Today it’s time for part two of our Green Goals Seminannual Checkup. On Monday, we looked at the goals that we set in our home lives. Today, we’ll look at the goals we set for our personal lives. Really, these two categories contain a lot of overlap, but it was the best way I could think of to organize all the options.
So, without further ado, let’s get started!
Our family’s personal goals were to eat more food from local sources. Honestly, I will say that other than eating food from our garden, we haven’t done as well as I would like in this area. Where I live, local food is very expensive. I believe that buying local, fresh food is an investment in your health that will pay off in the long run, but it can still be difficult to come up with that room in your budget.
However, the year is not over yet! I think we are in a position to make some changes soon. We used to purchase local milk and eggs, in addition to belonging to a CSA. Those are all things that we had to set aside for awhile, but hopefully we will be back on track in the next few months. I’ll keep you posted.
Here’s a reminder of some of the areas where we set personal goals.
Photo by Tammy
1. Eat More Local Food
- Learn all about Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).
- Read about the local vs. organic debate and which one is “better.”
- Amy brought us great tips for getting the most out of the farmers’ market.
- And Stephanie shared her experience being part of a community garden.
2. Green Your Health and Beauty Products
- We have a whole slew of articles on greener health and beauty products.
3. Green Feminine Hygiene Products
- We haven’t really talked much about this yet, but look for a series in September on women’s health issues.
4. Natural & Green Baby Care
- Learn all about cloth diapers and cloth wipes by looking here, here, and here.
- Natural remedies for your little babe’s aches and pains abound – for both littler ones and older kiddos, too.
- Nicole showed us all the benefits of homemade baby food, with a good how-to to boot.
5. Used & Repurposed Clothing
- Find out how to to organize a clothing exchange or repurpose an old T-shirt into new life.
6. Gifts & Celebrations
- We have some fun, green gift ideas for moms and dads – or any woman or man in your life.
- And we also had a great post from Eren on greening your Easter celebration.
- Look for many more ideas to come as the holiday season approaches.
Photo by Kelowna09
Your Personal Green Living Goals
Many of you joined me in the Simple Organic Natural Deodorant Challenge, so although that may not have been a goal you had in mind back in February, you made some good progress in natural living if you ditched the antiperspirant with me!
So, are you ready to share your progress on your goals? I can’t wait to hear how you’re doing. If you haven’t made the progress you’d hoped to make, remember along with me that the year is far from over, and there is still much that can be accomplished.
What have you achieved in your goals toward greener living in your personal life this year? What more would you like to do?
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You’re doing great, Katie! So inspiring to me!
We do fairly well with eating locally, but I will admit it is much easier (for our wallet and for access) to do so in the Summer and Autumn months. I’d like to keep the habit of looking for local first over the Winter when locally available produce might not be as abundant, but we can focus on milk and eggs, as you listed.
Really looking forward to September on S.O. and feminine hygiene!
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Hmm, I kind of suck at these ones. The only one I’ve had some success with is eating more local and organic foods.
I’m curious about learning more about using reel push mowers… they are much better for the environment (and for napping babies!!!) but I’m nervous to spend money on one. I’m afraid it’s going to be too much work – I’m a mom with two little kids… I don’t mind the work out but the time could be a problem. Does anyone else have experience with these?
Hi! We have a reel push mower and we do really like it! That being said, we actually do still have a gas one in the shed as a backup (it was my husband’s parents’ old one!) Our reel mower has a battery powered reel (opposed to one that only turns when the wheels are moving) – which is really nice around edges and when you are turning around. But then you have to worry whether or not the battery is charged when you want to use it (we do pretty well with this one, so I don’t find that as a problem). Another draw back is that it doesn’t do as well with longer grass – the long blades of grass just get pushed down (instead of vacuumed up into the blades of a gas powered mower) – hence the back-up gas lawn mower. I’d say in general we like ours, but you do have to stay on top of mowing more often!
I agree about staying up on the mowing with a reel mower. I found a free one on the side of the road last year and while I do love it I have to mow twice a week in order for it to work the best.
I have been doing better than I thought I would overall. I have switched our family to cloth napkins, have been buying more locally grown food including eggs and milk and some grass-fed beef, I switched to a natural laundry detergent, and homemade deodorant. (I started the deodorant challenge a month late – had to wait until I had an empty deodorant container – but I’m so glad I tried it because I LOVE it!)
Thanks for being such great motivation!
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I guess when I think about it I have made some pretty good changes lately. I switched to the natural deodorant, which I love!! I started buying California Baby body wash and shampoo to use on my son but when my shampoo ran out I began using it. I really want to try no poo but we just had a new baby 2 weeks ago so I haven’t had much free time to do that!! I have started using lanolin as my chap stick, like Tsh suggested, and I love that also. I have also started using pure tea tree oil instead of benzoyl peroxide for my acne and so far it is working well. Plus I started using a lotion bar that I love from MadeOn Hard Lotion Bars. So I guess what I am saying is that I am making great strides in eliminating many commercial personal care items. It feels great!
I made us cloth napkins and have virtually eliminated paper towels by cutting up old t-shirts to use as rags. (Great moment the other day…all of my rags were dirty and I used paper towel to wipe my 2 1/2 yr. old son’s hands off after lunch and he looked at the paper towel and said “what is that?”–so proud I was!!)
Greening my feminine products has been going great but as far as greener beauty, I’m struggling.
I’ve tried many homemade beauty things and they simply aren’t working for me. The oil cleansing method (even after 4 months of trying with various ratios of evoo and castor oil) left my face a mess and my spirit frustrated. I wanted it to work and I wanted to use something much cheaper but it just didn’t work. As a result, we’re now using green products from the store but it stings the pocket book.
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