Here in the United States, tomorrow is our designated day to be thankful. (The irony of one of the most well-off countries in the world having a single day each year to stop and appreciate what we have is not lost on me.) Nevertheless, Thanksgiving does tend to cause some reflection for most, I think.

I happen to believe in charity; it doesn’t particularly matter how or where you do it (though here’s some great Thanksgiving suggestions), but I think it’s important to do it. It’s good karma. It’s a way to remember to be thankful. It’s a way to give back. It’s a way to engage more fully as a member of the human race, really.

I also think it’s important to get kids involved, as early as possible. A child raised in the ways of giving back develops empathy, raised awareness of the realities of our world, and compassion. Start small. Take an iddy biddy step, this Thanksgiving—go shopping together for canned goods to take to your local food pantry, maybe. Bake an extra pie and take it down to your local police or fire station on Thanksgiving, to say thanks to the fine folks working on a holiday to keep the rest of us safe.

Is being involved in a charitable activity such as helping out at a soup kitchen “green?” I would argue that it is, as taking care of other people on our planet is part and parcel of caring for the planet as a whole.

So this year, don’t just have a wonderful Thanksgiving… think about how you can also make it a wonderful Thanksgiving for someone else, even in some small way.

Do you celebrate Thanksgiving? Do you have someplace to go, on Thursday? Because if you don’t, you can come over to my house. I mean, everyone else is.

Oh, I kid. I love having folks over—I love cooking, and there’s nothing cozier than a house full of good company enjoying food and fun together. But I’ll confess to getting just a wee bit stressed out when it comes to the actual preparation of the meal… and, of course, trying to be greener, this year, when money is a little bit tighter than usual. All too often, greener = more expensive, and in tough economic times it can be hard to prioritize your morals over your pocketbook.

This year we ordered a local, “humanely raised” turkey. That was my “big” iddy biddy step. This bird cost approximately three times what a traditional… ummm… rhymes-with-muttersmall turkey would cost us. I would’ve liked to save the money, yes, but instead we made a commitment to this and cut back in other ways. (And now my vegan friend is reading this, assuring me that next year I can skip the slaughtered animals altogether and have a delightful nut loaf, instead.) I’ll also be paying more (about twice as much) for veggie broth rather than chicken broth to use in my stuffing, as my newly-vegetarian daughter is very fond of my cornbread stuffing.

Looking for ways to green your Thanksgiving? Check out these suggestions: thedailygreen.com offers lots of menu ideas, about.com lists their top 10 tips, Planet Green teams up with the folks at Emeril Green, and Modern Eco homes reminds us to (among other things) turn down the thermostat. Thursday can easily be a day of thanks and iddy biddy steps!

Are you just starting out taking iddy biddy steps towards a greener planet? Or are your kids little enough that you’re wondering how to tackle these issues with them? Maybe you should check out the Idbids Green IQ Quiz to get an idea of just how much green education is in order, moving forward.

Hey, it’s not rocket science, or anything. Five questions. It’ll take you under a minute. I swear. My kids—world-weary eco-experts that they are—scoffed and chose the “right” answer every time (even if it wasn’t entirely accurate). They get points for effort, anyway.

And just another little bit of fun to share: The Idbids are currently starring in their first video!

An Iddy Biddy Video from Idbids on Vimeo.

(I have been humming the background music for a whole day, now. It’s catchy.)

There’s a school store at my kids’ school where they sell all manner of school supplies, and I’ve grown used to the oohs and aahs over various pencil sharpeners and fancy notebooks. But this year they’ve added something new: Smencils!

My children are bonkers for Smencils. All of their friends are bonkers for Smencils. Because Smencils—in case you hadn’t already guessed this—are scented pencils. And I don’t mean they smell like a little vague whiff of something for five seconds; they smell strongly, all over, for (so they claim) two years.

Walk into the school at any time and you’ll see what looks like a bunch of junkies, except instead of snorting drugs, the kids are all sitting around sniffing and swapping their Smencils. It’s kind of hilarious. And I’ve got to tell you… I’m not much of an olfactory-oriented person, myself, but the chocolate Smencil? Oh my gosh. It smells really good.

The best part about the Smencils, though, isn’t the smell—it’s that they’re made of recycled newspapers. The kids are proudly selling them to raise money for their school, telling potential customers that really, they’re saving trees (and then in the next breath it’s “Here, smell this!” but hey, it’s an iddy biddy step nonetheless).

Now that smells like a great idea, no?

As a family, we eat a fair amount of fish. (Well, all of us who haven’t recently gone vegetarian.) As a person who hopes to live a long life, and as a mom trying to feed my family right, fish has been a natural choice for us. It’s healthy, and we like it.

Within the last few years I made a conscious decision to stop buying farmed fish; it seems environmentally unfriendly, and some farmed fish never tastes as good as wild—not to mention that some farmed varieties have artificial color added (hello, scary orange salmon). I was taking a great iddy biddy step, right? I started off feeding my family something healthy, and then I followed it up by making an eco-smart choice about which products to buy.

Yes. Except… no, because it turns out that I’d overly simplified the matter. Thanks to the Seafood Selector, knowledge is power. The good news is that I can rest assured that I know exactly what impact the industry of the fish I’m buying may have on the planet. The bad news is that—surprise!—in many cases, the farmed option is better for the earth. I had no idea.

Now I just have to decide if I believe the recent buzz about tilapia being less healthful than originally thought, because it turns out that—in addition to being one of my family’s favorites—farmed U.S. tilapia is rated an eco-best fish.

Decisions, decisions. I’m thinking of becoming a chocolatarian, actually.

Last week my ten-and-a-half-year-old daughter decided to become a vegetarian.

Now, I took this announcement with a grain of salt, at first, because shortly after she brought it up, the first time, she asked for a chicken taco. So… yeah.

But she’s getting older (”I’m practically a teenager, Mom, geez“) and she’s just starting to understand that sometimes delicious meals come from adorable animals, and she wants no part of that. She’s dug in her heels and stopped eating the meat I serve.

Part of me is worried about her diet—she’s a (rapidly) growing child, and while she eats a large variety of foods, meat is an easy way to get plenty of protein. But another part of me is really proud of her for making this choice. She told me it’s mostly because she loves animals, but then reminded me, “Mom, you’re cutting down how much meat we eat, anyway, because of the environment, right? It’s good for that, too.”

It’s true—the livestock sector is one of the worst environmental hazards of our time. I have scaled back how much meat we buy and have made sure we’re eating a fully vegetarian meal at least a couple of times a week, but my daughter’s decision is already affecting my meal planning. Do I make a veggie lasagna for everyone, or a small veggie one for her and the “regular” kind for the rest of us?

Leave it to my kid to make me have to think. Sheesh.

That’s right, folks—even Barbie is working on going green!

She’s probably got a little hybrid car, even, and a miniature Sigg bottle, and a tiny little solar charger for her little laptop, that she uses to surf her favorite green websites, right? Right??

Well, maybe not. (Or maybe not yet.)

In the meantime, check out Walmart (of all places) this coming Saturday. That’s right, on Saturday, November 8th, you can participate in Give Back with Barbie Cares:

Moms, daughters and Barbie lovers can bring in their Barbie dolls to be used in a pilot program exploring toy recyclability at participating toy departments from noon to 3 p.m. Furthermore, for each doll collected, Mattel will donate a new doll to a local children’s hospital, up to 100,000 dolls.

Customers should also bring their digital cameras to snap a picture with Barbie and receive a coupon to print a free 4×6” photo from the Kodak Picture Maker that same day. Other Barbie-themed give-aways will be on hand, while supplies last.

Who amongst us with a girl in the house doesn’t have at least one naked, wild-haired, no-longer-loved Barbie lying around? Go recycle her, and know that you’re taking a tiny green step while Mattel is donating to sick kids. That’s my kind of green, right there.

[Hat tip: Skimbaco]

I am not a very touchy-feely sort of person. I like facts and figures and realities over how things “seem” or “feel,” most of the time. Nevertheless, I resisted the switch to compact fluorescent lightbulbs for a long time. And the reason I struggled was not the cost (they do cost more)—it was because I don’t like the way they feel. There; I said it.

It’s shallow. It’s embarrassing. But it’s also completely true. The early compact fluorescents had a somewhat sickly yellow pallor that made me feel like I was trapped in a seedy department store. Nowadays, they’ve improved greatly—you can buy full-spectrum CF bulbs that emit a much more natural light—though the really nice ones are, of course, priced accordingly.

The worst part, though, is that I basically stuck my fingers in my ears and closed my eyes and continued using incandescents long past the availability of better CFs, because I had assumed they would always be terrible. Well, I learned my lesson. I’ll be over here in the corner, eating some crow (by the light of my compact fluorescent bulbs, of course).

If you haven’t checked out greener lighting options, lately, here’s a quick primer on how to pick a better bulb, plus an extensive CFL lighting FAQ by GE to get you motivated. And here’s my bonus lighting tip: In a high-traffic room with a multi-bulb fixture (like my kids’ rooms, which have ceiling fans with five bulbs apiece!), unscrew or remove a bulb or two. It’ll still be plenty bright, and you’ll save energy (and feel virtuous).