Little by Little

Good grief it has been over a month. Yes, those are cobwebs you see hanging over there and a good inch of dust needs to be blown away.

Aaaaanyway, because it is still technically January, I feel that it is still safe to discuss resolutions and keeping promises. I never make lofty proclamations on New Year's Eve for the new year and 2009 hasn't been any different. However, I do like to take stock of any improvements that I could be making. Often it is a process that rolls along throughout the year and little by little I get better at doing/changing/improving whatever it is that I had my sights on.

One good example would be, what do I do to be a good human to Mother Earth? Two summers ago when we moved into our house, I decided that 1 mile was way too close to my job to NOT walk or ride my bike to work everyday. So, in the warmer seasons Ava and I walk to her pre-school and I continue on to work by bike. As a result, we only ever used one car and that is all we own now. The other, less efficient car was sold and we haven't really missed having it. One car can be kind of a pain once in awhile, but we always find a way and I feel less selfish and wasteful for it.

Another thing I have done, was to buy those trendy reusable grocery bags. In one year it has been amazing to see just how many plastic bags have been cut out of our life. I would never switch back to paper or plastic, and not just for the obvious earth-friendly reason either. It is purely selfish; you can fit more crap into one bag, the handles never break, they are easier to grab, and they pack perfectly into the back of your car. And did I mention less annoying plastic bags cramming your junk drawer, pantry or garbage? For $1 per bag it was the best eight dollars ever spent.

Doing just these two things have made us a more planet-friendly household and I know that there is so much more we could be doing. A couple of months ago, we purchased a programmable thermostat and the impact of not needing to remember to turn it down every day and night has made it a no-brainer energy and money saver. It is small steps like these that Rick and I make here and there that have slowly added up to making a bigger change. Here's to even more small but significant changes for the better in 2009. Next up: finding reusable sandwich containers for lunches instead of foil or baggies.