Monday, October 15, 2007

We Only Get One Planet

Today is Blog Action Day. What are you doing lately to protect and preserve the environment? You don't have to make big sacrifices to help the environment (though those are good!). Even little things will help.

Around here we clean with a lot of natural stuff, like vinegar & baking soda. There are a lot of books available with "recipes" so you can do the same thing. Vinegar kill 99% of household germs, so I wash the floors and other surfaces with it. It smells nicer than some of the chemical products and I always want to eat a salad afterward, which since we buy organic produce, also helps sustain the earth. Two for one!

If we ever have serious money for a new car or the government gets their energy act together, I totally want to buy a hybrid vehicle. I can't ride a bike to work like my niece H. does (Hi H!) because here in Western New York there is snow. And I'm not working outside the home at the moment. But today I did park my car at one end of the strip mall parking lot and walk all the way to the other end and back (with packages!) instead of driving from store to store. So I cut down on emissions and got my exercise too. Another two for one!

In the spring we are going to start a garden in the space where the broken down shed used to be and attempt to grow veggies and maybe some berries. As I said above, we buy organic as much as possible, both for our health and the health of the earth.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. We've all heard it, but we need to do it. We recycle a lot around here, even the boys know not to throw out a piece of paper or cardboard in the regular trash. And M. is always going through the recycling bin looking for stuff to make art projects with. We send outgrown clothes to friends with younger kids or take them to Goodwill. I'm still working on the Reduce part, in many ways.

We only get one planet. Don't leave your kids a sick one.

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