Green Christmas

Since I hadn't blogged for awhile, it has taken a few weeks to get the wheels turning again. However, I'm happy to say my passion for the green philosophy and sustainable living has been reignited. If you're looking for ways to make your Christmas a little more green this year, please check out my following posts for Maggie Bags.

Most recently, I shared ideas for how to reduce, reuse, and recycle Christmas cards. Did you know Americans send 2 billion cards every year, wiping out 300,000 trees?! But hey, I still send them and will receive at least 50 in the next few weeks. Take heart: I have lots of great ideas with the 3R's.

Next week begins my gift giving to teachers, neighbors, the mailman, etc. I choose to give some sort of locally preserved food: strawberries, blackberries, tomatoes, apples, etc. My mom always called these homemade holiday happies. This year I'm giving jars of salsa; yum.

There are also so many wonderful causes to support this time of year, and I've been pleased to donate a lot of goods from my couponing stockpile. No, I do not have a crazy stash like extreme couponers--just enough to spread good coupon karma. Here's a link to all the Black Friday freebies I scored; rest assured there are freebies every week so that you can "give green."

Finally, I am really enjoying my new "green" printer I picked up on Black Friday. It's fast, uses less ink, and the I haven't had a single issue with coupons scanning. Here I shared lots of other ways to make your printing more green.

If any of my posts resonate with you, I appreciate you leaving a comment. Happy Holidays!

The Most Fun You'll Ever Have Upcycling

Tomorrow we'll be taking a car full of recycling; so today, the boys and I indulged in our favorite upcycling activity: water bombs and water guns. Ok, it sounds violent but it's a lot of fun, and when you're done, you toss them all back into the recycling bin.

After washing out a variety of plastic containers from the recycling bin well, we fill them with water and put the caps or tops back on. Milk jugs work best for the bombs, but you can also use juice or mouthwash containers. The boys love to toss them off the porch onto the patio below. Splash, crash, shpew! The milk jugs are usually good for just one toss, but the heavier plastics could last up to 5 throws.

When they're done with bombs, each boy chooses a smaller container, like a water bottle (which we rarely have in our house anymore) or the pint-size milk containers we buy for Brooke to have whole milk. I put a small hole in each and they squirt each other. When the water runs out, they refill them and continue the fun. The gun idea actually was an accident when the water bottle refused to burst but got a tiny hole instead. Thus, a new game was born.

I was going to take video of this wonderful pass-time, but the boys decided to start while it was raining. And within minutes, they had both stripped to their underwear, running around like hoodlums. This was certainly not a video fit to post to the Internet. And to my neighbors, I apologize for the chaos.

Yes, they tracked in wet footprints all over the floor and yes, they were a mess by the end. But hey, childhood only lasts so long and should be FUN! If they learn a valuable lesson--that materials should be used, reused, and then recycled--then my job as Eco Mom is done.