And now for another obsession

I'm not sure this really counts as new, and obsession has a slightly negative connotation, but I'm sure this is how my husband would characterize it, so I'll go with it.

And the obsession is.....environmentalism, I guess you'd call it. Living as low-impact as possible. The eco-friendly madness started with cloth diapers, progressed to reusable grocery bags, and is accelerating noticeably this week, as I start poring over grocery origins and buying reusable bottles and sandwich wraps for us all to carry to the pool. I admit to being suggestible (the move to more grocery-origin-awareness was prompted by Barbara Kingsolver's new book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle), but I also think it is indicative of my place on the learning curve. The more I read about the oil used to transport food and manufacture disposable products and the impact on the environment we have with our disposable culture, the more logical it seems to reduce my family's oil dependence and environmental impact as much as possible.

What sounds a bit like sacrifice is actually turning out to be a lot of fun. I've hinted at my craziness about cloth diapers before (they're so CUTE! and SOFT! and LEAKPROOF!), but I'm finding that all of my new reusable trinkets are just about as fun. I have an assortment of reusable shopping bags (made from organic cotton or recycled materials), which are sturdy and handy for far more than just shopping. I've started checking not just food labels but food origins at the grocery store, and I'm pleased to report that sticking to local food has resulted in much tastier, fresher food - sure makes doing the "virtuous" thing more palatable. I just ordered super-cool SIGG bottles from www.reusablebags.com for everyone in the family (except I forgot my mom, whoops! will have to place another order) to reduce the juice box/water bottle waste we generate, and I learned a lot about the benefits of reducing vs recycling from their website. I got some reusable sandwich wrappers there, too, to reduce my ziploc dependence.

We all went to the farmer's market today, with my newly-local friend Heidi and her son patiently in tow, and bought local, humanely grown meat and eggs and locally made cheese and bread. Our first CSA delivery is scheduled for this Tuesday - with the food I got today and the veggies on Tuesday, I really only need the grocery store for crackers and toilet paper.

I know this post isn't very entertaining - zealots aren't nearly as interesting to other people as they are to themselves, and I can recognize that even in the midst of my own zealotry - but it feels good to support the local economy, feed my family better, teach the kids to live simply and well, and reduce our direct and indirect oil usage all at once. If you want to enter into my madness, I highly recommend reading Barbara Kingsolver's book.