So last week I listed 13 of my green habits, and as I promised, this week's Thursday Thirteen is a list of 13 ungreen habits! Honestly, it wasn't easy to come up with this list as when I see where I can make changes, I start moving towards making those changes. Some changes, however, are much harder than others. Especially #1...
Lee Vee's 13 Un-Green Habits
#1 I LOVE long, hot showers. This is a horrible waste of our precious water resources, but I haven't been able to *want* to change this habit yet. Plus Jake LOVES to play in the shower (it helps that 2 of us are showering instead of 1!), and a 5 minute shower just wouldn't seem like a decent length of playtime for him. I find long hot showers so relaxing, indeed one of the few or only times during the day when I feel truly relaxed. Someday I'll be like Jennifer Aniston, who takes 3 minute showers AND brushes her teeth in the shower. Sheesh :)
#2 I really like facial tissues (aka Kleenex). I have reduced or eliminated my paper waste in so many other ways, but haven't gotten around to using hankys for blowing noses. I tend to buy a case of tissues from the store (10% discount!) and stock them up so we always have plenty around.
#3 I use my car more than I should. Portland has a GREAT public transportation system, and the bus stop is only a block from my house, but I use my car even when going to the bakery less than a mile away. I think if I was childless I would use it less, but seriously, using public transportation with a wiggly toddler, a diaper bag, purse, etc. is not my idea of fun.
#4 I don't compost. Not that I haven't tried, I really have! We have used 2 different types of composters, the most recent one being a barrel type that is easy to rotate, but Mike and I simply suck at remembering to mix the appropriate amounts of kitchen scraps with dried yard debris plus this weird looking green liquid. The scraps have a hard time making it from the kitchen to the composter, and the composter sits there, forgotten. I've given up and am really hoping that Portland can soon implement a city-wide composting system where kitchen and yard debris scraps are picked up curbside. Seattle has such a system and it is awesome. I think Portland has wanted to start this, but has been having trouble finding a plot of land in which to set this up, plus there is the issue of having like 60 different different garbage/recycling haulers in the city. But it will happen...Rome wasn't built in a day, either.
#5 My cats eat meat. Not just any meat, RAW meat that we buy at the store. I know, so weird for someone who doesn't eat meat herself, but this is a tough issue as it is really an environment versus healthiest diet issue. Humans can easily have healthy, life-long living vegan diets but cats? Cats are true carnivores. And it shows -- Theo and Kami are very healthy and have super-soft, silky fur to show for it.
#6 I own many shoes. Okay this may not seem like an environmental issue at first glance, but really, how many pairs of shoes does a human realistically need, fashion concerns aside? Each pair of shoes represents materials that came from somewhere. The fact that I have more pairs of shoes than I have fingers and toes is slightly embarrasing. I have more pairs of shoes than Mike and Jake combined. Okay, so I'm not as bad as Imelda Marcos!
#7 I have an automatic lawn sprinkler system. Which means I use water to keep my lawn green during the summertime. In the past, I would let the lawn turn brown and dormant, but with that would come lots of weeds and bees. Not my 2 favorite things, especially with a toddler. The good news is that since the system is automatic, the water is only on for a short time compared to when I used to turn it on and then literally forget it was on for hours... eek.
#8 Batteries are a tough one -- I need to use reuseable/rechargeable batteries more. I just did a cleaning spree of the battery drawer, so that should help. However, the batteries that Mike and I use for our cochlear implant simply are not recharageable, so we are stuck there unless we want to live in silence for the rest of our lives (which we don't).
#9 I need to improve regarding turning off electronics in the house. It's so easy to just leave the computer on. However, all the electronics that we have, even though they consume a small amount of energy, do add up. I'm good about turning off lights when not in use, now I need to do that for electronics.
#10 The themostat in my house could be set lower, but then I'd have to start wearing thicker sweaters, which are really difficult to wear while breastfeeding.
#11 I own a great clothes drying rack, but don't use it as much as I should, favoring my dryer. Living in a rainy climate doesn't help much, either. I'll try harder this summer.
#12 I buy lots of vegetables and I ... ahem... don't always use all of them in time before they become soggy, rotten messes at the bottom of my fridge. That needs to change.
#13 Plastics... this is a hard one. We use plastics for so many things in this life, and they stay on this earth for a long, long time. Some plastics are great, and I'm grateful for them. Others... we can learn to live without or use less of them. Sure, they can be recycled, but that isn't much easier on the environment than using less of them in the first place. My goal for 2008 is to really work on reducing the number of plastics I buy and to reuse what I have. That means taking bottles with me to the grocery store to fill up with bulk items such as olive oil, maple syrup, and shampoo. Mike is switching to a shampoo bar (looks like a bar of soap) so no bottles are required. I try to reuse the plastic produce bags at the store, but I can improve on that one. A work in progress here!
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Climbing!
Jake has become a climber within the last week. He'd been practicing climbing onto the toilet seat (with the lid down) and chairs for awhile, but suddenly he's climbing other things. He climbed in and out of his wooden high chair, onto window sills, onto the computer desk, on top of the computer tower to reach higher up, etc. Oy!!!
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Sunny Winter Day
Today was the first sunny day we've had in what feels like more than a week. So after a walk in the village, we hung out in the backyard and enjoyed the sun.
The cats were happy to be outside, too. Kami was around but eluded the camera.
Pretending to eat rocks! I like this picture because you can see his funky rain boots.
The cats were happy to be outside, too. Kami was around but eluded the camera.
Pretending to eat rocks! I like this picture because you can see his funky rain boots.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Start of Thursday Thirteen - Green
I found out about Thursday Thirteen through my friend Breana's blog. It sounds like a fun idea, so I'm going to try it out for awhile. Also copying Breana, I'll start with my green list -- 13 things that I do regularly that are green. Then next week I'll share my list of 13 un-green habits :)
Lee Vee's 13 Green Habits
1. I'm an avid recycler. It helps to have grown up in a city that now recycles more than 50% of its garbage, and to have had parents who got me in the habit while I was still living at their house. Anything that can be recycled curbside (paper, cardboard, glass, foil, plastic bottles with necks, tin) or at my local grocery store (some plastics, plastic bags) does get recycled.
2. I always carry cloth bags to the grocery store. I have quite a collection! I have bags that say New Seasons (my local grocery store), Whole Foods, Nature's, Hillsdale Farmer's Market, Switch Shoes (local and favorite shoes/accessories store), OraSure Technologies (a company I used to work for), and Covance (my current employer). Anyway, I rarely forget to bring them with me, and I wonder how many paper/plastic bags I've saved in the 5 years that I've been doing that?
3. I use "green" cleaners. Regular brand household cleaners make me sick. Seriously, the chemical smell from them, ugh. Not good for little children and pets, either. So I'm happy to be using mostly vinegar for clean up, but also brands such as Seventh Generation and BioKleen (a locally-made laundry detergent). The green cleaners biodegrade much better in the environment than regular cleaners (read: less toxic for all nature and living things).
4. I use "green" toiletries. Our toothbrushes and Mike's razors are the Preserve brand, and are made from recycled plastic. Not only that, but once we're finished with the brush/razor handle we put it back in the container it came in, and mail them in bulk to the company who made them, and they then use the plastic to make park benches. Pretty cool. I also love Dr. Bronner's liquid magic soaps as they are biodegradeable, all natural, and you can use them for just about anything (except toothpaste, bleah).
5. We own a hybrid car, a 2001 Prius. We call our hybrid Sippy, as it does sip gas and save us a lot.
6. I significantly reduced my junk mail and the number of catalogs that come into the house by signing up for GreenDimes. I can choose what catalogs to continue receiving and which I want to stop. So rather than receiving paper that just goes straight into the recycling bin, it doesn't get made for me or sent to me at all.
7. We use a reel lawn mower. As soon as we moved into a house, we brought a reel mower, and have never used a gas or electric one (although we've gotten offers!). The bonus is the added exercise it gives us, the bad part was the learning curve when figuring out that the blades really do need to be taken in to be sharpened. Tall grass + dull blades = a pain in the backside.
8. We use Klean Kanteen bottles for water (they even make a sippy cup version for small hands) and try to remember those as much as possible so we don't have to buy and waste plastic bottles. Besides, the water in the stainless steel tastes better to me, and there is no leeching of chemicals into my water when the temperatures get warmer.
9. We use cloth napkins, kitchen towels, and rags and just wash them when they are dirty. I think I go through a roll of paper towels about once every year.
10. Our cat litter is Swheat Scoop and is made of wheat and biodegrades easily. There are no chemicals to harm the cats or the environment, and no, it does not smell.
11. We use cloth diapers for Jake. Saves a lot of resources that are used to manufacture disposable diapers plus they don't end up in a landfill. Plus it is economical for us as well. It has been estimated that disposable diapers for one child for 2 years costs about $2500 (probably more if using more environmentally and child friendly brands, such as Seventh Generation) whereas cloth diapers for one child is around $600 and can be used for subsequent children!
12. We eat a mostly vegan diet. An enormous amount of resources are used to produce a small amount of meat and to raise dairy cattle. You actually save more resources by eating less meat than you do if you gave up your car.
13. We shop at our local Hillsdale Farmer's Market. I'm trying to make this a regular thing. I love going and seeing the people who actually grew/made the food that they are selling. I love getting to know what is grown locally and when it is in season. Luckily our local farmer's market operates year-round -- every Sunday except for December through March, when it is every other Sunday.
After those, I'll leave you with some cute pictures of Jake taken today. We played with the train and put as many animals on the train as we could.
Lee Vee's 13 Green Habits
1. I'm an avid recycler. It helps to have grown up in a city that now recycles more than 50% of its garbage, and to have had parents who got me in the habit while I was still living at their house. Anything that can be recycled curbside (paper, cardboard, glass, foil, plastic bottles with necks, tin) or at my local grocery store (some plastics, plastic bags) does get recycled.
2. I always carry cloth bags to the grocery store. I have quite a collection! I have bags that say New Seasons (my local grocery store), Whole Foods, Nature's, Hillsdale Farmer's Market, Switch Shoes (local and favorite shoes/accessories store), OraSure Technologies (a company I used to work for), and Covance (my current employer). Anyway, I rarely forget to bring them with me, and I wonder how many paper/plastic bags I've saved in the 5 years that I've been doing that?
3. I use "green" cleaners. Regular brand household cleaners make me sick. Seriously, the chemical smell from them, ugh. Not good for little children and pets, either. So I'm happy to be using mostly vinegar for clean up, but also brands such as Seventh Generation and BioKleen (a locally-made laundry detergent). The green cleaners biodegrade much better in the environment than regular cleaners (read: less toxic for all nature and living things).
4. I use "green" toiletries. Our toothbrushes and Mike's razors are the Preserve brand, and are made from recycled plastic. Not only that, but once we're finished with the brush/razor handle we put it back in the container it came in, and mail them in bulk to the company who made them, and they then use the plastic to make park benches. Pretty cool. I also love Dr. Bronner's liquid magic soaps as they are biodegradeable, all natural, and you can use them for just about anything (except toothpaste, bleah).
5. We own a hybrid car, a 2001 Prius. We call our hybrid Sippy, as it does sip gas and save us a lot.
6. I significantly reduced my junk mail and the number of catalogs that come into the house by signing up for GreenDimes. I can choose what catalogs to continue receiving and which I want to stop. So rather than receiving paper that just goes straight into the recycling bin, it doesn't get made for me or sent to me at all.
7. We use a reel lawn mower. As soon as we moved into a house, we brought a reel mower, and have never used a gas or electric one (although we've gotten offers!). The bonus is the added exercise it gives us, the bad part was the learning curve when figuring out that the blades really do need to be taken in to be sharpened. Tall grass + dull blades = a pain in the backside.
8. We use Klean Kanteen bottles for water (they even make a sippy cup version for small hands) and try to remember those as much as possible so we don't have to buy and waste plastic bottles. Besides, the water in the stainless steel tastes better to me, and there is no leeching of chemicals into my water when the temperatures get warmer.
9. We use cloth napkins, kitchen towels, and rags and just wash them when they are dirty. I think I go through a roll of paper towels about once every year.
10. Our cat litter is Swheat Scoop and is made of wheat and biodegrades easily. There are no chemicals to harm the cats or the environment, and no, it does not smell.
11. We use cloth diapers for Jake. Saves a lot of resources that are used to manufacture disposable diapers plus they don't end up in a landfill. Plus it is economical for us as well. It has been estimated that disposable diapers for one child for 2 years costs about $2500 (probably more if using more environmentally and child friendly brands, such as Seventh Generation) whereas cloth diapers for one child is around $600 and can be used for subsequent children!
12. We eat a mostly vegan diet. An enormous amount of resources are used to produce a small amount of meat and to raise dairy cattle. You actually save more resources by eating less meat than you do if you gave up your car.
13. We shop at our local Hillsdale Farmer's Market. I'm trying to make this a regular thing. I love going and seeing the people who actually grew/made the food that they are selling. I love getting to know what is grown locally and when it is in season. Luckily our local farmer's market operates year-round -- every Sunday except for December through March, when it is every other Sunday.
After those, I'll leave you with some cute pictures of Jake taken today. We played with the train and put as many animals on the train as we could.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Anniversary
Today Jake started a new session of Tiny Tots -- free-play "gym" classes. Today he was interested in sitting on these bouncy toys and pushing a toy lawn mower around when he wasn't watching the other kids.
Then we went to Grandma's house where this picture was taken.
Then Mike, Jake, and I went to Swagat for Indian food for our anniversary dinner. Here Jake is signing "Daddy" with a puzzled look on his face, after Mike got up to get tissues.
For our second wedding anniversary, we got a new ammonite pair, these fossil-crystal-spiral things that we love.
Then we went to Grandma's house where this picture was taken.
Then Mike, Jake, and I went to Swagat for Indian food for our anniversary dinner. Here Jake is signing "Daddy" with a puzzled look on his face, after Mike got up to get tissues.
For our second wedding anniversary, we got a new ammonite pair, these fossil-crystal-spiral things that we love.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Reading and Shoes
Took these photos of Jake and Mike reading books on the step. Cute.
In other news, Jake suddenly grew out of his size 4 shoes. I swear it happened overnight. Grandma Jean noticed it. Luckily, I had a size 5 pair of shoes ready and waiting. So now I'm searching for a pair of size 6 because I'm sure I'll need them sooner than I think. :)
In other news, Jake suddenly grew out of his size 4 shoes. I swear it happened overnight. Grandma Jean noticed it. Luckily, I had a size 5 pair of shoes ready and waiting. So now I'm searching for a pair of size 6 because I'm sure I'll need them sooner than I think. :)
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Christmas and New Year's
More Christmas Eve pictures... Jake opening one of his presents. What's in the box?
Wooden puzzles!
Figuring them out...
Christmas Day. Jake in his Christmas pajamas and a hat to keep him warm. Yay for the new radio flyer wagon with all-terrian wheels!
A happy Jake pulled a toy out of his stocking...
Lee and Mike sitting on the new stools for the kitchen island...
Jake snuggling with Aunt Amy. You can see the snow outside.
Cute and cozy.
We went to Black Butte for the New Year. Here's Guthrie throwing powder snow at Jake who was laughing at it.
Jake and Mike in the loft at the Sister's Coffeehouse.
Look at all the snow there! It was beautiful.
Mt. Washington
Jake sleeping on the ride home.
The ride over the Santiam Pass to Black Butte was wild. It had been snowing on and off all week, and was snowing hard for the second day in a row when we went over. Lots of cars going over, lots of cars on the side of the road putting on chains, and lots of snow. We even saw a tow truck on 2 wheels as it was attempting to lift a car that had gone down a snowy bank. Eek. Luckily Mike is an experienced Alaskan driver and I was very thankful to have him at the wheel. That and an AWD car with traction tires that was weighed down with 4 adults, 1 child in a carseat, and a ton of bags and groceries. Going back to Portland the pass was sunny, easier to drive, and with more road showing.
Wooden puzzles!
Figuring them out...
Christmas Day. Jake in his Christmas pajamas and a hat to keep him warm. Yay for the new radio flyer wagon with all-terrian wheels!
A happy Jake pulled a toy out of his stocking...
Lee and Mike sitting on the new stools for the kitchen island...
Jake snuggling with Aunt Amy. You can see the snow outside.
Cute and cozy.
We went to Black Butte for the New Year. Here's Guthrie throwing powder snow at Jake who was laughing at it.
Jake and Mike in the loft at the Sister's Coffeehouse.
Look at all the snow there! It was beautiful.
Mt. Washington
Jake sleeping on the ride home.
The ride over the Santiam Pass to Black Butte was wild. It had been snowing on and off all week, and was snowing hard for the second day in a row when we went over. Lots of cars going over, lots of cars on the side of the road putting on chains, and lots of snow. We even saw a tow truck on 2 wheels as it was attempting to lift a car that had gone down a snowy bank. Eek. Luckily Mike is an experienced Alaskan driver and I was very thankful to have him at the wheel. That and an AWD car with traction tires that was weighed down with 4 adults, 1 child in a carseat, and a ton of bags and groceries. Going back to Portland the pass was sunny, easier to drive, and with more road showing.
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