She's Your MOTHER, After All!

Happy Earth Day 2014. 

I am happy we have made it THIS far despite all of the wear and tear we inflict on Mother Earth. But we shouldn't rest on our laurels, however small they are. Everyday should be Earth Day in honor of this great planet on which we live and thrive. Every day we all need to REDUCE (and not just our waistlines), REUSE (I love hand-me-downs), and RECYCLE ( or better yet, limit the amount of packaging we buy with our goods. Less to recycle.)

Recycle

At our house we try so hard to adhere to all of these rules. It is hard, though, because we were born into a consumer society and CONSUME we do. So we have too much stuff - like my BIN of toys and CLOSET of clothes I seldom wear. But instead of throwing out the old stuff, we look for ways to recycle them - donate to charity, hold garage sales, and rework into something new (like a old wagon into a planter).

In this DROUGHT year, it is easy to keep water conservation in the forefront of our thoughts. But this is NOT the way it should be. We should ALWAYS be concerned with how much water we are using. If it is more than we need, we are WASTING it. That is just not right.So we try to trim usage down to a minimum needed for health and happiness. I PUGSONALLY volunteered to STOP ALL BATHS in an effort to conserve water resources. Of course, this was met with resounding NOs and P.U.s. So I guess I will still be enduring a bath now and again - just not once a week or anything,

We have not ONE but TWO compost bins. All of our food scraps go in there and since my Mommys are vegheads, that means it is all veggie waste anyhow. When the scraps breakdown nice and neat (the worms LOVE our bins and they are a major reason the resulting soil is so rich), Auntie T spreads it around the yard to make our flowers and vegetable garden very happy. We have a family of 6 humans, 2 dogs, 1 cat and 2 birds and yet we use the smallest waste bin offered by the garbage company. We do our best to keep waste to a minimum.

Finally, we try to limit our fuel consumption by taking the train or other public transportation when we can. My Mommy #2 spends over 3 hours a day commuting to and from her job because she takes the train and shuttle to and from work. She used to take light rail to the train station but that made her daily commute even longer so it made no sense. But as gas prices sky rocket (up over $0.80 in the past month) she may return to her VTA to train pattern to cut back. And when at home, we try to make sure only the necessary electricity is used. Lights are limited, the heater is set low, air conditioning high or off, and appliances are unplugged when not in use.

If EVERYONE contributes to change, even just a little, it can make a BIG difference in how Mother Earth survives. Let's make EVERY DAY EARTH DAY and help her THRIVE.

Happy Thing #54: Helping Mother Earth LIVE