What do you want out of life? Eco-Friendly-Ness

Late last year, I came across an exercise often performed by the "highly successful" and it seemed like a good idea to go ahead and do it myself. Its a handy little list, worked in reverse chronology, to help you get to the end you seek. So I started with 3 things that I wanted out of life before I die. (Of course, my list assumes I will live a nice long and healthy life, and I am pretty sure I am not that lucky, but I'll go with it, just in case.) Then I repeated it for different time points. It helps break down major life goals into smaller, more manageable pieces. For me, it also helped me delineate what was most important to me, rather than those things I am working towards because it is most important to someone else.

One of the items on my list was to improve my family's "green" factor. I have always been more crunchy than people would think, and this is a part of my life that has fallen to the wayside during all the upheaval of the past few years, (more on THAT some other day). I finally decided to go for it. Here's how I have begun.

Diapering:
I have two kids in diapers. We were spending about 3 dollars a day on disposables. Then there's the wipes. And the fact that those poopy bombs will be festering away on this planet for generations to come. It bothers me, but I am also very much "have babies will travel". We do not spend much time just sitting around. I needed an alternative to plastics, but was not prepared to go fully cloth, (although sometimes I still dream about this very idea. I will admit, in my dreams, no one ever poops on the floor and then crawls through it before I can get to them. No one ever poops in public as a matter of fact, among other totally unrealistic notions.) Anyway, I stumbled across a HYBRID diaper. I just LOVE this concept. No one was ready for the electric car, but we have accepted hybrids into our driveways, why not do the same for our babies bottoms? They are called g-Diapers, ( http://www.gdiapers.com/ ), and not only are they biodegradable and compostable, (maybe not so much the poopy ones), but you can FLUSH then down the toilet. Now that's where the poop belongs! I converted both the little stinkers and I am just so pleased. Now, I am still experimenting with cloth diapering and considering EC'ing, (not quite ready to try that one, what with my poop all day long babies), but I just love having this option up and running in my house. Its just so easy, and PORTABLE, and environmentally friendly. I am pleased as punch, to use an expression I don't really understand at all. Besides all of that, the diapers are adorable, and my son just LOVES his orange diaper, (and he reminds me of that every day). And cost-wise, once you have all the reusable bits, the "flushie", (that's the part that you toss), is not really anymore expensive than your regular, brand name disposable diaper. Of course, we were using no-name-buy-one-get-one-free diapers, but the difference in cost is minimal compared to the lesson I am teaching my children. Or at least that's how it works inside my head.