As the partner and mother in my family, I am dedicated to doing my best to keep our immediate and extended environments as clean as possible. That said, we all like to live in the moment without constant calculations and stress. In recognizing our responsibility to both needs, we spend a lot of time and effort working to keep a balance between transitioning to a more eco- and health-conscious lifestyle while also just going with the flow.

Transitioning stress-free is key to this change. Not only because it feels better to be without stress, but for the plain fact that all the "green" in the world won't cancel out the damage done to one's health and environment that stress causes. That is why we live by and promote the "80/20 Rule". 80% of the time we live green. 20% of the time, we let ourselves go, not in the sense that we go out on a conventional binge, but we just live in the moment. We eat at other's homes, out at restaurants, use air transport, take two cars to town and our kid plays and eats in homes that don't live the way we do. And that is ok by us. It has to be or we will get sick and render ourselves useless to our cause in the first place which is to live healthy and stress-free.

1. we use only glass to store our food
2. we use stainless steel and glass to-go water bottles
3. we use sustainable organic bamboo cooking utensils and cutting boards
4. we used all glass jelly jars for freezing breast milk and baby food
5. 90% of my daughters baby food is homemade and organic
6. we bring our own containers to restaurants for coffee and takeout
7. the water that fills our tub then flushes our toilet.
8. we drive a 1983 Mercedes 240D that runs on waste vegetable oil.
9. we have converted over half of our closets to organic and sustainable clothing - the rest is pre-owned
10. 99% of our daughter's toys are sustainable and toxin-free
11. we get all of our food from local organic farms (CSAs) 3 seasons out of the year
12. we support local economy as much as possible
13. we recycle everything from plastic to batteries
14. we live in a very very old home
15. the wood in our "new" wood floors was reclaimed
16. all of our home updates are energy efficient, no-voc and pre-owned
17. more then half of our light bulbs are compact fluorescent
18. we often carpool into town
19. we are exploring solar heating/lighting
20. we have a goal to be completely off of the grid in 7 years
21. we run a legitimate "green" business dedicated to sharing sustainable "green" goods and information