If you haven’t heard, it’s Earth Day 2009! Hopefully, you haven’t waited until today to live green in your home.
One of the most anticipated things about Earth Day 2009 is the opening of the film “earth” by Disney Nature. I’m sure most of you have seen the trailers by now. I was able to get a sneak preview of the movie. It was great! Take your children because they’ll enjoy the beautiful cinematography and the touch of humor. Beware it does tell the story of the “circle of life” so there are some scenes that may need explaining. Overall, it is a great film. Hopefully, you will use it as a way to start teaching your little ones about the importance of taking care of our earth and the animals who inhabit it.
Princess really enjoyed the movie. She couldn’t stop talking about what she was seeing, especially since she loves all things animals. Practically every question was, “Mommy, what’s that?” It’s a good thing that there were a lot of children in the movie theater. Sadly, I couldn’t name all the animals in the movie so I’d say something like, “I think it’s a ox or I think it’s a monkey?”
I think there’s a promotion going on now to celebrate Earth Day. If you purchase a ticket, Disney will plant a tree in your honor. That’s a great idea!
Besides taking advantage of the movie, I hope your family has tried to “green” up your lifestyle. So what have we done in our home?
- Changed our lightbulbs to CFLs
- Recycle all items that can be recycled
- Reuse or repurpose other items – sometimes we pass things on to other people who may benefit from our things, esp. baby items like our glider and swing
- Attaching a timer to our water heater
- Turning off lights when we’re not in the room
- Turning off the water when we’re brushing our teeth
- Buying/Using green, natural, sustainable, or organic products whenever possible
- Buying local produce when possible
- Try to eat meatless at least once a week
- Energy Star appliances – hooray, we did get our washing machine fixed. The Calypso washing machine used less water than the traditional agitator type machine.
I may be missing some other things but that’s most of it. The one thing that I wish we could do but haven’t is to install a solar water heater. Our home is older and the roof is older too. There is a little concern about the roof being able to support a solar water heater. If money were no issue, I would even like to install those photovoltaic panels.
What have you and your family been doing to live green? Any suggestions?
Confessions of a Middleagedmom 