Our ways of staying green are:

* We have a large vegetable garden and grow our own foods.

* We shop at a growers market to take advantage of local fruits, vegs (things we do not grow), dairy and meat.

* We use as little electricity as possible (turn off lights, don't run air unless needed, etc)

* We combine errands.

* We are doing a staycation this year.

That's it for now.

Thanks,

Nancy

Those look yummy!!

My biggest thing is using cloth diapers.  With 2 in diapers, that could generate A LOT of waste!

Megan

Mom of 3

I like to consider myself very crunchy. Maeleigh sleeps with me every night. We don't practice cry-it-out nor do we have scheduled bed times. We also practice gentle discipline, where time outs and punishments are not given. Although she is a bit young to truly practice all the aspects of GD, we plan to talk out our feelings when we are having a bit of tantrum, instead of just yelling at her or sending her to time out, since those practices don't really work. And of course - hands are NOT for hitting, as we consider that to be child abuse.

My daughter wears cloth diapers - when she wears diapers - and only eats organic fruits and vegetables (mostly from our garden) and organic rice milk. (I'm a vegetarian and she's a vegan, which I'm trying to do as well.) We also keep plastic toys away from her. We don't watch TV and we turn off the lights as we leave the room. We use reusable shopping bags and then paper bags when we fill those up.

Let's see, what else do we do? We only use Earth-friendly organic cleaning and hygene products that use no animal bi-products and are not tested on animals, including: surface cleaners, air freshener sprays, laundry detergent, tooth paste, shampoo, conditioner, body soap, dish soap, dishwashing soap, floor cleaner, etc. We even buy - as often as possible - toilet paper, napkins, paper towels made from unbleached recycled paper.

One of the best parts about being a mom in general is just seeing my daughter smile and hearing her laugh, especially on walks. She loves to walk around the neighborhood or a store in her sling. Whenever we go out, I wear my sling and she sits in it. No need for a stroller! And besides, slings are much more economical and recyclable. Strollers are big and bulky and they expire. Slings fold up into a bag pocket (our homemade diaper bag pocket) and it easily washable. Plus, it will never expire.

Did I mention that our kitchen sink has become our primary bath tub? lol it's uses less water, yes, but it's just so much easier .. and fun

Caro - Happily unmarried, crunchy, sahap mama

www.danandcaro.com

We are crunchy enough to be a constant source of embarrassment to my husband.

• We grow veggies and herbs
• we clean with vinegar, baking soda and club soda
• we border on OCD with energy conservation (this is more of a competitive thing)
• we buy local as much as possible
• we buy "stuff" as little as possible (choosing reduce over reuse or recycle)
• we make our own: yogurt, bread, pasta, pizza, etc to cut down on packaging (also my family has grown quite spoiled and used to eating from scratch)
• we line-dry
• we compost (one indoor worm bin, one big outdoor bin)
• we garden with animal habitat in mind
• we buy organic (this helps with the pledge to buy less stuff- organic is still pricey)
• we volunteer for cleanups (we live on the edge of a state park/preserve, so this is sort of in our best interests)
• we use fabric napkins and pack waste free lunches
• we buy recycled paper products- TP, printing paper, envelopes, etc- to support those industries
• we buy spices and rice and the like from the bulk bin at the co-op

Really, I could go on for a long time, once you've committed to the concept there are a million little ways you can be a little greener, a little crunchier.  But the most important one, I think, is to reach out to others-- talk with friends and family, go to PTA meetings, speak in classrooms, write pieces for your local paper- and kind of heighten their awareness of the way little choices collectively reap large rewards.

And to help them reconnect with nature- children particularly- it's difficult to willfully do harm to something that is familiar and wondrous.

And do so in a way that isn't righteous and off-putting.  It's a hard line to walk.

Yes, I will climb down off my soapbox now.

I guess we can be considered a bit crunchy too.  We use biodegradable/flushablecompostable diapers.  Eat locally & organically,  have a great garden, made our own babyfood.  Use re-usable shopping bags, walk/ride bikes/take public transportation as much as possible, make our own cleaning products.   We probably do more, but it has become so much a part of our daily lives (like recycling, does it even have to be mentioned?) that we don't even realize it can be considered "crunchy."

Schrothtastic didn't mention she's talking about roosting chickens.  That's bonus crunchy. 

I want chickens and pygmy goats but my husband won't let me :(

I think I border on slightly crunchy.  I own a townhouse, so I only actually own a very small piece of property around my building.  Therefore, I am limited in the amount that I can plant and I can't compost anything because the neighbors would have a fit. That being said I do have a very cute little pot garden that has been very productive.  I have cucumbers, tomatoes, dill, basil, parsley, petite bell peppers, and hot peppers.  Last night I had a very nice salad of my tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, some mozarrella cheese and a balsamic vinaigrette.  Yummy.

Plus I planted a pumpkin plan in my landscaping so it would weave it's way around the other fowers and bushes.  But so far it has been really wet in that spot and it looks like the plant is rotting :(  But I will keep my fingers crossed that I get at least one pumpkin out of it for the kids on Halloween.

Sunfall

J Gramacy Photography

http://jgramacy.zenfolio.com/

originally posted by eltonmom

Schrothtastic didn't mention she's talking about roosting chickens.  That's bonus crunchy. 

 

I want chickens and pygmy goats but my husband won't let me :(

Oh yeah! I forgot about that - we are planning on doing this next spring - we needed to fence in our yard and get things in shape before we could work on that!  Also, we have a lovely compost bin and I just put in a composter for dog  waste.  I had to dig a 4 foot deep hole (14" diameter), but it will be worth it!

OK, we've wrapped up our contest, and the winner is ... eltonmom! Thanks for your participation, everyone!!

jojabsMOM

Yippee! I'm so proud of my new title!