A Start...

OK, this blog is just something I wanted to start to track things that I want to do, my successes and failures (I'm sure there's going to be A LOT of those) along the way.

• I'm trying to be a greener person. Reducing waste, reusing things, consuming less energy, etc. We're recycling what we can, trying to reuse things when we can, and producing less waste.
• I want to be the best mom I can be. I need to spend more time with my kids, not just playing and doing fun things, but teaching them things that they need to know for life. How to take care of their things, how to handle stress, how to spend wisely, learning their hopes and dreams and showing them how to accomplish those dreams.
• I really need to take better care of myself. I need to eat more veggies, less junk, less sugar and exercise more! I want to find time to spend on myself for things I want to learn to do.
• I want to get a place of our own, somewhere with some land (not a huge lot, but I do want a garden!) But to do this, we really need to save money.

First, my greening things. I've bought books, I've read blogs and internet articles in trying to make my life greener. I think people of the world are using to much of the Earth's resources and we've got to do something about it NOW if future generations are to have a chance at all! I've researched green cleaning methods, reducing your carbon footprint, reducing water usage, and trying to buy locally grown goods and locally made items when possible. I'm trying to almost constantly research and find new things to do. Here are some of the green things I've started doing.

1. I recycle everything I can, trying to buy thing in recyclable containers whenever possible. Even when it is recyclable, I try to reuse it when I can, only putting it in the recycle box when it's broken, cracked or otherwise unusable. We went to the town office and even requested a second recycle bin, because we're quite often overflowing a single recycle bin, yet only have to throw the trash out about every other week (We average about 2 bags every other week).
2. Only pull the trash bag when it a) starts to stink or b) is completely full. When I pull trash, if the bin isn't completely full, I'm pouring the trash over to another bag that isn't quite full, consolidating and compacting the trash as I can.
3. Composting - I gotta work on this one. I don't compost. We've tried it, but we need a bin that will prevent mice and rats from getting into it. They can get bad here if we're not careful. And (bad green thing I know) we have to use poison to keep them under control.
4. Starting to try to use green cleaners. I'm using some cleaners like Seventh Generation, and others that say they are clean, but I have so much of the traditional stuff, I don't want to just dump it in the landfill, just because it's not green. Isn't it kind of wasteful to dump unused products in the landfill, just because it's not a green cleaner? I know some stuff adds toxic chemicals to your household, and I try to limit myself on using them, like if I have a persistent stain or something, I pull out the heavy duty stuff. I'm also trying to use stuff like baking soda, vinegar and hydrogen peroxide to clean things, pulling out those older commercial cleaning products when the natural stuff isn't working very well.
5. I've researched making your own green laundry detergent, but one, I can't find all of the ingredients in stores locally, and they say it "saves you money, because it's cheaper", but it's not cheaper than the Arm & Hammer detergent the I use now. I think what I use is generally about 10 cents a load. The borax alone (the main ingredient in most homemade detergents) would run me almost that much alone. I read about some green detergent at Sams... going to try it when I get more.

OK, that's enough for starters, I'll try to sign on here in another few days and blog about my next topic on my list, being the best mom I can be.

K@