Monday, September 14, 2009

If you know me, you know I hate change

Change. That dreaded C word.


I've been doing a lot of thinking over the past, oh, 6 months or so (maybe longer) about stewardship. (Does anyone else think of the creepy guy from LOTR Return of the King when you see the word steward? No? Yeah, it's just me, I'm a closet dweeb.) To me, being a good steward is about more than just thinking before you buy stuff. It's about taking care of what you have, be it your car, your house, or the beautiful place we call Earth.


The hard part it, it's a lot easier to THINK you need to be a good steward of these things than to make the changes necessary to actually make it happen. Honestly, I have a hard time making myself even step outside to the recycling bin.


Take Costco, for example. I often pride myself on going there because buying food in bulk saves money. (By the way, I wish I had a video camera when I came home from shopping at Costco while our friends were visiting from Germany. Me: "Look guys, American grocery shopping!" Eurepeans don't buy double packs of gallon sized apple juice, or giagantic bags of spinach. Andy held up the spinach bag and said in disbelief, "Salad?!") But have you ever notice just how much packaging there is for some of that Costco stuff? It makes me crazy...and mad. A lot of that stuff gets shipped from so far away, too. You save enough money on some items though that it's worth it.


I'm really interested in "green" cleaning. I'm also terrified of chicken juice (read: germs and virusus and salmonella) on my countertop. Does vinegar really get it as clean as Fantastik? Just the names make it hard to change!


Here are the things about my life that I would like to (eventually) change:

1. Use only natural cleaning products

2. Buy only cage-free (preferably free-range, ulitmately my own) eggs

3. Drink only organic milk

4. Be a part of a summer vegetable co-op

5. Buy free-range meat from a local butcher

6. Have a huge garden and learn to can

7. Eat as little processed food as possible (this I'm fairly good at; being gluten-free helps)

8. Buy organic, free-trade sugar, coffee and chocolate (sugar and coffee are easy; chocolate...)


Here are a few interesting articles on all of this:



Owl Haven (This is a blog I really like. This woman has a large family of 10 children, 6 of whom are adopted. She's currently doing a challenge to spend under $75/week on groceries. While I tend to think she might rely a little too heavily on bread and other white-flour fillers, they also have a huge garden and do tons of organic growing and canning. They also have their own chickens and cows.)

YOLO (My friend Caitlin's blog about working with the Peace Corps. Her post today was partially about eating unprocessed food.)


And now, I'm off to buy a cup of tea at lunch, because I forgot to bring a cup to school. Sigh. The cost of convenience today? $2. And I have to walk next door!


Speaking of convenience, I find that my car, which is supposed is one of the most incredible conveniences of modern day and of which I am unendingly grateful for, tends to not be so convenient when it takes me 55 minutes to get to work.

Convenience certainly is costly.

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