To Be or Not To Be - Organic?

This is something I've been struggling with for a while. I know organic is often touted as being "better" but the price premiums on so many of the foods makes it just seem like too much money for too little benefit. As a parent of a baby/toddler this past year, I assuaged some of that guilt by buying as much organic foods for my daughter as possible, but left the 'regular' stuff for the adults.
I've been reading a lot about pros and cons of organic foodstuffs. My current thinking is that the most cost-effective way to get the health benefits of organic while staying within my grocery budget is to make informed purchasing decision. Sounds like common sense, right? It is, but it just takes time to do the research, and who has time? I've seen lots of lists on the web of which organic foods to "splurge" on and I'm collating a lot of that information here.
The first change I am going to make is to organic Dairy.

I found this info on The Daily Green.

"Pesticides and other man-made chemicals have been found in human breast milk, so it should come as no surprise that they have been found in dairy products. While any residues detected have been rare, and of low concentration, milk is of special concern because it is a staple of children's diets.
Organic dairies cannot feed their cows with grains grown with pesticides, nor can they use antibiotics or growth hormones like rGBH or rbST."

In addition, I've read from various sources that the hormones in dairy are being linked to early puberty rates in girls. WHOA. I am NOT okay with that. My daughter gets most of her protein from yogurt, cheese and milk and I shudder to think that there could be chemicals in that affecting her so deeply.

I went to our discount grocery and found 1/2 gallon of organic milk (2%) for $2.99. YIKES! I was buying a whole gallon of 'hormone milk' for $2.50. This one is going to hurt, but I would much rather spend the cash now than have it adversely affect my daughter's health.

I was thinking of ways to make this change budget-neutral. I thought about just posting "we'll buy one less liter of soda" but that would be a lie, since we don't normally buy soda and you, my readers, deserve full-on honesty. I think we'll buy less juice. I always swore my kid wouldn't be a juice addict, but when other caregivers come into play, you let some things slide. Once she discovered juice at daycare, I decided to give her some at home, too. I think we'll buy one bottle of juice each week, and when it's out, her options will just be water or milk (or mom's V8, which she loves, bless her heart!).

Something else to think about: The more demand there is for organic milk, the more producers will jump into the game. As that continues to happen, supply will increase and drive the price down. We're actually already seeing the benefits of our economic system in the widespread availability of organic foods.

We also buy organic yogurt from Stonyfield Farm Organic Yogurt. We can find it at our local grocery and big chains like Wal-Mart.

Happy Independence Day

We had a sunny, cool day (a rarity in July) today and enjoyed a nice, small-town parade and dinner with the extended family.
Because it's July 4th, I was thinking of my college friend who is currently serving our country on his second tour in Iraq (the picture at left is from his send-off party earlier this year). He read on my blog about the Shower Challenge, specifically the part where I wrote how I couldn't imagine turning off the water while I lathered up. He said that is what they are required to do for every shower. Well, if that didn't make me feel like a class-A whiner.

At the very least, it reminded me that the sacrifices made by the men & women in our Armed Services are so complete, it permeates every aspect of their daily lives. Not only are their lives at risk every day, but they are far from home, working without weekends or vacation days, without all the comforts of home, family, friends and possessions, and having every aspect of their lives governed and inspected.
So today I just wanted to send out a big "THANK YOU!" to all of the men and women who have served and are serving our country in the Armed Forces. You truly are heroes!

A Bright Idea and a Coincidence

Whatever the reason, I received my power bill in the mail today and it contained a nifty little sheet on the many wonders of the Compact Flourescent Light (CFL) bulb.
With credit to Ameren, here is what it said:

"Even one person switching to compact flouescent lighting will save money and give the environment a boost. If every American home replaced just one traditional bulb with an Energy Star-qualified CFL, we would save more than $600 million on annual energy bills and enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year. Why CFL's are a bright idea

• CFL's use 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs
• CFL's last up to 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs, and produce less heat
• You can save $30 to $60 over the life of each CFL bulb you install
• CFL's help reduce the demand for electricity, which in turn helps delay the need for new power plants."

We already have approximately 50% of our lights using CFL's. I made a trip to the local discount grocery and bought a single CFL bulb for under $2. Yes it's a little more than an incandescent, but it definitely more than makes up for it in energy bill savings. There really is no excuse NOT to use these nifty little bulbs.

Shower Challenge - Day 2 - Improvements all around?

Hmmm. What to make of this. First off, today *I* forgot to time my shower, but Husband remembered to time his. He apparently is sneaking peeks at this blog and suddenly decided on the day he times his shower to NOT shave until afterwards! He was pretty proud of his 3:42 shower. I have to admit, I was secretly impressed. It almost made me forget how annoyed I was that he only "half-listened" to my instructions (which was to time a 'normal' shower first).

It must have flustered me, because I forgot to time my shower. I know it was shorter than usual though, but that's only because of the psychic connection I share with my daughter. Yes, that's right. Allow me to explain: She has the uncanny ability to sense when I'm about to relax/take a shower/fall asleep and that is the exact moment she decides to wake-up crying. So this morning, as soon as I turned the faucet on, she let out a wail over the monitor. I hopped in and did an speed-suds-and-rinse routine and by the time I got out, she was back to sleep. I can't complain, though, because she slept a whole hour later than usual!

Tally: I'd have to say Husband and I were both under 5 minutes today, but I'm inclined to call it a fluke. We'll see how we fair tomorrow.

Shower Challenge - Day 1

Well, I accomplished half of my mission. I forgot to time my husbands, but I did time my shower this morning and it was right at 8 minutes. I'll be honest, that is A LOT better than what I thought it would be.

Just knowing I was timing it, I was thinking of what I could be doing differently. One thing I came up with was to wash my face in the sink, after I get out of the shower. That will save maybe 45 seconds or a minute? Hmmm. I was thinking 8 minutes was pretty good, but I'll be honest, I'm not sure about making it to 5 mintues.

Quick sidebar here: I've looked at some of the suggestions on other blogs. I've seen gems like "turn off the shower while you lather up your hair and body, then turn it back on to rinse"...um, no thank you. Can you imagine doing that in the winter?! Let's get real. This is what annoys me about so many of these Going Green blogs. Unless you are uber-dedicated and/or don't work outside the home, it's nearly impossible to achieve their standards of "green." Maybe I'll never be a nice, deep forrest green. I can be happy with chartreuse. I just want to keep it real, folks.

Okay, well, I'll take out my face-washing and try to streamline the shower process and see where that leaves me tomorrow...I'm always game for a challenge =)

Let's Take a Shower...

and make it shorter! (where did you think I was going with that?!)

I was reading on another "green mom" blog -apparently I've joined an army - about the idea of shortening your shower to 5 minutes. I currently have no idea how long I spend in the shower. All I know is that my shower's are shorter than my husband's! I am going to see if I can get him on board with my plan to shorten our showers for the month of July to only 5 minutes.
I think the biggest obstacle for both of us will be shaving, since we both do it with the water running (yes, I'm still talking about shaving.) I could easily let the tub fill while I shower and shave with the accumulated water. Maybe he could shave in the sink, post-shower (isn't that how guys are supposed to do it anyway?!)...

I'll have to time our showers tomorrow so we having a starting point to measure our progress against.
(I'll be honest, I'm doing this as a preemptive cop-out, because the thought of only 5 minutes to shower just sounds plain unreasonable. If I can't get it to 5, at least I'll be able to see how far we cut down.)

Anyone care to join me? Post your current shower length and we'll see what we can do!

An argument for the Green power of..*gasp*..Capitalism?

Yes, you read that right.
Capitalism. It's often a dirty word in the green scene. I'll spare the editorial or spouting of my (still-evolving) beliefs. Instead I would just like to cite an article that confirms something I had been observing. As the price of gas soars, as yet unhindered by government action, it is actually making 'green' goods more affordable (our Toyota Prius is no longer just a cool ride - it's an economical choice!).

Here is a summary of a Wall Street Journal article I read on WSJ.com:

With soaring energy prices pushing up the price of mainstream goods, green products are becoming just as-or even more-affordable than ever. The reason is that green products, by their very nature, have less fossil-fuel content than competing non-green brands. Their manufacturer also tends to consumer less oil, since green entrepreneurs favor renewable-energy and energy-saving practices. For example, Eco-Products, a company that makes compostable dinnerware, expects sales to jump this year to an estimated $50 million from about $11 million last year. Its products are made from a corn derivative rather than petroleum, which is standard in the industry. As a result, Eco-Products has been able to hold its prices steady while its competitors prices are going up. Similarly, TerraCycle, a maker of fertilizer from worm castings, plans to market an article fire log this winter that has a soy wax as a key component. Its biggest competitor makes a petroleum-based version.