I'm Green.

I have fought this for so long. I never wanted to be green. I never wanted to be a tree-hugger. It wasn't that I didn't want to take care of the earth. It's just that being green has certain connotations, and I did not want to be associated with those.

Al Gore thinks we all need to go green to save the earth from global warming. Nice thought, Al, but I'm not sure it's our job to "save" the earth. The fact that I have yet to see signs of this "warming," with Dallas having now had 4 - maybe 5 - snowfalls this winter and a record snowfall for the most snow ever in the metroplex, is beside the point.

Don't get me wrong, I love the earth. I can't say I agree with Al's motivation, but I have my own. I love the earth that God created. I am excited for the new heaven and new earth that we will someday have, but until that day, we're on this earth.

Like I said, I never wanted to go green. This has been a journey for me. Here's where I've been and where I am now...

• For starters, I drive a Prius. I loved the light green color, but again, I refused to get it because of the tree-hugger connotations. I ended up getting seafoam blue. I didn't look into getting the Prius to be environmentally-friendly. Originally I bought it for economic reasons. It slashed our gas bill in half each month. And going to Houston to visit family has become incredibly inexpensive, at around $30 round trip, depending on the current gas prices. After researching it, I was impressed with how environmentally-friend it was too, but I kept that to myself.
• Overtime I began recycling. I dig the wine bottles and plastic containers, that my hubby throws into the trash, out and place them in recycling. I even rinse every container out before placing it in recycling to prevent contaminating the recycling, since contamination ruins your entire load of recycle-ables. It's a lot of effort, but in the end, it's one less container in a land fill. Additionally, I place all plastic lids (from milk, salad dressings, etc) into a bag to take to Aveda at the mall when I go so that they can be recycled.
• Recently I have been switching over to green cleaning products, when my non-green ones run out. And many of these I have gotten for free through RecycleBank. I figure if pregnant women and babies shouldn't be around our normal cleaning products, they can't be that good for the rest of us. I'm all about homemade cleaning products too.
• When I grocery shop, I bring my own bags. And when I forget, I reuse the plastic bags I am given.
• And I am still in the process of going organic. I am committed to organic meat and dairy. I am still working on produce.

For so long I have fought against going green. I don't want to be a hippy and a tree-hugger. I am not a global warming fanatic. I am in complete disagreement with Al Gore. But over time, I have been convicted that going green is about more than global warming, it's about loving the Lord and respecting His creation.

What do you do to go green?