history in the making

the day is finally here :: election day! we headed out as a family this morning to our polling place (conveniently located across the street) and participated in this historic election. while rupert voted the kids used the practice inkadot machine to mark their own ballots. when we got home maya proudly put her ballot on the fridge and ian penciled in "obama" on his "i voted" sticker and went to school with it on his shirt.

great commencement speech

MG at momentarybliss posted j.k. rowling's commencement speech at harvard this year. i've posted before that i don't remember a single thing about the commencement speech from my own graduation 10 years ago(!), but had it been this speech i probably would've remembered it.

greening up my clean-up

i'm in a slightly panicked mode at the moment. my aunt (my mom's older sister) is visiting from japan and i cannot have her over to visit until the house is spotless. my aunt is a traditional japanese housewife, which means my standards are waaaaaaaaaaaaay short of acceptable. even my own mother, who shakes her head in despair when she comes over to my house, was worried that my aunt would give her a hard time about the state of her house.

seriously, i was almost tempted to hire a maid service to get the house in order before my aunt's arrival. almost. but i was even too lazy to do that.

instead, this was the perfect opportunity to get started on a green, deep clean. i ordered green up your cleanup by jill schoff and went scampering around town gathering up the materials needed to make my new cleaning agents. this is a fantastic book and i highly recommend it, even if you haven't been thinking about greening up your cleaning routine; it'll make you rethink what you're doing to your house and your body, and then give you easy alternatives. i also had my aunt bring me a japanese book about cleaning with vinegar and baking soda. i'm really hoping that with these two books i can get rid of all the toxic chemicals that purport to clean my house, and rely on more natural methods.

i'll let you know how it goes ... i've only just begun to clean the bathroom ::

baking soda scrub :: i used this to clean the hard-water spots on the glass tub doors
2 tablespoons baking soda
liquid castile soap (i used dr. bronner's peppermint liquid soap i bought at tj's)

i put the baking soda in an old plastic reusable container, added a couple squirts of the soap, and mixed it until it became a foamy paste. i scrubbed it on the glass with a brush and left it for about 15 minutes, at which point the doors got a squirt of vinegar water before a rinse with the shower.

love this stuff. it smells good and it actually works. the hard-water spots on our glass doors are really bad but i managed to get most of it off. to do a comparison test i left the bottom half of the door untouched and there was quite a difference.

everyday is earth day

i realize the official earth day was last week but i still wanted to write about my efforts and thoughts on becoming more eco-conscious. "going green" is constantly on my mind. i'm all over the place with my emotions, though :: enthusiasm for what i can do to help the planet, guilt about over-consumption, discouragement for not doing enough, and wonder at how much there is to learn. it is overwhelming, but i'm determined not to let that stop me from doing what i can to minimize any negative effects my existence on this earth can have.

just so i start off on a positive note, here are some things we do in our household ::

• recycle ... almost obsessively.
• wash our clothes with cold water (except for the towels and sheets, which get washed in hot water).
• compost + grasscycle.
• change our light bulbs to CFLs.
• turn down the thermostat.
• keep lights off as long as possible and turn them off when they're not necessary.
• when the wallet allows it i try to buy organic + local produce.
• donating unused/unwanted items to friends and charity.
• gradually going paperless for bills + statements (i have to admit i'm a little bit paranoid about not having a paper trail of my finances).
• carry around reusable shopping bags (i also reuse produce bags numerous times).
• drive a prius ... actually, rupert drives the prius.
• hang clothes out to dry when it's warm (but i only have one clothes drying rack and ian's basketball hoop so there's a limit to how much i can put out at one time).
• during the summer we grow a few vegetables and herbs ... and now rupert can use some of my very own compost to keep the plants healthy.
• instead of giving gifts we've been donating to the recipients' (or our) favorite causes.
• check out books from the library instead of buying them.

like most people, i recycle because it's simple and it makes me feel good. but something i read on treehugger made me realize i'm going about this all wrong :: reduce, reuse, recycle is listed in order of importance, which means i'm focusing on (and sitting on my high horse about) the least important part of household conservation.

there's more i should be doing instead of relying on recycling to be the easiest and best thing i can do at home. in fact, i should be striving to reduce the amount of regular garbage and recycling that leaves my house. that means i need to create less waste in general, and to achieve that i should be consuming less of everything.

so, here are things i plan to do to reduce my intake of resources and to reuse items i already have ::

• after i get through my stash of sponges, start using the kids' old washclothes to wash the dishes that don't go in the dishwasher.
• figure out how to use baking soda + vinegar for my cleaning needs.
• sew up some cloth napkins and stop using paper napkins.
• reduce the number of paper towels i use by switching to rags for clean-ups (i already use dishcloths for drying), and only purchasing paper towels made from recycled paper.
• stop buying so many individually wrapped/packed snacks + drinks.
• replace plastic reusable containers with glass ones.
• be much more careful about my water usage.
• switch from liquid body soap to bar soap (to cut down on plastic containers).
• walk more to our local stores.
• finally buy a water bottle for rupert (like mine) so he'll stop asking me to buy bottled water. do you know how guilty i felt buying a case of water at costco on earth day of all days?!
• get a clothesline put up in the backyard.
• sign up for renewable energy sources.
• reduce the packaging on the tagE*blankEs i sell.
• learn more about recycling properly.
• visit second-hand and vintage shops instead of buying brand new all the time.
• no more magazine subscriptions.

most importantly, i have to stop buying so much stuff [i.e., junk]. i really have very little need for more things but i keep buying. it's awful and wasteful and just plain bad. the clutter around our house is causing me stress, too. i look around and i'm fed up with living amidst so many unnecessary objects. i tried to follow the rule "one object in, one object out" but that hasn't worked at all.

in order to make a drastic change in lifestyle and consumption mentality, i'm participating in the buy nothing challenge from crunchy chicken's blog, albeit a month late. it's going to be a real challenge, especially since we'll be traveling to milwaukee mid-month to attend rupert's brother's medical school graduation (that means not buying souvenirs and figuring out an alternative to purchasing a graduation gift). going cold turkey is what i need, though, in order to see the absolute waste of money, time, space, and mental energy caused by unnecessary shopping.

one area in particular has been haunting me :: my scrapbooking hobby. i've been in love with paper since i was a little girl and i don't foresee that changing in my lifetime. my stash of beautiful decorative papers is probably making my house a fire hazard, and yet, i have no intention of getting rid of any of it. i could easily switch to digital scrapbooking, but i'm resisting that change because i like the tactile nature of paper scrapbook layouts. if i'm not going to give up scrapbooking then i need to stop buying so much paper and use it instead of admiring it in it's 12"x12" glory. so, you heard read it here first folks -- no more buying scrapbooking supplies!

and, looking to the future, some things i wish i could do ::

• reuse grey water.
• get my own hybrid car.
• install solar panels on the roof.
• buy energy star appliances when our current appliances go kaput.
• plant a proper, year-round garden ... and have rupert take care of it (i have a brown thumb).

hmm ... too many of those things require me to buy something. i should probably think of a different kind of future.

i would love to hear what you do in your homes + lives to be more eco-conscious. are there green books/websites/documentaries that you recommend? did anything i wrote above sound ludicrous or wrong? this is one issue i would love to get some feedback on.

why i {heart} trader joe's

one of many reasons ...

they were giving away their red reusable grocery bags today. it somehow made me happy to see customer after customer leaving the store with shiny, new red bags.

bah, humbug!

i am soooooo not in the holiday spirit this year. it's just not coming to me, that happy, twinkly, excitedness. and i feel like it's getting harder and harder to be festive this time of year. it's so stressful, ya know? when did it stop being fun?? oh yeah ... when i had to start buying the presents.

this year rupert and i decided to donate to one of my favorite charities instead of buying gifts. this went over surprisingly well, but i'm not sure it's something i will do every year because, quite frankly, i think it cost more than buying gifts (i'm a bargain shopper, after all). however, in the true spirit of giving and reducing waste and clutter, donating to a worthy cause is really the way to go.

unfortunately, my mother did not seem to agree with this and asked that my sisters and i chip in to buy something in particular for my dad. her reasoning? they already donated a lot this year. huh? is there a limit to donating? i wasn't aware of that.

eventually, i'd like the kids to choose a cause to call their own and work towards raising awareness and/or money. i've been very bad about public service lately, and i'm aiming to make it a part of our lives in 2008. a couple of years ago ian chose habitat as his charity (this was after katrina) and earlier this year we donated to nothing but nets. it's all fine and dandy to donate money but that's the easy part. being an active participant in a cause is so much harder and takes dedication, something we currently lack as a family. there's so much more we can do ... and should do.

one of my rie friends, K, has a charity event at her house every year. this year they'll be collecting toys for spark of love, inspired by her son's love of fire engines. her kids are both under the age of 2, but it's so wonderful that she somehow includes them, even at this young age. we will definitely be attending; it'll be a great opportunity for ian to get involved because i'm sure it's something he can empathize with (what kid wouldn't be devastated if he lost all of his toys in a fire?). plus, K secretly encouraged us to donate all of those noisy christmas presents we don't want! hee!

hmmm, it appears i have digressed from my original post about the holidays. what was it that i wanted to say? now i can't remember ... i guess my point was supposed to be that the holidays are getting too materialistic. i'm no christian and i don't believe in jesus, but christmas sure has strayed from its original significance. even hanukkah, which is what our family celebrates, isn't supposed to be about the presents; i believe that's a relatively new tradition. in all honesty, as much as i like getting stuff, i'm over the presents and having to spend time and money on purchasing gifts. i would much rather spend time with my family sans gift-giving and count my blessings. (what? that's what thanksgiving is for? oh come on, work with me people!)

in conclusion :: the holidays are fun while you're a kid, but not so much once you're an adult.

the end.

here's what we'll be doing tonight

we'll be sitting in the dark for one hour tonight, from 8 to 9pm, to support lights out la.

rupert often rolls his eyes (not to my face, though) when i hear about eco-friendly ideas for us to do. he's not completely happy with my composting (it attracts fruit flies), he sighs when i yell at him to recycle every last scrap of paper that passes through his hands, and he worries about our bank account when i pledge to buy more organic and local foods.

but i think it's important to do what we can and to teach the kids how easily we can adopt eco-living. we can't, and we won't, go completely green; however, it's crucial that we take action in the areas we're willing to make changes.

from what i can tell rupert has that "what can one family do?" mindset. and that is clearly the very first thing we can change. by making an effort to change the future, i am attempting to make the world not so bleak for the kids. and if i instill that mindset and way of living into ian and maya, hopefully they will do their part to make my grandkids' world a better place. i am hoping that rupert understands why i want us to be proactive on this front. when we change our lives, we change the lives of others. when we show others how easy it is to make changes, and they adopt those changes, even one family can make a difference.

anyway, back to lights out la :: it's only one hour on one night. it really isn't a huge sacrifice (although rupert did ask if the tv counted as "light"!). if we throw away that "what can one family do?" mentality and just do it we're well on our way to helping our community.

so, flip that switch at 8pm ... go for a night walk, light some candles for a romantic evening, turn in early, tell ghost stories. do something different for 60 minutes. it may very well be the first hour of the rest of your eco-friendly lifetime.

blog action day :: think globally, eat locally

okay, so i had this long-ish post for blog action day. the theme this year is the environment, not surprisingly. but i was really unhappy with where the post was going and the writing was just not coming to me. so here's a quick recap of what i was trying to say ::

agribusiness farming methods = bad
transporting food from all over = bad
organic food = good
local + organic foods = better

how does that relate to the environment? read about local foods here and here. [i got the idea for this post from reading animal, vegetable, miracle by barbara kingsolver. thanks to my bil's girlfriend for recommending i read it.]

p.s. i enjoyed where ali edwards took her blog action day post :: can scrapbooking be green? being a paper whore i'm starting to feel extremely guilty about the amount of paper and packaging that goes into my hobby.

[10.17.07 update :: you have to check out the statistics from blog action day. over 23,000 posts were written specifically for the day. amazing.]

i *am* making a difference

heard a story on npr's day to day about making little changes to help the environment. and it was actually something i'd been doing for years :: changing the margins on word processing documents to save paper.

changethemargins.com is a campaign to get people and companies to change the margins on documents; you can sign the petition to encourage microsoft to change the default margin from 1.25 inches to 0.75 inches. (i usually print half-inch margins, and am even known to go down to 0.12 inches on draft copies that are just for me.) a research team at penn state did a study showing the incredible savings in money, paper, and energy when this small change was instituted.

so, even if you don't sign the petition or get involved in this movement, at the very least, go to your ms word default settings and change the margins. you can save a tree. you might even save the planet.