Here's the mail, it never fails...

Girl 1 looked out the window today, saw the outgoing mail sticking out of the box, and ran to the door with excitement. "Mom! Mom! Mail's here!" I had no idea she was so enthusiastic about mail. Her little face fell when I told her that the mail carrier hadn't arrived yet, and we needed to leave that mail in the mailbox.

Inspiration time!

I think I may have mentioned my hoarding...I have an ever-growing stash of boxes, canisters, bottles, and yes plastic bags, in my basement. I try to use them for all my bulk buying, and now that we're committing to less processed food it should be less of an issue, but still, I have a pile of empty junk lurking. Right now it all fits in a cabinet, but I need to be more proactive about reusing it all.

One of the things that was down there, oddly, was an empty fridge pack for Pepsi Max. Not sure why it didn't get recycled, maybe the craft-gods knew we'd need it. Another awesome coincidence was that we had opened it at the wrong end, so it didn't have the can dispenser hole. Instead, we had just opened the flaps at the wrong end. Score! We were going to make a mailbox for Girl 1.

Unflappin'

First we cut the two big flaps and the bottom small flap off the (incorrectly) opened end.

Mail goes in

Then we finished punching in the handle-hole bit on the top of the box, this would be our mail slot.

Mail comes out

Then I had Girl 1 pick out colors of construction paper and I taped it on to the box. Not so pretty, but she was in control and liked picking the colors herself. We cut a piece of construction paper to fit the open end of the box and taped it to the remaining top flap. This would be how Girl 1 would reach in and retrieve the mail.

Behold the evil grin. 

    Girl 1 colored while I taped.

Drawin'

After the box was covered in paper (leaving the slot in the top uncovered) Girl 1 decorated it with markers. If we'd had stickers that would have been so cute. Maybe the next time we get junk mail from Disney Movie Club we'll add 'em...

Here's the mail, it never fails!

We put it on our "catch all" so Girl 2 can't reach it. So far her Daddy, Boy 2, and I have all written little love notes and put them in the box. Today when she was sleeping, her cousins stopped by and while they were here I had them put a note in the mailbox.

She LOVES getting mail. 

No Impact Week-Friday

Today's challenge is to minimize water usage.

Looking at what we have changed around here, conserving water is probably the thing we're best at. We have fallen down in a couple areas and need to get back to it, but overall we're doing well.

• As far as yesterday's question of hand washing dishes versus filling the dishwasher, the answer can be found here: TreeHugger
• We have fallen away from the six minute showers, so we need to get back to that. We just need to be more diligent about setting the timer. 
• We haven't been filling the shower bucket because we can't pour it on the lawn, or it will freeze. I read today that we should use it to flush the commode. Duh. So that's an easy fix.
• Boy 2 wowed us yesterday by demonstrating his technique for brushing his teeth. No one taught him this, he just figured it out. Not a new idea, but new to him, and our house:
• Fill a cup with some water.
• Wet your toothbrush in the cup of water.
• Apply toothpaste and brush.
• Swish to rinse with a small sip from the cup. Spit into the sink.
• Swish toothbrush in the cup to rinse.
• Pour water into the sink to rinse your spit.
• (The average faucet pours 2 gallons a minute. This is WAY better.)
• We never drink bottled water, and The Man and I use reusable water bottles throughout the day, saving on multiple cups. 
• I'm cutting down on my pop consumption, which uses more water than just drinking water. Weird.
• We still need low flush toilets and low flow faucets, but we will get there when budget allows.

So we have all the right ideas, we just need to be more diligent in following them. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

No Impact Week- Thursday

Today's Challenge: Unplug

This one sucks for me, because I'm struggling to figure out how many of my "I can't"s really should be, "I don't wanna"s.

I turned off both PCs in the office, but left the strip on because the modem & router are connected to it, and I need to be able to get online with my laptop for work, research, and blogging. Do I NEED to blog? Writing fills a very deep need in me. I work better, and I am more aware when I have written, or will write about what I'm doing. I could do this with pen and paper, but I have had little luck sticking to any sort of writing that isn't being immediately read. I need feedback in order to think. I've been told this is an extrovert's trait. Maybe so. I learn better through discussion than reading. I think more clearly when I am communicating and receiving a response. So I write online. I probably could switch, but I think my writing would dry up all together.

I'm using the washer and dryer today. We make so much laundry that trying to keep it washed in the bathtub...I just can't fathom that working. And I'm not sure that the tub can compete with the water efficiency of our washer. Maybe. I will go back to line drying in the summer, and I'm stewing on ways to line dry indoors, but we aren't there yet. I'd like to pare down our clothing, but the boys are so hard on their clothes, I don't know if it's possible.

I'm keeping the lights on only in the room I am in. I tried keeping them off, but our house gets very little sun, and it is so gloomy and dark. I struggle to see, and I can't have candles burning if Girl 1 is in the house. She's fascinated with fire.

Gorbachev Hasselhoff needs his sunlamp on all day, or he'll freeze. So that stays on.

Today I'm just cutting and pinning the fabric for some place mats I'm working on, but tomorrow I'll be using electricity to sew them, as well as all of my REpUrpoSE pieces. My hand stitching isn't tight enough, and I don't own a manual sewing machine.

I used the water heater (which runs on natural gas) to heat the girls' bath, and all the males used it to heat their showers. I accidentally made grits in the microwave (a delicious leftover from before my decision to cut processed foods) before remembering today's challenge. Could have cut that one.

There seem to be lots of "can't"s. Sadness.

I did a big load of dishes in the dishwasher today, but now that I'm mostly caught up, I am going to try and hand wash. Is this water efficient? I need more research. I'm also not sure time will allow me to hand wash regularly. This may need to be something akin to Meatless Mondays when I do it once a week.

HEY! How about one day a week with no electricity (except the furnace)? That might be something we could try...

I have unplugged everything not in use, to cut down on vampire power. I walked room to room and made sure anything plugged in was off, and the house is amazingly quiet. I didn't realize how much humming and thrumming was going on. The girls are napping and the boys are in school. The only sound right now is the rhythm of the dryer and the tapping of my laptop keys. It's really calming.

The kids are never allowed to play video games on school nights, and this week I cut t.v. too. Boy 3 struggled with that a bit, but yesterday they went to the playground and played until dark with their friends. They even took Girl 1, and she was thrilled.

Today I walked over to the school with the girls and had lunch with The Man and the younger two boys. Boy 3's teacher said he'd been so excited all morning that we were coming. He gave me so many hugs. We had a great time talking with the boys' friends and eating together. On the "No Impact" pdf there is a excerpt from Colin's blog:

Since we have no electricity as part of the No Impact experiment, we also have no TV. Last week, someone asked me how we entertain Isabella without one. Coincidentally, that day, my friend Mayer, whose community garden plot I help with, called to say that fireflies were in season at the garden and that I should take Isabella there at dusk. So we went . . . when about six fireflies circled around us, Isabella suddenly looked at me and said, ‘I’m so happy, Daddy.’ She never said that while we were watching television. 

I felt some of that today as we ate lunch together. It motivates me to look for more ways to have experiences with the kids, rather than just keeping busy with "things".

No Impact Week- Wednesday

Take your food list from yesterday and calculate your carbon “foodprint.”


Yesterday I had:

• coffee (not fair trade, but this is the last can that won't be)
• a Cameo apple (grown in Washington which, according to simplesteps.org, are possibly in season, although not local.)
• a piece of Cascade Pride bread (not local)
• a bowl of leftover "ketchup soup" (Other than the milk, none of the ingredients were local or in season)
• lots of tap water 
• a couple of Hershey's kisses (*sigh*, not local, obv.)
• a beef roast (from the gift of meat, don't know where it's from, I'll find out when the 'rents return to town.) with potatoes (which simplesteps says are never in season in Idaho...wth?) carrots (organic, in season, but not local), zucchini (again, not local or in season), organic chicken broth (not.local.)
• granola bar (bah.)

 A caveat: we tried  to get our produce local, but the year-round farmer's market that was supposed to be open Sunday, wasn't. It's open today, but that doesn't do us much good now, does it?

I planned three meatless meals this week, one of which turned carnivorous when we realized the ham in the fridge was about to expire so we slapped it on our grilled cheese. We had Winter Soup and homemade bread Monday, and we're having homemade mac and cheese with green beans tonight.

I am beyond frustrated. Due to the random potato thing, I don't trust simplesteps.org. I'm trying to feed us healthier, less processed foods, but I'm agitated because I don't know how to eat in season. I'm pissed, frankly, although at who or what, I don't know.

No Impact Week- Tuesday

We managed to make it through today using only cloth diapers...PooFest seems to have ended. w00t! I threw away the plastic thing that holds the bread bag closed today...I think that's it.

Today's challenge: Alternative modes of transportation.

This is a tough one for me. We don't drive much. Hardly at all, really. The kids walk to school. We live three big blocks (about a mile) from The Man's work. We go to the grocery store (less than 2 miles) once a week. And then on Tuesdays, Boy 3 has gymnastics (6 miles away). That's it. We fill up the van with gasoline around once a month.

For Christmas, I got a kick-ass Huffy cruiser. I plan on taking that to the grocery store, probably hauling food in the kid wagon thing that has been sitting forlornly in the garage since I gave my mountain bike to Boy 1. I don't know if I'm tough enough to ride it in the cold, but I'm going to try. Right now we're good on groceries, I don't need to go again until Sunday.

As I was preparing for today's challenge I knew it fell on gymnastics day. I can't bike 12 miles round-trip yet, not in this weather with Boy 3 and Girl 2 in tow. And a couple of the roads are really busy, we wouldn't be home by dark, and I'm just not ready for that yet. Are these cop-outs? Maybe. I don't think so though.

I decided we would take the bus. I checked out the Valley Ride website to figure out costs & routes. They have this amazing trip planner that allows you to key in your starting point and destination and then tells you the various ways you could ride the bus to get there. So awesome. The problem I ran up against is that there is no way to get him to gymnastics by 4:00, if we take the bus. If I picked him up at school, and we ran (with Girl 2 in tow, having woken Girl 1 from her nap just to meet the boys at school) we might be able to catch a bus that would get him there within 5 minutes of start time. Maybe. So we drove. If Boy 3 gets moved up to the next level of gymnastics, I will try to pick a time that allows us to take the bus.

Since we drove, I did a batch of errands in the area. There is a bank and a thrift shop right in the neighborhood. I deposited our checks & shopped (unvictoriously) for diaper covers. A bonus: today was fill a bag free day at the thrift shop. I got a stack of books for free. Score!

The second part of today's challenge was to take action. Today President Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act. Today I signed a petition encouraging Congress to find the funding to support the bill. Please consider signing it too.

No Impact Week- Monday

"Empty your special trash bag from yesterday. Separate the items into two piles: stuff that you used for more than ten minutes, and stuff you used for less than ten minutes. How does this make you feel?"

The disposable diapers we put on Girl 2 (because I am once again behind on the laundry) were the only things in the bag that were used for more than 10 minutes. And the damn thing was full of plastic bags. I loathe plastic bags, but for some reason I can't seem to remember to bring to the store my old produce bags or the awesome reusable produce bags my mom made. Nor can I remember to bring my reusable shopping bags from the trunk into the store half of the time. My feelings? Angry. Frustrated. Disgusted. 

"Consider all trash bins off-limits."


The thing I like about today's challenge is how it forces me to think about the waste a decision will create before using anything. If I know that I am not allowed to throw anything away, I'm going to make my choices much more carefully. It's like having a calorie allowance and suddenly having to really choose what to put in my mouth...or like considering how much I'm going to drink when we're about to embark on a barren bathroom-less stretch of road trip. People (myself included) need to live a lifestyle of thrift and thoughtfulness. I felt that strongly today.

However, even though I am sticking diligently to the life plan I created, and even though I'm working to intentionally avoid creating waste, as the delightful Ian Malcolm would say, "Life finds a way."

Image credit:  http://malcolmeffect.livejournal.com/

Girl 2 has a tummy bug. Or ate something that didn't agree with her. Or wants to kill Mother Earth. Whatevs. She has diarrhea and is a unhappy, super crappy, baby. Minimalism does not apply to diaper covers apparently, because the 3 covers we own are not enough to cover today's poo-splosion. So we're back (again!) to the stupid disposables. I need to search craigslist & the secondhand shops for more covers. When you have to purchase, purchase secondhand. It reduces on manufacturing waste. *sigh*

I'm lucky to work from home, and all online, so I don't generate much paper waste for my job. The Man does though, and his office doesn't recycle (Yet. I'm looking your way people...and I have plans...*devilish eyebrow wiggle*). He took a brown paper bag to work to put all his waste paper in to bring home for recycling. Apparently it wasn't very full by the end of the day, because it only contained the waste he would normally trash. He's the creator of the paper trail at the office, but it goes through several more employees before hitting the trash. So while he made a bunch of waste, it won't go to the trash for days/weeks.

Which brings me to the another frustration: timing.

As far as what I threw away today:

• 1 sticker off my breakfast apple
• a crapload (hyuck, hyuck!) of diapers and wipes
• the baggie the last of the deli ham came in 
• small baggie the baking powder was in (neither of these bags was in good enough shape to keep)
• two chip bags that the kids finished the remnants of today.
• the plastic rings from around several cans of Christmas Play-Doh 
• the tag that was holding a bunch of kale together

The frustrating part of the timing is, the chip bags and the Play-Doh were purchased a while ago, and I didn't do it. :) Wassnt me. 

The exercise is really enlightening though, because if I carry it into next week, I can preempt the waste by being more careful in my purchasing. And this week's purchases were significantly less packaging intense than normal. So it does work, even though today's waste was less than stellar.

No Impact Week- Sunday

Today I begin following the steps of the No Impact Experiment. The Man is on board with me, and the kids have been informed.

"Step 1: Type up a list of all the stuff you “need” to buy this week. Delete the items that you can live without for the week. For the rest of the items, figure out if you can purchase them second-hand, borrow them, or make them yourself."


There really aren't many things we need to buy this week. We are good on clothes, toys, household items. My parents gave us a case of pork and a case of beef for Christmas, and we still have chicken from our bulk buy in the fall. We made a grocery run today, mostly produce, some dry goods and canned goods, and lots of bread. I'm going to make my first loaf of bread in the bread machine this week, but we go through 4 or 5 loaves. Until I know I can make it successfully on my own, we do store bread.

The Man will probably need to gas up the company van at some point, which I think counts as he's the primary driver of the vehicle. I think I can get by on the half tank of gas in our personal van, especially with Tuesday's challenge. I'll have to buy a few song downloads for a spoof I'm participating in...does that count as "stuff"? Other than that...I really can't think of anything we need to buy. We've begun stockpiling with coupons again, but we've been trying to do it rationally, and not just hoarding things because we can get them for free. We will put the couponing on hold this week. I'm not so deeply re-entrenched in that lifestyle that it hurts me (much) to set it aside for a bit.


"Step 2: Put an empty re-usable bag in a private place at home. Throughout the day, fill it up with all of your trash, recyclables, and food waste. If you’re out of the house, carry your trash home with you. Make sure that nobody else’s trash  gets in there but your own. This will help you get ready for Monday’s challenge."


I've managed to lose the SD card reader, again. So I have a picture of the trash. I suppose you'll just have to visualize for now. We haven't had dinner yet and we've filled a brown grocery bag plus a box from a case of beer we put in the fridge. I'm not sure how much waste dinner will make. I'll update this evening if it's noteworthy.

We cleaned out the fridge today, and I didn't take a picture of that. A lot of wasted produce went into the compost...there was a lot of waste today that isn't in this picture. We have to find a way to use what we have while it's still good. I'm appalled at what we wasted.

I did buy flour, brown sugar, elbow macaroni, rice, cereal, and some spices in bulk today. All of those went into containers that I've had stashed in the cupboard (a coffee can, an old formula can, old spice jars...). My hoarding paid off a bit today. Still, you can only hoard so much before the house is overwhelmed.

"Step 3: Just for this week, try not to shop for new items. Will you find something better to do with your time and money? Could you use this time to spend with friends instead?"


We don't spend that much money anyway...we don't have a ton to spend. I don't go to the mall, and now that Christmas is over, I'm not going to be doing any online shopping. I don't think that I'm going to have significantly more time or money this week. The grocery bill was less today, but that's because of the awesome meat present. :)

The Man & I watched "The Story of Stuff" today (I'd seen it before) as a reminder of what we're trying to break free of. We also watched a little football & made light of the commercials. "I don't have a GMC. I suck. Let's go shopping." "You bought me an iPod, not an iPad. Must not love me enough. I suck. Let's go shopping." It's amazing how ridiculous commercials seem when you put them in that light.

I'm feeling pretty excited about all the healthy seasonal produce in my fridge & cabinets, and pretty depressed at how much waste we're still making. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's challenge.