Tender Twigs

Two Weeks Worth...

of my trash and recycling.  I know, I'm crazy.  I started setting aside my trash and recycling for a challenge put forth by Beth at Fake Plastic Fish.  I didn't submit my results mostly because I was too occupied to follow the rules.  I found the photos were a help in accessing how I can make more changes.  All those plastic Diet Dr. Pepper bottles (all 15 of them) were my crutch when my dh was traveling.  Knowing I had a cold diet soda in the refrigerator made it a little easier to get up with Silas in the middle of the night.  Seeing all the plastic bottles made me realize how easy it would be to eliminate most of my plastic.  I'm fairly satisfied with the results.  We will have very little trash once we are diaper- free.  Don't you think there should be some sort of carbon offset to atone for disposable diaper use?  A few changes we are making right now:

1. Cut way down on soda consumption
2. Quit buying spinach in plastic boxes which apparently are not recyclable
3. Silas is peeing in the potty occasionally.  Soon to be diaper-free.
4. Contacting all direct mailing companies and opting out. 
5. I'm not buying anymore canned food after reading this about the BPA lining. (It is worth reading.)

Two weeks of trash, mostly dirty diapers, plastic bags, the coffee cup is broken.

  

By far, the biggest component of our recycling is paper waste.  To reduce the paper waste I have started "dealing" with each piece of paper coming in our mail box.  Not the obvious catalogs but all the direct mail and such. 

Lemonheads were used for bribing good behavior while daddy was traveling. 

 

Here are bits of plastic that are not recyclable.

 

More plastic that is NOT recyclable but you might think it is.  I caved just once on the non-local strawberries.  The strawberry containers are not recyclable where I live.  Not sure why the peanut bag is in the photo. 

 

The plastic recyclables.  Using up some old cleaning supplies and shampoos.

 

Paper Food Containers (the ice cream is our secret snack from the kids)

 

Glass & metals

 

Toward less recycling

One goal this past year was to reduce our output of recyclable material.  Reducing is the first and most important of the three environmental R's.  I worry that what I recycle might actually be thrown into the land fill despite my best effort.  I saw this video recently via Fake Plastic Fish and encourage anyone interested in reducing your plastic consumption to watch the video.  With two children adopted from China, it was especially poignant and urgent to me.

The video isn't coming through to Google Reader.  Please pop over to the blog.  It's worth it.

I haven't been a mainstream grocery store shopper for some time so many of these changes although recent were fairly easy.  We have a wonderful food co-op near our house so all of this is possible.  If you live in a big city, you have to read this post about living green in a small Oklahoma town.  You will count your blessings all the way to your local Whole Foods. 

This is a photo of how my market basket looks on the day I food shop. 

(Not the best photo but functional)

I purchase the following in bulk reusing the same bags, bottles, cartons, and jars each week.  I reuse the wax liner bags from cereal boxes for produce bags.  They are very easy to wash for reuse.  I also bring my own bags.

Peanut butter
Pancake mix
Rice
Quinoa
Eggs
Fig Cookies
Maple Syrup
Castile soap for dish washing
Lentils
Beans
Almonds
Sunflower Seeds
Raisins
Coffee
Shampoo
Popcorn
Sugar
Flour

I plan to start buying

Oil
Tea

We no longer buy cereal in boxes and have drastically reduced our soy milk consumption so that has also eliminated a lot of waste.  I still buy too many condiments, POM juice, a more than occasional bottle of soda, frozen berries, apple sauce, jam, and spinach in those one pound boxes.  This summer I am going to try and make jam and apple sauce.  I also want to U-Pick as many berries as my freezer will hold reusing plastic bags from rice cakes and other convenience foods. 

So what do you think about this system?  Do you have any suggestions for me.  I just started doing this two months ago.  I am amazed and embarrassed that I didn't start doing it sooner.  It really is easy.

Small Success

I love to peek into other lives especially those interested in simple living.  I'm committed to living as responsibly as I can at this time in my life.  I'm always changing and hopefully improving.  I would love to share some of the changes if only to record them for myself.  So I plan to add some new aspects to this blog and I hope to not bore you.  But don't worry there will always be book posts for those who are interested.

It was interesting last week reading all the Earth Day posts.  I found it notable that personal publishing (blogging) allows the writer to say "this is what I'm doing" instead of the usual magazine article "25 things you can do."  I thought about writing a post of all the things I am doing but then I figured there might already be too much out there for anyone to appreciate my list.  The one thing I really wanted to say last week was:

The best day for the Earth is Buy Nothing Day.  Weather it is the day after Thanksgiving or tomorrow, reducing consumption is one of the best things we can do for ourselves and the Earth.

Here is one small success in my quest for responsible living. 

I only have to put out my 20 gallon trash container once a month and my large blue recycling container once every six weeks.  We've reduced our consumption by buying less, reusing many things, and composting our food waste.  I figure once Silas is fully potty trained we will only have to put out the trash can every two months.  Yes, we use disposable diapers but only one or two a day.  I use a combination of disposables, gDiapers and cloth.  I'm really looking forward to being finished with that contribution to the landfill.  I debated the disposable diaper issue and with input from this article (see last paragraph) decided that since we purchase most of the baby products and their toys used, we are already making a significant reduction in what could have been added to the landfill had we purchased everything new.

I'm excited to add this to my blog.  I hope you will join me in sharing your successes in responsible living. 

Thoughts on stuff

I can't believe it has been ten days since I last wrote a post.  Nothing particular is keeping me from blogging just a bit of a mid winter funk, the lack of silence, crabby children.  Nothing new.  So I'll share some random thoughts.

Many of you know that I am committed to purchasing as much as possible second hand.  I think the environmental and financial impact is important.  I save money and the world doesn't have to offer up yet another "thing" for me.  I finally watched the Story of Stuff a few days ago.  I must be the last person on- line to watch it but if you haven't it's worth a look.

I was floored by this statistic; "only one percent of what is purchased in North America today is actually in use six months later."   Every time I visit the Goodwill there are cars lined up to donate.  It is amazing.  Now I understand why.  This statistic would make a good guiding principle when you are shopping as well as decluttering.  Do you ever wonder why we are always decluttering?

I will wrap this up with a You Tube video I watched this weekend.  It is worth watching till the end.  It makes me sad to consider this reality.  Our children are so lucky.  It also makes me glad that I am getting a third Fall/Winter out of my second hand shoes.  (Can you believe I found these shoes in nearly new condition at the Goodwill?  And in searching for a link I've discovered that you can replace the foot bed.  I'm thrilled.) 

There are so many areas where I know I could be making better choices. I'm always curious how others are limiting their impact.  I would love your suggestions.

..."parent's willingness to nurture a child"

..." parent's willingness to nurture a child", I was thrilled to hear these words in the inaugural speech, to be included in a nation of service.  We mothers are important even when it doesn't always seem so.

But how can I make a difference beyond my home?  How can I be of service?  How can I, a mother of two small children with difficult temperaments and no social network, bring about change?  I envy the wealthy and influential people who can effect change with words, grand actions, money.  I spent most of yesterday dwelling with these thoughts.  For me there is no clear avenue.  I feel small, tired and unimportant.  

I had a glimpse of clarity late yesterday amid housework, crying children and frayed nerves.  This past month I set a monthly food budget that was 50% smaller than my usual budget.  It will take a bit of sacrifice but I should succeed.  I thought of this as a one month challenge but yesterday I realized I could offer this sacrifice every month to something more worthy than saving money.  So to that end I committed money to our local food bank and a donation to Heifer International.  Hunger issues touch me to the core.  I can't imagine not being able to feed my children. 

So at the end of the day, I realized I can do something in this moment perhaps not with my hands and time but with sacrifice.

Cloth Christmas Wrapping

I love Etsy.  I hope to write a big Etsy love post some time in the future.  Until then let me share one thing I recently purchased through Etsy that made our Christmas a little more environmentally friendly.  I'm sure you have read the suggestion to make cloth bags or to use fabric to wrap presents.  This is great advice but if you cannot sew (like me) than you are left trying to find such bags.  Enter the magic of Etsy, I typed in fabric gift bags and the choices were numerous (but not as endless as I had wished.)  I ordered, they arrived, I popped the items for the children into the bags, tied a fabric bow and viola.  Wrapping finished.  I also wrapped stocking gifts in the bags but no one mentioned the similarity.  (On a side note, Cate announced to me before Christmas that "Santa is just a man in a costume so how do the things get in the stocking" and I said "it's magical."  Lame answer to be sure but I'm not a big fan of Santa anyway.)

Here is a photo of their gifts before they were opened.

We opened gifts from each of the grandparents at different times so that the kids could appreciate each set of gifts for a bit of time.  It was nice to not pick up bits of wrap after opening our gifts.  I think I'm going to have a couple sets made for the grandparents.