Earth Day Wednesday

It's Earth Day today. Are you green?

Having little Gracie sure has sparked an interest in us to help save our planet. After all, this is the face of our future... (and isn't it a cute one?)
So today on Earth Day, I thought I'd share some things we do to Go Green!

*Recycle- I know a lot of people recycle but we do not put any cardboard/paper/cans/bottles/junk mail/ in our regular trash. We keep a big trash can in our garage and we fill it up every week. Our recycling trash can is usually full to the brim come trash day.

*Car pool- Kelly and I are fortunate to work at the same school. On days that I work we try and carpool. On Tuesdays he stays extra late (5:30) for extra tutoring and I just can't stay that long so we ride in separate cars!

*Light Bulbs- this was the easiest switch. I can't say the light is as bright as regular bulbs but you get used to it. And, you don't have to replace them as often.

*No More Water Bottles: This has been new for us this year. I stopped buying water bottles-period. This has saved us about $20 every month on our grocery bill too. We have a large assortment of plastic bottles. We fill up our bottles every morning from our fridge water (Kelly takes at least 5 with him) and we don't have have to buy the bottles anymore. It took some time to find bottles that don't sweat (yuck!) and ones that can fit in cup holders in your car but it's worth it!


*No Plastic Bags: This has been the easiest and best $5 ever spent! I bought 5 fabric bags at Walmart ($1 each) and that's what we use when we go grocery shopping. They really hold a lot and are so much better than the icky plastic bags that we see all over the ground. We do still get the plastic bags from time to time but we re-use those for Jack and dirty diapers. Here she is playing with one bag.
*Plant Flowers: It's not much but we do plant flowers every year. It makes our yard look nicer and helps the planet. Here's our pretty house with cutie pie in the middle. We just got back from a walk.
Finally: we pick up trash outside. Here is our resident trash picker upper. She loves finding trash (saying "guck") and throwing it into a trash can!
*Turn off the Lights- Kelly is better at this than me. I will leave the tv on walk out of a room but know I'm going to come back! Every night we unplug our computer and turn off all lights. We also unplug all big appliances (toaster, phone chargers) when not in use. It's amazing how much energy they suck out!

*Temp: we keep our temperature set at 76 degrees. Even in the summer time when it's 100+. We do keep our ceiling fans going and this helps. In the summer we usually close all blinds and shades. It's amazing how much cooler it makes our family room and bedroom with the shades drawn.

Just a few things we do. We're not perfect and I know there is so much more we could do but everything helps. If everyone did these easy things it would make the world a better place :) Go Green!