Saturday, January 3, 2009

Going Green(er)

Happy 2009, my blog-reading family! I hope you all were able to ring in the new year in style...which would somewhat make up for my lack of style as 2008 melded into 2009. Thanks to Bo's (our dog) extremely scaredy-cat nature when it comes to loud noises (such as people setting off fireworks for New Year's Eve), I was cleaning up his, uh-hem, urine, uh-hem, and actually watched the clock turn from 11:59 to 12:00 while throwing away a soaked paper towel. Not exactly what I had in mind to bring in the new year, but what can I say, life happens 24/7, so I just rolled with the punches!

On a brighter, and much happier note, Aaron delivered the first baby of 2009 in Corpus Christi! A beautiful baby girl, named Ava, who originally was due Christmas Day but came New Year's Day instead. There was an article in our local paper about it, and even though the baby's mother wanted Aaron's name to be mentioned as the doctor, the paper pretty much just focused on the baby and didn't mention his name...too bad, that would have been cool! Haha!

I'm sure many of you have thought about your resolutions for the new year, I know I have. It's just a good time to re-evaluate what you're doing, make some changes, start some new things, stop old things, etc. One of my resolutions is to "go green"...at least in some areas! The main thing that I have been focusing on at the moment is more natural type cleaners in our home. As Johnathan has made his way from the pack'n'play to the floor, I have been a lot more conscientious about what type of treatment I give the floors in order to keep them clean. Before Johnathan I really enjoyed products that smelled nice, pretty much disregarding what was actually in them. But, now that Baby J. is making his way all over the place, I have really started to want to make his environment be a more natural & healthy one. Yesterday I took a trip to our local health foods store, and bought some essential oils to use in some cleaning products I'm going to make (thanks to my friend, Lynsey, for that idea!) and I also purchased some other eco-friendly products for use in my home cleaning. I also de-paper-toweled my kitchen. I have been so addicted to using paper towels, but I am going to try to cure that and have another option in my kitchen now for when I feel the urge to rip, wipe and waste.

I'm not sure how far my whole green living is going to go...probably not as far as I'd like because Aaron already thinks I'm turning into a wacko, but we'll just see what 2009 has to offer my newly acquired sense of environmentally friendliness. Hopefully I'll be able to have a cleaner, safer home and maybe even save some green on the way. Whatever happens, I am really pumped about having a resolution that I think I can stick with! What are some of the resolutions y'all have??? I'd love to hear them!

Blessings in 2009!


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

How neat about Aaron delivering his first baby! We don't really do resolutions here but we're trying to have a more dust free and allergy free type house for my Mom's Asthma though. Happy New Year and hope 2009 is a good and blessed one Grace!

Gail said...

That's awesome, Grace! I have been resolved for some time now to make our living a more "greener" and healthier one. Slowly I am replacing our cleaning, food, and toiletry items with all natural or organic brands. So far I've been able to make the switch with: laundry detergent, bathroomm cleaner, cereal, milk, etc. food, toothpaste, skin care, shampoo and soap, and makeup! And today I bought a wonderful citrus dish detergent that is all natural with no harsh chemicals! I love going GREEN! More power to you!

Practically Ava said...

Grace,
Yay for going green! We have adjusted to some new ways of living within the last year! Thanks to my sis, she does all of the research and tells me what I need to do! ...I have to tell you I just got a Shark steam mop and , I LOVE IT! It is safe for all types of floors and uses water and steam to clean your floor( no chemicals!) AND not only does it clean your floors it actually sanitizes them. My floors looks amazing! We also did away with napkins, papertowels and paperplates! Have fun going green! It gets a little overwhelming!
Love
Kayla
PS so neat about Aaron delivering the first baby of 2009 in CC, I just love the babies name! haha

Anonymous said...

Well, I've decided to not eat fast-food for the month of January, which can be pretty hard when I'm on break from work and Sonic is right down the street!!! But way to go on going green! Love you!

Anonymous said...

Hey Gracie,

Loved your newest blog post...and way to go green! You definately start to think more than way when you have little kiddos touching all sorts of surfaces and crawling around. In the Super Baby Food book it has a lot of natural cleaning products you can make and ways to make your home more "green". Fun stuff!

Love you, Aaron, and Johnathan!

Gwen