Earth Month

Well, I didn't get to it on Earth Day, but I'm going to get to it now. It's Earth month, so I guess I'm still within the right time frame :).

Scripture tells us that, "The Earth is the Lord's, and everything in it." Psalm 139:7. We were created from dust, and to dust we shall return. God created Adam and Eve, and then had them live in a garden... with the earth, with His creation. That is what we are created for- to be part of the earth that He created. The earth is the Lord's, and we should take great care with everything that he has given to us. God speaks to us in so many ways, through Scripture, prayer, sermons, friends, but he also speaks to us through his creation. This spring, I have made it a point to spend as much time outdoors as possible. Now, anyone who knows me, knows that this is not necessarily an easy thing for me. I didn't grow up loving to be outside... I was a book worm. I was always inside doing school work or reading. I played some sports, but unless I was practicing or playing sports, I never went outside. I want my kids to be different. I want them to love the outdoors, and to love exploring and playing with everything that God has blessed us with. Which means... I need to teach them how to properly take care of it, and I need to practice it!
Since getting married and doing our own thing, raising kids and making/spending our own money, we've started doing things pretty differently than our families. I think our families would consider us "crazy-greeny". We don't think we are... we don't think that we've bought into a lot of the hype or gone the complete opposite direction as we were raised, but, we definitely are making some changes. Even making changes that, almost 7 years ago when we got married, we never thought we would make! Here are some things that we do around the house to be good stewards of God's gift... added bonus- they save us money too!
1. We cloth diaper/cloth wipe- saves on trash in the landfills, and it saves our kiddo's skin from the chemicals in the dipes. (Now, we do use disposable dipes at times, but for the most part we use cloth- and we prefer it.)
2. We use rags to clean the house and to clean our kiddos when they're a mess- this saves us money bc we rarely have to buy paper towels, and it also saves us on trash day.
3. We have stopped using clorox wipes (those of you who have known me a long time will understand the deep bond that I have with clorox wipes... I do believe there is a video somewhere of me professing my love for clorox wipes during my college days) or other kinds of harsh cleaners. Instead, we either use vinegar/lemon juice/baking soda/etc, or more enironmentally friendly cleaners such as Seventh Generation.
4. We can/freeze as much as possible, reducing the amount of store bought items, which in turn reduces the amount of trash we have. Canning is nice, because you can reuse the cans for years, whereas, if you buy veggies from the store, you cannot reuse their packaging. Plus, it's fun to use your own creation, things that you made and put your time into.
5. We make our own laundry detergent-- we just started this one, and it's going really well! I'll put the recipe up in another post.
6. We bought a "Shark" to eliminate the need for chemicals/mopping pads/dirty mop water filled with cleaning solution. With the shark we can clean the floors with steam... I really like my shark! (Pea calls it a, "S- Hark".)
Those are just a couple things that we are doing to be good steward of the earth... this post is getting really long, so I'll stop and start again on another day!