Happy Earth Day!

Earth Day greetings a little early! Earth Day and eco-responsibility has taken on new meaning after having a kid. I've always been fairly aware of the importance of reducing, reusing, and recycling. I rode my bike throughout college (and the rest of my school experience). I recycle religiously. I don't buy bottled water. Etc., etc., etc. However, I feel like I need to step stuff up now that I'm a mom and a role model to one very impressionable young lad.

I don't generally establish resolutions at New Year's, but this year I've decided to come up with some Earth Day goals (and these will be nice additions to my "101 in 1001" list).

• Take sub-five-minute showers 3/4 showers per week. I try to keep my showers to a mininum, but since I've been running more I need to shower more. It's a necessary evil.
• Research how to recycle more items. Batteries, phones, plastics.
• Buy more used stuff instead of new stuff (at least 80 percent). We'll be buying lots of stuff for the year over the next year. I'm sure if we look hard enough we can buy used and save money.
  
• Buy a bicycle trailer for Benny and drive only to things over three miles from the house. We already drive a limited amount, but it's time consuming to walk 45 minutes to the store.
  
• Get energy audit of the house done and make repairs to save energy.

Happy Earth Day to you all! Hope you do something nice for your Mommy Earth this week!