An Eco-Diet

I am so happy to read the beginnings of Girls for Glaciers. Karen has posted a warm bloggy welcome to them and I just had to mention them as well.

I have also been semi obsessed lately with living in a more thoughtful way in regards to our environment. It started off with me never wanting to clean my bathroom that is attached to the master bathroom because Man Puppy was always napping/sleeping in our room and it always seemed too like the fumes were too strong.

That got me thinking....why would I want to protect him from fumes and not the rest of us? I am endlessly convicted that at a base level, the stuff I want to protect my vulnerable babies from is the stuff that we could all do without.

I gingerly started the process of cleaning with vinegar, baking soda, and essential oils. As I was deconstructing my initial distaste for that vinegar smell....I wondered why I am so accepting of that 'clean' bleach smell? It has been a paradigm shift for me. But truly, that strong vinegar smell dissipates quickly even if you don't use essential oils. I have to say, my bathrooms and kitchen sparkle with my crunchy cleaning products. Vinegar is as effective as bleach and a whole lot better for everyone. It turns out vinegar and baking soda even works on the pee spots on your carpet from potty learning pre-schoolers.

I also transitioned to using reusable shopping bags and totes at the grocery store. I am trying to now wrap my mind around using them everywhere. It is really silly that I think bags=grocery store. What about Target? What about other stores? I don't need disposable bags. We are getting there, slowly but surely.

I was very excited to purchase a share at a local organic CSA. Sadly, I submitted my payment too late and they had already sold all of the shares for the season. There are many local farm stands I can visit, and there is always next year.

This article about plastic in our ocean's made me want to wordlessly rock in a corner for a few days. My friend Karen gave me a heads up about Ikea's glass storage in various sizes. Not only do they look pretty and stack nicely and securely, they are glass with a plastic seal and glass lid. Less plastic in contact with food seems like it could only be a good thing.

I still need to work on my addiction to zip lock baggies. A message board friend mailed me some wax paper bags, and I have started to use more wax paper in general. I think the wax paper bags could work wonderfully for packing up dry snacks in the diaper bag. I am not as concerned about pretzels in a zip lock plastic bag when it comes to health, but again, I am trying to leave my dependence on disposable plastic bags behind. If it has a minuscule or possible health benefit, that would be icing I suppose!

Karen also passed along a recipe for laundry soap. I am sure it is less toxic to the environment and it seems to be cheaper. It feels like a lofty goal this morning, but I think I will give it a try! I have stopped using my beloved dryer sheets when I discovered that they are one of the most toxic things in our homes.

There are a lot of other things I want to work on. Anyone know of a solution for automatic diswashwers? I came across something that says the soap residue on our dishes is a carcinogen.

Baby steps....baby steps.

Please, offer up your best simple ideas in the comments, or better yet at Girls for Glaciers.