Wait... You Did What with What?

   If you have a cat, I'm going to guess that you have to buy kitty litter. Be it in spades or in buckets, the litter comes home, gets used for it's dirty purpose, and gets thrown out like yesterday's news. Now, while there are many New, Improved and Environmentally Friendly litter options on the market nowadays, I'm not writing about them... At least not in this post.

   Ok, so why would I bring up kitty litter, then?? o.0

   Because of the litter (Tidy Cats brand, for one) that comes in those big plastic buckets, of course!

   Y'know, we all have stuff... And we all need places to stuff that stuff. That's where these buckets come in handy; Around our house we use these kitty litter buckets for everything from, well, putting the dirty kitty litter in, to organization in my husband's workshop.

   They are the perfect size for ropes, bungee cables, a variety of tools, rags and all the what-have-it that clutters up the workshops of the world. They also happen to stack very neatly and conveniently, so that your storage bins don't end up looking more like more clutter than like the phenomenal organization system they are. AND if you aren't particularly attached to their stylish outward appearance, they can be painted any color you may prefer! (we found this out when we painted one green to become a Leprechaun house for one of our son's school projects).

   I guess this just goes to show that even something so lowly as a kitty litter bucket can aspire to greatness!

Really, more about me? Well, OK!

   I know, I know... I've already done a brief blurb of introduction for myself but, after reading my initial posts, my husband suggested that I give a little more detail as to why I started this blog.
   So here's the grits -
   I'm a soon-to-be 34 year-old mother of 3 fantastic kiddos. We live in Santa Cruz, CA...

   I have lived here for almost my whole life - I grew up in the little mountain community of Bonny Doon (smack dab between the "-nport" and "Felton" dots on this map), surrounded by majestic Redwoods and wildlife galore. I moved away from Santa Cruz in 2000 to finish out my college career in Southern Cali, returned briefly in 2002, but then met and moved in with the man who would become my husband. We did a stint of living & working in the San Jose/Sunnyvale area for several years, then moved back to Bonny Doon in 2008 after our first two kids had been born. This move was driven by financial reasons (Hubby had been laid off and we couldn't cover our rent anymore) but, for me at least, also had to do with the fact that I just couldn't imagine raising my kids in the Silicon Valley.

   I tend to think of Santa Cruz as being a lot like a great big bowl of Social Granola. This one, sleepy little town is chock-full of a wide variety of interesting and colorful people. It is, probably most notably, a college town - home to UC Santa Cruz, of course (go Banana Slugs!!) - But we also have a pretty nice selection of these folks...

                       Mixed with a few too many of these ones...

                                            Then you add in quite a few of these guys...

And all sorts of these folks...

 Who, more often than not, end up looking/feeling/sounding more like this...

...to the rest of us.

   So, why try to go Green-er, you may be wondering. Have I finally given in to the Green Bullies? Am I going to morph into some pretentious, self-righteous Green Preacher? Will you find me stalking about the vast wasteland of a Toyota lot, hunting for a Prius I can't afford? No. Um, no. And HeCK no!
   Like many of us, I have been bombarded with produce, products and prophets proclaiming the benefits of Green Living. While I don't doubt that going green is what's best for myself, my family and my planet, I don't subscribe to the notion that it has to be painfully expensive, or that I'm some horrible monster who is single-handedly going to bring about the demise of our planet by not going 100% green RIGHT NOW.
   What I'm searching for is the middle-ground... The Promised Land, if you will.
   What this means for me, personally, is finding ways to be more earth-conscious and eco-friendly in my everyday life without breaking the bank. I'm not looking to switch my family's wardrobe to all-hemp clothing, to spend half-again as much money on products and produce labeled as organic, or to fall prey to any of the other ploys in the vast sea of Trendy Green Living items that are flooding our supermarkets.
   Now, before you start sputtering like the little teapot thinking that I'm spewing blasphemous venom against mainstream Green products, I reiterate that I definitely do believe in these earth-conscious & eco-friendly products, and the good they can and will do for our planet. However <comma-slash> what I'm more concerned with is looking for ways to re-use and/or recycle things I already have in my home, reduce the amount of waste leaving my home, and to overall lessen my family's impact on the planet.
   In short, you won't find me acting Greener Than Thou. I'm just happy to be doing my part... And, just maybe, helping others find convenient, easy and affordable ways to do their part, too!

Is Thrifting Green? o.0

   I donate to, and spend a lot of time shopping at, the many second-hand and thrift stores here in Santa Cruz. This "habit" of mine started when I was in High School & first started buying my own clothes, and has not only continued into my adult life, but has become my main means of outfitting my family. Just recently, though, I've found myself wondering whether this habit of mine would be considered "green".

   Here's my take on it - Yes!

   "But why, Lydia? Nothing is getting reused/reduced/recycled, composted or turned into a Prius!"
   Well - the way I see it is - where would all of these things that we can't/won't/don't want to use anymore end up if we didn't donate them to thrift stores, give them to gently-used stores or try to sell them at consignment shops?
   My guess is that they would end up in our landfills. My kids grow out of clothes at an alarming rate and, although we recently had our third baby, I don't have the ability or space to store this clothing for 5 years, or so, until Tempest is big enough to wear them -- So I donate them!

   My thrift store of choice is The Abbot's Thrift in Felton. 

   As long as donation items are in reasonably good condition (and really, how big of a meany would one need to be to try and donate something that's trashed?!), they aren't picky about what types of items are donated (oh, and they positively love books!!).

   The other benefit to thrift store shopping, of course, is that it meshes very well with my increasingly-apparent-cheap-bone. Knowing that I can clothe my family on a shoe-string budget is a great feeling! Knowing that clothes my kids can't wear anymore will be worn and loved by other kids is also a great feeling! And knowing that these clothes aren't being thrown away to rot in a landfill is a pretty darn great feeling, too!

   So, in closing, not only is thrifting good for the environment, it gives you a chance to make the Abbot's Kitty smile.

Are you up to the challenge?

gDiapers... Who knew?!

   I recently had a baby - my third - and automatically started using traditional disposable diapers. I've used darn near every brand out there, having greater success with some than with others, but always sticking to the disposables. When my other two kids were younger, I had several friends and (I'm sure) well-meaning strangers suggest that I try cloth diapers. While I could appreciate that this option wouldn't create land-fill waste, I couldn't get around the increased cost of them, let alone the increased water and electricity usage of having more frequent loads of laundry to run (both of my older kids went through diapers at a rather astounding rate). These same proponents of cloth diapers suggested using a diaper service, which was still more cost I couldn't afford. So we stuck with the disposables.

   Fast-forward 5 1/2 years: I'm about to have my third baby and, as a baby shower gift, I received a set of gDiapers.
   "Golly gee, Lydia, what are gDiapers?" you might find yourself asking.
   To which I'd answer: I sure am glad you asked! gDiapers are this nifty cross-over, hybrid disposable/cloth diaper thingamajig that's really quite brilliant, in my opinion. They consist of three parts: a cloth outer "gPants", a removable plastic inner lining, and a disposable/compostable/flushable insert. So even though I'm still, technically, using disposable diapers, what I'm disposing of is a biodegradable fluffed wood pulp insert. Everything else is washable and re-usable.

   I had a friend who is expecting her first baby up for dinner the other night and actually found myself showing off my daughter's diaper, talking about gDiapers, and demonstrating how it all goes together... o.0 Yes, really.
   In fact, here are some of my favorite pictures of Tempest rockin' her gDiapers!

"Genuine, Green, Groovy, Gorgeous, Giggle, Giddy, Grassroots, Growing, Grateful, Gazing" (that's what all those tiny little words on her diaper say...):

 Stylish green:

 And "pumpkin butt":

   I'm absolutely in love with this product, and it's definitely easing me gently into the world of Green Mommying, but why take my word for it? Check out gDiapers yourself! ;-)

/close sales pitch

Let's Get Green...ish!

I'm not normally what you would think of as a "green mama" - I don't grow my own vegetables, buy organic, or drive a cute little hybrid box of a car - But I certainly do recycle more than I throw away, have one heck of an awesome compost pile (no, it's not in some pretty little decorative planter-box-thingy, it's just a pile as far away from our house as we could get it) and, probably most importantly, I worry about the world I'll be leaving my kids... And their kids... And theirs! To that end, I'm working diligently to do my part to protect Mother Earth and her inhabitants, and to teach my kids to do the same - Although they are often the ones teaching me! Everything that comes into our house comes with the question of how it can be recycled, reused or re-purposed... Which is awesome, awe-inspiring and, usually, migraine-inducing!

I'm still testing the waters and feeling my way through this whole Green thing, and I figure a lot of my friends are too, so I wanted to start this blog as a place to record my ideas, tests, trials, successes and failures as I work toward making my little corner of the world a better, more Greener place to live.

Cheers!