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

Earth Day!

Today is Earth Day and a couple of the blogs I follow reminded me of that fact.  This in turn along with some of their posts made me think about what I am doing to celebrate Earth Day today and every day.  Some of the things that I am doing, I fought against when I was a kid.

I was only allowed to take a shower for a certain amount of time.  My mother would set an egg timer and we would have to be finished with our shower by the time the timer went off or we were out of luck.  I learned to take the quickest shower ever.  I hated it then, but now I think it is great that I already am not only saving money, but saving water.  My husband is amazed at how fast I can shower.

I am planning on having a garden this year.  When I was young we had a garden in my yard and also at my grandfather's house.  I hated weeding and gardening when I was a kid.  I just wanted to play and wasn't a fan of getting dirty.  Now I can't wait to eat veggies that i have grown,  I love getting my hands dirty and never wear gloves, and I love being outside.

I want to start hanging up my clothes instead of using the dryer.  I hated hanging out my clothes.  I always wanted to be like my friends and have a dryer.  I now want to hang a clothes line in my back yard and use the dryer less.  I know that this is going to save my clothes, save energy, save money.

I am cloth diapering my 3 kids.  Before I had kids, I never thought that I would ever want to cloth diaper.  Then I got pregnant and decided that I wanted to cloth diaper.  I didn't start because of all the disposable diapers that I got as gifts and then I got pregnant with the twins 3 months after I gave birth to my first son and then ended up on bed rest so it was a good thing that I didn't cloth diaper.  About 6 months after the twins were born, I decided that I wanted to try cloth diapering.  We started with my older son first and very quickly moved on to all 3.  I love that I am not adding more disposable diapers to landfills, I am saving money, I am not worried about making sure that I have diapers since all I have to do is wash what I have, and I am sure that there are other ways that cloth diapering is having a positive impact in my life.

I am attempting to use safe cleaners.  I try to use baking soda and vinegar as my main cleaning agents.  i do have times that I want to use my bleach, but I try not to.

I am attempting to eat less meat.  I have some times that I am really good and other times that I am horrible.  After watching Food Inc., I at least think a lot more when I am planning my meals.  Unfortunately, I can't afford to eat the meat that I want to (pasture fed, free range etc), but I can decrease the amount of conventional meat that I have in my family's diet.

I try to recycle, reduce, and reuse.  I am better at recycling, but getting better at reusing, and reducing.  I am trying to find ways of "upcycling" clothing.  I have made 2 clothing items for my daughter and hope to find more ways of doing this.  I am attempting not to by new craft supplies until I use what I have and to try to find ways of reusing items in my projects.  I am also attempting to shop differently.  When I go grocery shopping, I try to remain on the perimeter and use less things that are packaged and processed (healthier for my family and the environment).  I am trying to remember to utilize consignment stores instead of buying new since there are many of these clothing items that have been barely used.  I am also attempting to use healthier, more natural health and beauty products.  This will reduce the amount of chemicals that I use for my family and will reduce the amount of chemicals that I add to the environment.

These are the things that I am doing of the things that I am attempting to change in my life.  This is a lifestyle change for me.  I know that there are a lot of people who are like me or even better than I am at changing the way they live their lives so that we all can benefit, but I also think that there are a lot of people that are into Farmer's Markets, free range/pasture fed meat, recycling, and more because it is the in/trendy thing.  Hopefully, this trend will become a way of life at some point and more people will want to live this way to make it a better world for everyone.

Amy