my soft spot

just a mom who plays hockey and knits

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Carbon Fast, Day 2

I looked around for ideas on what to do this Lent--what to give up or what to add. Meaningful choices in the past were giving up meat (not so bad), alcohol (pretty easy), or sugar (incredibly, massively hard). I also wanted it to be something we could do as a family.

The UCC emails talked about a carbon fast, but in such nebulous terms that I couldn't grasp it (carbon is in everything alive; we're certainly not giving up food, nor giving up breathing out carbon dioxide). Then a friend sent me a link to a series of small steps one could take this Lent.

I skipped the first step--I love my light, although I'm thinking of replacing a bulb with a CF (which I current don't much care for--I'm clumsy, and breaking these means spilling a tiny amount of mercury, the safe level of which has never been established). But I did go home at lunch yesterday, and came back on my bike. And when we went to the Ash Wednesday service at my church, we walked instead of driving. Win!

This morning, I got us out of the house in time to walk to school, getting DS there 5 minutes before the bell. Took the dogs with us. Several wins: kid to school on time, kid gets morning exercise, car doesn't get driven, dogs get exercise, I get exercise, dog poop in a trash can instead of our yard, and I get back home in time to be able to bike to work.

I love any incentive to make a change that improves our life, and the world.

1 Comments:

At 9:32 AM, March 10, 2011, Blogger McJedi said...

Way to go, Jennie! Your morning sounds like it got off to a great start, and the time you took to leave early more than made up for by the multi-tasking you did as a result!

That site had some great ideas...given infinite money, I'd do a lot of them just to prep this house for the people moving in, so their water heater will already be insulated, turned down, etc. The contractors are installing low-energy bulbs when they're replacing light fixtures, without asking, which I really like. I'm re-using boxes where I can; getting some from other people, packing knickknacks into ice chests, using my well-loved plastic boxes, using blankets for padding and thinking about what *really* needs protecting (or not), etc.

You go, girl, and keep us posted -- you're inspiring change and making people feel better about investing in a greener choice. :-D

 

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