When I was a kid we learned about recycling and the importance of it in school. We recycled our soda cans, milk jugs and cereal boxes. That was about as far as it went.
I realized when Alexis started school she was learning a lot more about "being green". It was everywhere!
She started paying more attention to the numbers on the bottom of our trash and then telling me: "mom, you need to recycle this!" So, we did. I realized I should probably be a better example to her. However, I didn't really know how. Being "green" in my mind meant using cloth diapers, hand washing / line drying my laundry and buying an electrical car. None of which were gonna happen. I mean honestly, I like the convenience of disposable diapers and washers/dryers way too much. I was certain being green was not for me!
Awhile back I read an article about a woman named Nancy Sleeth. She was a stay at home mom & her husband was a physician. They were not religious. They were making good money. They had a beautiful large house in New England, filled with beautiful things.
Things began to change for them. I won't go into all the details. You can read more here: http://www.amazon.com/Almost-Amish-ebook/dp/B007MATZXE/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1347606736&sr=1-2&keywords=almost+amish#reader_B007MATZXE
Basically, they ended up giving away one of their vehicles, sold half their stuff and moved into a house that was the size of what their garage used to be. He quit his job and she transitioned back into being a teacher. She wrote a book called, "Almost Amish". I thought to myself, these people are awesome! They are being green and accomplishing great things in the process. It was inspiring, yet scary.
I began to think maybe I could do some small things. Sleeth had given some fairly easy examples, baby steps if you will, in the excerpt I read from her book. For my first baby step, I decided to stop buying bottled water. I know this seems like a very small step. But, it was kind of big for me. I like convenience. With more than one kid, who doesn't? We were buying a case of water (24 bottles) at least every 10 days. Now we weren't only a little greener, (ahem, more green) we were saving a little money.
Even Mark can get on board with that!
I tried to do other little things. I worked on making sure the lights were off, even though we don't pay for electricity. I switched all our bills to paperless and canceled some magazine subscriptions. I started walking to places around base instead of driving (That one was a little short lived). This was all me attempting to be green.
(cont. in part 2)
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