It’s been a whole lot of fun comparing notes on our iddy biddy green steps together—from what we drive to what we eat to how our kids tend to be the “Green Police,” we’re all trying to be the best stewards of our earth and our families that we can be.

Part of what we’re realizing, ’round here, is that sometimes you have to try harder, and sometimes you just have to… stop trying so hard! And right now it’s summer; it’s time to hang out with our families, have fun, and enjoy all the season has to offer.

To that end, we’re going to take a little blog break while we go work in our gardens, camp with our kids, and enjoy the simplest pleasures in life. We think that Lola, Scout and Waverly would approve, actually. (We promise to keep up our iddy biddy green steps while we do it; pinky swear.)

We’ll be back after some vacation time, and we can’t wait to talk again, then. In the meantime, have a fabulous summer, and keep making those iddy biddy steps that add up to a biggie big difference!

In a digital world, it’s only natural that just about everyone who’s spent any time single in the last ten years or so has tried an online dating service at one time or another. I’ve done it myself, and I have to tell you… it’s horrible. I don’t know if you know this, but they will let absolutely anyone onto the Internet. Can you imagine? It’s true!

Okay, kidding aside—there are dating sites that are religion based. There are sites around a common pursuit or hobby. And now, there’s also a dating site for the eco-minded; if you’re serious about finding that special someone with whom you can share candlelit organic dinners and long walks along the beach to pick up litter, check out EcoDater. From the site:

EcoDater is an eco-friendly online dating site for green single men and women who care about living a natural, holistic lifestyle. We are environmentalists, vegans and vegetarians, organic farmers, outdoor enthusiasts, eco travelers and many other practitioners of green living.

I love the idea, truly. I think the market is ripe for a site like this, and I hope it helps like-minded folks connect. On the other hand, given the misadventures that often result in the world of blind dating, the cynic in me wonders what sort of problems might crop up. Like… she thought he was a vegan, but it turns out he’s merely vegetarian and thoughtlessly ate cheese on their date! The horror!

Well, I do think it’s fascinating. But I’m also really glad I’m married.

Maybe it’s the cynic in me, but as much as I’m happy to learn about ways to green up my family’s life, sometimes I just start wondering when it stops being “green” and starts being “the marketing bandwagon du jour.”

On the one hand, I can appreciate that even a marketing plan based on less-than-noble motives may, indeed, result in products that are better for our earth. And at the end of the day I don’t really care why a company chose to make decisions which are—ultimately—much more environmentally responsible than before. On the other hand, though, where’s the line? Does it matter?

I received a pitch in my email this morning about Michelin Energy Saver A/S tires, and the thrust of the marketing is about these being the most “green” choice. I don’t know about you, but when I think green I’m rarely thinking about… tires. Do I need to put these on a yuppie hybrid car for them to work? Is this more or less eco-conscious than buying organic produce?

My head hurts.

It’s a funny thing; ask just about anyone what they think the most likely biggest barrier to living more green might be, and they’ll probably tell you it’s cost. I would love, for example, to buy nothing but organic foods for my family… but at this point in our lives, it’s simply too expensive for me to do so. (I do, however, try to stay organic on the Dirty Dozen foods.) Similarly, I tend to think of vacation time being less green than “regular” life, for most folks, because once you’ve paid for a hotel room or whatever, it’s not like you’re paying for every drop of water or degree of thermostat-bump on the air conditioning. And we’ve already discussed my camping garbage guilt.

So imagine my surprise to come across this article on waste consciousness that claims “road warriors are turning into eco-warriors.”

Check it out:

The faltering economy – not the fragile environment – is the biggest motivator for frequent travelers who have become “more conscious of waste” according to a survey commissioned by Element Hotels, which is launching The Element Eco-Travel Index, an annual index of green travel habits among frequent travelers. [...]

According to The Element Eco-Travel Index, nearly 78 percent of respondents said they are paying more attention to wasteful habits like “leaving the lights on, leaving the TV on, [or] leaving the faucet running.” But more than 41 percent say their vigilance about squandering resources is “due to the economy, while just 28 percent claim it’s “due to the environment.”

It’s a little ironic, I suppose, that the economy is more of a motivation to be green than, you know, preserving our earth. But the end result is still a huge positive—people being more mindful. I’ll take it!

I used to know a guy who was steadfast in his belief that every single story on the news boiled down to one of two topics. The first was “I want my baby back,” and the second was “Why water can kill you.”

Think about it for a minute; he was (cheekily, to be sure) on to something.

When it comes to greener living, I find myself quoting that “why water can kill you” line often. It seems like every other week there’s news explaining why the thing you thought was so green turns out to be less environmentally friendly than the alternative.

Or—to give an example folks of my generation may remember—consider butter. Remember when They (who are They, anyway?) decided butter was bad, and every household in America switched to margarine? And then later, They decided that actually, trans-fats are even worse, maybe we should all go back to butter…? I’m talking about stuff like that.

So when I came across this piece on green living myths in the Christian Science Monitor, I started chuckling before I even read it. That said, a couple of them really surprised me.

Go give it a read. I know it never once occurred to me that recycled paper may be less earth-friendly than virgin paper. (See? You’re surprised, already.)

This past weekend we loaded up the family and headed off for our first camping trip with our new travel trailer. (We went here, and it was gorgeous.) Now, I already have guilt about camping with a trailer; is it really camping if you’re staying in a tiny little house, with electricity and water? But my guilt didn’t actually translate into willingness to spend the weekend in a sleeping bag on the ground, so there we were.

The surroundings were magnificent, the weather was unexpectedly gorgeous (it can get a wee bit toasty here in Georgia, but we enjoyed mild temps all weekend), and I had engineered our meals down to a science before we left, rendering cooking both fast and energy-efficient. Hey, if you’re going to camp with a trailer, why not plan on a crock pot meal? It takes about four cents worth of electricity to cook, with no smoke or other emissions!

It turned out that the only problem we had was… garbage guilt. Guess what the state parks tend not to have? That’s right—recycling bins, and compost heaps. At home we compost and recycle, of course. On the road, what to do? I could store the recyclables and tote them home, I guess, though that uses up precious space. And as for compostable materials… well… sorry, but I’m not up for toting that around. We threw it all away, but I felt guilty.

Now I’m wondering if there’s a better solution for our next trip. Anyone have any ideas?

I have to start this off by admitting that I’ve never been much for fancy jewelry; I’m just as happy with cheap costume stuff, in general, as I am with something expensive. Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend, but this girl has an easier time wearing something I don’t have to freak out about losing or whatever.

But there’s a lot of talk in eco-circles about the environmental (and humanitarian) impact of things like diamonds. The “green” thing to do is buy lab-grown diamonds, or recycle existing ones. Reading about this makes me feel somewhat smug, because my wedding band belonged to my great-grandmother. Here I thought I was being cheap sentimental in wearing her band, but it turns out, actually I was recycling the diamonds!

This trend is, of course, opening up the market for companies like Green ORO to step in with jewelry made from conflict-free diamonds and recycled metals, which is very cool.

And then there’s also things like designer Linda Loudermilk’s “Water is a Human Right” line, wherein you can pick up this quirky water necklace and know that a portion of your proceeds goes to the YEW Foundation to support clean water initiatives. If that’s not jewelry with a greener purpose, I don’t know what is.

This stuff certainly makes me think about greening my (occasional) jewelry purchases, that’s for sure.

Here in the U.S., it is traditional to celebrate Memorial Day with foodstuffs in the grill. (Yes, it’s most traditional to make those foodstuffs large hunks of meat, but in deference to the vegetarian in my house, we also often celebrate with zucchini.)

Today’s cooking reminded me that I’d been meaning to write something about solar cookers ever since I read about this video last month:

The Kyoto Box and other solar ovens are intended for use in remote areas where the only other alternative is cooking over an open wood fire, but many ecoists are jumping on the solar cooking bandwagon. You can go grab the plans for building the solar cooker of your choice online, even.

Would you ever do something like this, all in the name of going greener? It seems a little redundant given that I live in a house with electricity, and have a propane grill sitting right outside. On the other hand, it might be kind of a fun project with the kids, just to see how it works.

I came across this story on CNN this morning and just had to share it; what a testament to the powerfulness of going green!

From the story:

[A] program in Washington state helps military veterans learn marketable job skills and make sense of their experiences in combat. Program managers say the Veterans Conservation Corps initiative helps hundreds of vets study and train to enter the growing “green” jobs field.

In return, the veterans work on projects that help restore the environment in state parks.

The VCC, though, is much more than job training for Grisham and many of the other vets. It’s a form of therapy.

“Sometimes it feels really good. When we take invasive weeds off a tree that’s being suffocated and we free something. I feel a bit lighter inside,” Grisham says.

I just absolutely love this. What a wonderful way to help those who have served our country, and a great way to maintain some of our precious natural lands. I’ve always suspected that gardening (on a much smaller scale, of course) is therapeutic for me… it just brings a smile to my face to know that getting back to nature is being used as a tool in this way.

I work from home, so I like to think of myself as being fairly eco-friendly when it comes to the amount of driving I do. In fact, my husband sees the every-3,000-mile oil change as something of a religion, and just this weekend he told me that in checking my car, he’d discovered that I’ve only driven 2,400 miles in the last eight months.

(For what it’s worth, I then told him I was pretty sure I’d driven 1,400 of those taking the kids to and from the orthodontist. My son is the king of the broken wire. Ahem.)

So I’m off the hook when it comes to reducing dependence on automobiles, right? Well… maybe not. I was just reading the car-free blog challenge issued over at BlogHer, and it’s gotten me thinking. Even with as little driving as I do, it’s not as though I utilize alternate transportation methods. I never take the bus. We don’t live close enough to anything useful (like the grocery store) for me to bike easily. Or maybe I’m just being a wimp.

Could you go without a car for a week? Reading through the links on the post above, I’m sort of wondering if it only “works” for folks in big cities. But maybe I just need to think a little more creatively. Or bike a little further.