I’m not. Believe me, I want to be, but it seems like the sheer effort of taking care of both of them makes it harder to do certain things.  Also, I’m working full time while my husband is home, and he doesn’t always share my green ideals.  In the photo my daughter, Jovi, looks worried about the planet while Roscoe seems to be happy with our conservation efforts.

Of course in some ways I guess I am greener since I know more the second time around.  I don’t use bleach with my cloth diapers, we now use cloth wipes, and I’m totally comfortable going out on the town in cloth.

But I’m not hanging as many loads of laundry to dry or making homemade meals out of beautiful vegetables from our local CSA.  Still, I hope that this summer when I’m home I can shift to an even greener lifestyle as my garden starts to sprout and I’m not heading to work.

What about you?  Has having multiple children challenged some of your green ideals?

As a proud dishwasher owner for the last four months, I obviously qualify as an expert. I’ve even learned a few more tricks since my initial dishwasher post. According to the Energy Star website, an Energy Star dishwasher uses 5.8 gallons of water or less per load. Most studies indicate that using the dishwasher will save money and water compared to hand washing. However, remember that  this is not the case if you pre-rinse dishes (wasting up to 20 gallons of water per load!) or use the heat dry option! The estimated energy usage that you see on that Energy Star tag are based on running loads on the normal cycle and letting the dishes air dry.

What else can you do to save water and energy?

I’ll say it again: scrape, but don’t rinse! Today’s dishwashers and detergents are made to do that for you. The Energy Star website says to use the “rinse” cycle (rather than rinsing in the sink) if you let the dishes sit overnight, but I have never done that, and my dishes have always come out sparkling clean—even after two or three days.

Use the lightest cycle option. I was using the “normal” cycle until I read this tip. I tried the light (or “fine china” cycle). Guess what? The light cycle was forty minutes faster than the “normal” cycle and cleaned everything just fine—including a jar coated in peanut butter.

Use an eco-friendly detergent. Regular detergents use ingredients that damage our water supply and harm aquatic life. And Biokleen doesn’t cost any more than Cascade, wash per wash.

Skip the rinse agent. Who knows what’s in Jet Dry? They won’t tell you. Skip it—or use white vinegar instead. I crack open the dishwasher when it’s done washing, shake off any excess water, and let the dishes dry naturally. Even in the drizzly Pacific Northwest, they dry just fine on their own. I haven’t had any problems with spotting.

Run full loads. It may be worth it to buy more plates (make them secondhand to be totally carbon neutral!) if you find yourself unable to stuff the dishwasher to capacity. Otherwise, there’s no reason to run the dishwasher before it’s full.

Any more tips for saving water and energy with a dishwasher? Let us know!

Just a few weeks ago our cupboard was brimming with paperclips, post-its and postage stamps.  Every time I opened it a flurry of papers spewed out, making our kitchen’s organization center an utter mess.  It was imperative to get things in working order soon, but I didn’t want to shell out big bucks in the process.

Happily, my first (and only) shopping stop was the local thrift store.  The shelves were heaped with all sorts of gizmos that could be used to store a number of things.  I could have gone for a creative and aesthetically pleasing look if the stuff was exposed by using multicolored shot glasses, small ceramic bowls and even tiny terracotta pots.

Since the cupboard’s contents are hidden, I opted for more practical gear. In the office section I picked up a few black mesh wire organizers for a total of three dollars, plus a quality stapler for a buck more.  Now my cupboard that seemed to be dripping with paper has been harnessed into a very functional storage area.

The same three items I bought would have cost well over twenty bucks at Target, and all would have had to be manufactured and shipped there.  How nice when recycling can save you money while infusing your house with beauty and order!

Have you stumbled on any simple, beautiful organization solutions in your home?  Do share!

Betsy over at Eco-novice might be a little too impressed by our composting ability. (Read the comments in this post to see what I mean.) Today, I will prove that composting is not just for advanced ecophiles. In fact, it’s the perfect way to be green & lazy—right up Betsy’s alley.

Pull-out trash and recycling on the left. Glass recycling in the gray bin, compost in the push-pedal bin.

1. You can treat your compost like an outdoor garbage can. That is, you don’t really need to aerate it, water it, turn it, or do anything to it. You can just dump scraps in there and let them compost on their own. You don’t even have to ever use the finished product—it will all shrink down eventually. Sure, if you want to speed things up you can do all that stuff, but it’s strictly optional.
2. You can take your trash out less. Because we compost, our trash doesn’t smell—nothing is decomposing in it. (Smelly trash, by the way, is bad for the environment. It’s emitting methane, a greenhouse gas.) We take our trash out of the kitchen once a month. That means we use just twelve garbage bags a year, and we take the big trash can (30 gallons) out to the curb once a month, too. That saves us $110 on our trash bill each year!
3. You can use the compost as free fertilizer. You don’t have to use the finished compost on your garden or lawn, but why not? It’s free, it comes without packaging and harmful chemicals, and it helps your garden grow—naturally.

While it’s great that composting helps the earth, I’ve got to admit I do it for the first two reasons on this list. I hate taking out the trash—and composting reduces that chore to a mere twelve times a year. Too lazy to compost? I don’t buy it!

It’s hard to quantify just how much I love the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center here in Eugene, Oregon.  Their supportive and empowering staff helped my family welcome our two children into the world. Throughout my entire pregnancy and birth we never felt rushed but enjoyed long leisurely appointments that educated us and allowed us to make our own choices. 

I gave birth in the above room filled with antique furniture in a beautiful old craftsman home that had been converted to a birthing center.  What could be better? This!

The new Midwifery Birth Center opened its doors today on May 1^st.   It’s situated close to the new hospital, in a stand of old trees, and is built to support ongoing natural birth.  It’s complete with a birthing tub for water births, a nature path among the old pines, and a classic interior.

The best part of all is that our entire community came together to support the clinic and did tremendous fundraising to be able to build and open the center.  Nurses and midwives were flexible as they moved to the hospital for the year while the center was built. Many of the moms who helped fundraise were due during the construction and so weren’t able to have their babies at the clinic.  Still they put in time and energy so that new birth center would open their doors to new families in time for Mother’s Day.

Want to be inspired?  Visit the Lane County Friends of the Birth Center’s blog or Facebook page to see how this vision has come to pass.  What a gift to our community!

While natural labor and childbirth are the ideal for many women, we know that sometimes the health of the baby or the mother dictates intervention.  Still, there’s so much pressure these days to opt for an epidural or a C-section that it’s nice when you are able to have support for your birth plan.  Did you manage to have a natural labor?  If so, did you have to fight for it or were your physician or midwife on your side?  Feel free to tell your birth story!  We love to hear them!  What would you tell someone who is right in the middle of her first pregnancy?  Any tips?

First the good news: In the 2.5 years my daughter wore diapers, I bought just six packs of disposables. I thought that was pretty impressive, though I’m sure some of the cloth diaper aficionados around here managed to do even better. We used cloth for nighttime and nap time and even managed to use cloth on a few vacations. The disposables came in handy for a few trips that involved plane travel and lack of laundry facilities.

Photographic evidence

Now, the bad news: None, and I mean zero, of those six packs were Seventh Generation diapers or Nature babycare or gDiapers. No, we used . . . the generic brand we found at Fred Meyer. How could I commit such an eco-atrocity? Well, I’ve got to say that I just couldn’t stand the idea of paying so much more for chlorine-free diapers. (The only difference between regular and “greener” disposables is that the eco-disposables are made from chlorine-free tree pulp. Check out our post on the anatomy of a disposable if you want to know what else is in those plastic diapers.)

While it sounds like I’m trying to justify this transgression, I actually do feel guilty about it. While there isn’t much difference between a Seventh Generation and a Huggies, I do believe that Seventh Generation is trying to be eco-friendlier. Therefore, I should use my dollars to support them and other likeminded companies. Right?

What do you think? Do you make an effort to use “greener” disposables? Why? What brands do you like? Or . . . are there others out there like me, who just couldn’t pay extra for the eco-friendly stamp of approval?

Somehow the nine month gestational period of human life seems to require expectant parents to paint.  Whether you’re sprucing up the nursery or putting a fresh coat on all your walls, we often find ourselves with paint smudges on our swollen bellies in those last few months. And why not?  Painting is a cheap and easy way to change a room without a huge investment.(And as authors of The Eco-nomical Baby Guide, we love simple, inexpensive solutions for baby’s room!)

But what color should we use?  Should we attempt a mural?  Will we need a nap after just a few brushstrokes?  And what about those fumes?

Not to worry!  This week’s giveaway features, Paint Style, a book that’s packed with fabulous ideas that the rest of us are too tired to come up with.  It’s put together by Benjamin Moore, the same company that creates gorgeous color palates and offers the Natura line of zero emissions paints!  My husband, an interior architect and color snob, prefers Benjamin Moore over all other paints for their rich palates and quality paints.  He was thrilled to know that they now offer their greenest paint line yet!

Benjamin Moore’s Natura paints are safe for you to use while pregnant and are shockingly fume-free.  I painted my son’s room with a  sample can and was amazed that I couldn’t detect even a whiff of chemicals.  (It has virtually no odor and zero volatile organic compounds.) We painted in the afternoon and tucked him into bed that night without a care.

One lucky reader is going to win a copy of Paint Style: The New Approach to Decorative Paint Finishes.  This Benjamin Moore  book on creative painting techniques is loaded with beautiful, vibrant ideas for bringing color into your home. The tips will be inspirational for baby’s nursery along with the rest of the rooms in your house!

Eight Ways to Enter the Giveaway

You can enter more than once! (If you’ve participated in our giveaways before, you’ll know this already).  Each way listed below gets you one entry.  All comments have to be posted BEFORE Wednesday the 12th of May to win.

Remember, leave a separate comment on this post for each entry you want.  If applicable, please leave the link to your Facebook/Twitter/Blog in the comment you leave here.

1. Leave us a comment on this post.
2. Visit Benjamin Moore’s website and then post a comment telling us what caught your eye!
3. Email a friend about this giveaway.
4. Join our Facebook fan club
5. Link to this giveaway post on Facebook or Twitter–tell all your friends to stop by!
6. Link to this post on your blog!
7. Add The Eco-nomical Baby Guide to your “to read” shelf on Goodreads
8. Does your library have copies of the Eco-nomical Baby Guide? If not,request a purchase! (Then come back and post your comment to let us know!)

***The contest ends on Tuesday, May 11th, 2010***

Winner will be randomly selected.

We will notify the winner via email. Please Note: This contest is open only to U.S. readers.   Enjoy!

Do you live off the grid on a soybean farm . . . or do you drive a Hummer limousine on your daily commute? In our book, The Eco-nomical Baby Guide, we present a (mostly) tongue-in-cheek “spectrum of green parents,” from the extraordinarily green to the defiantly ungreen.

I think I vacillate between the middle options on our list: sometimes I’m “gladly green,” cheerfully composting my food scraps and hanging laundry to dry. Other times, I’m afraid I could describe myself as “overwhelmed green” or even “jaded green.”

Where do you see yourself falling on this spectrum? And when you’re feeling overwhelmed by the waste and pollution in this world, how do you work yourself back into the “gladly green” mindset?

At a book signing awhile ago, a pregnant friend of a friend approached me with a few cloth diapering questions.  With glee, I launched from my chair and flew to the diapering section of the baby boutique that was hosting the event.  While holding up striped diaper covers, flowered pocket diapers and hemp pre-folds I described the pros and cons of each, outlined care instructions and summarized costs.  I think I may have also been gesturing wildly and possibly jumping up and down.

I get a little high on cloth diapering.

Thankfully, I realized that the poor woman’s eyes were glazing over.  My cloth diapering manifesto was a bit overwhelming for someone who was just starting. Luckily, she had just bought a copy of our book, The Eco-nomical Baby Guide, which is packed full of cloth diapering info (and even pictures!) that she can process at her own pace.

Are you afflicted with cloth diapering addiction?  Do you find yourself talking to perfect strangers about snaps versus Velcro or pockets versus prefolds?  Tell me I’m not alone!