After I got home from taking the garbage out yesterday ( read Waste Not Want Not below ) I rededicated myself to treading lightly on my adventure through life. We set up a better system for recycling in our house, we vacuumed and put together a box for the goodwill.

Then I went to my favorite news site and was reading the health news when I came across the article below from the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

So, if you are reading this blog please read on and consider changing out all of the toxins in your house for a few simple items that will add tremendous benefit for you and your family and have less of an impact on our world.

Pollution at home often lurks unrecognized
Fri Dec 26, 2008 9:42am EST
By Amy Norton

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Many people may be surprised by the number of chemicals they are exposed to through everyday household products, a small study finds, suggesting, researchers say, that consumers need to learn more about sources of indoor pollution.

In interviews with 25 women who’d had their homes and bodies tested for various environmental pollutants, researchers found that most were surprised and perplexed by the number of chemicals to which they’d been exposed.

The women had been part of a larger study conducted by the Silent Spring Institute in which their homes and urine samples were tested for 89 environmental contaminants — including pesticides and chemicals found in plastics, cleaning products and cosmetics.

An average of 20 chemicals was detected for each study participant.

FULL TEXT

To lighten your load and lessen your impact CLICK HERE

Thanks!

Ok, I get that people are not going to recycle. It’s a hassle. But can we at least tread a little bit lighter on this one planet earth of ours? Please. I am not a total tree hugger – although I have had the chance to spend some time in some amazing forests and do appreciate the occassional hug from an amazing tree. There was a cashew tree that comes into mind in particular. But that is not the point.

The point is that I adore Christmas and I love the holiday season. We watched a Christmas movie every single night in December and sang Christmas carols and prayed Christmas prayers. I love everything about Christmas.

This year I saw something I had never seen before. Maybe I didn’t want to see it before but I had never seen anything like this in over 40 years. I went to take the trash out and there by the community dumpster was a bunch of good stuff. I am also not a dumpster diver but if I were this would have been a field day. The dumpster itself was relatively empty and people had just come by and thrown their garbage and their stuff next to it. It must have been too much of an effort to get out of their car and properly dispose of their garbage.

Someone had even taken the time to properly dismantle a 7 foot fake Christmas tree and place it nicely back in it’s box. But then they just tossed it out along side all of the other garbage. I am all for fake trees but the idea is that you buy it and then you use it again the next year. There are several local churches nearby, a St. Vincent DePauls, and a Goodwill. All of those places would have happily accepted these items and then this stuff could have gone to good use. But now it is just on its way to a landfill somewhere.

It was very disheartening to see.

I know that I can personally do so much better when it comes to recycling and reducing the waste that our household produces but this site today was almost surreal. Are we really that wasteful? I guess so. There was the proof in front of my very own eyes.

So, I suppose this should just inspire me to be a little more diligent in reducing my impact on the landfill so that hopefully there will be more of a balance.

You know that when you are on the road one of the great ways to get last minute gifts to people is by using the internet. Here are a couple of our favorite picks for the season.

Mona Vie You can also get a wonderful gift set at the wholesale price by becoming a member.
This offer is only being made available to members.

WEBKINZ – Reindeer

Ok so on my travels to day I was listening to the news on the radio and a major US company was found guilty for giving governments large amounts of money and they were fined several billion dollars.

So how come if a private company gives a government money it is called bribery but if a government gives a private company a large amount of money its called a bailout.

Instead of rewarding the company that is making money we give the money to the companies that aren’t?  If Government were a parent then their children would be unruly whiners.

What a crazy world we live in.  I want to see more of it.

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