Blog Action Day

I just found out that it is Blog Action Day. It is a day to post about the environment! I was on a real "green" kick for a while and I have gotten busy and not been doing as well. I should get back to that better attitude!!

For in the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught. Baba Dioum 1968

I found this quote on the wall at the aquarium we visited this summer. I think it is really true. We need to be aware and make our children aware of the beauty around us. There is so much to enjoy in this world! We have the responsibility to teach our children about our world. If we can teach them to love the planet and make them aware of how to preserve and make it a better place to live, we can change the attitudes of the next generation!!

Going Green in Moderation

I am all about moderation. I try not to work or exercise too much!! ;) I also am trying to find a balance for my kids to be independent, but still need me enough to want me involved in their lives, dreams and questions. That can be a tricky one and it is hard to know if I am doing it right until they are grown. So, I guess we'll just have to keep trying and praying on that one.

Lately, I have been reading a lot about being more environmentally friendly, or "green". There are some who are willing to give up electricity, toilet paper, buying anything new, packaged items and many other things. I am not so willing to go as far as some people. (I admire their efforts and I think some of them are doing really amazing things!!) I do want to do better in my efforts. I am working on crocheting more grocery bags. (of my own design, since what I what isn't available or at least not easy to find) I want to reduce the amount a packaging that comes into our home. Just this morning, I was shopping for flour and the 25 lb bag was the same price by the ounce as the 5 lb bags. I thought about it...the smaller bags would have been a lot easier to deal with, but a lot more trash! So, I hefted the big bag into the cart!

Another way that we have talked about conserving resources is to drive as little as we can. We live in a part of town where we can walk or ride a bike to most of the things that we need. Our church is only a block away. The stores and parks are only a short walk away as well. Some problem comes in when you consider that I don't like to grocery shop and so I only go about twice a month. Trying to haul two kids and two weeks worth of groceries could get tricky. We'll adapt, I think. We all need the exercise and fresh air anyway!!

By necessity, we already don't consume lots of things we don't need to. We don't have a lot of disposable income, so we just don't buy a lot of useless things. I also love to make things, so rather than going straight to the store to buy something when a need arises, I try to think of a way to make it if I can. I have a bit of a stash of yarn and fabric, so many times I don't even need to go to the store for the materials.

I am going to add a list of links to green sites I have found in my wanderings around the Internet. There are tons of them out there!!

If any of you have suggestions for things you do to be a little greener, comment and let me know!!

Happy Earth Day

I have been thinking about Earth Day coming up and in taking some quizzes, I realized that I'm not doing so well on the whole green thing. Sure, I recycle (they just put in bins at our complex!!) and I turn things off when I am not using them, I try to reuse or remake things when I can and I love to make things for myself and others, rather than buy them. But, I am not doing as much as I could be doing. I'm actually thinking about crocheting some of my own grocery bags. (And Aaron doesn't think I'm nuts!)

This scripture came to mind:

For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves. (Emphasis added)

Doctrine and Covenants 104:17

God said there is plenty to spare and we should be able to live on this earth and have what we need. The problem is that there is a lot of waste and a lot of damage being done to the environment everyday!!

In sharing this world with each other and the future, we need to be better agents with the things we have been given. It is a beautiful world with so much to offer us. It is so easy (especially if you have enough) to feel that there is always going to be more. We have stores full of things that marketers would love to have us think we NEED, we don't. We need to be more aware of the effect each of us are having on the world we are leaving to our children.

The Earth Day Footprint quiz shows how many acres you need to survive. The average in the U.S. is 24. I scored 9 acres. That means that if everyone lived like me, there would need to be 2.1 planets to live on. How large a footprint are you leaving??

Here are some other fun quizzes and lots of great information:

How Green Are You?

Yale's Green Quiz

Earth Day Information Lots of great conservation information

Turn Your Thumb Green My horticulture site with a post about sustainable gardening (how's that for a plug??)