Happy Birthday, Mother Earth!

Pour tu mon bebe, le monde.

Even though I only have one baby to think about, I owe it to her and her future babies (should she choose to have them), as well as all her future friends and grandchildren to think about their…. future, what else? It may sound trite, but being earth day today, here are a few Earth-saving tips to remind me, and hopefully, infect you with! Ah, the good virus!  I certainly hope I am contagious!

• Skip the burger.  If you’re a meat-itarian, skip it even one day per week.  Studies have shown that meat production contributes to about 20% of greenhouse gases worldwide from the livestock industry.  Check out this website: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-greenhouse-hamburger or simply google meat and greenhouse.  Whether you believe the articles or not, skipping meat and eating your veggies is also the healthier option.
• Buy in bulk. Hello, Costco!  Tamar and I absolutely love going to Costco. She likes to people watch and I like their cheese selection.  Buying in bulk, although a shock to the wallet, decreases packaging waste and the trips (hence, $4/gal gas) to the store.  I don’t know about you, but every time our Brita pitcher angrily blinks at me, I can unflappably reach in the pantry for a new filter. And speaking of filters….
• Clean your dryer vents and air filters. This can easily lower your electricity usage, and your breathing clearer.  Good for your health, good for the pocket and good for the environment. Need I say more?
• Recycle. Reuse cloth bags. I love that DC now charges $0.25 for bags.  I think that we need to go back in the days where Filipinos used bayong.  Whatever happened tobalik-bayong project, anyway?   Using reusable bags just make sense.   I say let’s make bayong fashionable again (was it ever?).

And make use of those recycling bins! Recycle, recycle, recycle. My greatest buy ever (so far?) for Tamar is a Four Seasons of Pooh frames, which we got from a silent auction.  It is wonderful not only because it is Pooh, but because for a time it was hanging at our friends’, Alan & Will, son’s room, and hence recycled, and I can tell Tamar about its sentimental history in the future.  And as a bonus, the auction was a fundraising event.

• End the junk mails, save the trees. Poor trees! Do you know that all the junks we’re getting amounts to approximately 100M trees worth of bulk mail per year?  BUT, we can do something about it.  Consider:

1. Calling the senders and asking them to take you off their list.
2. Or use dmachoice.org
3. And consider making donations to treesforlife.org on your next occasion, or no occasion at all!

• Hand-me-downs are smart.  Every time people would comment on Tamar’s toys, clothes, etc, I have no problem acknowledging if they were handed down. Some of the clothes that she inherited are sooooo beautiful! From cute cottons to silk dresses, I am ever grateful to our friends who were so thoughtful and kind to think about us.  I would like to give a shoutout to wonderful friends Bianca Bass, Lia Bass, Jemy Gutierrez-Amos and Khrisna Alcantara Alvarez.

What’s also fun is rummaging through my sister’s closet and “borrowing” her clothes for a while.  We do this (me more than her) regularly when we visit each other, that it’s kind of a bonding event for us.  And I get to walk away with a whole new stylish wardrobe.  Thanks sis! See you (and your closet) in July!

• Swap parties are fun.  I went to my first ever swap party, hosted by good friend Michelle Hilburn, when I was in my first trimester. I got to meet new people, and it made me feel good that some of my nice clothes which, for one reason or another, had to go will be used by these friendly women.  I also got maternity dresses that would have otherwise cost me an arm and a leg.  The best part? It was 100% fun for the cost of… wait for it…. 0 dollars. And the better than best part?? We donated the left over clothes to charity.  So, consider one of these parties for your spring cleaning, and send me an Evite, will you?

And for you, my dearest Tamar, the world.