ME ~ helping out (celebrating Earth Day!)

"The future of everything around us lies in each of our hands. How can you make a difference?"


I don't like to make New Year's Resolutions and this year is no exception, but I did make a promise to myself and my family that I am going to work harder at taking care of our environment. I felt like I was doing my part in "cleaning up our planet and making it a better place" but in doing some recent research, I discovered I can do so much more which I started "full-force" in doing since coming home from China with our Annabelle in November 2008.

I have really dedicated myself in recycling EVERYTHING that can be recycled (and I mean everything). I think I drove my family crazy this past Christmas with the wrappings, tissue paper, and bows waste. There are a lot of changes I made already this year...like ~not using so many paper towels, washing in only cold water - washing in larger loads - and not as often, recycling all card board that comes our way, recycling all plastic and glass that also comes our way, donating a lot of clothing, household items and other odds & ends that we don't use anymore, turning off lights and shutting off the TV when not in the room and not turning on the lights when there is enough natural light to see, cut back on driving my LR3 (I use Keith's Smart Car on the weekend when running my errands) and instead of running "here" one day and "here" the next I try to do all my running around in one day (plus I cut back on the places I shop at...I would purchase my cleaning supplies "here" and my food "there" and my medicines "some where else" and now I do all my shopping at one place. I also had all our lights switched over to energy saver bulbs last year and I noticed a HUGE difference in our electric bill, I time my dryer faithfully and if I find that if what's in the dryer isn't drying, I let it sit over night and start it up again in the morning (this really cuts back on the time my dryer is running). There are also a few other changes that I made (including running my dishwasher at night, grocery shopping for only what we need for that week and find other uses for the chain store's plastic bags I use to carry home my groceries in, and use recyclable batteries) but the one thing I am having a very hard time with (and I so want to do it) is unplugging electrical devises that are not in use. I heard all about how if the electrical items are still plugged in (even though there are not turned on) it is still using power. This is problem area. I am so trying to work on it, but it is really hard. I am just hoping that by the time we move into our new home, I'll be able to do it (I am one of those people who always have our rechargeable batteries in the charger, my Keurig is always plugged in as are my lamps and TVs even when not in use). I am still learning and still trying but this is the hardest for me to stick to.


OK...now that I listed a few of the things I am doing to help our environment...what can you do? Just one change can make a huge difference!

(and if you are all wondering if we will still be implementing these environmental changes with our new house - yes we will ~ I want to make a difference!)

We also have plans to see (I purchased the tickets a few weeks ago) Disney's Nature EARTH movie this coming weekend! It will be Francesca's first time at the movie theater but I think she is going to do really well. It is a surprise for her and we just can't wait! *Plus for every ticket you purchase, a tree will be planted ~ what a way to give back!*