KV Organics

seeking restoration of sustainable life... personally, professionally, & spiritually

creation care

Sara Salo

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This month has been super fun and busy for us.  The kids are loving school, we’re all adjusting to homework routines, I’m getting used to quiet mornings with just the baby, and… we got bikes!  This is something that I have been wanting to do for a while now, for both exercise and conservation reasons, but we’ve finally done it – and it was in part, inspired by my new friend Sara Salo.

Sara is an inspiration in so many ways.  She’s focused on helping people eat better and make healthier choices all around, and she is an awesome example of paving a new road in the face of a raging recession – two things about which I’m passionate myself.  Here is what Sara shared with me in an email last spring…

I came up with the idea for the Tour on a long trail run late last summer. I was trying to burn off some steam after getting frustrated with job hunting and all of a sudden I seriously had an ‘aha’ moment! Rather than apply for a job I wasn’t completely passionate about, why not put together something myself?! I knew I wanted to work in school food reform but I also loved cycling. Healthy living really needs to combine physical activity and good nutrition so I figured what better way to spread the word than by bike! At first the idea seemed really far-fetched but as I talked to people and got really positive feedback, I kept moving forward. Then, before I knew it, I had a website and was scheduling stops. And now it’s full steam ahead.  🙂

Check out the video below for an overview of what Sara’s up to while cycling around the country, and/or click here to check out and follow her blog.

 

Baby Wipes

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Last week, we hit the store with three different school supply lists for the elder three kiddos, and it was a really strange feeling buying all the disposable paper goods.  It’s been a while.  The hardest one for me was the baby wipes.  I haven’t found a disposable wipe yet that I really like, which I guess is why we use cloth wipes as much as possible.

And before we go any further, this post isn’t just for people with babies.  Lots of people use baby wipes for all sorts of purposes.  But is there a really good disposable wipe out there that takes best possible care of people and planet?

A few months ago, at the request of a friend, I dug a little deeper into baby wipes, only to be left more compelled toward cloth than ever.  I had already known about many of the questionable ingredients in the solutions in which commercial wipes are soaked, but I had never realized that the wipe material itself is often made out of non-biodegradable polypropylene.  While this type of plastic can often be recycled in container forms, it can’t be recycled in its used wipe form – especially not if it’s smeared with baby poop.

Goodguide.com ranks Natracare and Seventh Generation as the top two options.  But I was surprised to see ‘parfum’ and some of the other synthetics in Natracare’s solution ingredients – it appears to be the cotton wipe that’s organic, not the solution.  The 7th generation wipe has a better solution, but the wipe is plastic.  Poking around online some more, Walmart has an organic cotton wipe, but the solution has propylene glycol, PEGs, formaldehyde-donating ingredients, etc.

Cloth wipes are SUPER easy.  We found the easiest option was to cut up a flannel receiving blanket (the kind you swaddle newborns in) into small squares.  And most of the time, we just use water to wet the wipes.  We only use a ‘potion’ when there is a touch of irritation (the Miessence baby bottom cleansing gel works really, really well.  Clears up irritations quickly and lasts a long time since a little goes a long way and we use it sparingly anyway).

We’ve gotten pretty used to taking our cloth wipes out with us on the go, but there are times when disposable wipes come in handy.  Has anyone out there found a disposable wipe that is both organic cotton / biodegradable and free of all the synthetic chemicals – either for personal use or to send in as an alternative for filling the school supply lists?

Seek First

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The other day, I was reading that beautiful ‘Do Not Worry’ passage in Matthew 6.  To paraphrase and sum it up: Jesus says, “If you’re seeking my kingdom today, right now in every moment, you don’t need to worry about the future.  It will take care of itself and you will have what you need.”

God created this world to sustain life for generation after generation, and He put us in charge of stewarding its ability to continue doing so.  In all our modern progress, and often times, our attempts to live life independently of God, we’ve kinda lost sight of this incredible gift and responsibility.

In discussions around sustainability, there can be great temptation for worry and fear about the future.  There can be lots of focus on what’s going wrong and what is so unsustainable about our current realities.  Some shudder and ask, ‘What happens when this system crashes?’

And that’s a valid question.  The Bible has a lot to say about what happens when the system crashes.  But even in the midst of prophetic passages that seem terrible and wrathful, there is great love underpinning it all.  And that love can move us past fear into faith-filled action.  With great hope, we need to ‘seek first’ His kingdom.

How do we do that?  Two other passages come to mind.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40).

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.  And what does the LORD require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).

If we are truly drawing closer and closer to God, then our hearts are increasingly changed to love.  Not the emotion-based definition of the word that our culture seems to use most often, but rather the commitment-, sacrifice-, and action-based definition of love that Jesus used.  As we love, we begin to see more and more needs around us and are motivated to begin asking tough questions about our own choices.  As we begin to see the injustices underpinning so much of modern life – the unsustainable systems that many of us have been blinded to for years – we begin to make changes one at a time to live differently.  As we walk humbly, knowing fully well that we are nowhere near perfect ourselves, we begin to lovingly and mercifully encourage and empower others to begin living differently also, without judging them or condemning them.

Guilt and fear can never be a destination on our journey, or even a resting point. Getting stuck in guilt and fear can lead to all sorts of problems. Nor can they be weapons to use against other people.  Their only useful purposes are fulfilled if they are rooted in God’s love and open our eyes to some truth around us, moving us onward toward always seeking God’s kingdom of love and hope.

Zero Commute

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Since starting this blog almost a year ago, I haven’t written much about my experience working from home, but it has definitely been a big part of my greener living/creation care journey.  Since leaving the “normal” work world in September of 2004, I have learned a great deal about options for working from home, both from my own experience and from talking with others who either own and operate home businesses of some kind or work from home for larger companies.

The possibilities for working from home are endless, really.  As I begin these ‘2nd week of the month’ posts on home businesses, my first focus will be on the creation care benefits of working from home.

As we explore these ideas together, please keep in mind that working from home need not be limited to people who start their own home business of whatever kind.  More and more companies these days are allowing their employees to work out flexible schedules, either partially, or sometimes even fully from home.  If that’s something you’d like to do, consider approaching your boss about the idea.  This is not where my experience has been, so it won’t be a focus of my blog; however, many of the points we consider together will apply in both situations (employees or business owners) and if you want advice on how to approach your boss about working from home, I can put you in touch with people who have done it.  Just let me know if you want that info.  🙂

Working from home is not for everyone.  For starters, there are many professions that obviously cannot be worked from home.  We still need teachers in public school classrooms and doctors in emergency rooms, for example.  And for some personalities, working from home simply isn’t a fit.  Some folks find being at home far too distracting to really accomplish their work.  “Oh, let me finish up that laundry or those dishes first, then I’ll get my work done…”

So, please know that as we explore the ‘green living’ benefits of working from home, I am in no way suggesting that everyone should work from home.  That’s neither practical nor ideal.  Following the examples found in all creation, we need diversity to thrive.  The arena of work is no different.  And if you are best suited to work outside the walls of your house, then by all means do so!  Even if working from home is not part of your life, I hope you’ll still find these ‘week 2’ posts interesting and helpful.  Some of the ideas may still be applicable in your situation, and if nothing else, then perhaps you can pass ideas to others.

For those who are so inclined to work from home, let’s start by considering one of the most obvious benefits.  And I only choose to start here because of a recent experience…

A couple weeks ago, my hubby and I were driving up toward NY, and I was absolutely shocked by the number of buses lined up and literally crawling into the city.  The traffic was so bad!  And these were folks using public transportation.  Here is the string of thoughts that went through my head…  “Yikes!  Can you imagine if they were all in cars? …  We need double-decker buses. …  What if these people didn’t have to commute to work but could work from home instead? …”

Working from home has the obvious benefit of zero commute, which means fewer vehicles on the road, which means less traffic, which means less idling on the highways, which means less pollution, cleaner air, and fewer asthma attacks for children.  Less traffic and less idling also means better gas mileage, which means better stewarding of oil resources, which can in turn help protect the waterways, and on and on goes the ripple effect.

One other quick thought, for those who might be afraid of being stuck in their houses all day: Home-based does not have to mean home-bound.  I don’t know too many people who want to stay forever inside their houses.  Having a home business can still get you out of the house plenty.  As much or as little as you’d like really.  It just happens to be based at home (which offers a whole ‘nother set of benefits we’ll look at next month).

Even if your home business takes you out on the road every day, the power to decide not to be clogging up the roads during rush hour traffic is a huge benefit to both the planet and your sanity.  🙂

Blessed Earth

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Reading Matthew Sleeth’s book, “Serve God, Save the Planet,” was transformational for me and for our family.  As I poured through the chapters, it was as if everything that I’d been sensing, thinking, and learning on some semi-conscious level for years suddenly came to more vibrant life.  I think I could literally feel neurons in my brain firing all over the place as everything God had taught me or molded into my being to date began to connect and forge stronger, more cohesive bonds.  I am still in awe of how it all fits together, and how He is continuing to piece it all together and teach me more.

This “green” journey really is a never ending one – there is always so much more to learn in this amazingly complex and beautiful world. A funny analogy came to my head the other day when I was trying to describe the present state of my brain to my husband who so patiently helps me sort through all my thoughts.  You know those multi-colored yarns, where 6 inches or so of color suddenly turns into a 6-inch section of another color and so on?  It’s as if each unique color is a different topic, category, compartment, issue, interest, hobby, passion, or gifting that God has put into my life and being – but it’s all one continuous yarn.  And right now, especially during this joyous and crazy season of loving and nurturing preschool aged children, it often feels like my yarn ball is sitting in a jumbled, useless heap; however, I know that God is working to weave it into the bigger tapestry of His global story of restoration.

Like the Sleeths, we are finding greater depth and connection with God, people, and all of creation through this journey of creation care and downward mobility, but they are definitely better at communicating the experience than we are because they are much farther along the path!  🙂  I highly recommend checking out their books, their Blessed Earth ministry website, and/or their story in this video below.  If you’re in the SJ/Philly area this summer and want to join us for a book club discussion on “Serve God, Save the Planet,” click here for details.

Matthew Sleeth’s Creation Care Journey from Matthew Sleeth on Vimeo.

Only Human

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OK, so my poor blog has now seen April pass as well.  But I think we’re getting into our new groove, and this is a quick post mostly to remind myself that I’m only human.  I hope it can be a blessed reminder to all you other type-A personalities out there as well.  🙂

I loved my February e-fast.  It was truly a detox.  When I logged back on to email for the first time, I think I felt my brain melt.  Besides clearing out and responding to my emails, I spent most of March trying to get acclimated to some new time limits online, and now, at the very end of April, I’m finally getting back to blogging – at least once a week, Lord willing!

The e-fast was helpful in many ways.  It was a wonderful time of drawing closer to the Lord, just resting at His feet while serving my family only.  I began my e-fast with a desire to get His direction, and in some ways, I came out of February with more “service options” placed on my heart than I started.  At first I thought, “God, that’s not very helpful, I was hoping for some clearer direction!”  Then I came to realize His wisdom here – it forces me to stay closer to Him each day going forward.

One of the biggest reminders that I came away with, having all these interests and passions stirring inside me, is that I am only human.  OK, duh.  But, I need frequent reminding of that, and I know I’m not the only one.  🙂

It’s one of those weird paradoxes in life, I guess.  The more I find God expanding my heart for needs in the world, the more I realize how severely limited I am to do anything about them.  Rather than run myself ragged trying to “do, do, do,” over-commit, and live a stress-filled life on so many levels, I need to rest in the little peace-filled niche He has carved out for me within His greater plan and let Him do the work through my tiny action steps of faith.

Going into May, He continues to remind me daily to stop my striving and just give my best to the tasks for which He’s called me.  Right now, that is first and foremost my family and home (which includes our own creation care/downwardly mobile/green journey).  My work beyond the home – whether with my business or volunteer work – is in His hands to guide and grow through this severely limited human as He wishes.

“His strength is made perfect in our weakness.”  Such good news!  🙂

February E-Fast

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I have been really enjoying my babymoon this past month, but my type-a self has a very hard time slowing down.  No surprise to those who know me, I know; but the truth is that I really do want (well, sort of want) to slow down – and need to slow down.  So, I’ll be taking a total ‘e-fast’ for the month of February.  No email, no online research, no social media…

This decision isn’t so much about having a newborn in the house, actually.  In many ways, the transition to life with four kids has been very easy.  But there is certainly no coincidence in the timing between baby #4 coming into our family and all that’s been going on in my heart and mind over the past year leading up to this point.

Here’s the deal…  Even though I sometimes try to grab the wheel and take control, what ultimately drives me in all that I do is the Lord.  What is He up to?  What does He want me to do at any given moment?  What’s my role and purpose in His bigger plan?  How can I best serve Him and the people He has put in my life?

Right now, I feel like He’s asking me to just sit down and be still for a while so I can draw closer to Him and get some direction.  There are too many open doors in front of me, and I cannot possibly walk through them all at once if I’m also going to be the wife and mom He wants me to be, so I really need His guidance.  But every time I get online or on email, my desire to research a huge variety of green and healthy living topics gets me stuck online for hours.  Although this desire to learn is God-given at its core and closely connected to what He’s doing in my life, everything has its time and season.  Right now, I’m strongly sensing the need to stop being Martha and spend some serious Mary time just sitting at God’s feet; I need to quiet my mind by staying offline for a while.

So, this post is to let folks know that you won’t be able to reach me by any online means until March 1.  You can still email or Facebook message me, but I won’t get it until March.

If you need or want to get in touch for any reason in February, please do feel free to call or text me.  For those of you who are clients, I am still committed to serving your needs during the month of February, but will do so by phone rather than by email this month.  And if there is any way that I can be praying for anyone during my e-fast, feel free to call or send prayer requests via text.

See you online in March!  🙂

Oh, and by the way…  Almost as if God really wanted to drive this ‘e-fast’ idea home to me…  My email experienced some sort of mysterious technical glitch last Thursday.  All my archived emails (which were numerous) and backlogged emails in my inbox from before January 2o-something just suddenly went POOF!  Totally disappeared and cannot be recovered.  If you had emailed me prior to January 27th and never heard back from me – I’m sorry but your email probably got zapped.  If it was important, please either call or text me, or email me again and I’ll respond in March.  🙂

Energy Choice

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We first ran into this topic in August 2009 when a door-to-door salesman for an alternate gas supplier came by.  We decided to give it a shot, signed up, and then forgot about it.

In August of this year, we started getting various offers from alternate electricity suppliers also.  This prompted us to go back and check our bills from the previous year of alternate gas supply, which left us quite skeptical because it turned out to have cost us an extra $129 over the year.  However, since we had also been learning more about energy conservation and green energy, that skepticism drove us to research the topic more thoroughly instead of just tossing our hands up and staying with the utility out of fear of the unknown.

One of the questions a friend (who owns a very successful energy consulting firm in Philly) told us to ask was whether a company was a licensed supplier or a broker.  As I understand it, broker companies are not necessarily bad, but they generally drive the price up because they’re an extra link in the chain getting a cut of the profits.  Turns out the alternate gas company we had said yes to was a broker company…  Ah-ha!  Check – look for a licensed supplier (and verify it with a third-party resource, such as a list of alternate suppliers found on your local utility’s website).

In early November, while still researching energy choice options, we came across Viridian and were really impressed.  Although I have seen some hype and accidental misinformation out there from their independent sales force (which is a risk of using the otherwise solid direct sales model), the company itself is straightforward in its message and mission, and they resonated with us as potential customers because of their green energy focus at a savings.

We decided to become Viridian customers ourselves, and since 1- energy conservation and renewable energy is something we’re also passionate about, 2- it ties in on some level to the work I already do in organics, and 3- I had researched it a great deal and felt I could help answer people’s questions about energy choice in general and the company specifically, I decided to do a little consulting work for them on the side.  My purpose in this is to add a realistic, no-hype voice into some of the confusion & misinformation out there in the popular buzz about both Viridian and energy choice companies in general, and to help people figure out if Viridian specifically would be a good fit for them or not.

So, if you’re looking into alternative energy suppliers, here are a few other things I’ve learned to ask in general, in addition to the licensed supplier vs broker question…

1- Is it a fixed or variable rate plan?  You might be surprised to learn that variable is often better than fixed, though it can depend on your preferences.

2- Are there sign-up fees, lengthy contracts, early termination fees, hidden fees? Can you cancel at any time?  We loved that Viridian was “cancel at any time with no penalties.”

3- If you also care about long-term sustainability and air quality issues (which tie closely into stewardship, pollution, and health issues), ask about a company’s “energy content,” or percentage mix, of “dirty/brown” energy vs “clean/green” energy sources.  For example, our local utility currently uses only about 7-8% renewable sources.  And many of the 3rd party suppliers who are not necessarily “green-focused” in their company vision statements offer about the same.

4- If you want to buy/support greener energy, find out the percentage vs cost. For example, we found that Viridian offers the highest percentages of greener energy at lower prices compared to other green options we’ve seen so far.  Their basic option is 20% renewable energy generally below your cost from the utility (who almost certainly has a much lower percentage of renewable content).  So, their “everyday green” option supports a higher percentage of green power while saving you money at the same time.  And their 100% renewable energy option costs only slightly more than the utility rate, instead of a higher ‘premium price’ for 100% renewable content that other green suppliers are offering.  For example, one company we looked at would have cost us, on average, $24 more per month for 100% renewable energy, whereas with Viridian, we could do their 100% “pure green” option for an average of just $5 more per month.

5- If anyone is showing you an example bill, or when you begin looking at your own bill to compare prices, please make sure you know what you’re comparing.  Supply portion only.  I have seen a handful of reps for Viridian accidentally comparing the wrong two parts of the bill, which made the savings look bigger than it is.  They were very nice people, not being intentionally deceptive at all – they just misunderstood.  The savings is still there, just not as amazing as it may look if you’re not comparing the right things… and it will also depend on whether you’re a low or high usage household.  If you’d like someone to go over your bill with you to help you understand what to compare, get a realistic idea of your potential savings, and figure out if an alternate supplier would actually make sense for your situation or not, I can help you with that since I’ve gone through it myself.

If you want more details on any of the above, feel free to contact me.  There is also a good list of FAQs under the “Energy Service” section of their website.  While obviously Viridian-specific in the answers, these FAQs are good to ask any company you may be considering.

If you decide to you’d like to become a Viridian customer, as we did in our home, would you please consider calling them at 866-663-2508 to sign up (instead of signing up online) and giving them my referring ID#11636?  Disclosure statement – I am not actively growing a business with Viridian, but yes, I will get a small commission for referring you.  Thanks!  🙂

 

 

Going Hermit

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Wow, it’s December already.  Baby’s due in a few short weeks.  I’m ‘going hermit’ soon, so please don’t be surprised if my online presence diminishes a bit for a couple months.  Emails, blogging, facebook, etc will all be touch and go for a while, especially once baby actually comes.  But I’ll be back.  Feel free to still email, call, or message me – just please give me some extra time to get back to you.  😉

As much as I love interacting with people on a regular basis, I have to say I’m really looking forward to my hermit time in the newborn fog.  Mostly looking forward to a time to slow down on all the research and work I feel compelled to do in the many areas of greener living and creation care, so that I can spend some time reflecting on all that God has taught me this past year.  Locking eyes with a precious, amazing little newborn while nursing is a great way to force me to sit still and get super reflective.  I look forward to drawing nearer to Him (especially during those quiet middle-of-the-night feedings) and discovering His vision for my life in 2011 after emerging from ‘the newborn fog’ (time of total family focus) around February.

What a ride!  So crazy sometimes, but so thankful.  So blessed.  And hey, there are still a few weeks until the 22nd (due date)!  Will try to do a couple more posts here in December before baby actually arrives, but just in case… I wish you all a blessed holiday!

Earth Exploders

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Ever heard of MTR?  I hadn’t until a month or so ago.  It stands for a common coal mining technique called Moutaintop Removal, and apparently, over 3 million pounds of ordinance is detonated every day, blowing up entire mountains just to get at a thin layer of coal – to help feed my home electricity.  For a variety of reasons, I’m not at peace with that.

Now, to be sure, every source of energy has its benefits and challenges.  Coal, nuclear, hydro, gas/oil, wind, solar, biomass, and others all have their “issues” to be weighed, and no one particular source is perfect.  There will never be a one-source answer to energy problems.  In fact, the best answer has nothing to do with sources – it is conservation.  If everyone used less energy at home, and took tangible steps away from the consumer lifestyle that demands so much energy use across the country to make “stuff” for us that we don’t really need, there would be far less of a problem at hand.  But more on this another time.  In this post, I’d just like to share a bit of what I’ve been learning about MTR so that you can consider these issues for yourself.

From a website for “Coal Country,” a documentary:  “Most Americans are shocked to learn that nearly half of the electricity used in the United States today is produced by coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel…  The tops of mountains are blasted away, exposing seams of coal, while debris is pushed into valleys and streams. Residents endure health problems, dirty water in their wells, dust and grime on their floors…” (liaisondistribution.com).

Many coal companies bury streams with mountain debris and then plead innocent to polluting the water on the basis of there being no water there anymore.  “To date, the legal system has bought this kind of logic to the tune of twelve hundred miles of vanished streams and rivers in the state of West Virginia alone” (Sleeth, p.13).

Not only are we destroying God’s mountains, forests, valleys, streams, and ecosystems to power our country’s excessive consumer lifestyle, but we’re making people in Appalachia (and all around the world) sick to do it.  Both the human health and the environmental sides of this are equally problematic to me, since the long-term health of people depends on the health of this planet given to sustain us.

“A typical family uses 1,800 pounds of coal per year powering just its electric clothes dryer.  An average of 20,000 pounds of forest, dirt, and rock must be dumped in a stream in order to get that amount of coal.  It is easy to rail against greedy corporations and corrupt judges.  It’s a little harder to actually do something about mountaintop removal by changing our behavior” (Sleeth, p.14).  “Environmental topics can get so politicized and polarizing that we absolve ourselves from personal responsibility” (Sleeth, p.65).

We had already started line drying clothes as part of our household move toward “intentional downward mobility” and increasing conservation, but learning about MTR has helped to solidify the commitment that much more.

Wherever you are on this issue or journey, please know that my intention is to lovingly challenge and encourage.  For example, please do not feel bad, guilty, or defensive if you use a clothes dryer!  That is so not my intention at all.  But please do some prayerful soul-searching on these big-picture issues and how our personal everyday choices help combat or perpetuate the overall societal problems.  And please also be encouraged – you cannot make these changes all in a day and that’s OK.  Lord knows I still have a ton to learn and alter myself!  But challenge yourself to continually learn more and take steps to make changes as you’re able.

These days, you can find energy conservation tips just about anywhere. But one of my favorite resources for everything “green” including energy conservation tips is Nancy Sleeth’s book, “Go Green, Save Green: A Simple Guide to Saving Time, Money, and God’s Green Earth.”

Additional quotes above from Matthew Sleeth’s, “The Gospel According to the Earth.”