earth day, everyday

Still so dang busy today. I have a feeling the busy weeks of work are going to last until mid-May at least. I'm tired just thinking about it... but, I'm on lunch, so I figured it was a good time to write.

So... here's what's been on my mind lately. Going green. Being green. Really living green.

It's hard, and its hard to figure out, and I'm not sure I can really do it 100%. But I'd love to do it as much as I can. I really am an old hippie at heart. Love nature, love mother nature, leave the earth and all its creatures better then you found them.
This has always been something on my heart. My parents did their best... we composted, we recycled, we conserved water. Lately it has been on my mind so much more though, because well honestly, baby! Doesn't it all come back to the baby yearn. Doesn't it all come back to the fact that you want to bring your children up a certain way, and leave them with more then what you had? Obviously, lately it has for me.
But saying all this is so much easier then doing. And I would love some help.

So, how are you guys green?

I can tell you how I'm already green:
We freecycle, I ride the train to work everyday, I walk whenever I can, we turn off lights when we leave the room, computers at the end of the day, and have our heater programed to turn way down at night and during work hours. We also only last year got one AC unit for out bedroom window, which we only turn on during completely unbearable nights. My car gets great milage (thank g*d... I just paid freaking $3.53/gallon the other day to fill my tank), and whenever possible we drive instead of fly. We take showers instead of baths, and follow the if its yellow let it mellow mantra. We have been replacing our bulbs with compact fluorescents, and have gas appliances.

I'm going to talk to Trav about composting, although we a thin yard right on top of our neighbors, so it would need to be nicely done. I also want to get back into recycling... we stopped because of problems with them not taking our stuff. Anything else come to you?

My dream is to win the lottery and to be able to build a "green" house of our own (solar panels, all energy star appliances, etc.).

My big dilemna is that its hard to find the happy medium between what is affordable, what is green, and what I will still enjoy. Food for example... I would love to eat all organic, locally grown/raised food stuffs, but frankly that becomes very expensive very quickly. Trav does stop at the produce stand on his way home sometimes, but then there is the third qualifier... I don't love a lot of veggies. I guess it is always a trade-off.

But this is really important to me, so I'm going to keep thinking on this... and hopefully I'll be able to keep taking positive sets.