Happy Earth Day

So today is Earth Day. Did you know that? I always thought earth day was kind of silly until a friend in graduate school challenged me. Do you recycle? She asked. Recycle? Where? How? I had no idea where the local recycling center was. I asked myself why she cared so much and began to think that maybe, just maybe somebody who loves Jesus should care too. Maybe I should care MORE but probably for different reasons. That was the beginning of my path toward becoming more earth friendly. 

Friends, I like to think of it this way: If someone gives you a REALLY awesome present, shouldn't you take good care of it? Shouldn't you teach your kids to take care of it too? Then I learned that perhaps my passion for social justice was tied to this issue of caring for our planet. Did you know that the poor are the first people to suffer when there are consequences for our irresponsibility in caring for the earth? It's true. 

So I started to learn more and care more. 

Today I was thinking about the changes we've made in our family to be more earth-friendly. Here are a few: 

Recycling--we let Isaiah help with the sorting. He thinks it's great fun. 

Reusable Shopping Bags--this is SO easy. All you have to do is take your bags to the store. Yes, we can recycle those plastic bags, but we would use fewer resources if we re-used instead. 

Cloth Napkins--we have made an effort to stop purchasing one-time use items like paper napkins, paper plates, etc. It's that re-using thing again. 

Buy organic or buy local--Organic foods are more nutritious (studies show, I promise) and fewer resources are used to grow them. Local foods don't require lots of fuel to transport them from California. It's also just fun to walk to the Farmer's Market on a Saturday morning. 

Earth-Friendly Diapering--okay so I am not using cloth diapers right now. We can barely keep up with our regular laundry, but we are planning to use them again when I am done with my comps. We use Seventh Generation or G Diapers, and we get them for a great deal with amazon.com subscribe and save. 50 Million diapers enter landfills every day. That's a lot. 

Finally, we planted a garden last week. We are going to try growing our own tomatoes. They're organic, AND they're local. Hopefully they will be tasty. These are just a few of the changes we've made. 

So here's my question: Can you try to make one small change each month? That is what we're trying to do. Hopefully small changes become habits and maybe they'll stick around. I do want to take good care of this gift we've been given. For 40 suggestions, (it's okay to try just one each month, I promise!) see this article.