Week 5:7: Waste

Hey peeps. Tomorrow is my birthday and I'm spending time with my family, so the blog is up a day early. Apparently I'm way behind, or way ahead.

This week we'll be discussing the "green" chapter. I've got to be honest, this chapter had little to no effect on me. We are not really a green family and I don't feel any inkling to change any of our habits. I know that several of my friends are pretty green (I'm talking to you Vikki and Shannon), so I'm really interested in getting your thoughts on this chapter. Jen listed 7 habits for a greener life:

• Gardening
• Composting
• Conserving Energy and Water
• Recycling
• Driving only one car
• Shopping thrift and second hand
• Buying only local.

Which of these do you do already? Do you feel like you should change your habits to start any of them? Just for fun, here are my thoughts on the 7 habits.

Gardening - We don't eat much produce in our house. The $15 worth of fruits and veggies that I get at the farmer's market each week sometimes rots before it is eaten. It seems that a garden would be a waste, as I would be the only person eating what was grown. Also, I am terrible at keeping plants alive. Have you seen my tomatoes this year? Shameful. I loved the idea of having someone come over and farm on my land. My yard is huge and I would gladly offer it up. However, this idea got a huge thumbs down from the hubs. He told me in no uncertain terms that he is not comfortable with strangers on our property. Ever. I'm pretty sure he would build a moat if he could. 

Composting - We have a skunk problem already, so I am not about to through rotting food in the yard so the skunks, raccoons, and opossums can fight over it at 11pm. (Although it is fun to watch, it smells terrible and then we have to shut the windows and turn on the a/c. I'd rather just use my window fan.)

Conserving Energy and Water - I'm pretty sure we already do this. We don't turn on the lights unless we have to, we have no central air, and we keep it warm in the summer (the a/c doesn't come on unless it reaches 85 or above in the living room) and cooler in the winter (67ish). This has little to do with the earth and much to do with the fact that we are cheap. The lower our electric and gas bill, the happier we are.

Recycling - I put pizza boxes, diaper boxes, milk jugs and juice containers in the bin. I'm not sure that we have many more things that are recyclable. We're pretty much a filtered tap water and coffee drinking house so we don't have soda cans.

Driving only one car - Not unless I move to the city. Lou has to go to work, and I have to grocery shop and get the kids to school. This just seems completely unrealistic to me.

Shopping thrift and second hand - Most of the kids clothing and some other major purchases (i.e. my Kindle, our newest tv, all of our cars) were purchased used from consignment sites or Craigslist. Again, this has nothing to do with the earth and everything to do with cost effectiveness.

Buying only local - I don't mind buying local, but I haven't ever gone out of my way to do so. If buying local means spending a lot more money on something, it's probably not going to happen.

Here's another thought that keeps me from caring a ton about the state of the earth - Isn't God going to just destroy it anyway? It talks about Him creating a new heaven and a new earth, so should we really be spending a lot of time, effort, and money making sure that we're green? Wouldn't all of that energy/expense/excitement be put to better use by feeding the hungry, loving our neighbor, and seeking a deeper relationship with Him? Don't get me wrong, I am against outright waste but it seems that the time and effort that Jen put into this month's experiment was misplaced. 

What do you think? I know that some of you (maybe all of you) may disagree with me, which is fine! Please let me know if I'm totally missing the point here. :-)

Week 4:7:Media

Seriously, has another week gone by already?!? What the what? Again, I am going to admit to being the worst blog read-along moderator ever. I've been preparing for the blood drive this week and dealing with an unexpected personal issue, so this entry is going to be quick. I'll try to be better next week - I promise! I was going to promise, but I'm working on letting my "yes" be yes and my "no" be no. So, no promises.

What I've gleaned from both this chapter and from this week's "issue" is that I need to be more present. I need to look at my children when they talk to me and I need to interact more and be in the moment. For me, that means keeping the time on the laptop to a minimum and not being engrossed in things that are less precious that my children. (I'm talking to you, facebook.) I feel that, for me, this needs to be a step beyond media. Yes, I do need to make sure that I am untethered from my smart phone, but I am also prone to sit and read (not the Internet; an actual book) while I could be interacting with my husband and my children. If I "unplugged" and went on a computer/phone/TV media fast, I would probably just replace the time I spent doing those things with reading books. The media itself is not the problem, but my selfishness is. That's the main thing I've taken away from this chapter. Here are your questions for the week:

1. What is your reaction to this chapter? Do you feel that God is telling you to cool it with some of the media in your house? If you took away the media, what would you hope to replace it with?

2. (Stolen from Marla)  Jen says she doesn’t want her kids to be more comfortable interacting with a computer screen than a human being. If you have kids, is this a concern for you? What kinds of boundaries have you put in place to keep it from happening? (if you don’t have kids, you can answer it for yourself.)

Just a side note - I am way more comfortable interacting with a computer screen as opposed to a human being. Not necessarily face to face, but definitely on the phone. I would way, way rather send a text or an e-mail then have a phone conversation. I am not a phone talker. Also, I am easily distracted, so if you are talking to me on the phone and I have just said "yeah, uh- huh, mmm-hmmm" for awhile, chances are I have no idea what you're saying. Sorry. Please send me a  e-mail or talk to me face to face. This does NOT apply if you are a friend that I haven't spoken to in awhile that lives in a far away place - let's just say Charlotte or Uruguay. PLEASE call me and I will gladly put the kids in front of the TV (oh the irony!) and catch up with you!

3. Any other thoughts? Any questions you want to ask and get some reactions to?

The floor is yours. :-)