A Day in the Life...

I set a goal today to try and live as eco friendly as possible.  I live in MN where the weather varies a lot, so it is quite often that you will be running both the A/C and the heater on the same day to maintain a constant temp.  Yesterday I turned off all heating/cooling systems in the house and decided it was spring and fairly nice out so I would see how it went.  In the morning, it was rather cool, about 68 degrees inside.  I dressed the kids in long sleeved pants/shirts and their cloth diapers and made sure they had blankets for nap time.  By midday, the temp in the house was right where we like it 72 degrees, and by nightfall it was 75.  I realized with just this one day experiment how much we take our modern conveniences for granted.  Why must we keep the house at a constant 72 degrees?  It wastes electricity.  It's as simple as throwing on a cardigan in the morning, and taking it off at night.  I realize towards the summer when it's 90-100 out it won't be this simple, but in reality I think it's good to think about sacrificing a little to reduce the amount of electricity we use!

Secondly, for the first time - ever- I did a full week's worth of groceries without using a single plastic OR paper bag!  I used my handy envirosax and they were awesome.  One of them was so fully loaded I know it would have been considered a "double bagger" had I gone the other route.  I also decided to shop at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's instead of the normal chain grocers that I had been using.  I may have ended up spending a few dollars more, but the produce was all organic, as was the soy milk (for my son), and I got an incredible pizza from Whole Foods as a special treat.  After making it and putting away the leftovers, I realized that the mat the pizza was on was compostable!  It feels nice to support stores that are of like mind, that take the extra time (and money) to try to live sustainably.  Something just feels *right* when you are trying to do your part and live responsibly.  There is a totally different vibe in these sorts of stores over your basic chain (esp. super walmart/targets).

Finally, I've discovered the joys of hanging clothes on a line.  When I was a little girl, my grandma used to do laundry and hang them to dry outside.  Since I cloth diaper, I have always wanted a picture of the cute diapers hanging to dry in the sun, but that was not realized until yesterday, after my mom and I installed a new laundry line.  It took four blunders (and diapers dropping in the dirt) for me to get the knots right, but after it was done I was amazed at how nice everything was.  Today was the first time I dried actual clothing, and was a little hesitant as I typically have a LOT of laundry and knew I didn't have that much line available.  I could do about 3/4 load on the line, but on a hot day like today it took only about an hour to dry!  This was great, and I know it really will help the laundry smell fresher and last longer.  Above is an image of my son and daughters diapers on the line.  =)

Reuse: Children's Clothing

Anyone that has young children knows how quickly little ones grow, especially in the first few years.  I have found two great options for people that don't want to hassle with having a garage sale or listing things on ebay.  The first option is to consign through a company such as JustBetweenFriends (http://www.jbfsale.com/default.cfm).  I decided to give it a shot this past sale as I had a basement full of toys and my kids had grown out of a lot of clothes from the previous season.  I listed about 200 items, of which 75% sold.  I made a 70% commission since I volunteered, and yesterday (a week after the sale) I got a check in the mail for about $625!  This was amazing, as it's typically stuff I would just pass along or donate.  Now that we are on a tighter budget, I figured I could sell the things and use the money to buy things in the next size up.  I also was able to shop the presales since I consigned and volunteered and I scored some great deals on toys for my kids to play with this summer.  The best part is that I plan to resell the things at the fall sale and hopefully come out even!  The second thing I have discovered is a website called ThredUp (http://www.thredup.com/251731).  It's a great children's clothes recycling program.  Basically you can list your items in under five mintues (think stuff that didn't sell at JBF or clothes that are cute, but you never got around to using) and if someone buys it all you have to do is print the shipping label and the postal worker will come to your door and pick it up.  You can then turn around and buy someone else's box for $15.95 (including shipping) that has approximately 15 items in there.    They also have toys, maternity clothes, scrapbooking stuff, and books to trade.  There are no picts on the site, though you can request a seller send you a picture before purchasing.  One cool thing about this is that when you get the box, it's like Christmas!  I can't wait to get the boxes I just ordered in my first trial run, I'll see if I can upload a picture for a future post!  =)

Paper or Plastic?

My very first job was a bagger at Byerly's food store.  For $5.60 per hour (just a little above minimum wage at the time), I took the bus after school and bagged groceries to help pay for driver's ed classes (my mom held the policy that if I wanted to drive, I'd have to pay for every bit of the process).  During orientation we were taught to ask the question "paper or plastic?"  This may not sound weird to those of you who have heard this many times over, but they actually told us there was psychology behind it!  Apparently, when given a choice, people are compelled to pick the second option if indecisive.  So, at 3 cents per plastic bag and 5 cents per paper bag, Byerly's was training us to save them money with this simple trick.  I know there is debate on which option is worse for the environment, but I personally feel more comfortable picking paper if I do not have reusable bags with me.  I use it to hold my recyclable items at home, and therefore recycle the bag in the process. I know plastic bags are also recyclable, but the paper just feels more organic...  Anyway, I recently bought several Envirosax off of a deal website (check out: http://babyhalfoff.com/index.php/Envirosax-Reusable-Shopping-Bags-?___store=default if you wish to purchase some at a great price), and was surprised when they arrived and were the size of my fist.  They have very cute designs and are barely heavier than a standard plastic bag.  At first I was put off by this, thinking it was sort of a rip off, but now I see the beauty of being able to stuff three or four into my purse to use when needed.  I assure you, I'm not reimbursed for promoting any items at all on here, and my main goal is to buy less, but sometimes things are worth buying if they ultimately help you live more sustainably and will save you money in the future!

Energy Saving Computers

Recently our two year old computer started to make a buzzing noise...the fan in the graphics card was going out.  As time progressed, we would have occassional computer crashes and this past week we realized we needed a completley new one.  The thought occurred to me to look into ways to make it more energy efficient.  I was surprised to find out that your graphics card actually consumes as much energy to run as almost all the other components in you computer combined!  So, making sure you have one that is not a power hog is very important.  I found out that GeForce cards should be completely avoided because in almost all comparisons, they are almost double the power consumption of a Radeon card.  A handy tool that I found is: http://www.hwcompare.com - you can plug in two cards to see not only power consumption, but other specs such as price, memory, and performance.  We ended up settling on a card that was powerful enough for our needs (my husband has a side job using HD video so it needed to be somewhat powerful), but wasn't demanding too much.  It is interesting that once you get in the mind frame of conservation, all sorts of doors open for you to change your habits as well as putting your purchasing power to good use.

God Takes Care of Us!

I'm so humbled and blessed...about a year ago my husband and I answered the call on our lives to go to Regent University, not having a clue how we'd pay for it.  With only one income, a toddler, and a baby on the way it did not make sense in the natural that we could go, but we were obedient and started going.  As I previously blogged, I've done a complete overhaul in our budget, trying to cut expenses to a bare minimum, live sustainably as much as possible, and give more.  Well, we just got our financial aid statement for next year and all I have to say is to GOD be the glory!  We are looking at going into this next year and adding absolutely NOTHING to our debt load!  What a blessing, as we were figuring it would be at least $10K worth of loans each year!  This is so exciting, I know God has great things in store for us!  This is just further proof that if we are faithful with what we have been given, God will be faithful!

Luke 6:38 (NIV): "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV): "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Financial Stewardship

As I had talked about upon beginning this blog, one of the biggest things I wanted to change about myself was my financial stewardship.  Well, I'm happy to report that I just got my credit card bills for this past month, and we have spent less than we have in at least 5 years!  Not only that, but we were able to live within our means even though my husband missed a couple of days of work (unpaid) due to sickness that had recently run through our house and without the extra we would not have made it to budget (as his pay was significantly less than budgeted this month).  The Lord blessed us with some unexpected extra income (my husband does wedding videography sporadically and was able to book a job this month).  Yet another testimony of God's faithfulness!  If we are faithful - He is!  God has never failed to provide for our needs.

I remember very clearly a few months after Luke and I got married we were extremely poor and didn't know how we would make ends meet.  I worked part time for Lifetouch for $8 per hour and Luke was unemployed.  We had rent to pay and my paycheck, in its entirety was just enough to cover it.  So, we were forced to make the decision - should we pay rent, or should we tithe and trust God for the remainder?  We ended up tithing, and God came through in a very unexpected way.  We got a letter with a check a few days later from the government, saying we had made an error on our taxes and they owed us money.  That's right, the government said they owed us money!  You know it's God when that happens!  The amount they gave us was in excess of the shortfall to pay rent, so we even had enough left over for other things like food that was also needed.

One last comment is on an article I came across today: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/24/thousands-christians-displaced-ethiopia-muslim-extremists-torch-churches-homes-2057387870/  Please pray for those who are suffering for their faith!  I can only imagine how hard it would be to lose both your house and your church while fleeing for your lives!  Pray also for the Muslim extremists who are blinded by their faith and are committing such atrocities.  If you feel lead, you can donate to: http://www.persecution.org/ethiopiacrisis/2011/03/22/one-thousand-given-food-for-a-week-so-far/ as just $5 will feed or clothe one of the displaced Christians.

Do You Have Affluenza?

My husband is also enrolled in school and came across an interesting documentary in one of his classes.  It's on so called "affluenza."  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E60sWCR4eLQ  Basically, it shows how we are so caught up in trying to keep up with the Jones' that we are actually less happy than we would be if we were just satisfied with what we did have.  It also says some pretty startling statistics such as we spend an entire year of our lives watching advertisements.  Now if that doesn't make you flip off the TV, I don't know what will!  I personally chose to go without a television upon the birth of my son, two years ago.  Upon that confession I am usually either looked at as though I am an alien from outerspace or am congratulated about how "good" that makes me.  The primary reason I originally decided not to have a television is that when I was younger, I have horrible memories of my daycare providers watching television all day long (typically soap operas) and forcing me to sit in front of a bowl of cereal I refused to eat until either I finished or she was done with her "soaps."  To this day I hate both soap operas and cereal!  The moral of the story for me was that I knew what a time waster television could be and did not want to fall into a rut of neglecting my children while at home with them because I was glued to the television.  As a result, I have a two year old who LOVES to read and is extremely smart and has a great imagination.  If he is over at a friends house (or grandma's) and the TV is on, he has about a five minute attention span before he's off looking for books or toys.  If nothing else speaks volumes, I think that does.  I highly recommend of economically disposing of your biggest time waster!  Not to mention there literally is almost NOTHING good on anymore.  TV shows used to have morals, now they portray adulterous relationships and broken families.  We laugh at them because we can relate...which makes me wonder if we relate because of how much influence these little machines have in our lives!  Also, to answer the question that I get the most - am I completely out of touch with the world without a TV?  Absolutely not!  I still have access to the internet, and although it is also a time waster, I have much more control of what I view and when I view it.  Plus, people are always talking...if something important happens (say a tsunami or even something way less dramatic like a large upcoming snowfall) people talk about it.  It takes two minutes to click on foxnews.com or other news source to get up to date.  I do not miss the television, and it's one thing I think if you break the addiction to you will be unlikely to ever go back.  I feel I don't have time right now to begin with, how much less would I have if I had "a show" that I was fixed on watching every night?