ENERGY REDUCTION CHALLENGEThe weather dropped considerably last night, into the mid 30's. It is supposed to be that cold again tonight. I did turn the heat on before going to bed last night. I turned the downstairs unit to 62, and the upstairs unit to 60 (since heat rises). All the beds are layered with down comforters and quilts. The boys have been padding around the house all afternoon in warm footed pajamas, since we were home to stay and it is fun to be in snuggly clothes. I have a fire going in the fireplace, more for ambiance than heat. We have been eating warm foods all day...hot chocolate and tea, chili, cheese toast, oatmeal.

At night, since I am not turning on as many lamps, I am achieving the cozy atmosphere (I love in the fall and winter) in other ways. Lighting soy candles, playing music on the ipod docking station, having a fire burning, sipping hot drinks, etc. Instead of turning on the tv, I will grab a book (out of my HUGE stack), and cozy up by the fire with a quilt.

The boys are going to bed earlier, since the time has changed, so once they are in bed, around 730-8, the rest of the evening is spent quietly, reading, talking, ironing, planning the next day, etc.

I have not changed out the rest of the bulbs to CFL's...I am only going to continue to replace them as they burn out, which is what I have done in the past. I don't think it is more environmentally conscious to discard perfectly useful things, to replace them with "eco friendly" ones. Doing so just creates more waste.

The things that I have done to reduce our energy use this month are:
-quit using the dryer (I am now hanging out about 90% of our laundry on the line outdoors. My indoor line came today, so I plan to install that tonight and hang the other 10% there).
-Turning off extra lights (If we aren't in a room, the light isn't on).
-Unplugging appliances and electronics when they aren't being used.
-Doing things in batches. When I do use the dryer, I try to use it for all the clothes at once. Same with baking. I try to use the oven/stove to cook everything in one fell swoop, rather than turning it on and off throughout the day.

As with my other experiment, my goal (besides the financial gain) is to become more aware. Aware of the choices that I make, both good and bad, that affect our family, our community, and the environment at large. Aware of our habits, our decisions, our lifestyle, our conveniences. Already, in the first few days of this month, I have become more tuned in (in ways that I was previously unaware of) to our carelessness with our resources...basically just throwing money down the drain. I am learning to take responsibility for the fact that my choices, even small (and seemingly insignificant) have an impact.

I don't know if I will be able to cut our energy consumption in half this month or not...but I am sure that it will be considerably reduced, and more importantly, I will be further challenged to be a (cheerfully) frugal steward of the resources with which God has given to our family.


*Image from sadalit on flickr.com

THANK YOU...

...So much for your input on the Christmas gifts. I am glad I asked you, because I had been planning to give granola in mason jars...but that choice came in dead last, so it looks like it is either vanilla extract or gingerbread biscotti w/ white chocolate icing. I think I will do the biscotti because I did the vanilla a few years ago.
I gave some of the biscotti to my friend, Charlotte, a few weeks ago, in honor of her fabulous new teapot and loose leaf teas, and she said it was yummy (and she would tell me if it wasn't). I plan to package them for Christmas the same way I packaged hers. Wrapped in brown butcher paper (that I bought a few months back at the Discount Food Store for $1 a roll), tied with red string, with a cute label attached. I am going to pile them in a basket by my kitchen door for guests and neightbors that come by during the holidays. Thanks everyone for the opinions!

SADNESS...

My beloved Macbook has crashed for the second time in two months...gone are all my pictures and files. :::Sigh:::
So, for the next few weeks, I will be posting from the hubby's man shed. I will have to dig deep to find inspiration among the Kodiak signs and the stuffed fish, though I do appreciate the hub's hospitality. :)
Usually, I am on my laptop, either on the couch in front of a roaring fire in the evening, or in my cozy bed, loaded up with featherpillows and comforters galore...so I am sure you can understand the depths of my despair. Ok, I am being a little dramatic, it isn't that bad. The man shed is only about five feet from the kitchen door. And it does come furnished with a mini-fridge, rug, and lamp, to cozy it up a bit.
Anyway, if I am a little short on postings and pictures over the next few weeks, now you know why.

THE REST OF YOUR LIFE BEGINS TODAY

Brin, over at My Messy, Thrilling Life had a great post today that I highly encourage you to read. You can find it here. In today's posts she talks about missing out on the little blessings and moments of life while we are anticipating the big ones. I know I am guilty of that. Many times I get so caught up waiting for the "exciting" things, that I completely skip over the small, ordinary moments of beauty in my life. Friday afternoon, which I blogged about earlier, was a marvelous, simple afternoon because I forced myself to stop running and rushing and DOING and to just enjoy being with my children, on a beautiful afternoon, with no agenda. Don't you think we miss out on the richness of life, when we are rushing around, trying to mark off things on our to-do list?

Just for kicks, according to this website, my blog is appropriate for people of all ages. No foul language, adult humor, or nudity here! :)

PRODUCT SHOUT-OUTMy friend, Jessica, was asking me if I liked my recycling bags and my answer was such a strong "yes!!!" that I thought maybe I would give them a little bloggety shout-out. :)

I LOVE my recycling bags. I have had them for 2+ years and they are great. I love them because they are lightweight, can be hosed down if they get dirty, have handles for easy toting, are color coded, have interchangeable labels (the labels also have a picture, which is great if you have a child that doesn't read yet), hold a lot, have velcro to connect them together (if you like), and are just really practical. They come four to a set (bottles, paper, cans, and compost). I have a separate container for compost, so I use them for glass, plastic, paper, and metal.

They are $22 and worth every penny. Plus, they have free shipping!

BOUNTYMom and I spent the day yesterday canning tomatoes purchased from the local produce stand. It was so nice to see all those rows of glass jars full of fresh tomatoes ready to be made into lasagne, or chili, or some other such yumminess. I am really moving away from canned goods. After reading about that rat's head in the can of Allen's green beans (purchased at Wal.Mart, no less)...I am really wanting to be involved in as many steps of my food preparation as possible. Plus, there are no additives or preservatives...just fresh tomatoes.

The day after Halloween, the pumpkin stand in town was giving away all the leftover pumpkins. I drove over and filled up the back of the mom-mobile. Some of the pumpkins were priced at $17 apiece!! This was the sweet hookup.
I might have gone a little overboard. I am seeing lots of pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, toasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin soup, pumpkin butter, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cookies (?) in our future! Hmmm. maybe I should revise the poll (on the left of this blog) to include something with pumpkin? :)

LOVELY FRIDAYToday was a fun filled Friday! After spending the morning at Biblestudy, I rushed home to have a quick lunch with my childhood friend, Lydia, who was in town for the week-end. It was great to see her and spend a few (quick) minutes visiting, before rushing off to bookgroup.

At our monthly bookgroup, we discussed last month's mystery, The Thirteenth Tale. It was a great book, and I highly recommend reading it. Apparently, there are lots of things that you don't pick up on in the first reading, so you have to read it twice...I didn't do that. No biggie, I am used to being the one who doesn't read between the lines. It is what it is. :)

This month's selection (non-fiction month) is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle which I am so looking forward to reading. It has been on my amazon wish list for a while now, so I can't wait to get started on it. Kuddos to you, Mrs. Louise, for this pick!! Plus, crunchy chicken has been leading a book discussion on this book, so hopefully I will have lots of insights from there, as well.

Then, I spent the rest of the afternoon swinging my boys on their new playset, bouncing on the trampoline, lying on the ground, looking up at the leaves. And it occurred to me. As much as I get frustrated, and tired, and aggravated...as much as I sometimes just want to change my name and run away to a tropical paradise...as much as I CRAVE a little quiet (yes, Charlotte, the kind that roars in your ears!), I am living exactly the life that I had hoped to live. A simple life with my husband, my children, and my happy little house. And today was all I could want in an autumn afternoon. Time seemingly suspended, for a few moments. Taking mental snapshots of laughter and sunshine and twinkly eyes and dirty faces. I live for these moments. When I force myself to leave the housework and the to do list and just BE. Not wanting, not expecting. Just living, simply. Content.
It was a good day.

*Image from lu2shoot on flickr.com

INDOOR CLOTHESLINE

Yay! Remember that retractable clothesline I was talking about in my last post? I found it on ebay! You can see it here.

It is eight feet long. I can't decide if I should hang it in the bathtub, like at the Westin, or if I should hang it in my laundry room. My laundry room has a slate floor, so drips won't be a big deal and it would be convenient to take items right out of the washer. On the other hand, it would be kind of in the way to have laundry hanging in there, since it is a small room. If I hang it in the bathtub, drips won't be an issue, and the clothes won't be in the way, but I will have to carry the clothes in there, and the line won't be as long. Any opinions?

A NEW CHALLENGE
I had so much fun doing my social experiment, that I have decided it is time to challenge myself to something new. This challenge will last for two months as well, from November 1st-December 31st.

I am going to attempt to cut our power usage in half.

The power bill came in the mail today. Last month (October) we used 1456 KWH of energy. I am not sure how that compares to others with similar geography, home size, lifestyle, etc. but it doesn't really matter. This is a competition with myself. It will be exciting to see how much control I have over our finances and dependance on creature comforts. You might scoff that I am beginning this experiment in November in South GA, that I am copping out, since the weather is great now. Duly noted. However, my goal is to cut my usage in half from LAST MONTH...not from how much we use it in the summer. So, put that in your peace pipe and smoke it. :)

Here are a few ways that I have thought of that I can reduce our electricity. Please feel free to leave me a comment with more suggestions.
-Turn off the lights. Easy. Don't leave lights on in rooms that we aren't in.
-Utilize my clothesline more. I am using it about 40% of the time right now. I can easily use it more often and this should have a big impact, considering that dryers are one of the most energy-guzzling appliances in the home. The Westin in Savannah had a neat retractable clothesline in the shower. It was a small aluminum one that was very minimal and really cool. I am going to look into one of those for my bathtub, for rainy days.
-Turn up the temp. in the fridge and freezer. Foods don't have to be frozen at the very coldest temperature. I have turned my fridge and freezer thermometer to the middle of each range. I did this several weeks ago and my food is still cold and/or frozern.
-Buy solar night lights. Right now, we keep the hall light upstairs on all night for my afraid-of-the-dark chidren. This is an easy switch.
-Change out the remainder of my regular light bulbs for CFL's.
-Leave the thermostat off. It has been off this whole week. With the windows and doors open, we get a great cross breeze. Once it gets colder, we will put on warmer clothes instead of automatically adjusting the thermostat. Put warmer bedding on the beds.
-Use other elements to bring heat to the house. After I bake something in the oven, I can leave the door cracked to let the hot air out. Same with the dryer.
-Turn off dormant electronics. Anything that has a red light (standby mode) is sucking energy, even when not in use. I will be more mindful about cutting off the power strip, rather than just the appliance/electronic itself. Also, chargers still use energy, even if they aren't charging anything, so I will be unplugging those when not in use.

If I am successful in this challenge, I will not only be saving 728 KWH of energy each month, but I will also be saving our family approximately $63 a month. Add that to the $200 I am saving each month from my social experiment, and I have just "found" $260 extra each month! With that money, we can pay off our vehicles more quickly, or, according to Dave Ramsey's Mortgage Calculator, apply it to our mortgage and cut 12 years off our home mortage, saving over $80,000 in interest!

Anyone interested in doing this new challenge with me? Come on, it will be fun!

*This image from ajft on flickr.com