Ripping off other publications (with credit, so its not plagerism, right?) July 10, 2008

I read this today on the Yes Magazine website.  I think it is worth reposting and spreading around.

Has the cash economy swallowed up your life? Here are some ways to extract some of your time and “life energy” from the cash economy.

Reduce debt. If you can’t pay cash, don’t buy it. Practice being mindful about what you buy and why.

Do it yourself. Grow food, pick berries, can and preserve food, make wine, bake bread. Make or repair clothes, furniture, and gifts. Create your own entertainment. Walk, bike, run, or play basketball instead of joining a fitness club.

Share & Exchange. Take care of neighbor kids and elders. Play music, sing, act in local theater, write poems, hold art shows. Exchange haircuts for applesauce, bike repair for massage, language tutoring for babysitting.

Reduce waste & pollution. Weatherize your home or apartment. Reduce your car usage, or get rid of a car.

Buy local. Run buy-local campaigns, print stickers, publish or post a directory of local businesses. Acknowledge business owners who foster the well-being of the environment, employees, and the whole community. Convert public funds from luring outside corporations to supporting local businesses.

Start a new local business. Start a food market, credit union, wifi network, or even an electricity co-op. Explore ownership options like cooperatives, nonprofits, for-profits, or single proprietorships.

Buy Fair Traded when you buy imports. Vote with your dollar for a better world for all.

Wish me luck! June 17, 2008

This morning I opened my soy milk and found a little bit of mold growing on the spout.  I know its gross, but food isn’t cheap.  I wiped the mold out of the spout, and now I’m going to pour it on my cereal anyhow.  It doesn’t smell like its gone bad.

This is why I get food poisoning all the time.

Breastfeeding May 28, 2008

I want to say upfront that I’m not writing this in order to pass judgement on those who chose not to breastfeed (and certainly not on those rare women who cannot breastfeed). I just want to talk about the greenest, healthiest, cheapest and easiest way to feed your baby, for those of you who are still working out what you want to do.

My mom claimed that she had no trouble breastfeeding her children, and had no need of a lactation consultant or any advice. For all of the real women out there, I urge you to discuss nursing with any women you know who have nursed, with your doctor/midwife, and when you have your baby, with a lactation consultant. Also, check out a La Leche League meeting, even if you are still pregnant. There is loads of information and support there.

For most women, especially most women in industrialized, first world countries, there is a learning curve to breastfeeding. Its hard to get the baby in the right position, you’re not sure how to get them to latch on properly, it can hurt (it hurts more for some women than it does for others, it didn’t hurt too bad with me, for example, but I have friends who described excrutiating pain). But everyone tells you to hang in there for three weeks before you decide to give up, and they’re totally right. Three weeks seems to be the magic number, everything seems to fall into place after that.

All of the sudden, it just becomes the easiest thing ever.  I’m always amazed to hear women say, “breastfeeding was just too hard”.  Whats hard about it?  If given the choice when my son starts crying for food, do I want to get up, walk into the kitchen, warm up water, measure out formula, mix the formula, make sure its not too hot, then feed him, or do I just want to pull my boob out and stick it in his mouth.  Hmmmm.  Choice number two seems a lot easier to me.  And when I’m going out with my baby somewhere, I’ve got enough things to cart around.  I don’t want to be bringing bottles and crap too.  Afterall, I have to carry around my boobs no matter what.

A lot of women are aprehensive about breastfeeding in public, and I can sympathize.  At first, I went into bathrooms or tried to hide under a blanket too.  But eventually, I figured out how to keep pretty well covered up just by selecting certain clothing and holding my son a certain way.  Do people know what I’m doing?  Probably.  But who cares?  They can’t see anything, and if they think there is something obscene about feeding a baby, they are a pervert who needs to seek mental help and not push their repressed or guilty negativity on me and my son.  Those perverts are the ones who need to hide themselves away from society, not us mothers who are simply feeding our babies the healthiest food available to them.

Ease of use is probably my favorite thing about breastfeeding, but there are lots of other benefits.  First and foremost, you would have to be blind, deaf and living under a rock to not know that breastmilk is the best food for your baby.  Just nutritionally speaking, there is nothing on this planet that is better for babies.  In fact, numerous studies have linked formula to adverse health conditions such as asthma.  Breastmilk, on the other hand, has been linked to nothing but improved health.  I’m sure you’ve been inudated with information about it.  If not, you can surely find information on it anywhere where you can find information about being pregnant or raising a child.  Its everywhere.  And with all the benefits of breastmilk I have read about, I wonder if maybe I shouldn’t be drinking it.  Seriously.  The stuff is uber good for you.  Especially if you are a baby.

Not to mention, breastfeeding helps you to lose the baby weight.  It takes a lot of energy to make milk, which is why you have to eat more calories to maintain your milk production.  If you have a lot of baby weight to lose (like I do, 50 down, thirty more to go) you could, say, only add 400 extra calories to your daily diet, instead of the recommended 500, and watch the weight drop off.  The only time you will eat more than usual and still lose weight is during nursing.  Or if you have some sort of terminal disease.  I think we’d all rather nurse.

Furthermore, has anyone looked at the price of formula lately?  Its outrageously expensive.  Especially when you consider that there is a free alternative hanging off your chest.  Did I mention that alternative is better for the baby than formula is? 

Breastfeeding is awesome!  I love it!  Its a nice way to bond with and cuddle with my son, its the easiest and cleanest way to feed him, and at night, when he wakes up to eat, all I have to do is scoot him over, latch him on, and fall back asleep.  Easy as pie, doesn’t take more than a minute.  Thanks to breastfeeding and cosleeping (I’ll write about that later), I’ve been getting pretty much a full nights sleep every night since my son was two months old.

If nothing else, breastfeeding is super green, because theres no food thats more local than the milk strait from the tap.

Of course, going back to work can be challenging to breastfeeding.  Employers don’t always make it easy for you to pump, it can be difficult carting all the stuff for a pump around, and there’s no garunteeing that you will be able to pump as much as your baby needs (I can’t.  A pump is not as efficient at removing the milk from your breasts as a baby is, so you don’t get as much out with the pump.  Also, your milk production works on a supply and demand basis, and your body may adjust to making less during the work day, as mine has done.  We supplement with formula while he is in daycare during the day).  I encourage you to work through it.  I work through it because I know if I stop nursing, I’m going to have to cut a lot of calories out of my diet to lose the rest of this baby weight (and I love to eat).  Also, I like the time I spend with my son while nursing.

Here in Colorado, Gov. Ritter recently passed a law saying that employers have to provide a place other than a bathroom stall for nursing mothers to pump.  Check the laws in your state, there may be something similar.  If nothing else, continue nursing in the evenings.  Nursing is a special time between you and your baby, and it provides not only nutritional benefits, but also emotional benefits.

Well, it took me all day to write this post today, because I’ve been very busy at work.  Now its time for me to go and pick up my son from day care, so I can “feed him the boobie” as we like to say around my home.  If you have anything to add about breastfeeding, post it in the comments!

Grow your own food May 23, 2008

I’ve written about victory gardens before, so I don’t feel like I need to write too much on my second goal for responsible eating again.  Plus, I’m trying to get a handle on the fact that No Impact Man linked to me in his blog today, and I’ve officially had more hits today than I had in the whole first three months I wrote this blog (for the record, its been almost 4 months I’ve been writing it now).  I mean, wow!  That’s a lot of hits for one day.  And I think it means No Impact Man reads my blog.  Eeeeee!  That’s a girlish squeal, for those of you who don’t know.  I usually only make those noises in emails with my friend Jeff, but I think today my blog needs one.

Okay, so lets go over the fine points of growing your own food, bullet point style (because I like bullet points).

• The price of food is going up because the price of fuel is going up, so its in our best financial interest to reduce the distance our food has to travel to get to us.  There’s nothing closer than your back yard/porch or local community plot.  The price of fuel is also going up because of ethanol (but I’ll blog about that later) and increased meat production doesn’t help (I blogged about that yesterday).
• In addition to hurting your wallet, food that’s traveled a long distance is bad for the environment, for obvious reasons.
• Conventionally grown food is also terrible for the environment, it pumps a ton of petrochemicals into our soil and water (and petrochemical use, because it uses up our dwindling oil supply, increases the cost of gas, which increases the cost of food, see my blog on Peak Oil).  What ends up in our soil and water eventually ends up in us.  Not to mention how those chemicals are directly on the food that we eat!  But organic is so expensive.  Its much cheaper to grow your own organic produce!
• Conventionally grown food is responsible in part for a lot of starvation in the world.  This is a really complicated issue, so for right now I’m only going to direct you to another resource where you can learn more.  Say No to GMOs  Promise to blog more on this later.
• Gardening is great exercise!
• Gardening is a great way to spend quality time with your kids and to teach them about community, health, science, and a variety of other amazing subjects!
• The food you grow is great for you!  And since you’ll have more of that healthy food just lying around, you’ll have less of a reason to snack on unhealthy, expensive, junk food.  Loose weight, keep grocery and health care costs down, and keep your kids strong and healthy, you can’t beat that with a stick.
• Gardening is a great way to connect with your local community, whether you’re gardening in a community plot or in your own yard.  Obviously, a community plot is very social, but a private garden in your own back yard (should you be lucky enough to have a back yard) can still be social because you’re probably going to have more fruits and veggies than you can eat and you can share them with friends and neighbors.
• If you’re involved in a community gardening project, there’s a good chance there’s going to be a man or two there who you know is into health, the environment and community.  And since he eats healthy and gardens, he’s probably going to have a good body.  I’m just saying.  If nothing else, they’ll at least be there for you to admire as they work, possibly without a shirt on.  What?  We’re single, we’re allowed to think these things.  Sheesh.

 I can’t think of anything else right now, but I think those reasons are awesome enough for us all to get started.

Eat less meat (and dairy) May 22, 2008

Americans eat too much meat.  This is a widely known fact.  Only a few nutbags from the high protein diet movement would dispute this fact.  I’m just talking food pyramid wise.  According to the food pyramid, we’re only supposed to be eating 3 servings of protein a day, but most Americans eat closer to ten servings.  This is thanks in part to the outrageously liberal idea most of us have of what constitutes a serving size, and part to the fact that most of us eat meat (or eggs) at every meal.

When I set out to limit the amount of meat I eat, I knew full well that I already ate less meat than the average American.  Of the meat I do eat, more of it is chicken and fish than the average American (not that their environmental impact is any less, but the health impact of those meats is certainly better).  But it wasn’t enough, so I decided to limit my meat consumption to one serving a day.  I did pretty well with this during the work week, but on the weekend (thanks to excessive eating out) all bets were off.  The goal was a work in progress.

The reasons I had for limiting meat were numerous.  First, conventional meat production is, by far, the largest contributor to green house gasses and therefore the biggest cause of global warming.  (On a side note, I hate when people say eating meat causes global warming.  No it does not.  Yes, conventional meat production causes global warming, but the act of eating meat does not.  When the cavemen killed a woolly mammoth and ate it, it did not release green house gasses into the atmosphere.  Sheesh!)  Animals, particularly cows, burp and fart large quantities of methane into the atmosphere, and since the American demand for meat is so ungodly high, there is an ungodly number of farm animals emitting ungodly amounts of methane into the air.  Not to mention the ungodly amount of space used up farming and slaughtering these animals (space that could have global warming reducing plants growing) and the ungodly amount of fuel used to power the ungodly huge facilities where meat is produced. 

Speaking of ungodly, it takes an ungodly amount of food to feed all these cows and chickens and pigs.  All of that food could be going to feed all the starving people in the world, or to bring down the rising costs of grains we are all suffering from now, but instead we are feeding it to cattle, then eating the cattle, and getting less net energy out of less net food.  Brilliant.  And all those crops that feed the meat also use petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides, which pollute our soil and water, an require energy to grow, maintain and harvest.

The final reason I wanted to eat less meat is because I’d like to avoid all the growth hormones and antibiotics found in meat.  Really, do you want to ingest something that’s designed to make a cow get fatter?  Do you think that growth hormones aren’t going to make you fatter too?  And we wonder why we have an obesity epidemic in this country.

So basically, meat is responsible on some level for global warming, world starvation, and the obesity epidemic.  Yeah, that sounds like something I’d like to limit in my life.  Of course, all of these issues would be addressed simply by eating only organic meat, but who can afford that?  Have you ever looked at the cost of organic meat?  There’s another fact about meat that is UNGODLY!

Now, after reading Skinny Bitch, which I wrote a review of yesterday, I have been confronted with even more reasons to forgo meat as much as I can.  For starters, I was completely and willfully ignoring the fact that dairy has the same environmental impacts as meat (I buy about half of my dairy organic, but still …).  I got slapped in the face with more health benefits of limiting, or down right eliminating, meat and dairy.  For example, another thing that is designed to fatten up cows is milk.  Seriously.  Calfs drink nothing but cows milk to grow from 90 to 2000 lbs over the course of 2 years.  Do we really want to be consuming a lot of something that is designed by nature to make anything that drinks it grow to 20 times its original size?  And I was horrified to read some of the treatments animals have to suffer in conventional meat production facilities.  I mean, deep down, I always knew it was bad, but being confronted with it really forced me to acknowledge it.  And finally, the issue of how meat is handled in those places (not to mention how the employees are treated, anyone ever read Fast Food Nation?) just disgusted me beyond belief.  Let me just say I will not be feeding my son meat baby food, and I don’t recommend you do either.

So now my goal is to eliminate as much meat and dairy from my diet as I can possibly stand.  This means I’ll pretty much only be eating meat at family and work functions, and even then I’ll do it in very small servings.  Dairy I will probably eat a little more often (because I love it!) but I am experimenting with vegan alternatives to foods I am willing to replace (pretty much everything but cheese and chocolate).  I am now using soy milk on my cereal, a soy based butter spread, soy mayonnaise, and yesterday I snacked on some wheat-free, dairy-free Newman-O’s (organic Oreos knock offs - the texture will take some getting used to, but it helps me keep my portion sizes in mind).  I’m also going to work at incorporating more vegetarian meals into my recipe book.  If anyone has a good vegetarian/vegan recipe, please send it to me, or post it in the comments of this blog.  I’d love to have them.

I will keep everyone posted on my progress becoming an almost-vegan (that’s what I’ve decided to call it).  Maybe one day it will evolve beyond this, but for now I think this is the most anyone is going to get out of me.

Responsible Eating May 17, 2008

Americans, they say, have no connection to their food anymore.  We go to the store, we buy it, and most of the time its processed crap that we don’t even know whats in it (mostly petroleum products, in case you’re wondering).  We don’t stop to think about where it comes from and everything that goes into producing it.  We buy it, we eat it, we throw the packaging away, and then we don’t think about it again.

There have been many a documentary that have phrased this problem and the implications of it far better than I ever will be able to.  For me, it just comes down to the fact that food is at the base of our hierarchy of needs, and I think its important that we all know how to maintain our base.  I read once of a family who plays a game before each meal in which they stop to recognize everyone responsible for getting their food onto their table.  The checkout kid at the grocery store, the guy who stocked the shelves, the truck driver who delivered the food, the butcher who slaughtered the meat, the guy who packaged the food, the farmer who planted and harvested it, the oil miner who mined the oil that was made into fertilizers for the farm and fuel for the trucks and plastics for the packaging, the chemist who invented the plastics and fertilizers.  They would even go so far as to include the mother who raised the farmer, the teacher who taught the mechanic who maintains the truck, the wife of the owner of the general store where the farmer shops, who helps keep paperwork for the store in order so that it stays up and running .  I thought this was a marvelous idea, and perhaps a game I would play with my son, particularly on Thanksgiving.

Its an amazing way to measure the impact not only of what you eat, but of the value each one of us adds to society through the work that we do.  Most of us don’t think of chemists and teachers as essential to putting food on our tables, but when we play this game we realize that we could very likely starve without the chemists, teachers and countless others that all fit into the vast perpetual motion machine that is a functioning society.  It reminds us that if there weren’t a purpose for a skill or a job, it would probably be eliminated from society (much the way evolution breeds out useless genetic traits).

It also shows us the vast impact of our food across the world.

Like many Americans, for a long time I wanted to ignore the way I eated and the implications it had on the world.  The deepest I wanted to think about food was whether or not it was going to make me fat.  But now I am a mom, and like many other parts of my life, my eating habits just did not seem as acceptable after I had a child.

For one thing, I want to live long enough to see my great grand children, so I want to be as healthy as possible (and that means I need to focus on a lot more than just my weight).  Furthermore, I want my son to have the privelidge of being able to live to see his great grand children, and I’m sure he’s going to want the same thing for his children, so I want to make sure he can give that same gift to his children.

More than this, I want to leave my son with a planet at least as nice as the one I was left with.  Hopefully a better one.  For that reason I am paying more attention to what I eat, and I am going to teach him to do the same.

Finally, food is expensive, and when you trace its sources its not hard to see why.  Food prices go up with gas prices, for example, because it takes gas to ship the food.  Companies aren’t swallowing the increased cost of gas, they’re passing those costs onto the consumer so that their profits don’t change.  Companies always pass increased cost of production on to the consumer so that their profits don’t change.  Always. 

So here are my goals for eating more responsibly.  I will tell you them, and then I will explain them.

1 - Eat less meat

2 - Grow as much of my own food as I can

3 - Eat at home as much as possible

4 - Buy organic when I can afford it

5 - If I can’t afford organic, buy local (naturally, if there’s a local organic food, get it!) or as close to home as you can

6 - Avoid buying foods that come from other countries

7 - Avoid food that comes in excess packaging

I will delve into each of these goals and the reasons behind them in future posts.

Buy less May 10, 2008

Let me tell you all about the buying goals I have been working on since Lent. I was going through some spiritual havoc over the season of Lent, and did a lot of soul searching (Lutherans, unlike Catholics, do not really give something up during Lent - although sometimes I do - its more a time of deep spiritual reflection and devotion) and this is what I came up with. Actually, come Easter time (the end of Lent, for those of you who don’t know) I had more of a skeleton of a plan. I’ve been fleshing it out through trial and error since then, and there’s probably still a lot more fleshing to do.

Anyway, the goal is to buy less. How much less? As much less as I can. My life is crammed with stuff (I’ve mentioned before here that I have a compulsive hoarding problem I’m trying to work on) and its not really doing anything for me except making my life more cluttered and stressed. So in addition to getting rid of the useless stuff responsibly, I’m really focusing on halting the in flow.

This has greater implications than just helping me get a handle on my hoarding problem. Our culture of consumerism is terrible for the environment and the main cause of global warming. All of this stuff we buy and use takes energy to produce, ship, use, and ship to the dump once its thrown away. Not to mention all the other chemicals, toxins, waste, byproducts and other unpleasantries associated with the production, use and disposal of consumer goods. Its in the best interest of our planet and our own health to buy and consume only what we need.

Also, the best way to save money is to not spend it in the first place. Duh, right?

So here are my rules, as they stand. Or should I say my goals.

#1 Buy only things that are consumable - food, personal hygiene products, diapers for Elijah (although I try to use cloth as much as I can), etc, and buy only consumables that you need (healthy, balanced food, only the basics for hygiene). Buy them as cheap and responsibly as you can.

#2 If I need something I don’t have and isn’t a consumable, make it or obtain it for free off of Freecycle or from a friend or family member

#3 When I must buy a non consumable item (for example, new clothes for Elijah, who is growing so fast I can hardly keep him clothed), buy used.

#4 If I must buy new, get it organic and local if possible (or as sustainable as possible). Avoid packaging and excess shipping.

So far I haven’t physically saved a lot of money, instead I’ve paid bills, but that’s equally as important. I can see the savings coming though. Other things I’m doing with money that isn’t being spent include

I started a retirement account. I can get one through my work, if you can, you truly should do the same. If your work doesn’t offer something like that for you, then see about getting involved in a financial institute or something. Hey, I don’t claim to be an expert. Maybe there’s something on Get Rich Slowly. This is why I read that blog.

I started a College Invest account for Elijah. I’d like for him to not have to join the military to go to college, like I did. I’m going to do the best I can to teach him discipline (which was really my biggest problem that prevented me from going to college, and the military fixed it for me), and I will put aside as much money for him as I can afford. Right now its only 25 bucks a month, but as I get more bills paid down, that amount will grow.

I also plan to start giving a set monthly amount to my church, probably something very small, like 20 bucks a month or something. I also let myself join the Sierra Club again. I hope that eventually I will be able to afford to tithe to other charitable organizations as well. I’d love to give some money for the crisis in Myanmar, but they aren’t letting aid through, so I will send them all my prayers instead.

Finally, I want to invest in some green companies. The Sierra Club offers ways to do that, and I’m going to look into it further and let you know what I find.

Now, these rules aren’t set in stone. I take vacations from them sometimes (this weekend, for example, I’m going to Chocolate Fest, and I might spend a bit there on some very un necessary consumables), but having them solid in my memory makes the vacations fewer and smaller. I also have a list of things I want to buy in the future, and I think about them before I buy anything else. For example, I want to put bamboo floors in my new house when I get it, and I want to paint Elijah’s room blue with low or no VOC paint, and then I want a new bed set made of organic cotton and some wool pillows. Next year, I would like to go on my church’s annual trip to India. Those are medium term goals and they help me to keep my eyes on the prize.

The other Lenten plan I made had to do with responsible eating, but I’ll blog on that later.

Green moves that are good for your wallet and/or waist line #1 - Driving the speedlimit May 8, 2008

This is a new series I’m going to start in the spirit of Green Up the Purchases You Already Make.  In the future, however, I’m going to label it GMGWW (Green Moves Good Wallet Waist, I’m cutting out the little words in the acronym, you don’t need them) because the whole title is too long.  And because I am in the military, and the military LOVES acronyms.  They’re like their own words in a secret, military language.

Anyway, today’s entry is driving the speed limit.

For every 5 miles per hour you go over 60mph, its like spending 20 cents more a gallon for gas.

I always knew that speeding reduced your fuel efficiency, but it wasn’t until I read that fact that I decided to do something about it.  I guess I just didn’t realize how bad the reduction in efficiency was before.  The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I couldn’t afford to spend 60 cents more a gallon just to go 75.  It wasn’t worth it.

So I started driving the speed limit.  Here in Denver, that means driving a good 10-15 miles slower than just about everyone else on the road, so that limits me to driving only in the right hand lane.  If I’m on a three or more lane highway I might venture out into one of the middle lanes, but I always stay close to the right.  Occasionally I do get stuck behind someone going slower than the speed limit and I go ahead and pass them on the left, then proceed to go right back into the slow lane, but to be honest, most of the time it doesn’t bother me.  I just stay behind them.  After all, 55 gives me even better fuel efficiency than 65 does.

I’m going to tell you now what I’ve learned.  Driving 75 does not get you there any faster than drivng 65 does.  Don’t ask me why this is, I think you might need a physicist to figure it out, but since I started driving the speed limit everywhere, my commute times for places I go on a regular basis (work, school, church, downtown, Buckley AFB, etc) has not changed.  Furthermore, I often pay close attention to who passes me up in the beginning of a trip, and within a few miles, without changing my speed, I usually catch back up to them eventually, or pass them.

We all know, of course, that driving faster increases your likelihood of getting into an accident and increases the liklihood of any accident you do get into being a fatal one, but I have also found that speeding increases my stress level.  Or, more accurately, I’ve found that going 65 reduces my stress levels (but I assume that my stress level before - when I regularly sped - was actually elevated, so in reality, driving speeding increased my stress level, and going back down to the speed limit brought it back down to more normal levels).  Where I used to get a little road ragey at times, I’m pretty chill for most of my driving now, and I have to be when there’s a crying baby in my back seat.  And when people pass me now, it seems like the natural thing to do.  Almost no one tail gates in the right lanes, and the rare person who does seems so idiotic that its easy to brush it off.

Stress is bad for your health all over, so where ever you can eliminate it, you should.  Stress has been shown to make it harder to lose weight, and it also makes it harder for you to sleep, wreaks havoc on your eating habits, and exhausts you so you aren’t as active, all things that are shown to make you gain weight.  It also causes acne and wrinkles, not to mention gives you all sorts of health disorders like high blood pressure and ulcers and can ultimately shorten your life.

Of course, you could have a much bigger impact on your wallet and waist line if you chose to bike or walk instead of driving entirely, but when that’s not possible (and it may never be possible for some of you, I understand) the next best thing you can do is drive the speed limit.

Why being green is so great for single moms May 3, 2008

Okay, so some of my readers may have noticed that I blog much more about living green than I do about being a single mom.  This is partially because I’ve been an environmentalist much longer than I’ve been a single mom.  I’ve only been a single mom five months now (a little over a year, if you count my pregnancy in there - I wasn’t single through my entire pregnancy), but ever since I first read 50 Simple Things a Kid Can Do to Save the Earth in the 1st grade I’ve been passionate about our planet.  I don’t remember who gave me that book, either.

But another reason why I blog more about living green than I do about being a single mother is because I believe the two subjects are inseparable.  That is to say, of all the people living green has the most benefits for, single mothers are near the top of the list (our kids, I’m afraid, hold the top slot).

There are two main reasons for this.  First, most single moms don’t want to stay single forever, and second, most single moms can use all the help they can get financially.  Living green helps you to get and stay in great shape, which (unfortunately, we live in a shallow society that values looks over personality, education, success and kindness - particularly in women) helps you out in the dating department.  And living green, if done correctly, is much cheaper than living whatever color not green is.  Brown, like smog?  I don’t know.

A few examples:

Biking and walking are great exercise.  And the more you bike and walk instead of driving, the more money you save on gas, maintenance for your car, and you help the car keep its value better by keeping miles off the car.

Growing some of your own food will save you butt loads in groceries, especially with food prices on the rise.  The more you grow, the more you save.  Plus, eating more of those home grown fruits and veggies means less junk food, and gardening, like biking, is great exercise.  And for those of you who don’t have yards, just about anything can be grown on a pot on your deck, or even indoors, and if that doesn’t work for you, look into community gardening opportunities, which helps you to get out and meet people, potentially single men, or people who can hook you up with single men.

Planting native grass seeds means less watering and maintainance, saving you money on utilities.  Mowing that lawn with a push mower is great exercise and saves you on fuel for a power motor.  Keeping that lawn small minimizes water useage even more, and minimizes your time mowing.

Avoiding plastics minimizes your exposure to BPA, which can mimic estrogen in your system and cause you to gain weight or make the baby weight more difficult to use.  Using natural alternatives to things like drier sheets, glass cleaner, lotion, etc., will reduce your exposure to pthaylates, which have similar affects.  I’ll talk more about natural alternatives later, because buying green brands can be more expensive, but there are ways to do it even more naturally and more cheaper.

Not to mention how much doing these things increases your childs health, sets a good example for them to be physically active, pleasantly social, socially responsible, and helps to leave them a world thats sill nice.  Because the most important thing to single mothers, more than not staying single or saving money, is the health, well being, and happiness of our children.

Green Up the Purchases You Already Make Tip #2: Buy Local April 17, 2008

This post isn’t going to be a whole lot of use to those of you who don’t live in the front range region of Colorado.  My only advice to you is to go on the lookout for similar resources where you live.  I have it on good authority there is at least one in Chicago.  For those of you who do live along the front range, you’re going to love this!

Buying local is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint, save you (and a lot of other members in your community) money on gas and shipping, and strengthen the economy right in your own community, where it will benefit you the most. 

For those of you skeptical about the usefulness of buying local, look at it this way:  why should we be buying gas from countries whose populations hate us?  Some of them, even, are at war with us.  Why contribute to their economies when you could be contributing to your own?  Where spending your money will benefit you directly by creating jobs and prosperity in your own community!  A community of employed people is a community with less drugs, crime, trash, and violence.  Its a cleaner, safer, happier community.  Most importantly, it is a community of people paying income taxes, which go to use in public works, maintaining our local and federal law enforcement and military, and the more people paying taxes, the less each individual has to pay in order to generate the same profit for Uncle Sam.  

By getting out into that community and purchasing there, not only do you increase happiness and strengthen the economy, you also meet others in your community and form a tighter bond and friendships with your neighbors.  Now when was the last time you formed a tight bond or a friendship with the people who provide you with goods made overseas and fuel our vehicles for shipping?  That’s what I thought.

So check out these resources for buying locally in the Denver, Boulder, Ft. Collins and Colorado Springs areas, and strengthen your community today!

Colorado Local First is a directory of local businesses.  You pick up copies of directories at some local businesses, area hotels and the Tattered Cover Bookstore LoDo and East Colfax locations.  You can also check out their website, www.coloradolocalfirst.com, which appears to be a work in progress.  You can download printable versions of the directories there.

The Mile High Business Alliance is responsible for Colorado Local First, so give their website a go too!  http://www.milehighbiz.org/

The ReDirect Guide (which, what do you know?! will help you out if you live in Portland, OR or Salt Lake City, UT, as well) is mostly, but not entirely local, and also lists only environmentally friendly, or sustainable, businesses.  There you get a double whammy of green-ness.  Now, I just got ahold of the 2007 issue last weekend, and I must say, it wasn’t totally complete.  I know of a few businesses that should be in there but weren’t.  In any case, it had a lot of stuff I didn’t know about in there, and the 2008 edition is due out on Earth Day (thats next week, if you didn’t know), so I’m hoping it has more in it. http://www.redirectguide.com/

Enjoy your resources, and happy shopping.

 

For the record, I have no beef with the Middle East or South America or any of the other countries where our gas comes from.  Nor do I have a problem with the countries that our imported goods come from.  I’d just rather support my own economy first.  Furthermore, sometimes in order to convince people of the good of an action, you have to sink your arguments down to their level.  Some people wont go for buying locally if you say its good for the environment, but they’re all for it if you say “Why are you buying gas from terrorists?”.  Yes, its awful and racist and I hate that outlook as much as any educated person does, but it is an effective argument to get people to buy local and conserve gas.  Terrible, isn’t it?