4-21: Thank you and Earth Day Part 1

I must begin this evening with a huge THANK YOU and HOORAY to everyone who has contributed to and been reading this blog so far. I'm so amazed, excited and inspired - you are awesome!

I also have another confession. . .this "food stuff" is really hard!!! Based on Lindsay and Julie's recommendations I set out this week to visit the East Lansing Food Co-op and Goodrich's to purchase some local foods. Obviously over-simplifying things I thought, "Okay, I'll go in here, buy some local stuff and that will be great!" Well, anyone who has ever shopped with two toddlers in an unfamiliar store will sympathize that the time required to look at the product, determine if it's a desirable product for my family, read the large store label, attempt to read the 6-pt font shelf tag, pick up the product and try to find where it is made. . .takes about 12 times longer than the amount of time the toddlers are willing to stand in one place. I came home with a headache, feeling like I had information overload, and with several products that traveled across the country to my home anyway! Basically, I failed miserably.

Alas, I did manage to learn some valuable lessons (and now Julie has posted her list of MI products which will be VERY useful next time). . .the first of which is that I can't do everything all at once. Yes, my husband will be very happy to hear this admission. . .but I just can't! On a brighter note, though, I was very impressed with East Lansing Food Co-op's encouragement of reusing packaging - bring your own bag, canister, tub, whatever and FILL IT UP with their bulk products. They'll even credit your bill for doing it. We also tried out some fantastic local milk and cheese and found some tasty Michigan dried fruit. I know that changing my habits to shop and eat locally will be a process, just like all changes, and I will get better at it. . .did I not mention before that I'm just a little impatient?

Earth Day 2010 Part 1:

In approximately 25 minutes I will shut off the power to my home for 24 hours. I decided I have to go all out and shut off the main breaker or else there would likely be some cheating. I will also be traveling without my car tomorrow. Thank goodness the weather should be nice!!! I'm most concerned about being prepared for the power outage since I don't want to "undo" the environmental gesture by eating McDonald's all day. Here's my list of "supplies" which may or may not suffice:

• 12 quarts of water for cooking, dish washing and people washing
  
• 128 oz of water in re-usable bottles for drinking
• Cooler stocked with water, milk, cheese, OJ, and 2 days worth of ice from my freezer ice maker
• 1 bathtub of water that I will fill upon completion of this blog post as I shower that will be used for toilet flushing (We have a well and therefore have no water without power)
• 2 flashlights stocked with batteries
• Fully charged cell phone

I can light my stove manually for cooking and warming water and we plan to grill for dinner. I hope I have most things covered. My bike is ready to go and we can manually raise and lower the garage for my husband who is not yet home from work. Since this was HIS idea after all, he says he will shower at work tomorrow? By the way - he has agreed to bike / bus to work once in May - but wants to plan it for a light work day. I'm thrilled! Come back this weekend to find out how it went and chat about your Earth Day experiences! Gotta hit the shower. . .11 minutes left! :)