A wierd birthday wish list

So, I cant buy anything, and I've been contemplating all this eco crap, err, good stuff, so I want some eco-friendly goods for my bday! And a few other things, of course.

• New Tennies - turns out my current pair I bought when we first moved here. Think 3yrs is a good time to keep a pair of shoes? They have holes in the toes now, and they have always been too short. sigh, story of my life!
• Good Broom - am I a dork or what? I sweep so often that I need a GOOD broom for our kitchen, I am tired of dog hair even after I sweep!
• Drain Plug for my kitchen sink - one that wont leak! - I'm afraid that it means one manufactured by the co that makes my sink. I have received about three cheep brands and they all leak! I want the official one...
• Bento Gear - what is Bento, you ask? Oh, I am in deep like with this Japanese style of lunch packing. Basically it is a lunch in a box, but it involves compartmentalization of foods and small pieces, often presented in fun and artistic ways - and healthy foods! I have some containers that I use, but silicon cupcake liners would be awesome, and little mayo containers ... or two laptop lunch setups, and maybe a bento box .... yea, it is an obsession!
• Laundry Line - for indoor or outdoor. Bill is not keen on an outdoor line, but heck, it saved us about $35 a month in electricity when we lived in CA and only lined dried our clothes, so I am all for looking trailer trashy. Although, I don't think it looks trashy, so there!
• SIGG Bottles - one for Lauren, one for Annika, and one for Bill and me too!
• and two of these tops would be nice too.
• Reusable Produce Bags - trying to reduce my plastic usage! I have a few reusable canvas bags and Trader Joe's bags, but I guess a few more canvas bags would be nice too.

I had some links to Bento gear, but they do not seem to work. The stuff is really hard to find - it seems you pretty much have to order it from people who have some kind of contact in Japan. sigh - it is sooooo cool, and the few little things I'd love to have just are not available in an Americian equivilant.

OK, off to bed now, it is late.

Eee-Gad! I want to try this, but ....

So my new friend, Crunchy Chicken, has a new challenge for May. (Click here for her full details if you're interested.) Basically you can choose to try one or all of these challenges for a week - or the whole month. I don't want to whine too much, but Oh My Gosh!

1. No plastic - Don't buy or consume anything (purchases, food, etc.) that is encased in plastic. I don't care if it's recyclable. If you want to go all the way, this will include your shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, etc.
So if I tried this I'd be a stinking person - not using anything encased in plastic ... hello my toothpaste and shampoo, heck my toothbrush is plastic! I could most likely do everything else ... like basically not purchasing anything encased in plastic. Well, I've been meaning to put those canvass bags into my car for shopping purposes! I might do the first half of this one. Might.

2. No paper products - This encompasses the obvious: no newspapers, paper towels, toilet paper, pads or tampons, paper plates, paper or coffee cups.
No paper is really possible, but am I up for no toilet paper, I mean using rags for EVERYTHING? hmmmm, I'll have to think about that (and purchase something to use too - that would be either another failure in the Buy Nothing challenge, or hold off on May's challenge.)

3. No driving - This one is pretty straightforward. Check out your public transit and bus routes, get yourself a monthly bus pass, get your bike tuned up or dust off those walking/running shoes. No driving does not work in my neck of the woods - no public transit here! nadda, zilchola, nothing, not one option. No sidewalks even to walk or ride a bike on, and there is no way I'm taking a 4yr old to school by walking on a busy highway! (We could stay home all week and skip school ... hmmmmmm, tempting!)

4. Local food only - Depending on where you live, this may be fairly easy or quite difficult. For those of you with plenty of farmers markets to choose from and tons of different foods coming into season, it won't be too hard. Local bakery items (unless Sara Lee is local to you), local organic or sustainable dairy products, eggs, meats and wineries and breweries are all acceptable. Don't be afraid to forage for those dandelions!
As for local food, well it is the WRONG time of year for that; we be living off of meet only! Or, find someone that canned some veggies and buy them. Again, another option, if I know anyone that cans! And as for foraging for dandelions, uh, maybe in late May, but heck, we had snow two days ago here! It is barely spring in MI. Seattle may be warm, crunchy, but not here!

5. No garbage output - You should only be producing waste that is compostable and it should go into your compost pile or your municipal food waste pickup.
Can I say that while we do have garbage that is collected each week, we are WAY below the quantity our neighbors are producing. I'll have to start reviewing our garbage habits and see what I can change or eliminate purchasing in the first place. I am not too "aware" of my packaging purchasing. This one might be more possible than I thought. (Or, I can just become a hoarder and not throw out anything!he he)

6. No excessive water usage - Now, I'm not expecting you to dehydrate yourselves. What this one is about is conserving water. That means, very little water for showering, bathing, washing. Try to use the least amount of gallons of water you can. Pretend like there is a severe water shortage. Drink as much as you need to, just imagine you have to retrieve all your water in buckets from a stream 1 mile away.
No excessive water usage, I might be able to sort of comply with that. After all, I did live in CA for 14 years! I take fairly short showers, which I could try to take baths in the girls tub to help conserve water, I already only use the dishwasher ... we have low flow toilets and faucets ... If I had a washing machine that had a suds-saver option like my mother used to have I could totally save water.

7. No electricity - For some of you this may be easier if you rely on gas for heating and cooking. But for the most case, this will give you an idea what it will be like to not rely on power for a period of time. If you only want to try this one out for a day or a week, that's fine. It will be like a self-imposed power outage.
The last option of No Electricity ... yea, never! Well, when I'm camping I do this, but I need to cook for two hungry young folk, and I have a freezer and fridge full of food, and....

Anyway, lots of rationalizations, but apparently it just comes down to the fact that I am not willing to walk the walk here. I'll might try it in moderation, cause I feel week and pitiful with all these excuses. ...might.
sigh....

National Hanging Out Day

April 19th is National Hanging Out Day. Can you believe it, a whole day dedicated to hanging out your laundry to dry! I love it!

Bill and I have engaged in a friendly argument since 2002 (when we bought our first house together) about line drying laundry. Before we had the house I hung laundry to dry in our garage. Then Mulligan came along and he tore all clothing down from the laundry line ... which kinda defeats the purpose, ya know. So for about a 1.5 years I used the dryer exclusively. Then we moved and I rebelled. I bought a drying rack and used that, but it quickly broke and created nice little creases that drove us nuts. So finally we agreed to hang up a discrete laundry line. He hated it, but I loved it. AND we ended up saving about $35 a month on electricity. (I was washing and drying cloth diapers then, so LOTS of laundry!) It is hard to argue with that much savings!

Of course, that was in CA, where the sun is always shining. Not so much in MI. For some reason I have not fought for the laundry line here. I was a little concerned that the Home Owners Association would have issues about it, but hey, I'm on the board so I can nix any complaints! I think this day might be just motivation I need to set up a laundry line here in MI. It might be inside, due to rain, but something portable is a possibility too. I will begin my research and thought process!!

In the meantime - hang out your laundry!

• Electric dryers use five to ten percent of residential electricity in the United States
• There are 88 million dryers in America, and if everyone converted to lines 1/2 the year it could reduce residential output of CO2 by 3.3%.
• Clothes last longer when air dried
• Indoor racks can humidify your home in dry winter weather
• Clothes dryer fires account for about 15,600 structure fires, 15 deaths, and 400 injuries annually

(Facts came from Crunchy Chicken, I cannot vouch for 100% accuracy. But they sound good!)

Failure #3 & 4, and Kinda 5

Sigh, I confess I bought new stuff again!

So the first round, blunder #2, was a birthday gift for Kelsey. But it was a small Only Hearts Club Animal that cost about $4. Kelsey was not having a party, but we wanted to give her a token gift because we are trying to nuture this relationship.

Then the mother said she was going to throw together a small party. So off we went back to the store and purchased some craft items for Kelsey. So, yet another purchase of non-necessary items.

Diapers for my almost 5yr old and 6 1/2yr old. Do you think they will ever have a dry night? Annika might actually wake up dry, but I'll never know because you would think that I am asking her to remove her own arms and legs when I ask her to take off her diaper each morning. Good Gracious! And I have seriously considered having her sleep in undies, but she still ends up in our bed 3 or 4 nights a week. Usually around 5am, but I do not want pee on my new matress!!!

And for the big failure, #5
Bill, however, made the king-daddy purchase today. (He did not sign up for this challenge, and I try not to get around this challenge by having him make purchases. So I count his purchases as mine too. Unless I totally dissagree with them. Which so far I have not.) So today Bill bought a new car, a 2008 Honda Accord. His was 11yrs old and had almost 200,000 miles on it. And lately wierd little things kept going wrong - like windows would go down on their own, passenger door would not open from the outside. So yea, it was time. But we have been looking and negotiating since November. Naturally he waits until April to buy a new car!

Ahhhhh! Lovely Spring Weather

Oh what a glorious weekend it has been! The weather was sunny and warm all weekend, and we were outside all weekend enjoying it all. Sat we went to the Detlings to work on the Community Garden project. It was great to get my hands in some dirt on a larger scale. Although, most of what was done was tear down old stuff and get ready for expansion. But it is the idea that I had fun with. I am so excieted about this project and having a larger garden to pick from. I think the girls will really enjoy the experience too.

Today we just worked on our yard, trimming and cleaning out fall leaves and such. We have three crocus flowers up already - see photo here. The girls must have ridden 20 miles in our driveway today. And now, I am sunburnt and Bill is sore. And at only 8:15 both girls were sound asleep. Good fresh air and LOTS of outside excersice makes them tired.

It was a great weekend!

Failure #1 & 2 in my No Purchase Challenge

I must confess, I lasted just short of 24 hours without purchasing something new! Pretty sad, huh? Well, I really did try to not purchase something, but it got complicated.

Lauren is invited to a birthday party on Sat. I thought long and hard about what we could do that did not involve purchasing something new, but really did not come up with any good ideas, especially for a 7yr old. Don't get me wrong, Lauren is actually pretty good with creating and making hand made items. But we only had two days to make something, and really, what could she do in those two days? We had no new toys lying around to regift, and I am not so sure that a used item would have gone over too well. So off to Target we went to choose a birthday gift. (This brought up yet another issue I have, ok two issues. But maybe I'll delve into birthday parties and crappy toys another time.)

Also, I had talked to her about purchasing a small gift for Kelsey, her best friend. I really like Kelsey, as does Lauren, and want to help nuture that relationship. (Unfortunatly we are not doing too well in that department just due to busy schedules and my wierd anti-social tendancies in comparsion to the rest of suburbia. But that is also another post.) So, there we were in the toy isle at Target purchasing yet another toy. Well, two toys, one trip; it still adds up to two failures in my month long challenge.

And it is only April 2nd. 28 more days to go before I can purchase something else!

Crunchy Chicken's April Challenge - No Purchases!!!

OK, so I have decided to sign up for the April challenge at Chrunchy Chickens's blog. This site (which I have recently found and love - it is SO up my alley!!) has varrious environmental challenges that you can choose to participate in. This is my first official foray into her challenges, mostly because I recently stumbled upon her blog or I'd be in most of her challenges. I am excieted and terrified both - I want to be good, but sometimes you just need to buy something.

So what exactly is this challenge? For the entire month of April she challenges you to purchase NOTHING -- well she does say food and items necessary for food preperations (and gardening food) are allowed, but anything else must be "begged, borrowed, or bought used." I might even go beyond bought used, and try to do nothing bought.

I'll keep ya posted on my progress.