Last night I was on the phone with one of my oldest and dearest friends. We were talking about being moms, having kids and all the crazy cool things that go down in our days. It came up that her husband (who is nice enough to follow this blog) wondered how it is that I managed to spend time with my son, cook all our food, work, be a wife, keep our home, garden and do all the other things that go into being an involved green mama.

As a blogger, I share a lot of information about myself and my family with you. Really, that’s most of how I know what I know…experience. I also shared with you in my About Me section, if there is something I’m working on or want to change about myself, I’m the first to share that. This is evident in my New Year’s Resolution to shed 100 pounds.

My conversation last night, however, made me realize that for all the sharing I do it’s really easy to come off as near perfect in my execution of being a green mama. Let me assure you, I am nowhere near as green as I wish I were or as I think some other bloggers appear to be.

Let me share with you some of the trials, errors and little secrets that I experience and am still working on. I’m not sharing these with you to make myself feel better (because I don’t really feel that guilty) but to assure you that we’re all in this together, warts and all!

I Confess

I’m all for composting, an advocate even. In my post about worm composting I was very excited to share my worm bin with you. Sadly, about a month ago I overfed my red wigglers. The temperature in my bin shot to 110*. That’s no bueno. I tried to reverse the heat wave, but there was no saving them. My worms died and that made me really sad. I had to explain to my son what happened and am starting over. PS- If your worm bin gets too hot, don’t try to reverse it, just take out the hot compost and save the worms.

We drive 2 cars. Even though we only use about a tank a month, one of them is an SUV.

Plane travel is the worst offender when it comes to green house emmissions. We fly (as a family of 3) round trip to somewhere 4-6 times a year.

In a perfect world we would eat only locally and seasonally. I don’t like squash that much and bananas are too good for us to give up (sorry Luke).

There is a clothes line in my backyard, but more often than not I choose to machine dry my clothes.

The house we live in is old and has drafty windows and poor insulation. There’s a gap in my front door, but I haven’t done anything about it all winter. Energy savings fail.

This is a big one: I have a house cleaner come and clean my whole house every other week. I LOVE her, and I’m never going back. It has taken a weight off my shoulders, it makes me happy, and I feel healthier knowing my house is clean.

If the dishwasher doesn’t get emptied first thing in the morning (this happens <50% of the time) there are piles of dishes, pots and pans on my counter and in my sink at the end of the day. Thanks to my husband for cleaning them and not sighing too heavily when he walks into the kitchen every night.

Folding laundry is the bain of my existence. I often leave it in a pile and wait for my house cleaner to fold it. For which she volunteered by the way.

Addiction in two words: Amazon Prime.

Even though I was gang busters to use cloth diapers, I was so seriously overwhelmed by motherhood that we use disposable.

Sauerkraut (and all it’s fermented goodness) has yet to thrill me.

Two summers ago we installed a lawn in our backyard (low water Xerilawn) and I don’t regret it one little bit.

Evidently I’ve bought into the Apple revolution as I own THREE different devices – iPhone, iPad and a Macbook.

In the beginning I was sure attachment parenting was for us. Turns out sleep training (and some cry it out) was one of the best parenting decissons we’ve ever made.

My son is vaccinated, using the Dr. Sear’s alternative schedule.

In the five steps to a Zero Waste Home, I’m terrible at step one: refusing.

My son watches some television almost everyday, and so do I.

Can you say caffe breve? I drink one a day and we use our Nespresso machine, which only has dissposible pods in which I have no say as to what kind of coffee is used. Although I’ve been searching desparately to find good reusable ones, to no avail.

We aren’t members of a CSA (see squash reference above).

My cats used to get a homemade raw food diet, but when the baby came they got reverted back to dry (grainless) cat food.

I’m sure if I thought about it I could come up with 100 more things to add to this list, but I’ll stop here for now. Remember, we’re all human and we’re all works in progress. Do what you can do and take small steps. Continue to be optimistic that whatever goals you have for being a parent, being green or maybe just starting to cook dinners at home – you’ll get there, slow and steady wins the race. Celebrate small successes and make choices you can stand behind. And last but not least, be well!

 

This post featured on: Party Wave Wednesday, Thank Your Body Thursday, Tasty Traditions, Small Footprint Friday, Fight Back Friday, Sunday School, Thank Goodness It’s Monday