More Ways to Go Green - Tips from Mom Bloggers

There were so many great tips and comments for the week of the Blog Party that I've still got more to share.

Mnmom offered these tips for More Ways to Go Green:

1. Have been switching all lamps to compact fluorescent.
2. Use my own bags at the grocery
3. Keep the thermo at 68, even in frigid MN winters.
4. Use the back of paper in the printer. Rarely does anything need to have it's own clean sheet.
5. Use reusable gift bags for ALL holiday gifts. No more wrapping paper in our house!
6. Brooms only - no leaf blowers
7. We designed our yard to be mowed without needing an edger
8. Keep our tire pressure up and the oil changed regularly in our old clunker.

Even More Ways of Going Green came from Michelle.

Here are highlights Michelle's recent blog on no brainer ideas for moms to start going green around the home.

1. Go Unplugged.
Try unplugging appliances and electronics like the toaster, coffeemaker, or DVD player when you are not using them.

2. No to the Flow
Turn off the water while you brush your teeth.

3. Be a Bag Lady
There is no reason to use plastic or even paper bags to shop anymore. Besides the enormous environmental impact they have, green bags are easier to carry, especially with kids in tow, they are virtually unbreakable, and they just look nicer too.

4. Keep it cool baby.
Adjust your thermostat. For every degree you lower the thermostat in the winter months, or raise it in the summer months, you can cut your energy bill and usage by about 4%!

5. Fill 'er Up
Try buying hand soap, shampoo, dish soap in bulk and refilling the bottles you have instead of throwing them away and buying new ones each time. It saves money too.

6. Shut it off
Don't leave your car running. First of all, it's just not safe and from an environmental standpoint, you are cutting down on your emissions by turning it off.

7. Lights Out
Turn the lights off when you leave a room. Take advantage of the extended daylight hours in the summertime and leave the lights off for as long as possible and let the natural light in.

8. Buy Smart, Save Big
The next time you are shopping for a new appliance for your house, invest in one of the Energy Star, high efficiency appliances. Purchasing Energy Star appliances is worth the cost.

9. Cold Turkey & Air Drying
Try washing all of your laundry, or as much as possible anyway, in cold water. Up to an astonishing 90% of the energy used to do a wash of laundry comes from heating up the water.

Don't forget the dryer. Install a clothesline and hang your clothes outside to dry.

10. Pick It Up
Don't litter and please teach your kids not to litter as well. So please, dispose of your trash properly, and please recycle whatever and wherever you can!

Featured on Best Green Blogs

My Green Doc Blog has been included in the Best Green Blogs Directory under Green Blogs, Green Guides, Green Moms, Green Parenting, Green Tips & Tricks, Green Women, M, Personal Blog, and Sustainable Living.

Best Green Blogs is a directory of weblogs that focus on green and sustainable people, places, products, ideas & possibilities.

The directory was developed to give a voice to the green blogosphere, create community and support the thousands of independent green bloggers. Everyday green bloggers are posting news, information and ideas that are useful to transforming the world into a more sustainable and liveable place.

Save Green More Uses for Plastic Bags

To kick off the Mom Blog Party I posted 20 + Ways to Reuse a Plastic Bag and encouraged visitors sure to share their favorite ways of reusing a plastic bag.

While we'd like to see everyone converting over to reusable shopping bags, like My Green Sacs, until plastic bags are banned, we need to figure out ways of reusing the more than 100,000,000,000 (billion) plastic shopping bags used every year in the United States.

Visitors posted a lot of other great tips for saving green by reusing or recycling their plastic bags. Here are some more suggestions from our blog visitors.

Uses for Plastic Bags

Trash Can Liners
From That Crazy Mom We use our plastic bags for trash can liners also. I also use them for my regular kitchen trash. Rather than a big 13 gallon bag, I just put our garbage into the grocery bags then toss them in the kitchen trash.

We also have a local thrift store that takes the bags and reuses them to package up customer's purchases.

From callmekelly I actually just recycle all of the plastic bags I get, though I use cloth bags mostly so I don't have many. I find that may be better than using as liners. Instead, I don't use liners in the small trash cans but rinse them out when they do get dirty with collected rain water.

From ikkinlala We use our plastic grocery bags as garbage bags - if we tried to use full-sized garbage bags, it would stink too much before we got them full. We've been using cloth bags for a long time, but sometimes we need to leave them at home so that we'll have some bags for garbage.

Recycling Bag Programs
From Shannon I wish the grocery stores would actually get rid of plastic and paper bags and make everyone that wants groceries use the recycle bags!

Whenever I go to Wal-Mart though I try to remember to take any plastic bags I have received.

For Messy Jobs
From Angie I re-use plastic grocery bags for when I clean out the cat litter box.

From Monkey's Momma I am a nurse and when I did Home Health, one house I went to should have been declared unfit for inhabitation. Anyway, I would carry a ton of plastic Walmart bags with me in the car. Before I went in this house, I would step one foot in each bag, tie it around my ankle, and off I'd go. When I left the house, I removed the bags from my feet, then my gloves and disposed of them in another plastic bag.

Note to the Go Green Tip Winners:

Everyone who shared a Green Tip is eligible to receive one of the My Green Doc Blog's “Go Green” or “Live Green” sticker in the mail.

You will also receive the Go Green, Live Green or Save Green image via email to use as as a blog badge.

To claim your prize, please send me an email to mygreendoc-at-gmail.com with the information I need to send you your “Go Green” or “Live Green” sticker and blog badge by May 31.

Green Tips from Blog Party Visitors to Go Green and Save Green

Now that blog party has ended, I have pulled together all of the green tips suggested by visitors to the site. We've had a lot of great tips and comments for the week, so I will be running the tips over several blogs this week.

Go Green - Conserve Water

From Joy: GREEN TIP! This will save you money when you flush the toilet. Take a jug of milk (some toilet tanks can fit a gallon, others can only fit a half-gallon).

Fill it with rocks, weights, or whatever you can find that will give it weight. I used those melted marbles you find in craft stores.

After flushing, place the jug (or similar water-proof container) inside the tank, off to the side of the plug. And voila, less water is filling up your water tank!

Go Green Kids

From Katie My tip is let your children get involved. My youngest learned about recycling at school and ever since has become an advocate for it. It's his job to check containers to see if we can recycle it. He was thrilled when we bought reusable bags at the grocery store and we take them everywhere we shop!

Go Green - Neither Paper Nor Plastic

From dolls123 I'm using cloth bags instead of plastic ones.

Go Green at the Store

From Brianna We use our own bags at the grocery store and I'm even getting to the point where I take them to other stores, too. We also use cloth napkins instead of paper ones or paper towels. I'm amazed at what a reduction it is in our use of paper!

I sew, so I make pillowcases as "wrapping paper" for gifts. Just tie with a string and it is a great package!
From Audrey Our biggest contribution has been to only use reusable grocery bags. We love it. We even bought a dozen of them for my mom.

Save Green - Printers and Printing Paper

Another Tip From Ana When printing, to save on ink, click on preferences, then paper/quality tab, then on Draft. It will print out lighter than on the regular setting, but it's readable and saves on cartridge ink.

To save on paper, simply print on both sides of the page when printing multiple pages.

Source: Eco-friendly tip #8: Saving When Printing

Save Green - Alternative Fuel Sources

From michelle Another suggestion would be to do as I did and switch to bioheat. It's great because it uses heating oil and biodegradable products like soybean oil. If you're really into being green then you should be excited about this because you get to keep your home comfy, cozy, and warm during the cold seasons and help preserve the earth as well. I got lots of great tips from Oil Heat America.

Save Green - Compost

From Ana My tip that I would share is to compost when possible. It isn't as difficult as most would believe and creates reusable waste.

Note to the Go Green Tip Winners:

Everyone who shared a Green Tip is eligible to receive one of the My Green Doc Blog's “Go Green” or “Live Green” sticker in the mail.

You will also receive the Go Green image via email to use as as a blog badge.

To claim your prize, please send me an email to mygreendoc-at-gmail.com with the information I need to send you your “Go Green” or “Live Green” sticker and blog badge by May 31.

...and the Blog Party Winners are...

The Mom Blog Party was a lot of fun, getting a chance to meet many new Mom Bloggers. I am pleased to announce the big winners of the prizes donated from My Green Doc Blog, My Green Sac and the Imagine Peace & Love.

Prize Winners from My Green Sac

My Green Sac - $25.00 Gift Certificate
lovethatsara from ShesTongueTied.org

Prize Winners from the My Green Doc Blog

My Green Gift - Green Spa Package
Monkey's Momma a.k.a. M. Hall from Monkey's Momma

Prize Winners from Imagine Peace & Love
Imagine Peace & Love - $20.00 Gift Certificate
Mnmom from Happy to be from Iowa

Imagine Peace & Love - Buttons
Unycorne a.k.a. Heather Quarnstrom - The "Official" Heather Quarnstrom Blog

Note to the Winners:
To claim your prize, please send me an email to mygreendoc-at-gmail.com with the information I need to send you your gift certificate or gift by May 31.

Winners of the My Green Doc Blog “Go Green” or “Live Green” stickers will be announced in tomorrow's blog along with the collection of the best Green Tips from the Mom Blog Party Moms.

My Green Doc Blog Featured on Eco Street

My Green Doc Blog has been included in the EcoStreet Green Community Directory as another one of their Blogs that care and are working to raise green consciousness.

We are listed as one of the "blogs devoted to saving the planet & promoting a more ethical way of life."

EcoStreet.com started in 2002 as a way to raise green consciousness. It began as a directory of UK websites to spread the word about living green, help people who wanted to live more sustainable lives by making it easier for people to find green products and services.

Today EcoStreet is a thriving global community. It has grown over the past 5 years into a thriving global community and is the Web Directory for Eco Friendly & Sustainable Living.

Understanding CO2 Emissions Using Black Balloons

A compelling video messages that helps make the issue of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions more tangible and more visible.

Watch the Black Balloon advertising and be motivated to Go Green and Save Energy.



What is a Black Balloon?
A black balloon is being used as a simple way to help people visualize just how much greenhouse gas is produced around the home, in the office and in other places. Each black balloon measures 50 grams of greenhouse gas.

Making Carbon Emisssion Visible
This Energy Saving Campaign from Climate Protect gives a very powerful visual cue for remembering to conserve energy where CO2 emissions are represented as black balloons. The first ad from the Alliance for Climate Protection encourages everyone to decrease energy use in the home.

The bottom line: using less energy means less greenhouse gas emissions and helps to reduce the impact of climate change.

Find out More on We Can Solve It on the We Can Solve It on Squidoo.

10 Easy Ways to Go Green

These were a list of suggestions for easy Green ideas for Earth Day from one of my favorite T-shirt places, PeaceLoveMom. PeaceLoveMom and My Green Blog Doc encourage you to think green, go green and live green.

10 Easy Ways to Go Green:

1. Do not let the water run while you are brushing your teeth.
2. Take a shower instead of a bath.
3. Do not run the dishwasher until it is full & let the dishes dry naturally.
4. Pack daily lunches in a reusable lunch box and place food in reusable containers.
5. Recycle – newspapers, magazines, aluminum cans, plastic.
6. Turn off the lights when you leave a room & when you leave your home.
7. Wash clothes in cold or warm water.
8. Turn off your computer screen.
9. Use both sides of a piece of paper for note jotting or small children to create art.
10. Recycle your clothes – once you or your children grow out of your clothes donate them or pass them to a friend.

Remember while each action may seem small, over time, these easy to do tasks can make a big difference over time.PeaceLoveMom create designs that will both inspire and empower mothers everywhere, representing a collaboration and true celebration of motherhood.

We Can Solve the Climate Change Crisis

From the We Can Solve It Campaign to Solve the Climate Change Crisis:

The earth is sending us an urgent message!
We face a climate crisis.
You've heard it; you've done some things to help.
WE want you to do more.

Join We Can Solve it.

WE is a growing number of people who believe we can solve this.

Not just as individuals with strong beliefs but as part of a group where our strength makes governments and corporations change.

WE can put our planet on a new path. Clean energy solutions are out there waiting. Solutions that will not only save our planet but help rebuild our economy.

WE can lead.

Watch the Video and find out how.



Together We Can Solve the Climate Crisis

So far more than 1,235,988 people have joined We Can Solve It.

Solutions to global warming exist and we are calling on leaders to make them happen.

By coming together, we're showing overwhelming support for leadership on this critical issue. Add your voice to this important movement right now and help make climate change a priority:

"I call on leaders in business and government to solve the climate crisis."

You can sign up on the We Can Solve it Website.

We've Joined. Have you?

Find out More on We Can Solve It on the We Can Solve It on Squidoo.

20 + Ways to Reuse a Plastic Bag

While we'd like to see everyone converting over to reusable shopping bags, until plastic bags are entirely banned, the numbers show us that the average American uses between 300 and 700 plastic bags per year. This adds up to the United States to going through 100,000,000,000 (billion) plastic shopping bags every year.

Target (one of my favorite places to shop of all times) has printed up suggestions right on their bags for ways of reusing plastic bags.

10 Ways to Reuse a Plastic Bag

Tiny Trashcare Liner

Doggy Duty

Water Balloon

Roadtrip Rubbish

Soggy Laundry

Ice Pack for Head

Toiletry Tote

Kitty Litter Liner

Tomorrow's Lunchbag

Care Package Padding

My Favorite Ways to Reuse a Plastic Bag
In addition to being my favorite store to shop, Target plastic bags are also my favorite plastic bags, because there are so many ways to reuse them. My personal favorites include

• Carrying Gym Clothes or Work-out Clothes and shoes
• Making portable Knitting projects to carry on-the-go
  
• Storing Yarn
• Packing Toiletries for a trip
• Easy Garbage bag for the car
  
• Gift Package Wrapping
  
• Package Packing/padding
• Filling with paper, colored pencils and coloring books as portable activity kits for the girls
• Keeping on hand in the car for emergencies e.g. storing wet clothes, shoes and other wet children things
• Mini garbage bag for the bathroom.
  

Other Ways of Using Plastic Bags
Some of the other ways of reusing a plastic bag include

• Turning Your Plastic Bags into Fabric to Reuse and make your own tote.
• Wet umbrella holders
• Create plastic 'yarn' for crocheting into different projects e.g. bags, hats
• Knee protectors for gardening
• Easy 'gloves' to protect your hands when handling food (or pet leavings)
  

Recycling Plastic Bags - The Retote
Target has found a way to Recycling all of their plastic bags that are turned in, creating a Retote. You get the latest issue of Newsweek, send in your old plastic Target bags and they send you a coupon for a Retote bag.

I decided not to get one, because we already have a lot of their regular reusable bags and the My Green Sacs. If you are interested in knowing more about Target's Retote program take a look at these related articles.

• Target + Newsweek + Terracycle = Bags!
• Calling All Target Plastic Bags
• NEWSWEEK, Target and TerraCycle Team Up for Innovative Program
  

Do you have more ideas?
Be sure to share your favorite ways of reusing a plastic bag as part of the Mommyfest Blog Party.

What I've Learned Since I Became a Mom

(This is a posting for one of the Mommyfest challenges)

I thought I had learned everything that I needed to know in College or in medical school. While I may have learned a lot about science and medicine, it took becoming a Mom for me to learn about living life.

After becoming a Mom, I there have been so many things that I learned from my daughters.

* Marveling at the workings of young minds.
* Sharing a Love for the Environment.
* Learning to Laugh More.
* Enjoying the Moment.
* Being Grateful for so many of the little things.

Having my children later in life after I'd been through school has put a different perspective on life for me. Having my girls has been one of my major life changing events.

While life is more challenging and a lot noisier and more stressful since having them, I wouldn't change what I am doing now and wouldn't trade them for anything.

A Mother's Day Wish Treat the Earth Well

A Wish for all Mothers, Fathers and Parents for this Mother's Day 2008

Treat the Earth well.

It was not given to you by your parents.

It was loaned to you by your children.

Kenyan Proverb

I thought that this quote was a very good reminder for Moms and for Parents of the special mission we have been charged with in raising our children and also in taking care of the planet.

Enjoy your special day.

Join My Green Doc Blog at the Blog Party

Mommyfest Starts May 12
Just a reminder post that the Mommyfest 2008 Blog Party starts on Monday May 12.

My Green Doc Blog is one of the many participants in the Mommyfest Blog Party.

During the week My Green Doc Blog will be sharing (and looking for) green tips to help you “Go Green” and “Live Green” during the week of May 12-16.

For Blog Posters to My Green Doc Blog we will be giving away:

• One Be Green Relaxation Package ($20.00 value) in a random drawing of all blog comments posted.
• “Go Green” or “Live Green” Stickers to the top 10 best green tips and/or most interesting blog posts.
  

For Blog Posters to the My Green Sac comment wall on Zazzle we will be giving away:

• “Go Green” or “Live Green” Stickers to the top 10 most interesting blog posts.

For Comments left in the Imagine Peace & Love Squidoo Lens we will be giving away:

• Two custom Imagine Peace & Love Magnets (image of your choice) in a random drawing of all comments posted.
  
• “Imagine Peace” or “Peace Dove” Stickers to the top 10 most interesting blog posts.
  

Gift Certificate from My Green Sac
We have donated a $25.00 gift certificate from My Green Sac to the list of prizes so watch the Mommyfest 2008 site to see how you can become eligible for this gift certificate.

More about our involvement in Mommy Fest at My Green Doc joins a Blog Party for Moms.

About Green Doc
I updated my "About Me" with a bit more information. You can also check my My Green Doc Voki for a welcome message to this blog.

Featured on Green Mom Blogroll

My Green Doc Blog has been included in the Green Mom Blogroll, a collection of blogs written by parents who are devoted to green living. I am honored to be included in this list of green parents.

Green Mom Finds is a website run by mothers on a mission to find products and services that are kinder to the earth and better for our children and families.

They are experts on loving our families and wanting the best for them and are devoted to helping parents find safer or more eco-friendly alternatives to the conventional products most commonly available.

Green Mom Creed
Their creed summarizes a lot of what I believe about Going Green and Being Green.

We believe that reducing our everyday exposure to harmful substances is important to our families’ health and our environment.

We believe that by using our collective buying power to support green products, we can send a strong message to companies that we want safe products.

We believe that going “green” doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing proposition, and that every green choice we make - no matter how small - is significant.

We believe that sometimes the green choice is too expensive or too inconvenient. And that’s just reality. But we also believe that knowing that we have a choice is half the battle.

We believe that, oftentimes, buying less is the greenest choice of all.

You can find us on the Green Mom Blogroll.

Love Planet Earth - Lift Your Spirits

This special video gift from the makers of "The Secret" came through my email box from several sources. It is an amazing and inspiring reminder of how incredible the planet that we live on really is. I wrote this short quote as I watched the video clip.

The Awe
The Beauty
The Magnificence
The Majesty
The Splendor
The Timelessness
The Wonder

That is the Planet Earth.

Kirsti A. Dyer

The clip was created to lift your spirits and in turn lift the global spirit of the planet earth.

The producers of the the Video included this message about Planet Earth:

When you experience Planet Earth, you will emit positive forces of energy across Planet Earth that will reach every single living thing on it.

You will lift yourself, and as you lift yourself, you lift the entire world.

You can also download the video at the Secret website and view it full screen on your computer.

May you be reminded of the beauty and the wonder that is the planet earth.
May your spirits be lifted as you view this video.

Heal Green - Nature's Healing Forces

Nature is always lovely,
invincible,
glad.
Whatever is done
and suffered by her creatures.
All scars she heals,
whether in rocks or water
or sky or hearts.

John Muir

I am always a bit in awe when I walk around in nature and see the clear examples of struggle, of damage and of survival. Examples of perseverance despite setbacks and damage abound.

Nature has strong regenerative capabilities to heal damage caused by fire, lightening, flood, earthquakes or blights. Looking closely amidst the ruins of fire or flood affected areas one can find signs of new growth and new life.

Bernie Segal, MD reminds us how much we can learn from nature.

If you watch how nature deals with adversity, continually renewing itself, you can’t help but learn.

Nature can be a powerful ally and role model for those facing challenge and adversity, demonstrating the ability to survive despite strong forces that challenge her.

Excerpt from Dyer KA. 2001. Part 1: The Healing Qualities of Nature. Journey of Hearts.

Image Source. © 2000. Injured Tree. Kirsti A. Dyer

Joining the CO2 Stats Project

My Green Dog Blog has added in the online tool for the CO2 Stats Project to keep track of our the carbon dioxide that results from Web traffic to this site. You can see the tracking tool as the bright green box in the side bar.

Once the widget / tool is installed on websites, it monitors Web sites and blogs for the amount of climate-warming carbon dioxide their visitors to a particular site consume and then offsets it for free.

The CO2 Stats counter was developed by Alex Wissner-Gross from Harvard and Tim Sullivan at Yale, both are PhD candidates.

For each pound of carbon dioxide that results from Web traffic to a site where the widget is installed, the project buys carbon offsets from Sustainable Travel International.

Remember renewable energy is good for the environment.

The more renewable energy we support, the less non-renewable energy will be required in the future.

For More Information see CO2 Stats.com

Featured in Renewable Energy Directory

My Green Doc Blog is very honored to have been included and indexed in the Energy Planet's Renewable Energy Directory.

The Energy Planet is a directory of web blogs about nature conservancy and environment ecosystem management. They include Blogs, Businesses, Forums and News items about renewable energy and the environment.

We are listed under Renewable Energy > Environment > Blogs as an Energy Planet featured blog.

Love Green and Share Green on May Day

Having children help in picking flowers and then giving flower baskets for May Day is a great tradition to share with our children, to help them appreciate nature.

The May Day traditions my mother shared with me from her native Finland sound similar to those celebrated by other Europeans.

May Day Traditions
May Day was celebrated by early European settlers of the American continent by making and giving May Day Baskets.

These baskets are small and usually filled with flowers or treats and left at someone's doorstep. When you ring the bell, you are supposed to run away. The person receiving the basket would try to catch the person running away. If they caught the person, a kiss was to be exchanged.

May Day Craft Ideas
In addition to picking your own basked of May Day Flowers, here are a few other May Day Basket ideas.

• Crafty Bug has a beautiful May Day Project.
• The Toy Maker has several printable Flower Baskets that would make great May Day Baskets.
  
• Making Friends Website has a May Day Basket Craft Idea.

Source: Wikipedia. May Day.
Image Source: Modified Microsoft Image.