Earth Day

Today is Earth Day. In honor of Earth Day, and because I am really trying to post more, I thought I would list some of our "green" habits. I am by no means perfect in my quest to be green, but I try. I will confess I haven't been nearly as good lately as I was when Lily was first born, but I plan on really embracing my crunchiness again.

- Cloth diapers. Duh. This is the number one biggest thing we did that was planet friendly. I am excited to cloth diaper again. Lily wasn't in cloth diapers for the last couple months she was in diapers, mostly because she had outgrown them. I had one size diapers, but one size wasn't the best fit on my active toddler. I didn't buy any bigger ones because I was so sure she would be potty trained any minute. With this new one, I will just buy the bigger diapers if necessary!

- Also cloth wipes and cloth nursing pads.

- Reusable shopping bags. Check.

- Recycling.

- Hand-me-downs. I accept almost all hand-me-downs, be it toys or clothes. It saves on resources being used to produce new ones and it keeps the old ones out of the landfills. And it is pretty nice on our wallets as well.

- We garden. It isn't super extensive and honestly isn't always all that successful, but we eat a portion of our produce each summer out of our garden.

- I hang dry some of our clothes. Not everything - I don't have enough drying racks nor space to put them, but at least one load is saved from the dryer. When our appliances bit the dust a couple years ago, we were sure to upgrade to a more energy efficient washer and dryer.

- I do some cleaning with baking soda and vinegar. Again, not everything, but I try to avoid the heavily chemical laden stuff as much as possible.

- I don't wash my clothes until they are dirty or smelly. I have one pair of jeans. They don't go into the laundry until they need to. I wear the same jammies all week, as do Lily and Matt. It really cuts down on the laundry if we don't throw things into the hamper until they need to be washed.

- I made my own baby food for Lily and I breast fed. No formula packages, no little jars of baby food going into the recycling. I intend to do this again.

- We compost a bit, but not nearly as much as we should.

- We live in a small house. This isn't necessarily a choice, as the housing market is crap and we can't move even though we want to. That being said, even my small, energy inefficient house, uses a lot less energy.

- I keep the heat low and the air high. I like to snuggle under blankets and be cozy, so we keep the thermostat about 67 in the winter and pull out the blankets and slippers and sweaters.

- Ok, this one is a little gross, but "if it's yellow, let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down". We saves gallons and gallons of water by doing this. Obviously we flush every couple times as to not clog the loo with all that toilet paper.


That's all I can think of right now. I am sure there are more green things we do, and there are definitely areas we could be better. However, I like to think I am doing my part for the planet.

Some Recent Pictures

Some recent pictures, in no particular order. Just a note, I think the focus on my camera is a little off. I need to look into that!

Simple Woman Daybook

FOR TODAY…

Outside my window...it is raining and windy. And about 40. Brrr!

I am thankful for...the little life kicking in my belly!

From the kitchen...I am making chili, which is oddly appropriate for this mid April day.

I am wearing...yoga pants, a sweatshirt and my slippers.

I am creating...I am working on decluttering a bit, so I guess I am attempting to create some peace, space and order in my home.

I am going...nowhere. I'm in for the day.

I am reading...Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff, but I am having a hard time with it.

I am hoping...for better weather! Lily asks about every ten minutes if we can go outside to play.

I am hearing...The Cat in the Hat, which Lily is watching. Yep, it is a cartoon kinda day!

Around the house...not much going on. I should put away the laundry that has been on the drying rack for a few days.

A few plans for the rest of the week...Lily has her art class at the library tomorrow morning, then we clean my mom's house. Thursday she has swimming lessons, and that pretty much sums up the plans until Sunday. So thankful for a boring week after our crazy one last week.

From my picture journal...

My Chickie and I on Valentine's Day 2011

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I haven't been blogging much lately. Have you noticed? Half the time I forget I have this little blog. I don't think too many people read it anyway. But I really want to get better about keeping up to date on our lives. And it is therapeutic as well. Especially when I don't want to annoy my friends by calling to complain about how my three year old is acting like, well, a three year old. Or how I am exhausted. Or how we are broke. Or how my house is never clean. I can get it all out here. Not that I really have anything to complain about. Ever since having my pants shocked off on February 10 (the very surprise phone call telling me "Umm, your HCG level is 16000 - you are pregnant!!") I try to have an extra grateful heart and keep my complaining to a minimum. Except I seem to be hard-wired to complain about something. I am well into a complaint before I realize I am even doing it. In fact, I believe I may be complaining now.

Anywho, what have we been doing lately?

Lily is taking swimming lessons. We are going to Florida with my family in June and the itinerary is basically hanging out by the pool. I wanted Lily to at least be comfortable in the water so I signed her up for two sessions of swim lessons. We are almost done with the first session. She loves the water, but has a bit of a hard time following directions. And she won't put her head under water. But she is getting closer. I am happy that she loves the water and seems very comfortable. She is three. She is never going to be left alone, unattended in the pool. I don't care if she can actually swim at this point. And she is awesome at floating on her back and doing monkey-airplane-soldier, otherwise known as elementary backstroke. And dang if she isn't just the cutest little swimmer!

We have also been doing a little landscaping in our backyard. Okay, Matt has. I have been watching and playing with Lily. The front yard is next. After almost 6 years here, and since we are stuck here until the housing market rebounds (ha!) we decided it was high time. We also will be converting the playroom into the baby's room later this summer. All that really entails is putting up a wall, putting a door on the already framed doorway, and changing the light fixture. It will close up the house a bit, but such is life.

I have been feeling better the past few weeks. Hardly any gagging and wretching and no puking! But I have been exhausted, which should have passed by now. Except I wasn't all that tired in the beginning, probably because all I did was lay around trying not to barf. Now that I actually attempt to be a normal house wife and stay at home mommy, I find I have zero energy! I am pretty sure I have been feeling the baby moving. It is so exciting, but I am just hoping I am not making it up! I had a doctor's appointment last week and heard the heart beat (I heard it a month ago too!) and the doctor said it sounded great. My ultrasound is May 16 and I can't wait to find out if we will have another little girl or a little boy! My gut tells me boy because this pregnancy is so different than with Lily, but who knows. I have friends with two boys that tell me their pregnancies were totally different with each one, and my mom tells me her pregnancies were totally different with all three of us girls. Lily wants a baby sister and won't even humor the idea of a baby brother. At least we will have 20 or so weeks to prepare her if she is indeed having a brother! I don't quite need my maternity clothes yet, but we pulled them down from the attic this past weekend. I was pregnant exactly opposite seasons with Lily and I also was working full time, so I have a couple 3/4 length t-shirts and one pair of jeans that will work, otherwise everything is long sleeve and business casual. Looks like I need to do a little shopping.

Let's see, what else has been going on? We have been having typical Chicago spring weather, which means we had a couple days of 70 and 80 degree temperatures and now it is not even 40 and raining/snowing. Lily is so bummed because she wants to go out and play in her sandbox, but that is so not happening in this weather. I am sure in a couple weeks it will go straight to 80s and stay there until October. I feel like I am being gypped out of some good spring thunderstorms too.

Alright, I have a little girl who wants to play, so signing off for now!