When it comes to going GREEN, I'm beginning to feel a bit like those ousted smokers who now hesitate before lighting up in public. God forbid anyone sees me drinking from this Styrofoam cup- I’ll just die! I'm more ashamed of my carbon footprint than my weight. Now that's saying something! It seems everyone these days is eating organic food, wearing organic clothing, and using only organic products. And if you are not living an earth friendly existence, like me, you feel EMBARRASSED and STUPID and LAZY. I believe I've taken the first step to going Green; I have acknowledged that I am not doing my part in making this planet a healthy place to live for future generations. It's not like I throw trash out of my car window as I'm driving down the highway or pollute the air with toxic fumes from my 1977 Chevy pickup truck. I'm just lazy and being Green takes work. I sometimes daydream about what my life might be like after the kids are all grown up. Here is what I imagine- Matt and I will travel the country in our hybrid RV, entering every Bar-B-Q competition from coast to coast. When we are home, we will tend to our food forest and help our neighbors install solar panels because we have them and LOVE them! It will be awesome. I will feel awesome. Earth will love me. And we will be one. As you can see, I am really looking forward to living a more earth friendly lifestyle. I am also excited about winning some prize money for Matt’s award winning ribs, but I’ve got a while. So in the meantime, I really need to start making some changes. Change #1- Recycle. I know what you are thinking; I can’t believe you don’t recycle. Everyone recycles. Yeah, well, we don’t. We’ve tried, many times I might add. We even bought two garbage cans for the kitchen, one for trash and one for recycling. As some of you may know, practically everything is recyclable. Every 3 hours the garbage can used for recycling would need to be emptied. This meant we had to take it outside to the blue recycling bin. Not an easy task, and if you knew the hoops and hurdles we had to go through just to get out of the side door and down the steps to our blue recycling box, you might be a little bit more sympathetic. Change #2- Conserve water. I am a water waster. When I am loading the dishwasher, I let the faucet run the entire time so that I can rinse off each dish. I let the water run when I brush my teeth. I take really long showers. Multiply all that wasting by 5 because that is how many people are in this family and there you go; a household of water wasters. Change #3- Use eco-friendly products. Under my kitchen sink is a smorgasbord of cleaning products, all of which are hazardous to the human body as well as to the environment. I don’t purchase these products with the intent of harming earth and all its inhabitants, it’s just that they are cheap and I’m a bargain shopper.  The reality is that going Green is not an easy process.  Just like anything worth while, it takes work.  But I think that we can all agree that Mother Earth is worth the effort.  I don't want her to think of me as her unappreciative daughter, so I better get busy doing my part.  *Every day is Earth day *Plant a tree *Reduce, Reuse, Recycle *Go Green