The above photo is from our Lake George vacation, taken at the wedding itself. It was a great long weekend, and there were some beautiful moments, like the one above. I’m still surprised that L3 was able to hold still enough to have the butterfly crawl on his hand. L4 was the one who scared it away (see flickr Lake George set for that).
So, the title of this post… though we went swimming in a lake, hiked a path through some truly awesome caves and Adirondack landscape, I felt less-than-crunchy on this vacation. Forgetting about the driving to get there, it often felt wasteful (having to eat out most meals and the garbage from that (napkins, etc)). So one of my questions for everyone was to see if people had any tricks or things they did while on vacation to stay “green?”
Also, as per the title, I’m still thinking about the question of consumerism. It is an ongoing internal dialogue. I recently joined Ravelry (a new online knitting community for those of you not on the knitting side of things) and in my notebook there have a bunch of projects in my “queue,” or to be knitted in the future. While several of the projects are for other people, there are also several for me. Unlike M, my knitting mentor, I knit lots of things for myself. π Anyway, looking at my queue led to to question my quest to knit more in the future. Again, where does the line between need and being consumeristic get drawn? Will I wear sweaters? Yes! We keep our house at a balmy 60 while we aren’t home in the winter, 64 when we are, and back to 60 or 61 at night. (I know TM, you freeze with every visit!) It is one of the things we do to stay green. I have a point with this–I wear sweaters and socks (and scarves, sometimes) when I am home during the winter. At work, where the climate changes by hallway, I layer. But do I need to knit myself another pullover or cardigan? Probably not. Justification? Here is my wee attempt: 1)I love to knit, it is an activity that gives me pleasure 2) At least I’m making something for myself rather than buying something that was mass-produced. (We won’t go into the fact that I don’t purchase all organic yarns… and that some even have *gasp* acrylic in them!)
Dear readers, I’m all eyes for your comments on this, if you’ve followed so far. How do you decide for yourself what is “enough?”
Lastly, I think we’re going to be purchasing carbon credits for our cars, soon. I have two leads, one a for-profit and one a non-profit. Let me know if you’d like the links and I’ll post them.
“Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good action; try to use ordinary situations.”
β Jean Paul Richter, German Romantic novelist and humorist
the fact that you so anything at all is great, if you push too hard then it becomes a chore and you will find ways to not do it.
I loved reading this post, mostly because I have the same thoughts, and questions…I am far from being the greenest/crunchiest person out there, but the more I learn the more I want to learn, so I look forward to seeing other peoples comments on this!
Hi WL,
I’ve read this post a couple of times and keep coming back to comment, but didn’t really have the right answer for what I would say?!?
I guess the gist of it is that there aren’t any perfect answers. We are just working on what is a want vs. need in our house for the most part. Um, today did I need to “buy” the little Tykes basketball hoop? “Probably” not, but I did follow my code of sticking to recycled toy as much as possible, it is for active and physical play and it’s something I’ve wanted. I did find it for $2.00 at a yard sale and it looks brand new after a good cleaning. I *am* excessive I guess about outdoor toys, but I get them all used and I’m the house that every kid comes too…….I can wind up with 10 kids in my yard playing which also helps my kids to make strong reighborhood relationships.
I also have an inflatable bouncer. Excessive? Probalby yes. But in the winter it’s used almost every single day here in my music/art/giant space for it room. It’s also saved my friends cash and time by being able to borrow it. But it does stick to my creed of being active and engaging and will be well used and loved. To somebody else it may be too much, but to me it’s amazing because it promotes physical activity in the dead of winter. But realize that my kids will never have things like a video game, mucho gadgets, etc.
On the other hand, do I need a walk in closet full of clothes? Nope. And I’m glad that I’ve realized it. I’ve fell victim to my mother taking me shopping, sending me stuff, and feeling like “I dont’ have anything to wear” and wind up with so much excessive stuff. So for that I am calling, yes, excessive on moi. I think a line in stuff is would you just consider it stuff- – – or does it serve a clear purpose for you. I do think even ‘stuff” that can make you happy can be o.k. in certain cases too- – – as long as it isn’t the sheer upper type of joy people get in aquiring stuff. To me it sounds like you put purpose, thought, creativity and craft into making what you do. It’s art in a way, and we can’t have enought of that!
I guess everybody’s line is different. I just think now, for me, I will NOT impulse buy and I will think about what I’m purchasing. Example, tonight at Ikea (I got a trip by myself!!!!) I went to buy 1 muffin trey and a new skillet, both of which I sorely need. After going through it I got to the checkout line and really looked at what was in my buggy. There was an additional cutting board pack (but it bends!), a trash can for the guys room (but it matches the red so much better then the white!) and an organizer thingie for the kids closet (but we need it)…….and I realized that it was ALL plastic and I really didn’t need it. I have two in-perfect shape cutting boards, a perfectly fine white trash can for the guys rooms and the kids aren’t tall enough for the organizer yet. I tossed it all back except for what I needed and came for…..my muffin tin and skillet…….both of which had been on my need list for two weeks and therefore deemed genuine.
Geez…that rambled……but I’m just learning that If I don’t feel good about it so much then maybe it is too much for me.
Umm……vacations……..that’s a hard one………… A few thoughts…..
1) My last one was before my “really” going crunchy…….but things that I always do are packing our own meals and food and making picnics out of it. There are lots of wonderful things you can pack for road food. Even things like canned soup can be good cold, sandwiches, fruit, milk etc. can be taken on the road. Just take a good cooler and plan your meals out.
2) Camp
3) Try to get a place with a kitchenette, or take a hot plate along. I just saw one on sale at Aldi for not that much.
4) Take an extra bag with you for recycling. This works well in our car already.
5) I think food is probably the biggest issue. Eating out right now just simply isn’t fun with a two and three year old, so I don’t miss much with it. If I am on the road and they *need* to play as in my last rainy day long road trip, I will admit that I stopped at a McD so they could play and run. We only got the apples and I got a coffee and we ate sandwiches on the raod when we got going so we weren’t consuming the food.
6) This sounds red, but I packed in laundry baskets for the last long road trip. I packed less which provided less baggage and weight on the car, I could see what I needed, I had a basket for dirties to go into, and it was easy to get to stuff. It stacked nicely, and I just kept one small one with a change for everybody for when we were in a hotel prior to the destination. It was also easier to unpack. The not having to wash as much was a big savings.
7)Get books, kits, audio CD’s, DVD’s etc. for the road at a Library instead of buying them.
We are hoping to take a vacation this coming up week depending on what days Andrew can get away. Destination, unknown! Camping, yes! Maybe WI or down south to TN. I’m thinking about all of this too!!!
Sorry for the long response- – – I keep thinking about your post, but it’s kinda a multilayered questions. I chewed on it for a few days as we are all thinking about these things in our house too (And I ramble), Shannon
[…] 13th, 2007 by willowluna I have pictures to share, a response to Shannon’s comment on this post, and just my normal blabbering to attend to on here (ex: finished socks! another sock started, […]
Shannon, thanks for your thoughtful comment. I loved your story about going to IKEA (love that store, btw! wish we had one close to us.) because it embodied a lot of what has been happening with us as we try to embrace a simplier (and happier, really) life without as much stuff. Always a work in progress, for us, it seems!
We did bring lunch food with us on vacation, but the hotel rooms were rented for us, so we didn’t have a choice of a kitchenette. I do like to cook our own food when away because I always feel so overfull and icky when we eat out a lot.
The library is very well loved in our home. L4 even recognizes it. I love hearing her 2-year-old voice saying, “The library! We going into the library?!”
Your point about art struck a chord with me because I had been thinking about that recently as something that makes us “human” and feeling like it wasn’t consumeristic if it was purchased for the love of it and not for the acquisition of it. my friend KAB has a beautiful piece that, when she talks about it, makes her glow with the joy of it. π