A new challenge for the New Year!



From Hip Mountain Mama: We challenge each of you to make 1 change each month leading up to Earth Day (April 22, 2010). It can be small or it can be huge, but all we ask is that you decide on something you will do to make a positive green impact and follow through with it. If you want to be a part of this amazing and life changing challenge, please see Hip Mountain Mama for details.

All right, so there are the general details for this New Year's challenge. Now for my details...

When we were living on the boat it was quite easy to be green. In fact it is rather hard NOT to be environmentally aware. When every drop of water you and your family will use has to be brought to the boat by hose or jug you sure don't let the water run down the sink while brushing your teeth or washing dishes.

However, we've been on land for 9 months now. I still feel that our footprint is much smaller than say, the neighbors who run the a/c with the windows open, but there is always room for improvement, right? Something that has been bothering me lately is the plastic grocery bags. On the boat we reused them as garbage bags but in the house now a different system has taken hold resulting in excess plastic bags. So for a little while now I've been trying to use these gorgeous reuseable bags.



Unfortunately, though they do get carried into the commissary they usually get tossed into the buggy and are not found again till I've sacked all the groceries that are sitting on top of them into plastic at the self checkout. Irritating? Oh yes. So for my first small change I am going to commit to using these bags as they are meant to be used - for groceries.

So if you see me shopping I give you permission to hold my feet to the fire, go ahead and ask if I remembered to bring these bags. Then remind me to sack the groceries into them! Remember, it's step two that I'm failing at!