One Small Change – March

March 2, 2010June 10, 2011 Angela Pea3 Comments

I have joined Hip Mountain Mama’s One Small Change challenge for 2010. The challenge is to make one change each month leading up to Earth Day, April 22. It can be small or it can be huge, something I will do to make a positive green impact and follow through with it.

Note to My Family – I’ll be dragging you along with me!

If every one of my readers would make four changes between January and April, can you just imagine the effect? If you want to be a part of this amazing and life changing challenge, pop over to One Small Change for details.

Our one small change for March is to complete the switch to CFL’s. I replaced all of the regular bulbs in the house with CFL’s a couple of years ago, but I was holding back on replacing the indoor and outdoor floodlights – at roughly $22 a pop, this was going to pinch a bit! However, during our freak snowstorm a few weeks ago with subfreezing temperatures, our aged outdoor floodlights bit the dust. I hopped right over to WallyWorld (WalMart to you northerners) with the intent of buying outdoor CFL’s. Imagine my delighted suprise to see that the prices on all CFL floodlights have come down quite a bit!

I’ve now replaced all of the outdoor lights, the indoor floodlights, and even the indoor spotlights, and our home is now illuminated 100% with CFL’s – and natural sunlight, of course.

I’m pleased to report that we have returned to our regular winter temperatures for north central Texas. It’s a balmy 57 degrees today, and the sun is shining in a bright blue sky!

Image courtesy of www.bulborama.com

Uncategorized

One Small Change – Cloth Napkins!

February 17, 2010June 10, 2011 Angela Pea7 Comments

Note to My Family – I’ll be dragging you along with me!

My One Small Change for February is cloth napkins. The last paper napkin in our house was used on February 9, and I hereby refuse to ever buy them again, even for parties or picnics.

I already had a few (ahem, ten total) cloth napkins in the linen closet, so I pulled them out and put them in the kitchen. Since we are a family of six, I thought we could use a few more napkins. I thrifted a plaid cotton table cloth, whacked it into napkin sized squares and voila! We now a grand total of twenty-eight cloth napkins, all placed in a lovely basket on the kitchen counter, and we are using them at every meal. I have to confess – they don’t really NEED to be laundered every day. Most of the time simply shaking the crumbs into the trash is perfectly fine, and the napkin can go back into the basket to wait for the next meal.

The best part? That plaid tablecloth was a big one, and in addition to the eighteen napkins, I also made a matching table runner. Nice.