Our "green" adventure

It is very plain that the trend today is to "go green" and though our family is not into trends we find ourselves at last "going green". I must say our push behind changing our lives came from the desire to serve God and to properly take care of all He gives to us. It does seem that too many people begin to worship "mother earth" when proceeding into the whelm of "green". Over a year ago we started our journey into the land of organics, cloth diapers, fair-trade, energy saving, and most of all money saving ways, and at last I suspect we are not really much "greener" than when we started, but all we can do is try our best and forget the rest.

We started off switching to cloth diapers and I must admit, I love them. I really do. When I was pregnant with lil man I never thought I would be able to, ummm, wash poop as it were, and yet now I simply don't mind tossing those little bundles of joy into the washing machine to get their double washing (not sure if that really is that great for the environment but it sure does get them clean!). It really has saved us money even though I did splurge and brought some nice Fuzzi Bunz a few months ago. As for the idea that cloth diapered children potty train faster, well lets just say that I find it to be a bit of a myth.

Then we found ourselves a great little 1987 Ford Escort hatchback that got 35+ miles to the gallon. Needless to say we loved it and put a good deal of miles on to it. Then is happened. This materialist need for something "better". So now after having a couple of vehicles and giving the Ford to Big Man's brother, we now have a 2001 Nissan Frontier pickup which gets about 18 miles to the gallon (ouch!). So needless to say we are not in a good position here.

Then the land of organics began to open up to us, and let me tell you it can be VERY confusing! So let me save you the time and trouble. If you really want to eat and feel healthier look into The Weston A Price Foundation and specifically Sally Fallon and her cookbook Nourishing Traditions. It can be a bit overwhelming at first when switching from a conventional diet to a revised more organic diet, but we started with simple steps, and overtime have increased to do more and more. We still do not eat perfectly by any means, but we are much more aware or what goes into our bodies.

As for energy savers, Big man is a frantic. That is up until the point that he might have to spend some money to spend some energy. We rarely use our AC and line dry our clothes as much as we can. We have a wood stove to heat our shop and we usually turn down our heat when we leave. Otherwise we are probably much like the rest of the US. Unfortunately my worst habit is leaving on the TV even when we aren't in the room.

Cleaning products and toiletries have been very up and down for us, though I have finally found a combination of Method products that will actually clean up our rusty hard water without turning lil man into a walking rash. We also use products from Abaya Naturals, Burt's Bees, Arbonne, and Pure & Natural. Although most of our more natural counterparts have been a huge blessing, I still haven't found a deodorant that can tame my unmanageable underarms or Big mans.

So our adventure continues, and though I feel many follow this path in vain I know that
our adventure had ulitmately brought us closer in service to Christ. Please add a comment, and questions are always welcome!