A Day In The Life
nothing special, just a working mom and wife trying to simplify life as much as possible with little time and even less money. it perplexes me that “green” items are often so expensive when, in fact, a truly green lifestyle should save you money. for no particular reason, i have decided to chronicle my everyday adventures (and misadventures) in “greening”, cleaning, cooking, and everything in between.
note: my husband is an omnivore, my son is an 18-month-old lacto-ovo vegetarian (which I catch heck from everyone for), and i am a health nut striving for a stricter vegan lifestyle.
friday, july 17, 2009:
my husband is technically “off” today, but for a minister that is never true. he has a lunch meeting with a youth volunteer (to which my son and i are cordially not invited), so i’m in a bit of a hurry to get some housework and cooking done, get off to whole foods, and get home in time for him to take the car to his meeting (we only have one car – how i’d love to live somewhere we could just walk or ride bikes anywhere we need to go!!).
*for dishes, i like the simplicity brand of dishwasher soap and lemishine to help with the hard water effects. i buy both of those at wal-mart (so sue me, i’m on a tight budget).
*for laundry, i have as of late been using the HEB version of gain laundry detergent. it’s phosphate free, and i get a discount. we don’t have a dryer, so we go through lots of fabric softener. i have been using whatever softener is the cheapest, and it doesn’t always work well. does anyone have a recipe for a homemade fabric softener that might be cheaper and a little less chemically?
i would rate whole foods number one on a list of stores where my son is most likely to act up and make a fool of himself. he didn’t do too badly today, but I was still embarrassed. we picked up some soy cheese, some new conditioner, some organic all-purpose soap for the kitchen (lemon scent), and a can of Zevia, a new stevia sweetened soda on the market. Zevia is tasty, but not very sweet; it’s good for me, maybe not so much for regular soda drinkers. has anyone else tried it?
notes for the day:
this long nasty drought we’ve had this summer puts me in mind of water conservation techniques i learned during my time in venezuela. if i’d had a rain barrel on the back porch last night, i probably could have caught some usable water, as it rained for the first time in months. i think the rain barrel is an excellent idea, if you have a porch for it and are diligent enough to keep it clean. just purchase and sterilize a large plastic garbage can and tight fitting lid. cut a small hole in the lid and fit it with a large funnel to catch as much of the rain as possible. this water is for any of the million tasks we run water for everyday except drinking and cooking.
we’ve had a difficult time keeping the apartment a livable temperature in this blazing heat. still, we try to stick to 75 degrees on the thermostat in the summer and 70 during the winter. it has certainly cut into my ability to make foods from scratch, as it’s out of the question to heat up the oven on most days. i’m always looking for no-cook dinner ideas (keeping in mind my family’s diverse taste) – does anyone have any tasty, nutritious summer dinner ideas? (we have no grill here in our apartment, and we already eat our fill of salads.)
a momentous occasion as our son has demolished his first pack of crayons. rather than throw the bits of crayon away, I’ve decided to make those little crayon cookies I used to play with at children’s church. this idea is as old as crayons, and definitely not mine, but worth passing along!
crayon cookies
with an old knife, chop the crayons into small bits and stir together in a medium bowl. pour into mini muffin tins lined with foil cups. melt in the oven at 350degrees (should take 10minutes or less). remove from the oven and cool completely before removing foil wrap. fun times!
July 21st, 2009 at 9:19 pm
i agree with the financial woes of going green. we buy what we can (as far as cleaning and paper products) that are environmentally friendly and recycle what we can. we buy several products made by seventh generation, but lately our grocery store began selling some of their own, which are cheaper and we earn gas discounts for shopping there. no complaints over that! i also happily found somewhere that recycles batteries and energy saver bulbs. i’m not industrious enough to make my own cleaners (though i suppose if i knew how to i might give it a go) with the exception of what’s needed to unclog drains. i just can’t justify dumping crazy stuff down the drain anymore. oh, i did start using vegan soap last year called Dirty Hippie Soap and i will say that it’s my favorite soap ever. they also make balms (also great) and bug spray (which i’m not outdoors enough to need). if i could find vegan makeup that i like, i would switch. i’m not going to stop eating animals (and we try to buy hormone-free as often as we can), but i see no need to have animal products in my soaps or other products. i’ll also say that organic milk tastes much much better. of course, anything without preservatives, artificial flavors and chemicals tastes ten times better. waiting for everyone else to agree and drive the prices down. ^^ sorry i can’t really answer any of your questions, but awesome start to your blog!
July 21st, 2009 at 11:12 pm
thank you for the feedback! very soon i will be posting my recipes for homemade cleaners made from food grade products. you’ll have to let me know if you get a chance to try them out!
July 22nd, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Hey Sarah,
Here is a great no-oven idea…crock pot!!! Uses less electricity, doesn’t heat the house, but makes it smell WONDERFUL!!!!!
Hey also, if you ever wanna go to Costco with me to browse for products that you all might or could or would use, let me know. I have a membership there
July 22nd, 2009 at 9:56 pm
Hey I enjoy reading this! You’re doing a great job and it’s really interesting.