2. Hey give yourself some credit. I wouldn’t have even known it was earth day if Google didn’t tell me 🙂

    But here is what Brandon and I do to be green (or maybe just cheap)

    We reuse and re-purpose a lot of our stuff.

    We adopt furniture from other people rather than go out and buy it new.

    We don’t buy the latest gadgets so we don’t have old ones to throw away.

  3. I shower every other day or so. I feel like I don’t need to and it’s one of the only ways that I know how to save water.

  4. This reminds me of the first Earth Day I was lucky enough to celebrate at UNLV on May 22, 1968. We tried to play Frisbee with a paper Frisbee we had made. It was literally a flop, but as I have been lucky enough to witness, each year as we have destroyed the environment a little more some things have gotten a little better. Cars use less fuel than they use to. There are more lands reserved for preservation. There is more conservation of water use. Even in Alaska, we recycle our plastics and glass products. Some animals are coming back from the verge of extinction. More and more people are becoming aware of energy conservation. Why even I take more naps, and recycling through the local yard sales is one of my favorite past times. It is amazing how the Earth is capable of recovering despite how much we try to destroy it. When we look at the tiny, thin, layer of atmosphere that covers the Earth and realize all life as we know it exist in this remarkable envelop. Earth is a pretty nice place, and yes we should be more aware of our stewardship here. I will hope that the remaining time I live here on Earth that I am able to witness even more positive changes we as the human race accomplish. So in conclusion, Thank God for the Earth we live on.

  5. The greenest thing I do is bike everywhere (as long as it isn’t too cold for the kids), including doctor appointments, grocery shopping, etc. My bike trailer is my car. It fits both kids plus it has a pretty big trunk for groceries. Last year I biked a minimum of 50 miles per week until it got too cold. That saved a lot of gas money and emissions, plus it was fun and good exercise.

  6. Yay for a giveaway! I shop at the DI & Somebody’s Attic – Good deals, good causes, and recycling all at the same time 🙂

    1. Thanks for sharing! What a great idea, although I think I’ll be much more successful at something like that during warmer months 😉

  7. I’m all about walking. I try to walk to as many places I can instead of driving. Where I live now makes this harder to do since I don’t live close to much and that is where a bike and bike trailer come in handy. 🙂

  8. I use reusable grocery bags instead of plastic. I just attended a class in composting and will attend another later in May on vermicomposting!
    Can’t wait to turn my produce scraps into worm poop.

  9. Happy Earth Day! I knew I could count on you to have a post about it. I miss celebrating it at school with my science department, but that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate at home! 🙂

    We have one car and I walk everywhere.
    I thrift almost everything we wear, and our decorations are almost all repurposed or thrifted.
    We recycle all of our paper, plastic, and metal.
    I clean with household items. (Ex. Vinegar)
    I haven’t tried cloth diapers or wipes yet… Way to go with those! 🙂

  10. I use reusable grocery bags, make my own yogurt (saves money and keeps some cartons out of the landfill), and the cloth diapers I bought have been passed only to 4 or 5 other kids. Plus, I intentionally had 4 boys so that I could pass down all their clothes. lol

  11. You know what I do more or less. I am glad I already have some eco covers or I would have been really bummed about missing this!

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