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 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.

I came across this video online the other day, and it made me laugh so hard, my kids came running. So then I let them watch it, and they laughed so hard they then begged me to play it again. And again.

But seriously, it’s a valuable lesson about water conservation! Honest! See for yourself:

See? I’m sure the Navy Shower is Waverly-approved for conserving water, and if this video gets your kids into the idea, well, that can’t be a bad thing.

It’s finally here—today is Earth Day!

How will you celebrate?

Maybe you’d like to send a few free Earth Day e-cards to those you love; I promise they have just an iddy biddy carbon footprint, and no trees were harmed in their creation.

Or maybe you’d like to try some recycled tinfoil (yes, really), but you’ve noticed it’s pretty pricey, at the store. Reynolds is willing to let you try it for free, so you can decide if you like it (or if you just want to save some money).

Need some other ideas of green resources and/or steps you can take today? Msnbc has a great round-up of suggestions—I particularly like 70 Park Avenue Hotel’s new Eco-Step Challenge. (If ever you needed an excuse to hit NYC….)

Of course, surely you already have your Idbids gear, but if not, it’s always a good time to shop the Idbids Store for all sorts of earth-friendly Idbids merchandise.

Let’s all keep working towards making it Earth Day, every day!

Sometimes I come across something online where I think, “Wow, that is such a good idea. I’m totally going to start doing that!” It’s thanks to the wonders of the Internet that I learned about rain barrels. And square-foot gardening. And lots of other things which I feel have raised my eco-IQ, as it were.

Without the Internet, I probably wouldn’t be baking my own bread. (I used to think baking was scary. I don’t know why. And sure, I have cookbooks, but being able to read about people’s personal experience—particularly folks saying, “This recipe was so easy! Thanks!”—helped me to brave a new undertaking.) My point is, there’s a lot to be said for having such easy access to both information and the experiences of others. Going green in small steps is made a lot easier when you can compare notes and get ideas from people all over the planet.

But sometimes I read about people taking big, radical steps… and sometimes I’m impressed, and other times… well… here, I’ll let you be the judge: Have you heard of freeganism? The good news is that they’re sort of uber-recyclers. The bad news is that they eat out of the trash. Yes. I want to applaud their ingenuity, their eco-consciousness, their resourcefulness. I do. But… they eat trash.

(Here’s to smaller steps, the kind that don’t make me gag.)

Yesterday I was surfing around the web and came across an article about Segway’s Project P.U.M.A., which at first glance looks like the lovechild of an electric wheelchair and a fancy bike trailer. It is, however (as you might’ve guessed from the picture), a two-passenger, souped-up version of a Segway. That means it runs on battery power (clean and green), has a zero turn radius, and the hope is that it will become a viable transportation option for the masses.

Now, the Segway itself hasn’t exactly become mainstream, but it lacks several things the P.U.M.A will provide (cover, ability to bring a passenger, and higher speed capability). And the marketing on this, already, years before it may be available to the public, has been really smart—the idea is that it’s an urban option, ideal for relatively short distances and easy to park due to its compact size.

And I’m going to admit, right here, that maybe I’m missing something because I’m not a city-dweller, but I wonder what impact—if any—this will have on city congestion when there are already lots of great transportation options like the subway (not as green, I suppose, except that it carries so many people and removes parking congestion) and bicycles (not always practical, I know).

I can’t stop watching this video of the P.U.M.A. in action, though. It’s pretty slick-looking. I don’t really see myself driving one to the grocery store (my kids would have to draw straws to see who’d be relegated to the roof), but who knows? Maybe in ten years, they’ll be a common sight in cities.

It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy when corporations actually do things that show us they care about more than making money. (Let’s not get into a discussion about whether or not “greening” is becoming an industry unto itself, because I know it is, but for right now let’s just pretend there’s some awesome, eco-savvy execs out there.)

Everyone in my family owns a reusable water bottle, and we take them lots of places. I almost never buy bottled water, because 1) we have our bottles to use and 2) I’m fine with drinking tap water. But. But. Occasionally we don’t have our bottles. Occasionally we need to purchase water in a bottle, like when we’re at an airport. Then what?

Here comes the warm fuzzy part: Two companies are helping to assuage my guilt.

First, Pepsi is redesigning their Aquafina bottles to be the lightest on the market (50% less plastic than before). The new bottles will be arriving on shelves any day now. I’ve seen one in person and I wouldn’t have noticed they’re any lighter, but they’re half as much plastic waste as the old version. Awesome.

Second, check out Plant It Water—not only is the container made from paper, rather than plastic, but they plant a tree for every carton sold. I love it! (I also can’t find it anywhere near me, yet, but hopefully that’ll change.)

I love that these sorts of changes are becoming more prevalent. Iddy biddy steps, people. Iddy biddy steps.

I have a new blog crush. I hope that my other blogs don’t mind—there’s certainly enough blog-love to go around.

When it comes to iddy biddy everyday steps towards being greener, sometimes it takes a big of creative thinking. And Cara, the voice behind repurposeful, is so creative with this stuff, I don’t know whether to kiss her or just be jealous that she’s so good at it. I think I’ll settle for directing you all to her blog.

My favorite thing about repurposeful is that it is—as its blurb so succinctly states—”A little bit green, a little bit frugal, 100% useful.” Oftentimes it feels like going green is necessarily more expensive, and that’s not always the case. Cara has tons of ideas that are not only eco-friendly, but super-cheap because they involve using things you were probably just going to throw out, anyway.

Here’s just one example: I’ve already told you about my efforts to green up our packed lunches, but the sandwich wraps I purchased—although great!—are kind of pricey. But thanks to Cara’s blog, now I know how to turn old placemats into sandwich wraps, so I have a much cheaper option, now.

I’ve got her bookmarked. Check out repurposeful; I think you’ll soon be sharing my crush.

I have kids, and so it probably goes without saying that I have paper. Notebook paper. Computer printer paper. Construction paper. Wrapping paper they’ve saved from gifts because it’s “so cool” and they “might want to make something with it.”

I’m all about creativity. I am. But I am somewhat less about creativity when an hour’s silence means I walk into a scene where my kids have decided to “play school” and write reports… for all twenty stuffed animals and dolls attending. And when they clean out school cubbies and bring home sheaves of completed work. Sometimes it looks like The Great Tree Massacre happened up in one of their rooms, and then what? Do I let them keep each and every masterpiece (taking up space, increasing clutter) or do I throw away the mess under cover of darkness (bemoaning the wastefulness of it all)?

I’ve done both. Frankly, I’m not happy with either choice.

So I’m thinking about ways to cut down on our paper consumption. Apparently I can do away with envelopes via Letterfu—which is very cool—but I couldn’t tell you the last time I sent a paper letter, so that may not be saving us much paper.

I’m also eying this little set, thinking that perhaps the kids might enjoy recycling their own paper into… more paper.

Something has to change. What are your great ideas for taking iddy biddy steps to reduce paper waste?

Okay; maybe I was a little hasty in my last post. Maybe when I’m snuffling and sneezing and dripping and miserable is not the right time to consider whether or not I’d be willing to give up my box of Kleenex.

It’s possible. I’m just saying.

So, a few days passed and I started feeling better. Hooray! And what happened after I was feeling better? Well, I happened upon this post at BlogHer about eco-friendly handkerchiefs! It also includes a link to a great review at Grist about how to select the most eco-friendly of traditional disposable tissues, if you’re not ready to give them up entirely.

This either means that I really have my finger on the pulse of important green issues of today, or that a lot of people have colds (and guilt) right now. Either way.