Earth Day... from a Non-Conservative Conservative...

Today is Earth Day... and I normally don't care... I mean, I am the person who uses things because we have them, sees plastic bags as a convienence, and doesn't care too much that the only things that end up in my recycling bin are the boxes that don't fit in the regular trash.

But this year is kind of different, not really sure why though. Maybe it's the fact that I am a mom this year, and I am worried about what the world will be like when Ryan gets bigger... or maybe it's because we are living on one salary now... who knows... but in any event, we are making some big changes around our home.

For starters, Ryan is now officially a cloth-diapered baby! Before you freak out and say "Lady, you are crazy," let me explain... these aren't your average burp cloth type cloth diapers... no sir- these are state of the art cloth diapers... we chose Fuzzibunz... go ahead.. giggle. :o)

These things are pretty awesome... no diaper pins, no funky covers to try to wiggle him into. It is shaped like a disposable, but you wash them in the washer... and no dunking in the toilet, Grandma! Couldn't be easier... well... unless you were trashing them... but at least I won't be running to Walmart in the middle of the night for more 'sposies...

I have a few other goals for this year to be more "earth friendly...

- I am giving homemade/handmade gifts in 2008... this is as close as I can get to start getting people to realizing that commercial processes and items are lacking in creativity and full of waste... I am not sure this is really that "earth friendly" (maybe 'reduce'?)... but at least it's fun!

-I am not buying any gift wrap in 2008! Not one roll of wrapping paper... I have to use what I have (reuse) or find someway creative to wrap things (recycle).

-1 day of laundry a week... right now we do laundry every day... so our loads are mispurposed... with a goal of 1 day of laundry, we can get rid of all the extra crap clothes that we are washing just to have a full load so we can wash some socks for work tomorrow.

-Organic... never thought I'd do this (well.. never thought I'd do cloth diapers either) but I am doing my best to buy organic produce (especially for Ryan- I make his babyfood)... less pesticides.

What are you doing for the earth in 2008?