We are redoing the kitchen and two bathrooms and are only going to buy enviro friendly/recycled floors, countertops, etc. I feel really good about it - it's way more expensive, but we are commited to going green. we bought the bathroom floor for the kids bathroom yesterday and are trying to find recycled glass countertops for the kitchen...saw them on Living with Ed last week!

We've been doing a lot of organic produce - particularly the top 12 - and I will tell you, organic sweet potatoes are so much sweeter/better than conventionally grown!

board work for the NH Women's Lobby -- attended aboard retreat all day saturday and will be working with the organization on marketing and message. in particular we are working to push through legislation for better access to health care after divorce for women and kids. We'll be joingin with several other women's groups to host a presentation for the state legislature on the bills coming before them this session for women and families in the state. It's hard but exciting work!
Katie

Still trying just to cut back on spending on STUFF, doing a good job so far.

Finally saw An Inconvenient Truth this weekend.  Very good.  I liked what he said that sometimes Denial goes right to Despair.  Like the problem is too big to even try to tackle, so we go right to despair.

Anyway, going to try to think about what our family can do in terms of reducing our emissions, but I'm not sure there is that much that we can.

This has less to do with social justice and activism as such, because it's a necessity and a practical step, but DH and I are kicking into high gear a project to mount water tanks in our front and back to collect rainwater for the garden. Most of Australia, including Victoria, are in the grips of something like a 10-year drought, and it is drrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyy. We've been in water restrictions of varying levels here in Melbourne for about three years, and the largest city reservoir is about 39% full - and predicted to drop to 25% full around April. There's a lot of initiatives around to encourage water conservation - graywater recycling for toilets and gardening, rainwater collection, etc. - but as our place is a townhouse, we can't retro-fit a graywater system and the rainwater tanks are the best we can do.

Found some lovely slim-line tanks that we can mount higher up on our walls - less intrusive than some models, which is a bonus, so we'll be pricing it up soon. Come autumn, I'll also be instituting my garden redesign, putting in drought-resistant Australian native plants to replace the bushes and turf that have perished in the heat and the drought. (No longer allowed to water grass, and watering gardens is restricted to two days a week, with buckets.) I'm actually looking forward to it, because I'm fascinated by the Aussie natives, and it's our responsibility not to waste water on decorative touches like gardens when the farms in country Victoria are withering and dying from lack of resources.

Still making some changes in the cleaning products, and Original Rachel has posted two links above that give advice on going totally au naturel .... vinegar, lemon juice, baking soda and the like. I will be experimenting with this.

Here's where I am dragging my feet: volunteer time. Nothing seems inspiring. I am tentative even though I say I want to do it. One step was to realize that my old tried and true volunteer gig, Planned Parenthood, doesn't have the pull it used to. I think it's a BTDT kind of thing, and really in the whole scheme of things, Planned Parenthood doesn't need my help as an individual as much as many other projects.

So I've been thinking a lot about our posting about single moms in Iraq and have decided to put my time and effort there. It feels better to be doing something for those who are sacrificing for the war. So in this next couple of weeks, I'll be looking into how to do that and of course will let everyone know what I find.

RachelD

But here's a great quote that all of us with justice in our hearts and minds should take on:

"So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was."

From www.motherjones.com...