From the category archives:

green living

Why I Quit Everything

March 2, 2010

Last September, when my five-year-old started kindergarten, she also went to swimming lessons twice a week, gymnastics class once  a week, music class on Saturday mornings, and a weekly play group at the community growing center.
My toddler had a lighter schedule, comprised of only swim lessons and a weekly playdate at the library. I had [...]

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Keeping a Journal

February 10, 2010

Yesterday I wrote about several steps to making a life change stick. Then in the shower this morning, I thought, “Oh! I need to write more about journaling vs. simple record-keeping.”
And sure enough, the first comment on yesterday’s post was from the always thoughtful Rebecca Weger, saying, “The most important piece for me is around [...]

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How to Change Your Life

February 8, 2010

I have a post up on Get Rich Slowly today about getting the ball rolling with financial management, where I talk about “cross-training” skills from one area of your life to another.
Here, I want to just quickly lay out a recipe I use for making meaningful personal change in any area. You may recall, personal [...]

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The Power of Small Change

February 5, 2010

Fakeplasticfish has a post up about conflict between couples about green living, in which she quotes my post from last week about making green choices together.
Beth Terry, the woman behind Fake Plastic Fish, has gone to amazing lengths to cut plastic out of her life. Last year, she produced something like 4 pounds of plastic [...]

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Choosing a Greener Life Together

January 27, 2010

On the heels of my Monday post at Get Rich Slowly about talking to your spouse about money, here’s a reader-requested post about how couples can communicate about green lifestyle choices.
In general, my husband and I get along fine about our green living. Our values about things like making green life choices are very closely [...]

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All I Want For Christmas is January

December 13, 2009

I’m feeling pretty bah humbug this year. I’m tired, broke and grouchier about the weather than usual. The holiday season feels less like a joyful opportunity to reconnect and more like a train wreck of social, family and financial obligations.
But tis the season, so I’m bucking up and doing my frugal best to be festive. [...]

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Caving in on car-free living

October 27, 2009

Only a few weeks into life without a car, I am throwing in the towel. Which towel, you ask? The sopping wet one in the back of the bike trailer that got the seats almost dry, but not so dry that my ass wasn’t soaked by the time we got to music class on Saturday. [...]

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Making carbon footprint part of a product’s packaging

October 23, 2009

Imagine having to face the climate impact of your greasy take-out as you place your order? Or seeing the carbon footprint of your cookies clearly labelled alongside the calorie count on the back of the package in the grocery aisle?
The NYT this week reports on an experiment in Sweden doing exactly that. The Swedes have [...]

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Car-free family, for the moment

October 8, 2009

Our mechanic called today to read our van its last rites. I’m not really in any kind of financial position this week to buy a new car, or even a new-to-me car. I’m just getting out of debt, and starting to put aside an emergency fund. It has an impressive $500 in it. I am [...]

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Local Mysteries

August 6, 2009

This plaque is nearly buried in the grass at Powderhouse Park, a short walk from my house. The park is full of memorials to pieces of history. There’s a plaque commemorating the Massachuset campsite that was there in the 1600s and a bronze statue of a lamb to mark the former site of a farm [...]

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