The point – 5 ways I will Filter for Good for Earth Month (and ongoing)…

1. Keep celebrating the earth by not buying loads and loads of stuff – and trying to buy green when I do purchase an item. I.e. be a nice green consumer.
2. Try my hardest to recycle those damn toilet paper tubes I keep talking about.
3. Keep on spreading the green tips and news around to my friends, family, readers, and most importantly my son, Cedar.
4. Cook more meals from scratch. It’s busy all the time and meals are the first thing I usually try to speed up, which can result in more packaging waste. It’s more eco-friendly to cook from scratch.
5. Make more of my own beauty products – something I used to do all the time. Lately, I haven’t been, and I feel super guilty about all the package waste.

BONUS!: At the end of Earth Month, Filter For Good is picking out a few bloggers who posted their five things to win some Brita gift packs. Nice – sooooo much better than bottled water folks. If I tagged you, be sure to link back to the original meme post to be entered in the giveaway. P.S. That means you’ve got to get your meme up in a couple of days!

I’m going to be tagging:

My girl Peggy at Light Green Stairs (of course)

Then, some readers who commented on the Earth contest post…

• Jodi from Our Learning Adventures
• Shawna from Nature for Kids
• “Island Veggie” from Searching for Eco-Harmony
• Dawn from A Journey to Homesteading

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I admit it. Not everything I read is about being green! And I so seldom go off topic, I thought you’d forgive me and enjoy the melange below.

Sandy at Robust Cooking has the goods on a peanut butter contest that could help pay for your kid’s college: Jiff Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich Contest.

Noel at Pretty by Nature has a post, Foraging, on a darn interesting woman who eats stuff growing from sidewalk cracks in Los Angeles.

Mike at The Daily Tee tells you where to find official “Dark Knight” tees. No, they aren’t organic.

Interesting and just weird. Heather discusses The Cloned Pet Caper at The Food Bowl.

I never knew. Chalk: inexpensive stain removal, bug repellent, and more by Jennifer (yes, the same one) at Simply Thrifty.

Image via flickr.

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Post from: Tree Hugging Family

After that I went to the grocery store. Since I drink way too much water, I decided to stop by the restroom at the front of the store. I had a lot of stuff — my purse, my camera, my reusable shopping bags.

I decided my shopping bags could wait in the cart. They were empty. Who would want empty bags? I pushed the shopping cart away from the door just in case. I left it by the spices in the produce section near the entrance.

When I came out of the restroom, the cart and bags were gone. And I saw a man walking quickly away into the store and glancing back. I was only in there a couple of minutes. It had to be this guy. He took my bags and they were in his cart somewhere!

I followed him for a few aisles, but he was walking at a crazy pace. I stopped by the potatoes.

How was I going to apprehend him anyway? Throw a Russet tater at his head? If I hit him, how would I explain to the police if he didn’t really have my bags?

I came to my senses a bit and circled the area where I left my bags. My heart pounded. I’m not sure I love my bags that much, but I would have to replace them. Maybe it was just the thought of being a victim of a crime that made my heart pound.

Glancing over at the deli section, I decided it would be wise to ask those ladies if they saw who took my bags. The really nice lady in the hairnet said, “Oh, we were afraid they’d get stolen so we took them to customer service.”

Turns out the deli ladies were the true speedy racers. They acted quickly to hightail those bags across the store. Perhaps they did me a favor after all. There could have been a bag thief lurking.

Do you keep an eye on your shopping bags at the grocery store?

The winner of our Zabar’s Rainforest Alliance coffee contest will be announced on Earth Day, April 22. Don’t miss your chance to enter at the contest post.

Image via flickr.

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Bloggers across the Lifestyles Channel at b5media are writing about the 1980s today. I’m randomly joining in with a post about my beloved Mork & Mindy belt. And why not bombard you with three photos of it too?

I’m not sure why I still have this belt that I wore nearly 30 years ago in kindergarten. I ‘m also not sure if I was really a big fan of Mork & Mindy or if that was the only magnetic belt my mother could find.

I do remember belts being challenging when I was in kindergarten. I specifically wanted a belt with a magnetic closure. Those were simple times. About this Mork & Mindy show — I don’t remember any of it. Maybe that’s a good thing. It doesn’t strike me as a kid’s show.

When I took my belt out to photograph, my cat Choco went insane trying to attack it. I suppose he’s not a fan of zany sitcoms from the 80s. I had to put it away quickly, but I’m certain he left a few teeth marks in it.

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Oh, I know. It’s not entirely green but is is a tree. Not a tree house but a home built to look like the interior of a tree — very cool.  I posted it at Offbeat Homes but readers here might enjoy it.

The Mushroom House

I’ll be back though with my original thoughts later this evening — after I no longer feeling like blowing up Wordpress.

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The Human Clock project is the brain child of one fella, Craig D. Giffen, from my hometown (Portland, OR) who decided to create a human clock using photos. It’s easier to show than explain.

In Craig’s words from his site:

“Humanclock.com shows a photograph of the current time, with the photo changing every minute of the day (all 1,440 occuring minutes on Earth!) Thus you end up with a rotating picture clock sorta deal. Humanclock.com has both digital and analog clock formats. The digital clock consists of 15,182 photos, each representing a single minute of the day in some shape or fashion. The analog clock is a true “human clock” if there is such a definition. These photos don’t change as much since there is a lot more preparation involved in creating analog clock photos.”

You can see the clock right here and even set it to relate your proper time. I guess some visuals are in order so you can see what this is…

5:15

6:56

3:38 (ah, Italy)

I’m completely in awe of this project. Honestly you could spend all day looking at the photos at this site. It’s beyond words. You can send in your own human clock photos as well.

Visit Humanclock.com to see more. Make sure you have some time to spare. No pun intended.

It’s the Blogtoberfest icon! Which means a super keen (and secret) prize is hidden behind this special blog post. If you want to win the great prize that I’m hiding simply leave a comment. Simple. Not a bad way to win a prize. Within a week the winner of the hidden prize will be announced here at Tree Hugging Family so check back often.

Also of note; did you know you have lots of chances to win great Blogtoberfest prizes? Today, October 12th, your chances (and prizes) are hiding at the following blogs:,Career and Kids, Inside Motherhood, One Book Two Book, and Parenting Tweens & Teens. Visit them all and leave a comment — you may win even more!

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