It's Fall in our 'hood

So, the leaves of our "mature landscaping" are coming down in earnest now. We knew it would suck... but it has eclipsed our wildest dreams :)

Scott spent all weekend outside doing manly things like raking, picking up pinecones (he counted 511 in our backyard) and blowing leaves with a wussy electric leaf blower (contrasted to the super manly gas-powered kind.) And now, it's raining... woohoo. That brings down more leaves. Not sure if this pic (out the window of our house) does it justice, but we have like a fortress of leaves along the curb. As does the entire neighborhood. There's a big leaf-sucker truck that comes twice in the next 2 months to remove them, I'm pretty excited to see that. Maybe I'm a 10-year old boy?

Yup, looks like we've done nothing. Awesome.

Also this weekend, Scott put up a clothesline for me! I feel so dorky and domestic getting SO excited about this, but it truly will save us on our power bill and will make our clothes & sheets smell lovely. I even figured out where to find clothespins... (at Target, by the Laundry drying racks & the like.) Bonus - $1.54 for 50! Oh, and since I mentioned it's raining, and probably will be for most of the week due to Ida, I don't think I'll get to test it out for a while.

See it, out there in the corner? It actually gets some sunlight too, so maybe I can bleach out stains. :)

I'm Declaring War On STUFF

Junk, Random Crap...whatever. We have too much of it, and I'm declaring war. We had the fun task of trying to remove some of the Random Crap (RC) from downstairs to try to make the terrain a little less treacherous for a 11 month old this weekend, and for the most part we succeeded. I'd blame what was left behind on the cat toys. Anyway... I'm considering the baby's visit the push we needed to just de-clutterify the place. Here's how I see it: We're young. WHY do we have so much RC??? Most of the junk we took upstairs we never even use and wouldn't miss if we'd just taken it out to the trash rather than upstairs to the guest room.

So, it's not like we live in a junkyard, I don't want to paint an unfair picture. I just get fed up with the amount of stuff we have that we don't need or use on a daily, weekly, monthly, annual...any basis at all, and the amount of time it takes us to save up for/rationalize buying stuff we really do need/want. There's something wrong there...

This is me declaring war... Scott and I are committing our entire next weekend to going through stuff and trashing the unsaveable, donating the potentially reusable, craigslisting the potentially sellable and shuffling around the underutilized. We're going to be smart and green in our approach - I don't want to just throw things away that could be recycled or used by someone else. But I'm tired of having so much more stuff than we need.

Whew, ok, so I said it. Wish me luck. :)

This gives me the warm fuzzies...

Saving the Earth is soo Glamourous :)

My sister (in-law, but that sounds so not fun!) Kelly sent me this article from Glamour and I think there are a lot of helpful tips in here for "Going Green" and lessening your impact on the environment.

http://www.glamour.com/lifestyle/articles/2008/03/green_tips

What I love about these tips is that almost all of them also line up with one of my main goals, which is spending less money! :) For instance, not buying bottled water or using less energy in your house BOTH end up costing you less! Now if only they'd make hybrid cars cost less than regular cars and those energy efficient lightbulbs a little more reasonable... for now this is good!!

My newest resolutions are going to be switching to rechargable batteries (after we use up the stockpile we already bought of disposable ones), switching to primarily online banking (bc stamp prices are going up AGAIN!), and keeping appliances and non-essential stuff unplugged when we're not using them.

Peace, Love and Recycling!

So, I have done a little digging and realize that I can recycle virtually everything! Well, not EVERYTHING, but a LOT of things that I used to throw away! (And it's good to know that they have a Holiday recycling program - for wrapping paper and Christmas trees mainly.) I'm not sure why, but it makes me feel really good to be doing my part. We started setting aside paper and cardboard to take to the recycling facility near our house. That's magazines, snack/cereal boxes, junk mail (and shredded up credit card offers, of course) and plain old paper. It's pretty exciting. But maybe I'm just a dork like that.

I do have to say I wish they made it easier for more people to do this - if not by having paper recyling pick-ups with the trash and other recyclables at least communicating the information a little better. We're getting there!

If you live in Wake County and want to be cool and recycle, here's a link to where the paper recycling centers are. Our planet thanks you!

Going Green

So, down here in NC we are in the midst of a big drought. And even though Cary doesn't have as strict restrictions as some parts of the Triangle, I've become more mindful about how we use what we've got. I think that this mindfulness has spilled over (no pun intended) to other areas of our life and we've decided to slowly phase into a greener lifestyle. Even if you don't buy into global warming or whatever, it seems like if everyone could use less "stuff" that it would be better for the planet - and why would it be bad to do something good for the planet? Ok, I'm starting to sound like my 9 yr old self while reading 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do To Save The Earth.

We're not the perfect green family yet. We still drive 2 Jeeps, which we'll be changing within a few months. I think a major criteria for the Green changes we make will be how big of an impact it has to our lifestyle and budget.

Green Goals:
1. In the upcoming months, I would like to totally phase out store-bought cleaners. I think I can make my own! I recently discovered this website and think any combination of these cleaners would be doable.

http://www.ecocycle.org/hazwaste/recipes.cfm

I already do make my own kitchen cleaner (for cleaning off the counters and cabinets after I cook and whatnot.) It's super easy and works well, and it's also a LOT cheaper than buying Windex Kitchen Cleaner or whatever crap we were using before. I got the "recipe" from Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook. It's 1 tbsp dishwashing soap and 1 cup warm water into a spray bottle, and totally does the trick.

2. Today we were at Trader Joe's and I saw something that intrigued me. I got 2 washable kitchen cloths...in hopes of dramatically reducing our paper towel usage and waste. They're kind of like shammy cloths - very absorbent and you can wring them out. And I intend to wash them weekly to keep them, you know, not nasty.

3. And in the more "extended" future (as in within the next year or so) we'll be on the market for another car to replace the Wrangler. We will definitely be getting a more fuel efficient smaller car, possibly even a hybrid. And down the road we'd love to get a Hybrid SUV to replace my Jeep. Hopefully in the coming years they'll become more available and the prices will come down a little.

That's all I can think of for now - but I've made a "Green" Tag so I hope to do some update posts as I check some of these off my list and think of more :) In the words of Michael Jackson and my first favorite song:

"I'm starting with the man in the mirror,
I'm asking him to change his ways,
And no message could have been any clearer.
If you wanna make the world a better place take a look at yourself and make the change."