April 22

Today is a big day...
Earth Day and Good Friday. Oh its also pizza, popcorn and movie night for us.
As a mom, a teacher, an Earth lover, and a Christian I had lots to talk to my kids about today!
Over the last week or so we read a few Easter books,and sang some songs. I've told my kids the "real meaning" of Easter, and why today's so special.  Hopefully some of this makes sense to them before they get junk-food-ed (not so much by me).

We tried to get out to enjoy the "earth" but it didn't last long.  Brrrr!

I've been reading Ecoholic Home by Adria Vasil for a while now... off and on.  It's a great Canadian resource to help you find your way in being a little (or hopefully a lot) greener. I've been trying to be greener.  I'm no superstar.  But let's be positive. I'm sure I've got a while to go still.

Here are some things that we (or I) do at our house for the Earth.
-Insulated our house.
-Put in newer windows
-Installed Geothermal heat/cooling.
-We refinished anything original in the house we could.
-We don't keep our house overly hot (winter) or cold (summer)
-We use almost all green cleaners, and body products.
-I am veganish.  This is probably THE biggest thing one person can do for our Earth.  The meat industry and factory farming are SO hard on the environment.  (Ask me if you would like to hear more)
-We are organic apple farmers.  No chemical pesticides here.
-We buy organic and local when possible.
-I try my best to buy things that are as unprocessed as possible.
-We're phasing out as much plastic in our home as we can. My kids use all stainless steel (Wish I thought of that earlier!).
-We took our microwave out of our kitchen (guess that's more about us than the Earth... but same frame of mind)
-I used cloth diapers on Ben for over a year (had to stop b/c we keep running out of hot water.  I can't sacrifice our baths & showers for a warm load of laundry)
-We plant our own fruit and veggie gardens in the summer! I can't wait to get started this year!
-We recycle.  A lot.  You can actually catch me picking through my garbage a few times a day to put things in the recycle (my hubby keeps forgetting)
-I buy lots of used and vintage things- clothes, furniture, bath tub,....
-We use a water filter rather than purchasing water bottles.
-I use glass storage containers (mason jars too), and the kids use their stainless steel food containers, and re-usable snack bags.
-I dry my laundry on the line in the summer.
-I wash every load with cold water.
-I've switched out almost all our lightbulbs.
-We use no-VOC paints.
-Ben's flor tiles are made of felt (80% post consumer recycled fibres) and are recyclable. (LOVE them!)
-I don't use any unnaturally scented things in our home.  And am hoping to replace my candles with more beeswax or soy.
-Use reuseable shopping bags and cloth napkins.

I'm sure there's more... but it kinda goes to show that just when I got feeling bad about not being "green enough" this year; I am actually doing a lot.  And the best part is that I'm teaching my kids to do the same.

We definetly have some things to work on, like turning off lights and water, and "reducing" I feel like we bring a lot into the house. I'd really like to have a rain barrel this summer too.

PIZZA NIGHT!
We try to do pizza, a movie and popcorn on Fridays.

popcorn and cuddles with my little guy!

does anyone know how to rotate this?
(it was the right way in my files)