Happy Earth Day

In owning our own home we've been trying to be as ecologically responsible as we can in tandem with our budget restrictions. We bought Energy Star rated appliances, CFL light bulbs, and lined the kitchen cabinets with renewable cork. Here in Texas we have a deregulated energy market, which allows us to purchase our electricity through Green Mountain Energy. We have all the electronics we can plugged in to surge protectors so we can eliminate as much energy waste as possible. The house we bought has new energy efficient windows and extra attic insulation. I do my best to run laundry and dish loads at maximum capacity and do any drying back-to-back to use residual heat. Josh and I have both taken to turning the shower off while we lather up andthe taps at the sink when washing faces or brushing teeth. I've become almost obsessive about turning lights off. This weekend we collected 5 garbage bags full of leaves to use in my future compost pile. While there is so much more that we could do, I feel good that we do at least this much and hope that we'll just keep getting greener and greener. One of the upsides of having our own little piece of Mother Earth is getting to see her at work. Along with our house came two lovely rose bushes, and I love to spy new blooms every day. Happy Earth Day everyone!

EDIT: I just convinced our boss to switch from ordering bottled water to buying a filter for the faucet!