green is my favorite color

John has always feared me turning into a crunchy granola hippie. Perhaps his fears are well grounded. I do love me some yogurt, alfalfa sprouts are delicious and I recycled long before it was ever cool to do so. This tendency has made John nervous at times (he once admitted that his greatest turn-off in a woman being attractive? was if she was a practicing vegetarian. yeah.) and when we first moved to this notoriously liberal town he warned me
"now just don't get all...you know...fruity"

I love trees (and have hugged a few), raise chickens for hormone free eggs, and will happily spend hours picking out organic veggies and enjoying the art and music of our local Saturday Market. Lately I am exploring non-toxic ways to clean house, learning to knit and ridding our house of plastic dishes. Yet no matter how many eco-friendly habits I incorporate I will never be a liberal hippie-chick. Why? Because the difference is in the fact that these things, to me, are not spiritual issues, but practical ones. My firm belief in the Bible as inerrant and holy means that I automatically disagree with the new age spirituality and liberal philosophies found everywhere in this town---it's in our newspapers, on our street corners, in our city leadership. And it is more and more common that the same people who preach tolerance have a clearly double standard when it comes to christian beliefs-somehow it has become the only belief system that isn't tolerated or allowed a voice. So how does a woman like me, with such conservative political opinions and old fashioned religious beliefs, feel comfortable in a city that is notorious for producing free-thinking, hemp wearing radicals? It is because while my core values are quite different than your average hippie, we do agree on some critical areas.

What they call "Tolerance or live and let live" I call Grace.
What they call loving Mother Earth, I call being a good steward of God's creation.

So in the interest of pursuing health and vitality in all areas-(physically, emotionally, spiritually)I thought I would share a few of the changes I've been making around the house. They are small, baby steps to green living but they feel good, they aren't too difficult, and they might be interesting to two or three of you out there...?

First of all I gave up my beloved Clorox Kitchen Spray. I love me some bleach! Just so satisfying to spray that stuff and KNOW that any germs on my counter? now dead. "Take that, e. coli. You don't mess with me." I also like the smell of bleach, it feels clean and sanitary. However, I don't like the bleach spots on my shirts, right at counter height. And when I read this article (and others) about the harmful effects of such toxic cleaners in the home: http://www.health-report.co.uk/toxic_household_chemicals.htm
I was ready to start searching for alternatives. I looked into making my own (and might eventually, to save money) but vinegar seems to be the choice ingredient in all of these recipes. And vinegar just doesn't smell clean to me. Vinegar smells like dyeing Easter eggs or a good spinach salad but not spring cleaning fresh. But THIS does:

Mrs. Meyers Clean Day in Lemon Verbena. Its safe enough to EAT, cleans really well, no bleach spots on my shirt and best of all? The smell is this lively, citrus-y grassy Summer day heaven! I like it even better than my old favorite Clorox.

Next up? My dishes. Turns out my love for vintage china meant I was potentially feeding my children small doses of lead? No way. But according to this study, it was highly likely: http://www.kutv.com/sites/kutv/content/documents/lead-plates-results.pdf A friend sent me this link, where they studied lead amounts in various dishes. I had heard about this years ago and so I had been dutifully avoiding all colored plates, dishes from China or Mexico, and plates with a chalky glaze. I had no idea that my Walmart coffee cups, my 1940s everyday brown transferware and even-gasp!-our plain white Corelle had all tested positive. Box those dishes up! I spend far too much time educating these boys to risk lead killing off even one brain cell. No need to make my job harder! This same friend (who is not a crunchy granola type, and because of her non-fanaticism, I trust what she passes along) shared some info about plastics, BPA leaching, etc. So I started looking around and read a few things on this site: http://www.lifewithoutplastic.com/

So next, I started boxing the plastic items up. John just shook his head. "Oh geez. here we go again." He feels I take things like this too far but he is kind and generous towards me, and knows how seriously I take my role as Mom. He also knows I am frugal enough that this change won't cost him much, so he indulges me, even when he thinks I am being silly. I appreciate that. So, I looked all over the Internet and found the dishes that fit our taste and budget perfectly. Clear Glass. Lead is non-existent (except, of course, in leaded glass crystal but we aren't the Trumps so no risk of our eating off that stuff).

It took a few trips to the various thrift stores (oh, how difficult a chore! not.) but I eventually replaced all of our dishes. The kids liked picking out their favorite shapes in juice cups (3 for a $1 at St. Vincent de Paul) Picked up a bunch of clear glass mason jars with a handle-remember those? for .49 each...perfect for their morning cocoa. God provided a nice set of 13 (why not 12? weird!) large glass dinner plates for .99 each, with an additional half off, at the Goodwill. The Dollar Tree has nice big cereal bowls for yup-you guessed right-$1.00. I am very picky about my coffee cups, so it took awhile, but BiMart (of all places!?) had the perfect (meaning round, fat and able to hold more than 6 oz. of french roast please) coffee mugs at $2.19 each, so they were my most expensive purchase.

Now the top shelf of the dishwasher groans under the weight of all that glass. And we have already broken one dish, of course. Since they are so easily replaced, it's all okay. I feel good knowing my kids can lick their plates, and even lick the counters (and they are boys-they will do it without hesitation if pancake syrup drips). So lick away kids! There is no Clorox, no lead, no BPAs lying there silently, waiting to slip into your cells and wreak havoc. I'll adjust my Supermom cape (sewed myself from recycled green hemp) and move on to the next danger.

...hmmm, Rebeca has mentioned microwaves aren't safe...how far will John allow me to run with this?!