The Weekend in Pictures

I have seen other blogs feature a "Wordless Wednesday" or other days where they just post pictures on their blogs. I thought I would start that on Sundays. I will post pictures from our weekend. If you have any questions about what was going on in the picture, or where the picture was taken...just leave me a COMMENT! Have I mentioned that I love comments? I check for them several times a day :) Here we go!

Have a great week!

One Small Change for March

It's that time again...the end of one month and the beginning of another. That means it is time to reflect on my One Small Change for February. February's change was to switch from plastic water bottles to reusable stainless steel. You can read about it here. This change has been successful, but not as easy as January's change, which was surprising to me. The hard part for me is having to wash my bottles every night. I was trying to get by with only buying 2 bottles. I had three, but one makes my water taste funny, so I'm down to two. I am not a fan of washing dishes. It ranks up there with putting away clean laundry and emptying the dishwasher...shudder. I get tired of scrubbing my water bottles every night, but I have done it! I have not drank out of a plastic water bottle except for when we went to my cousin's son's birthday party. They had bottled water for guests. I plan to continue with this change, but I will have to add a couple of more bottles to my collection. That way maybe I can just wash every other night!

So I have been thinking about a change for March, and I decided my change will be to use reusable bags for shopping. I do this already...sort of. I have a good collection of bags, but I always seem to leave them at home or even in the car! My plan is to use them everywhere I shop, not just the grocery store.



I bought 5 of the Earth Saver bags off of eBay a year or so ago. I looked there today, but the seller does not have anything listed right now. I get compliments on them from store clerks because they stand up when they are open. They are made of a burlap material and have a waterproof lining. They hold a lot! I also have a couple of bags I bought at Publix during Christmas. I feel weird taking Publix bags into other grocery stores. Should I worry about that? Is it bad manners? Comments??

Let me begin by saying how excited I was to have three...THREE...comments!! When I say excited, I mean EXCITED!! I was beginning to get discouraged. I know my mom checks in from time to time, but she doesn't comment. Thank you, thank you to those who commented. I love it!

So onto my first day of using non-plastic water bottles. I didn't actually start on Feb. 1 or 2 because when I went to fill up my bottles before work, the Brita pitcher was less than half full. It takes it a while to filter so I didn't have time to wait. That taught me a good lesson though...I have to fill them up at night. What a revelation :) So last night I spent about 30-45 minutes filling bottles and waiting for the pitcher to fill. This morning I packed them in my cooler...with a little help from my favorite little girl.



I enjoyed my pretty bottles today, and I'm looking forward to using them from now on!

Sunday - One Small Change Challenge Review

This challenge has been a good experience. My family has learned to live without paper towels! I never thought it would be possible. We did slip up a couple of times, but for the most part we stuck to using cloth. I feel good about our part in helping reduce the use of paper products. I have also enjoyed shopping Etsy.com and eBay for paper alternatives. Who doesn't love a little shopping?
Here is a very small sample of my purchases. Most are in the wash right now :)

For February's challenge I plan to cut out plastic water bottles. I pack a cooler everyday to take to work so I can have easy access to cold drinking water. We had to give up our mini fridges earlier in the school year due to electrical problems in our building. I used to buy a jug of water every few days to keep in the fridge and pour from. So, now, I pack 4 water bottles to drink during the day. I do recycle the bottles, but I feel guilty even using them. We bought a Brita filter pitcher for our house last year for the sole purpose of not buying bottled water anymore. My husband reminds me of this when he has to buy my bottled "school" water. So yesterday I decided my challenge for February would be to use these beauties that I bought at TJ Maxx this weekend.

They will fit in my cooler, and help reduce my use of plastic bottled water. Hooray!

So I hope to go from this:

To this:

Thanks to my dear hubby for modeling this change for me :)

Let the challenge begin!!