Thoughtful Thursday (a little late)

I really meant to post this early yesterday, but it has now turned into the next day due to the fact that when I left for a meeting at 10am, I had to go straight to work for 9 or so hours... and then of course I felt that I deserved the glass of wine that was offered to me after work and suddenly it was today. But if I had gotten a chance to use my computer again yesterday, this would have been post #2 for the day.

That said, let's begin, shall we?

Besides buying new flip flops, I have been crazy busy this week. My family is in back to school mode, which includes 3 kids in 2 different schools, dance 2 times a week, drumming once a week and soccer 3 times a week for 2 different kids. I also start school this Saturday myself at Alkion. Oh and I was just elected to be on my town's Energy Committee, and I am considering being a class rep for my oldest son's class (shh, don't tell anyone about this one yet). And somewhere in the mix is my full time job.
This is just the beginning, but it's certainly enough to get the point. I am getting into the swing of organizing meals and making sure there is enough food both in the house and packed for school (and after school) that works for our attempt for a zero waste life style... as well as easy and filling for these quickly growing kids.

Here is one easy fix:

Our local bagel shop has gotten used to me and now most of the staff are confident waiting on me (instead of confused). I ask them to fill my glass pyrex container full of cream cheese and my cloth (or chico) bag full of bagels. The cloth bag that you see in this picture is one of my favorites because it's a good size and seals with velcro. Sorry you can't buy one of these because my super crafty sister in law made it for me... but you can find a similar product made by mothering mother. The bagel treat itself is really for my older kids, since my youngest is gluten free and I don't think the local shop has an alternative for that one... but they can make this one themselves whenever they need a snack - and food for kids to access easily in a zero waste home is really important.

I also continue to make butter once a week. I keep back stock in the freezer since butter freezes so well. Up until now, I have been just putting the butter right into my reused glass jars... but I found some natural wax paper in my kitchen that I wanted to use up so for my last batch of butter, I decided to make sticks and freeze them wrapped in the wax paper:

I like this solution because I can just take one out and put it on my nice glass butter dish - I got the dish for free when my friend bought a church and offered me some of the oversupply of stuff that was in the basement kitchen. A butter dish was just one of those weird luxuries that I could never justify paying for, so I was oddly excited to find a nice glass butter dish among those treasures. And now have butter in the right form to use it!



Anyhow, I owe you a couple of links for the week. Due to my newly found crazy busy life, there's not too much at the moment, but here are some of the things that caught my eye this week:

In the spirit of thinking back to school and attempting to work with my kids' school to become more environmentally friendly (to be fair, they do pretty well already, we just want to do ever better), this article caught my eye as something I might pass on to others. Some of it is obvious, but I think it's good to know that there are definitely people out there doing this!

Check out how one art student took trash found in rivers and turned them into sculptures here.

I was super excited to find this newpaper brick maker - and I am totally buying one. I love the idea of turning our paper recycling into fuel for our fireplace.

And lastly, also found at Lehman's, I am thinking of getting this salad sac. There is this customer who comes through my line at work once a week and buys a ton of fresh produce and he never puts even one thing in a bag. I really like when people do this, and this guys stands out to me because of it. One day I asked him what he does with the produce when he gets home... because I sometimes find that some things still need to be put in plastic bags when I get them home (I use recycled ones that I have piled up, but I'd rather not). He said that while he is shopping, his wife gets these special bags ready for when he returns with the produce. He didn't know what they were but went home to ask her and returned the next week telling me that they were these salad sacs. Apparently, if they are kept slightly damp, then the produce actually stays fresh longer... with no plastic bag needed. I am going to buy one and test it - anyone out there ever used this product? Maybe it can be made easily... I will keep you posted.


That's all I've got for now - I'm off to enjoy this fall like day off with my youngest.

Eco Friendly Flip Flops

2 posts today, post #1.

The time has come for some new flip flops in this house. I know it's practically fall here, but my partner has this habit of wearing his flip flops for as long as he possibly can... which sometime means wearing socks with them, which drives me nuts and he knows it and doesn't care. But it's all good. Except for when he wears through his flip flops so bad that it's time to buy new ones.

They aren't even safe to walk in, but he still wears them so I caved and started the research. I did check many thrift and second hand stores, but to no avail. He has a special size that is not easy to find... so off to the internet to search for some more of those eco-friendly products that are hidden from most of the world.

Here are just a few some of my most favorite finds:

These flip flops made by IndoSole are made from banana leaves and the soles are made from re-purposed motorbike tires. They are sweatshop free, made from recycle materials and 100% vegan. They also make a grass mat version. Unfortunately, these puppies are a little out of our price range.



These flip flops are made by Simple and are actually the ones that I ended up purchasing. I found them on sale from a decent business, and then I found the women style on sale as well and bought myself some... since my own flip flops aren't going to be around much longer either. These flops are made from recycled soda bottles, are vegan and the sole is biodegradable. They also comes in a biodegradable bag, so I don't have to stress about the packaging as much.

Just for fun, check out these flip flops made from old chopsticks, dental floss and cork board. I'm pretty sure they are not for sale, but it's pretty cool to see what you can make out of items you might have lying around your house if you need to... you know, if you are the type that collects used chopsticks and dental floss, but you get the picture.



And then the question is, what do we do with our old used flip flops that can't be donated or recycled? Well, I came across these suggestions from Green Life that I thought would be worth re-posting:

- Make a doormat from your old flip-flops.
- Decorate an ottoman with your old flip-flops.
- Use your old flip-flops to make a helicopter toy for a kid.
- Make a toy boat out of your old flip-flops.
- Create a storage container out of your old flip-flops.
- Use shredded thongs from your old flip-flops as packing materials for your next move or to ship a package.
- Shred your old flip flips and use the shredding as stuffing in cushions.
- Make fun jewelry like bracelets with old flip-flops.
- Use your old flip-flops as fishing floats.
- Cut your old flip-flops to size to be used as filling for gaps in doorways.
- Give your pets your old flips flops for them to play with.
- Cut pieces of your old flip flops to fit under large appliances or heavy furniture that sit on tile or wood flooring to prevent scratching.
- Glue a couple layers of your old flip-flops together to use as doorstops.

Ok, there might be better ideas out there, but to open our minds enough to think like this is what I'm getting at.

Here is one more way to upcycle your old flip flops, as suggested by feelgoodz, who also offer some eco-friendly flip flops. While I like their idea in general, I battle with amount of fuel used in all of the shipping involved with the plan. But that's because I over think everything, so please consider it an option for your own used flip flops.

Does anyone else have any good ideas for old flip flops?

Thoughtful Thursday Links

Here are some links to some of the things I've been reading or thinking about this week:

This article from the Inspired Economist talks about whether or not fast food restaurants should offer customers a no bag option.

Consider taking this $5 challenge, where you are invited to take back the 'value meal' by getting together with family, friends and neighbors for a slow food meal that costs no more than $5 per person.

Look here, isn't it nice that target and gap have agreed to consider eliminating the toxic metal cadmium in jewelry and other accessories they sell? How nice of them.

Here is a cool little blurb talking about how some college campuses are banning bottled water. Did you know:

• It takes 17 million barrels of oil per year to make all the plastic water bottles used in the U.S. alone. That’s enough oil to fuel 1.3 million cars for a year.
• In 2007, Americans consumed over 50 billion single serve bottles of water; between 30 and 40 million single serve bottles went into landfills each year.
• The United State FDA describes bottled water in this way: “Bottled water is water that is intended for human consumption and that is sealed in bottles or other containers with no added ingredients except that it may optionally contain safe and suitable antimicrobial agents. Fluoride may be optionally added within the limitations established.”

There is also more greening happening on school campuses, read about it here.

Read about some ways to make your traveling greener too.

And there is this little PBS series that I've been checking out called e². It is a bit dry, but the soothing voice of Brad Pit and Morgan Freeman always helps. There is some interesting stuff in this series, consider checking it out (I am watching it on netflix streaming).

And the last thing that I want to leave you with is my solution to having too much fresh cream on my hands every week. See, I get cream once a week to make fresh butter... and while my family was blowing through it at first, it turns out that the equivalent of 2 peanut butter jars packed with butter is, in fact, too much for us to keep up with. Luckily, butter freezes well (and in glass too!), but I wanted to find something else to do with some of that fresh cream... so I'm trying my hands at making homemade ice cream without an ice cream maker. I took some advice from this blog, but I didn't load it with as much sugar as she suggested. I also added chocolate chips to it after it sat in the freezer for a few hours. Oh, and I didn't use lemon, but I did add vanilla... so I guess I didn't really follow her recipe at all actually. The end product isn't quite ice cream consistency, it's more like sweet cream... but it's really good and everyone in my family loves it. If anyone out there has some other tips for improvements, let me know!

Eco Friendly Earbuds

What a funny word, earbuds.
But it's not headphones that my daughter needs to replace, it's earbuds... the ones with rubber on the tip that go in your ear. Hers broke and it's time to replace them, and I decided that we were going to do it right.

A week or so ago, when we were out and about looking for eco-friendly school supplies locally, I got this weird drive to go into staples... just to see what recycled products they could offer us. The door opened and we walked into the most plastic smelling store ever. I know that sounds crazy, but even my kids noticed how smelly it was in there. I mean, it was so bad that I was thinking that it's got to be a work hazard to have to smell plastic off gassing like that all day. The weird thing was that no one else seemed to notice.

Anyway, staples totally failed to offer us anything that we needed made from recycled product. They had a few notebooks but we didn't need a notebook. Funny, online it seems like they are kind of into offering recycled products... but I guess that's not really the case. However, my daughter did find one thing that she "needed" - a new pair of earbuds. They were packaged in tons of plastic (of course), which I pointed out, so she put them back and we quickly left the store.

I tried to forget that she needed new headphone and continued on in my life until yesterday, when she asked me if she could go back to staples and buy those earbuds. That's when I sat down and looked online for other eco-friendly options to satisfy her need. I found so many!

Stand4green earbuds were my first choice, mostly because they were the best price I could find. But there were lots of other options out there to check out.

Iwave  has a grassroots collection with some nice ones, but they don't have easy access to pricing.

Thinksound has some great looking stuff, but is really pricey.

These earbuds from the House of Marley are nice and price-wise seem reasonable enough for the quality.

Just for fun, these Aria headphones from Ashcroft Design show that things really can be recycled and turned into something awesome - these are made from wood recycled from acoustic guitars, the earcups are made from reclaimed aluminum, and the leather are reclaimed from bags, jackets and other articles of clothing from musicians.




Ok, I think I've proven my point that stuff like this is out there - and we can choose to make conscious decisions while still having our luxury items (or "necessities" for our teenagers). We just need to do a little legwork to feel good about what our hard earned cash supports.



And if you are wondering what we ended up with, check out these babies:

We found these on ebay for a mere $13. They are made from eco-friendly wood that is reclaimed from tress that have come down due to storms, urban development or insects and disease. Also, the packaging is made from 85% post consumer materials... which makes me feel SO much better than supporting that crazy plastic off gassing at staples.

On the radio... and my list of ways to make change

Last Thursday I got a phone call... someone wanted to invite me to be interviewed on a radio show about our lifestyle. I was flattered and nervous all at once - I had never been on the radio before! I quickly accepted, realizing that I couldn't let this opportunity pass to share my lifestyle with others. The show is called "From the Ground Up", and you can listen to my interview here:

In preparation for the show, I was asked to make a list of things that people can do to work towards change in their own lives/homes. I had this list ready and on hand to share, but to my (pleasant) surprise, the show went by SO FAST that I barely got to share half of what I intended to. The list never came up because we ran out of time almost immediately after we started. I decided to share the list here with you... I broke it down into 3 sections, easy, moderate and extreme. Keep in mind that these are just the things that came to my mind the night before the radio show, but there is so much room to add on to every level!

Easy steps:

- bring your own bags when you go shopping. If you have a hard time remembering to put your bags back in your car after using them, or if you forget them in the car when you go into the store, then you might want to try a bag like the ChicoBag or equivalent. Keep them in your main bag or purse, or even clip them to something. Seriously consider not using a bag when you don't really need one.

- buy local

- bring your own coffee cup

- use a reusable water bottle

- clothes: pass on clothes when done, accept clothes from others when they are done. Buy second hand when you can.

- turn off your lights, your appliances, your car. Unplug things not being used.

- eat your leftovers, don't let them go bad in the fridge

- compost

- use cloth napkins instead of disposable ones and cloth towels instead of paper towels

- refuse free things that you really don't need

- avoid buying anything unless you need it. If something is broken, consider fixing it before throwing it away and buying a new one.

- grow a garden

- ride a bike or walk instead of drive whenever you can

- pack your lunch and your kids lunches in reusable containers

- buy only natural products

Moderate level:

- bring back already used plastic bags for your produce and bulk items, no need to take new ones every time. Use cloth bags for individual items instead of just to put everything into. Bring back containers, jars, etc. to refill and reuse (just have them weighed first).

- just like the coffee cup, bring a jar or cup to put your fresh juices, smoothies or even your sodas into when you get any kind of drink to go

- take your own picnic gear to parties and potlucks that use disposable plates, utensils, napkins and cups

- bring your own containers to restaurants for leftovers

- when you need to buy a packaged item, choose glass or paper packages that can be recycled or reused, and avoid the plastic options

- use solar powered items

Extreme level:

- try to seriously minimize buying anything in packaging. Shop in the bulk department of the grocery store.

- Make it instead of buying it. If you don't know how to then learn.

- Only buy second hand items, but when you can't do that then research companies well and be sure that they have good practices to stand behind before you purchase. Try and buy these good quality products locally if you can. Vote with your dollar. If there is even one aspect of the purchase that you don't support then just don't buy it.

- invest in solar power for your home, but if that is not possible right now then invest in portable solar power to power small and medium sized appliances

- if you can't find it package free, consider eliminating it from your life. Do you really need it?

Most important step:

Don't feel guilty! If you are feeling guilty that you aren't doing something, then it's time to start doing it. If you feel guilty because you are doing something, then it's time to stop. If you don't want to change the way you are doing anything, then stop feeling guilty about it! Do what is best for you and your family.

Electric Car

I've had this song stuck in my head for days and realized that some of you out there maybe have never heard it... or maybe you haven't heard of They Might Be Giants in general, which would be a bummer since they make great music. Something for grown ups as well as kids... I used to listen to them in high school back when they put out their album "Flood". And then when my oldest was little, they put out their first kid friendly album, which to this day is really the only "kids"music that I can handle listening to more than once.
And in fact, they happen to be playing right in my town this Friday, September 9th right at the Mahaiwe... but sadly I just can't afford the tickets. I really wanted to take my kids to see them, I think they would just love it... maybe next time.
At least let me share the song that's been in my head for days (and nights) - funny enough, it happens to be relevant to my desire for simple change:

Roasted garlic

It's such a simple thing, garlic. It's so good and good for you.

But when I have too much, I sometimes stumble over what to do with it. Right now I know my family could use a healthy dose of garlic in our lives so I decided to roast it up... mmm, roasted garlic.

And then once it was roasted, I decided that adding some protein to it would be good... so I turned it into hummus. It's pretty simple and quick actually. You can find a recipe here, but really any recipe will do. The important part is that I added lots of roasted garlic to it.

On a side note, you can see in the picture that I still have a few cans of beans in my pantry to weed out. I'm using it up of course, because I certainly don't want to waste any food... however, if you are going to buy canned goods, I highly suggest buying only BPA free ones. The only company that I am aware of being truly BPA free is Eden. If I have to buy something in a can again, I will be sure to support them and anyone else who might jump on board by then.