Why does the grass seem greener on the other side?

So, this past week, my daughter and I had a whirlwind weekend vacation to visit family in California. Striving to be greener, of course I sat in the airplane thinking how wonderful technology is at the same time wondering how much of the ozone layer my little plane ride was depleting. So, I tried not to think about it as my mind began to wander thinking about all the germs being circulated throughout the contained cabin of the plane. Boy, greener living sure can start to make you a little paranoid, haha.

Anyway, we went to San Francisco, to Pier 39, and had lunch. As is the usual custom with me, I had asked for a take home box for my leftover lunch. To my surprise, the take home box was biodegradable, GMO free and bio based and the take home bag was also made of the same type of 'green' material. I actually felt pretty good about my leftovers. On top of that, the bathroom toilets had to flush settings. One for when you go #1 and another for #2. Pretty cool.

Now, I realize that I live in a VERY small city, but it really made me think...why aren't we a 'greener' city? I mean we have some of the most beautiful white sand beaches and beautiful ocean waters in the US yet our city is so DIRTY. So, what does make one city greener than the next and how does a city become greener?

What do we, as citizens, do to help make our city greener? I know that these types of things usually start as grass roots, but where do you start? So, I think that may be my next quest, getting more involved in community actions towards a greener city. I'm not sure where to start or even how involved I can get, but I believe that it is my responsibility to at least try.

So, my question to you is...what do you do in your community to help it be a healthier place to live? If nothing, then what CAN you do to help it become a healthier place to live?

Hopefully your grass IS greener on the other side.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtfully committed citizens
can change the world.
Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead

Recycling really is easy.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle...The basics of greener living. For some reason, for me, recycling is the most rewarding. I think it started with that feeling of "I'm really doing something to help the planet" while driving our recycling bins to the drop off containers downtown, before they had curbside pick-up. Now, with curbside pick-up not only do feel even better about my contribution but I find I recycle more, because it's so much easier. However, many people say that they don't recycle because it's too complicated or because they don't have curbside pick-up. Trust me, if I can do it with or without curbside pick up, you can too. The biggest hurdle for me was actually remembering to recycle things and what things to recycle. So, the first thing you should do is contact your local utilities authority, who will tell you what you can and can't recycle and how. I was excited this year because I found out that there are things that we can recycle now that we couldn't last year. In fact, this year the list of what not to recycle is actually shorter than what we can recycle. They can also tell you what bigger household items can be recycled now. Once you find out, print out a list of things that can be recycled and stick it on your fridge. If you have little children, be creative and print out pictures of what can be recycled, so they can help too. Now, just start recycling. The easiest thing to do is get a separate trash can or container for the recyclables, that way you aren't taking them out to the container every time, which will deter you from recycling. If you have to take your recycling to a drop off location, it might be easier to have two or three containers, depending on how they separate the recyclables. If you are new to recycling here are a few tips:

• Rinse out the containers the best you can.
• Remove the lids from jars
  
• Don't recycle wet cardboard - it can jam up the machines.
• Don't recycle bottle tops. They are made of a different plastic.
• If you aren't sure, check the numbers on the plastic containers. Most places don't recycle #6 or #7 containers.

See how easy that is, everybody can recycle and, if you haven't been doing so, I encourage you to make a small step and start. Start with paper - all of your junk mail, opened envelopes, grocery lists, newspapers, magazines, cereal boxes, cracker boxes - it all adds up. Each small step moves you forward to greener living. Still not convinced? Did you know...

• Recycling one aluminum beverage can saves enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours or a tv for 2 hours.
• Producing recycled paper requires about 60% of the energy used to make paper from virgin wood pulp.
• Producing new plastic from recycled material uses only two-thirds of the energy required to manufacture it from raw materials.
• Glass can be recycled virtually forever. It never wears out.
• If only 30 percent of the population is actively recycling, it is equivalent to eliminating the emissions of 25 million cars.
• The average person throws away 4 pounds of garbage PER DAY.

What will your small step be?

What have I gotten myself into?

Well, my first post. And a huge thank you to my good friend Elizabeth for the huge push towards pursuing something that I love. Still not sure what I'm doing, but I'll keep at it. If you don't know me, or even if you do haha, check out Natalie's Story on the sidebar. I'm one of three authors for GLiMs and if what I have to offer helps even one mom to make healthier changes, then it's all worth it to me. It will be hard from me not to post something every day three times a day because that's just my personality, but I promise to refrain...or to at least try.

So, I guess that's it for now. I really just wanted to get something out there to see what it looks like. Hope everyone has a wonderful week and I hope you try to make one small change this week towards greener living

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Why Greener Living.

Welcome to our blog and thanks for reading our first post.  We hope you take a look around and get to know us visit us often.

Why greener living?  We believe that we have one planet and on this one planet we have one life and we want to live it to it's fullest and to take care of this planet so that our generations to come will be able to live their lives to the fullest on a healthy planet.

Why not just green, why greener?  Because we aren't perfect and we don't claim to be completely green.  We make decisions and changes every day for the better but we fall short many times.  We don't always recycle, we don't always use paper, sometimes we leave the water running too long.  Sometimes, we eat too much junk food, don't eat organic meat, eat preservatives, or don't exercise enough.  But, we try.  Every day we make an effort to do something to live greener and we are always learning and sometimes re-learning things that we have forgotten.

So, that's who were are Greener Living Moms.  Living out this journey together and using our knowledge and lack of knowledge, our conquests and failures, our joys and sorrows, our health and illness to not only keep each other accountable but to come along other moms like you in your journey in greener living too.

Today, do one small thing to impact your tomorrows to come.