Change The World Wednesday

It's been a while since I wrote anything for CTWW, but here I am this week.

This week, make your coffee or tea at home. Getting coffee/tea out every day not only costs a lot but also generates a lot of waste. Make it at home instead. And don't forget ... both coffee grounds and tea leaves are great in the compost bin.

Or ...

If you don't drink these beverages or always drink them at home, choose one other food or beverage, which you typically buy at either a restaurant or grocery store, and make it yourself at home. And, of course, we'd like to hear all about it!

My husband and I stopped drinking coffee just after Christmas 2009.  We started buying loose tea at Teavana and started making tea at home instead of buying coffee at those big expensive coffee houses.  My husband has done great with this change.  Me, not so good.  I tend to be fine during the cold months since I really don't enjoy hot coffee that much, but once spring comes, I love my iced coffee.  My older son started preschool this March and to get out of the house with my 2 year old twins, I started getting bagels and coffee out.  This has been an expense that my family really doesn't need, never mind the crazy amount of plastic coffee cups in my recycling bin.  Not only that, but I am trying to get dairy out of my diet, and having coffee every day at my local coffee shop means that I am having cream everyday.  This is not good for my digestive system.  I am also getting other foods that I am trying to eliminate from our diet.   The other issue is that I am trying to eat whole foods that aren't processed.  I am way too tempted to eat foods that I don't consider healthy and I end up getting unhealthy foods for my twins even though my goal is to get them to eat healthy foods.  This challenge is confirming that I really need to stop going to coffee shops and getting my iced coffee.  If I really desire ice coffee, I can make a cup at home and then I can use my own homemade almond milk and I can have healthy snacks for me and my kids.  My real goal though, is to get away from coffee all together and go back to only drinking tea!  Oh and we definitely compost our spent tea after making sure that we re-brew to get the most out of our tea leaves.  I never thought that I would re-brew tea, and my grandmother must be looking down from heaven saying, "I told you you can re-use tea!"

And even though this is not part of this weeks challenge, I plan to stop taking car trips with no purpose other than to get out of the house.  I will start taking the kids for a walk or once my older son is in school full time, I will start actually going places with the twins and make sure that every time I get in my car there is a purpose and that there isn't a better way to get my errands done.

Amy