10 steps forward

This week Adrienne and I celebrated our third anniversary! As part of celebrating our marriage with you, we wanted to share 10 of the goofy (some more than others) things we do to live the daily life intentionally--- aware of the fact that our "small" actions impact our neighbors and can make a mess of the world.

Our 10

1. Cloth DiapersLook at this cute bum. From day four Ayla has been wearing cloth diapers. I can't even imagine totaling up how many times she gets changed (and Adrienne does it most of the time!). Multiply that number by how many babies are out there... and picture that pile of diapers sitting in your back yard. Not so cute...

2. Cloth Wipes

No out of site out of mind here... Just pick a piece of cloth (soaked in water, lavender, and almond oil) from the container on the left, do the dirty swipe, and toss into the green bucket in the hallway... wanna come over for dinner? The smell only sometimes gets noticeable, but this is worth it to keep endless amounts of wipes and packaging from the landfill, save resources used in producing and shipping wipes, and get to control what goes on our precious daughter's bootie.

3. Co-op food

In these containers are large bags of grains, beans, and nuts. Purchasing our food in bulk reduces packaging waste. Not all of the food is too local, but if not it usually is grown regionally (only states away versus countries). The real key is buying as local as possible, so the rice, kidney beans, and walnuts, are supplemented by local eggs and produce when available.

4. Reusing bags

Plastic bags may take second only to diapers in a count of items at a landfill (don't quote me). With a little effort they can be washed out, and then set to dry. It's true that we're cheap, so while it may sound good to say we don't want to add to the mass of the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch", we really just don't like spending money on plastic bags!

5. Composting

Not much new to say here except that by not throwing away food scraps we only need to set the trash out every 1-2 months while our recycling bin needs to be set out every week. just saying.

6. Less meatListen, meat is not bad. Adrienne and I actually desire to eat more meat! But even if we did decide to spend more money on meat and found a clean, pastured source, we would still limit meat to 2-3 meals a week. You may have heard that ethanol is causing food shortages around the world. The amount of corn used for fuel is nothing compared to the amount of corn being grown to feed our cattle addiction! Eating less meat could equate to putting some of our valuable cropland into other crops than just corn (or soybean).

7. Rooftop watering

This rain barrel fills up with water so fast that as soon as I realize it's storming, I look outside and find the water overflowing. Without nickel and diming you with numbers, let me just say that rooftops can generate heaps o' water---making a really happy garden and green lawn (if you like that sort of thing)!

8. Sinkwater flush

We gotta give thanks to the Simple Way for this simple idea. Unhook the drain pipe below your sink, throw a five-gallon bucket underneath and then when the toliet needs a flush (you know brown, flush it down) pour the water into the jon!

9. Alternative Transportation

I include this one even though we aren't practicing this too well currently. But when the truck is working and we take trips longer than 20 minutes you can smell french fries coming from our rear. ... also when my bike doesn't have a flat tire you can see my rear - flattened on a hard seat.

10. No TV

We just sit and talk about life and love, while staring into each others eyes, playing games, doing puzzles and writing letters... Ha, not true, that is a little too dreamy. We actually do watch some TV on the internet, and definitely waste time on email and the like. But, no TV is peaceful and truly does help give us a chance to live out loving our neighbor (and each other).