How I’m Celebrating Earth Day (with a little product placement)

My day will begin with a shower with a bar of Zum soap by Indigo Wild (all natural, aromatherapeutic) and a lather with Avalon Organics shampoo.  I’ll let my wash-and-wear haircut air dry while get dressed and brew a pot of Jim’s Organic Coffee for me and my husband to share.  It’s also Turn Off TV Week, so I’ve taped PBS–they aired Food, INC. and I’ll watch it next week to educate myself further about food production and the agriculture industry.   I glance out the window to gauge the weather and admire the flock of birds at our back yard bird feeder.  A bluebird catches my eye with his bright feathers.

The coffee’s on, my solar-powered radio has me tuned in to commercial-free NPR for news and good stories while I rouse my sons and feed them breakfast cereal, pouring milk out of returnable bottles.  After we eat, they dress and brush their teeth and walk to school.  I pay the electric bill–down 20% from last year at this time, both for the month and overall.  I muse over why our household’s electric consumption went down.  LED Christmas lights?  Refusing the use the clothes dryer?  Unplugging the fridge in the garage?  Installing power strips?  It doesn’t seem like our lifestyle has changed that much in the past year, but a 20% decrease is something to celebrate.

My youngest and I drive into Appleton to pick up the 50 tree seedlings we’ve purchased for this weekend.  We’ve planted trees on our property every spring since we bought it 8 years ago.  This year we’re planting two varieties of spruce trees to provide more  winter windbreaks and more shelter for the birds living near us year-round.  Our county conservation office sells trees every year for about .50 a seedling–what a deal!  On our grand total of 60 acres we’re preserving and restoring all kinds of natural habitats.  In the midst of urban sprawl, our property has become a sort of nature preserve.

Back home, we put the trees in the garage and read a few library books together.  Sharks are the popular topic these days, and that opens up a great discussion about the food chain and how humans are the worst predators of all.  What can we do to help sharks in Wisconsin?  Not much besides making sure we’re eating sustainable seafood.

The woman from the CRP arrives to survey our prairie and cool-season grass plantings.  We’ve got about 13 acres enrolled in the CRP, another 20 in a Managed Forest Program.  We get tax breaks and some incentives to manage a sustainable wetland/prairie/forest habitat.  We’d do it anyway, but it’s nice to have the support.

For lunch my son and I eat natural peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because it’s meatless and a side of carrots and apples.  Meat is so hard on the environment, skipping meat a few times a week is good for our health and the planet.  We do love to eat meat, but we try to be responsible.  The bread bag is empty, so I shake out the crumbs and put it beneath the sink with the other bags slated for recycling.  After I walk him to school, I get the mail.  The catalogs go straight to the recycle bin.  I log on my computer to answer emails, read blog posts, write and check the EcoEtsy Handmade Earth Day Auction.  I’m not buying anything unsustainable to celebrate Earth Day, I’m bidding on donated items that will make great gifts if I win them–the proceeds from this auction will go to the World Wildlife Fund.  After I power down my laptop, I clean a bathroom using Ecover and Bon Ami with an old towel repurposed as a rag.  I empty the compost into the pile outside and admire the tulips now blooming.  At 2:50 I head across the field on foot to retrieve my kids from school.  On the way home, we talk and I bend over to pick up the occasional trash blown onto our property.  We’ve already cleaned the fields and ditches, but there’s no end to the windblown litter.

After homework, playing outside and a pasta dish made with last year’s tomatoes (preserved in the freezer) and a dessert with last year’s strawberries, we drive to karate graduation seven miles away.  I bring along a refillable bottle of tap water in case anyone gets thirty.  Two boys  earn new belt ranks and afterwards we celebrate with ice cream at a local shop on the way home.  We end the day with The Drill (brush teeth, wash hands, change into pajamas), more reading of library books and a prayer before bedtime.   I let the cat in, scratch her back, scoop out the litter box (filled with compostable  Swheat Scoop Cat Litter) and feed her.  The can from her food goes into the recycle bin and I get ready for bed.

My day ends beneath the glow of a bedside lamp while I read.  Reflecting on how I’ve spent Earth Day, I wince at the impact of driving on the environment.  Living in a rural setting gives us no real option, and I do cluster our errands so that I drive as little as possible.  Our consumption is minimal–mostly food.  Aside from the EcoEtsy Earth Day Auction, I bought ice cream cones (consumable) and trees (sustainable).  My energy use included a gas-powered car, a solar-powered radio, electric-powered lights, appliances and laptop.  Nothing went into the trash can except for the plastic lid of an empty glass milk bottle, the litter on our property, and the napkins from our ice cream cones.

Why am I sharing this silly personal account of my day?  It’s to show that sometimes the best way to honor our planet is to tread lightly upon it.  Earth Day isn’t about flying to a nationwide summit, buying greenwashed products (spending money) or adding more work and activities to our already very busy lives.    We can celebrate Earth Day every day with simple actions–choosing to use more sustainable cleaning products and eating more sustainable food resources.  We can unplug by choosing to plant a tree or read a book, fill a bird feeder or play in the yard.  We can take a walk, shop less, ingest less advertising, admire more natural beauty.  Some Eco Warriors are on the front lines, rallying support for bike trails or protecting wildlife habitats.  Maybe that’s your style as an Eco Warrior.  Some of us are behind the scenes, planting gardens and trees, picking up other people’s litter and refilling our reusable water bottles.  Either way, your actions leave an impact and teach the younger generations good (or bad) habits and lifestyle choices.

To celebrate Earth Day and Eco Warriors of all sizes and styles, the Eco Women are giving away one canvas tote.   One way we can all can be green is to quit using plastic shopping bags.  That’s right, give them up cold turkey.  The Eco Women are giving away one of their canvas shopping totes to help one lucky Eco Warrior do just that. Whether your keep it for your own farm market trips or gift it to a friend who needs a little prompting to be greener, you can enter to win the tote by leaving a comment any day this week.   And stay tuned all week as the Eco Women celebrate Earth Day and share tips on how to be green.