Welcome to our Go Green Challenge: 4 Weeks to an Earth-Friendly Home! Find more posts from this series here. **************************** Welcome to Week Two of our Go Green Challenge! I am happy to report that the mad-recycling and diligent composting is making a significant difference in our garbage output! Ladies and gentlemen, that is less than half of what we sent to the landfill last Monday morning. It's probably a full kitchen bag's worth of garbage and over half of that are disposable diapers. I might be turning into one of those crazy people who reduce garbage service to once-a-month once Lucy is doing her business on the Keep Reading
Go Green Challenge: Go Used
What’s for dinner? This week’s menu plan (4/29)
My husband spent this past weekend out-of-town with the guys while I spent the weekend at home with a head cold. It involved some of my finest Couch Parenting to date. Is it just me or has this cold-and-flu season been dragging on forever?! I am planning to make The Ultimate Cold Cure tomorrow. I don't even care if it's "really very nasty." Have you seen this week's weather forecast? Anyway, all that to say, last week's menu plan was kicked to the curb and buried beneath a pile of Kleenex. I am hoping to get back on track. And out of my yoga pants. Here's what's for dinner at my house this week: Monday -- Chicken Noodle Soup, homemade Keep Reading
Go Green Challenge: Week one updates
Welcome to our Go Green Challenge: 4 Weeks to an Earth-Friendly Home! Find more posts from this series here. As a reminder, we are focusing on reducing the amount of waste we send to the landfill this week. **************************** Despite my lack of updates, the Go Green Challenge has been going full force in our home this past week. I was all geared up to share our worm compost bin, all my scratch-cookin', and other no-waste activities when Baby Lucy reached her eight-month birthday and life came to.a.screeching.halt. Yup, Lucy has entered the "either I'm in your arms or screaming my face off" phase. I knew it was coming, but I forgot just Keep Reading
Go Green Challenge: Week one’s goals (ways we are reducing waste)
Welcome to our Go Green Challenge: 4 Weeks to an Earth-Friendly Home! Find more posts from this series here. As a reminder, we are focusing on reducing the amount of waste we send to the landfill this week. **************************** Week one of the Go Green Challenge has my family focusing on reducing our garbage. The ultimate goal is to get to zero-waste, but considering where we are coming from, nothing in the trash can is probably unrealistic. But I do believe we can make a significant dent in what we send to the landfill by making some changes to our lifestyle. Here is what we are focusing on this week and will continue to implement Keep Reading
Go Green Challenge: Recycling
Welcome to our Go Green Challenge: 4 Weeks to an Earth-Friendly Home! Find more posts from this series here. As a reminder, we are focusing on reducing the amount of waste we send to the landfill this week. **************************** This is a guest post from Frugal Living NW's new contributor, Shelly Koetje. My first exposure to curbside recycling was watching my mom flatten tin cans before putting them in our newly issued yellow recycling bins. I’m pretty sure my brothers and I laughed as she told us she was making the world a better place for her grandchildren. Now I’m the crazy lady retrieving things out of the garbage that should be in the Keep Reading
Go Green Challenge: 4 Weeks to an Earth-Friendly Home
Happy Earth Day! If you're like me, Earth Day brings the crushing guilt of exactly how bad I am at caring about the earth. It reminds me that I am nothing more than a greedy, wasteful American who thinks the world is my oyster and I can scrape it out of its shell regardless of if it belongs to me or not. It's the exact same feeling that washes over me when I look at a piece of plastic that can't be recycled curbside. Or the pair of holey sneakers that could be made into a basketball court for poor kids. Or the mound of food that I let go bad in the refrigerator. Or the bag of poop-filled diapers that are encased in two layers of plastic so my royal Keep Reading
What’s for dinner? This week’s menu plan (4/22)
Menu Planning happens the same way in our house almost every single week. After the kids are in bed, my husband and I crash on the couch and watch a movie (or just enjoy the sound of silence) together. He suggests dinner ideas that sound good, and I attach them to days, based on our schedule for the week. Just like that we have a menu plan! I have veto power, but I find that often the hardest part of creating a menu plan is that initial inspiration. I'm happy to cook if I have a plan. My husband is the exact opposite. So we make a good team, and it starts the week off on the right foot. Here's what's for dinner at my house this week: Monday -- Keep Reading