Archive | September 2011
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Lather, Rinse, Repeat
I wrote this a few years back to share during a Rosh Hashanah service with a “Prayers of the Heart” theme. This morning was long and filled with tears, and my Lather, Rinse, Repeat mantra came in handy yet again. We’ve switched to tree-free-paper wrapped bar shampoo, but I’m carrying those plastic bottle words of […]
Lunch Less Plastic
Until last year, we had hot lunches to go with our homeschool days. You know, I’d lock the girls in a closet to prevent them from socializing while I cooked up something tasty. Kidding. Just a little homeschool joke there. Actually, we were frequently so busy out of our home, socializing with the entire community, […]
Giving Back – No Impact Week
Our Giving Back Day lined up perfectly with our local Harvest Fair, the main fundraiser for Friends of the Farms, an island group working to preserve and enhance local farming. We signed up for two volunteer shifts: 2 1/2 hours in the pie sales booth followed by 2 hours helping fair-goers sort through their trash, […]
Eco-Sabbath – No Impact Week
We mixed things up a bit, so that Saturday was our Eco-Sabbath, Sunday our Giving Back day. Our regular sabbath, aka Shabbat, is from sundown Friday through to Saturday night when we can see three stars shining in the sky (airplanes and satellites don’t count). We do our best to reduce our use of money, […]
Water – No Impact Week
I’ve got two words for Water Day: Baking Soda. We’ve refined our water consumption over the past year, thanks in largest part to our first No Impact Week experience. We take shorter showers and less frequent baths, we reuse water for plants when we can capture it, and I almost never turn the kitchen faucet […]
Free Pants Update – No Impact Week
My consumption dream for the week came true, and then some. I had offers of jeans and coupons toward the purchase of a new pair from several people. I took the first person to offer a pair up on her offer – When I showed up on her porch (and I carpooled to get there, […]
Energy – No Impact Week
Let me say this: It is a whole lot easier to reduce our energy use in September than it was during our first No Impact Week in January. Dawn came and brought us light in time for breakfast and our walk to the school bus stop. If we’d eaten dinner on time, there would have […]
Food – No Impact Week
If only it were simple to eat well. Because I can’t afford to buy all the organic produce I want for my family, and because it’s usually all wrapped up in plastic, we forage and grow and barter to fill our bellies with seasonal vegetables and fruit. By eating seasonally, we keep the costs low […]
Transportation – No Impact Week
Ah, transportation! This was the most difficult part of our first No Impact Week, and so far, that’s holding true for this round. I had planned it all out. The girls and I would skip to the bus stop in the dawn’s clear light, and I’d get a lovely photo of the happy group of […]
Trash – No Impact Week
Trash talk! One of my very, very favorite subjects. A couple of weeks ago, my girls and I parked next to the garbage trucks in the grocery store parking lot so we could look into each truck’s compressor back. The girls were sure we’d get in trouble, but no one came running to make us […]
