A Graduation Party and How I Feel About Eco-Fina

photo credit: CarbonNYC

Today my amazing husband threw me a graduation party. That's right people: I'm a Bachelor Degreed mama now! And I graduated at the top of my class in my major (Child and Family Studies), even though at the end I dealt with the deployment of my husband and the birth of our daughter in the middle the semester. I'm pretty stinkin' proud of myself. They asked me to make a speech at graduation, which I declined to do, because I didn't want to walk across the stage. All I wanted was a party... which was awesome!

Anyway, Eco-fina... Since I turned "crunchy" I decided that any parties we had I would just fill up the sink and have everybody wash their own plate so we didn't have to use disposables and nobody would be stuck with all the dishes at the end. Today, however, we had our party outside, so we used disposable plates and utensils. A lot of people complain about how companies promote how "green" their disposable products are, when it would be greener to just not use them. But today I was glad that I had the option to use "greener" disposables: biodegradeable, recycled plates and recycled plastic silverware. It's not something I do often, but I'm glad that I have light green options as opposed to... I dunno... brown options?

How does this equate with Eco-fina? Well, lately I have seen a lot of controversy about the Eco-fina bottles that use less plastic. Yes, I know... people shouldn't drink bottled water in the first place. But there are people who are going to drink it no matter what you say about the environment, and I hope that those people drink Eco-fina.

I think there are shades of green, and while it is best to be a dark, hunter green (cloth toilet paper and solar panels kind of green), some of us are a lighter forest green, and some are light green and drink out of Eco-fina water bottles. It's still better than the conventional ones.

Nothing to do with the environment

This has absolutely nothing to do with the environment except that it made mine happier: My husband is home from a year long deployment!!! Don't expect to hear from me for a few days, but then after that I may be able to write more because he's here to help with Doodlebug.

Wooohhooooo! Thank you God for my husband coming home!

The River

photo credit: DigitalArt2

There is a river that runs right through the center of my town. When I was a little girl, we lived right down the street from it, and sometimes when it rained the water would run up over the road, rushing and rushing, covering the bridge. My parents would take us down to see the river, always keeping us back a safe distance (though I'm sure my brother tried to get closer). The river was normally pretty small, but when it flooded it was something to be afraid of as well as something to be admired. It was wild and untamed and, to me, beautiful.

As an adult I came back to this little town and my little river and cried. What had happened to my river? It was choked with trash, and nearly dry from drought and damming. In my childhood, had I imagined the grandeur of the river? In my smallness, had I seen the river as larger than it was? Maybe. But something tells me I didn't. I remember the river washing away a car once. Now it is a tiny trickle, the land around it parched and cracked.

And so I cry for my river, and I cry for my daughter, who will never get to see it the way I once did, majestic and powerful and free.

Crunchy Living

This started out as my adventure to save the planet. I didn't expect huge changes in every product I used. It was simply my goal to reduce consumption and waste and encourage other people to do so as well. I so desperately want there to be a planet left for my little girl when she grows up.

The more research I have done, though, the more I have discovered that there is more to it than that. I have started to think about the chemicals in our food, and what we put on our bodies (at this stage Doodlebug puts everything in her mouth, so anything on my skin or hair goes directly into her mouth). So there will be more posts on natural alternatives from time to time as well.

It is all intertwined, I think. Once you start trying to be more environmentally friendly, you naturally progress to being more natural in every aspect. Sometimes it works the other way around. Some people are worried about their health and try to do "natural" things, which leads to an interest in being environmentally friendly.

Right now I am working on:

Reducing my consumption, thereby reducing waste.
Reducing water consumption.
Switching to more organic and locally grown foods.
Learning about alternatives to commercial cosmetic products.
Recycling everything I can.
Container gardening.

And constantly, constantly learning what I can do next. It is a never-ending battle. But hopefully I can make a difference; hopefully I can spread the word.

An Eco-Mommy's Ramblings

Warning: Serious rambling ahead.

Yesterday Doodlebug had to wear disposable diapers. Ugh. I thought I had enough cloth to last two days, but I didn't. So she had to wear 'sposies while I washed. Ugh. I hated every minute of it. I hated thinking about filling a landfill with the things. I hated thinking about the little chemical-ly gel balls on her skin. Yuck yuck yuck! So I went and bought more prefolds so I have enough to get through two days now. I thought cloth diapers would be inconvenient. I didn't know I'd get so attached to them!

I've been really thinking hard about the comment about breastmilk in The Story of Stuff. They say that breastmilk is one of the most toxin contaminated foods on the planet, because humans are at the top of the food chain. This has been really bothering me, so I'm going to slowly switch to organic. I'm not going to go and throw away everything I have or anything... just switch as I run out. And I'm starting with the things I eat the most often. I bought organic milk today (the kind I was drinking already had no growth hormones, but it wasn't organic). I was going to buy organic eggs, but they were like four dollars! I couldn't bring myself to pay that. But then when I got done at the store I took my receipt and added up all the junk food I bought and I spent five dollars on junk food! So that's the end of it. I'm giving up the junk so I can buy organic and Doodlebug and I can be healthy.

I'm also trying to go "No 'poo" right now. Today was day one of no shampoo. Instructions are here. I've tried before, but got frustrated because I tried to give up too much at once (conventional soap, deodorant, shampoo...), so I'm going to try it for two weeks and see how it goes. I'll keep you posted.