Shouldn't it be Earth Day Everyday?

I pray for my fish who died.
I pray for my hamster that died.
I pray for the twin towers and the people that died.
I pray for planet Earth on Earth Day.
I pray for the world.

Lord hear our prayers and the prayers in our hearts. *

* The above were taken from the morning prayers in my daughter's first grade class. I happened to be in the school and noticed she was prayer leader, so I got to observe in the classroom. The prayers were followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and the singing of the Star Spangled Banner.

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Today my bloglines were filled with posts about Earth Day. I'll be the first to admit, I don't think of myself as a very "green" person, yet I find myself doing more and more "green" things. Most of them, I can say are subconscious.

• Last fall, we stopped using plastic grocery bags and got these reusable one's from Sephora. I can't say enough about them! We use them all the time. I still need to order an extra set. For those of you with TV Guide, they are the one's featured in this week's issue. Yes they are super strong. We can carry cans and bottles in them. For larger items, such as bottles of juice, I just forgo bags all together. Sure, it makes more trips carrying them in, but then I don't have a zillion bags all over the place. Or, if like yesterday, I'm buying totes (in this case, for the playroom) I just have them put everything in the box. Let me tell you, I get alot of odd looks when I say I don't want a bag for those 1-3 item trips!
• I support our local conservation district. In fact, I have a shipment of plants and bushes I need to pick up Friday. If you've read back through my previous posts, you'll notice that I spend alot of time in my gardens. They are nothing spectacular, but I've learned to view them as ongoing projects. It's great to see them grow year by year. As a person who likes to get things done immediately, it took me a while to appreciate their ever changing looks.
  
• I've tried in the past to grow veggies as well. And while I may not get enough to live off of for the summer, we get enough that we will try again this year. Our best crop is the wild raspberries which we can get bowls full of for two weeks straight at the end of June. What I can't grow, I like to buy at the local Farmer's Market in the summer. I cannot wait until they open again for the season!
• I'd like to try a rain barrel, but after researching and realizing that they need to be hooked up to a downspout for maximum benefit, it's just not feasible here. You see, our house runs off of solar hot water and all of the water from our roof run off is stored in collectors behind a wall in the basement. At least, that's what I'm told. I love having the solar system on the house, but would love to modernize it (it's one of the 70's type). Our next house will have a modern solar system which actually produces electricity.
• This year, we plan on adding a compost heap to the yard. We are not sure if we'll get a barrel or lay it out in a corner of the yard. I look forward to not needing to buy soil and compost each year!
  
• The kids have reusable sports bottles for sports as opposed to throw away plastic water bottles (I've checked and they are not the BPA #7 bottles) and they take lunch boxes packed with reusable containers as opposed to plastic bags for lunch. Even Husband does now as opposed to the grocery bags he used to bring. Sometimes, it's tricky trying to fit everything in, but we always manage.
• We recycle. Even the girls help with this.
  

I know there are other things we can do, like walk to school, but seriously, I can barely get out the door on time when I drive, so I doubt I'd be organized enough to walk. We've done it a few times, but with the three kids, it's more of a pain. We both drive, although Husband car pools and doesn't drive as often as he did. I'm trying to cut our errands to one trip so I'm not going back and forth. We still use paper napkins, although we have gotten out of our habit of using paper plates at home. We keep the heat up because I can't stand the cold.

But I've learned to accept that each small step helps. So things we may not do now, there may come a time in the future where that changes. That many of the things we do today, we didn't do a few short years ago. I like to hope that many of the things we do now, the girls will take with them and pass onto their families.

The videos were taken from YouTube and are lyrics by Jack Johnson (video number two by Jack Johnson and Ben Harper). The girls have a Curious George CD with those songs and love signing them. The other CD the girls like (although I have to admit, its a tad too earth crunchy for me) is Maria Sangiolo's Under the Mystic Sea. The lyrics are catchy and it gets the message across.