Happy Earth Day!

Earth Day! Last year, I totally didn't realize it was Earth Day but spontaneously watched Fern Gully with the kids that day (which is a childhood favorite about protecting nature). So now it is our Earth Day tradition! Over the past few weeks, there have been some fun Earth Day activities for the kids too.

We had a fun time doing kids crafts and activities ant an Earth/Arbor day event in Gilbert!

So I've definity been thinking more and more about reducing our family's impact on the planet. Baby steps. I think we've come a long way already though, here's the things I've started doing at home in the past few months:

1. Really cut down on paper towels, plastic wrap, and other kitchen trash. Now we mostly use cloth towels and the bees wraps!

2. Cut back on toilet paper usage by using a bidet! I know it sounds odd, but my sister recently traveled to India where tp is just not really used! Insead, they have little water sprayers to get clean. After doing a little research about the benefits of bidets, it was a no brainer and they only cost like, $35 bucks. Turns out it's was more hygienic than tp AND it's a great way to reduce paper consumption. I have not tried it with the kids yet though... I'm not sure how that would go...

3. Gardening! I'll write more extensively about my little Happiness Microfarm, but growing some of my own food is a big win for myself and mother earth. Especially since I don't use pesticides or anything harmful. With this also comes seed saving, composting, and rainwater water harvesting.

Kids picking some tomatoes during out mild Arizona winter.

I grew a salad! Kale, lettuce carrots and tomatoes!

4. We cook almost all meals at home now. No more starbucks, no more fast food, just good old home cooking. This reduces trash that I was generating just by eating out, and it has cut back a lot of food waste. I try to buy stuff in bulk where I can and I try rescuing produce from the Produce on Wheels Without Waste program.

Haul from Produce on Wheels without Waste. All this cost $10 and this produce would have otherwise gone to a landfill. Of I can't use anything before it goes bad, I just compost or feed to the chickens :) Then it turns into something I can use in my garden. Win win win!

Turning a bunch of tomatoes into sauce. I even broke out the canning supplies!

5. Buy items second hand! Every time I need something I really do consider getting it second hand first. Since doing the 23 and Me project, I have not had to buy any clothes in the past year. But this last month I found there were a couple of items that I could really use. I found the things I was looking for on Thread Up and at Buffalo Exchange and Turnstyle. I'll even venture into Goodwill if there's something I need for the house! It's hit or miss, but I'm now always willing to do some thrift shopping before I buy something new.

I'm not sure I'll ever be able to go full on vegan or live a zero waste lifestyle, but I am totally trying to figure out the best way for myself and family. It helps that I'm not working in an office most of the day anymore and I have time to experiment with this stuff. Going forward, I hope to have more of a plant based diet (with plants grown on my microfarm) and I want to implement a greywater watering system to water trees in my yard. Oh yeah, and I want to plant more trees in my yard. I hope by next earth day, I will have more ideas and progress to share!