Month Two Update

It's hard to believe that 60 days have passed since I started this challenge.  So many changes, some big, some small.  Most have made it to the 60 day mark.  A few I had to give up soon after starting. 

The biggest challenge I've had is trying to make changes that will fit with our lifestyle.  We live in the suburbs, in a very "car-oriented" community.  Nothing is really walking distance from our house, although there is supposed to be a grocery store, bank, coffee shop, beer store and a couple of restaurants going into an area in the our corner of the subdivision.  I'm hopeful that I'll be able to start walking to pick up milk or a bottle of wine soon.

Here are the changes I've had to either a) give-up completely or b) re-work into something a little more sustainable for my family:

- environmentally friendly ant removal.  This just didn't work for us, and we finally resorted to ant poison to get rid of the infestation

- organic face moisturizer.  I couldn't stand using this particular product after about two weeks.  I've been trying several other types, but can't find one I really like.  I've switched back to my "old" one - it only registered a 4 on the Skin Deep Database, so it really wasn't that bad.  This way, I don't have a tonne of pimples or clogged pores anymore

- baths for kids.  This is a hit or miss proposition - it depends on what time it is, who is in charge of bath time, and how dirty the kids are.  We're hitting about 50% showers and 50% baths, so this is a definite improvement on water and electricity consumption.

- not using Google.  I've been pretty good about using GoodSearch for most of my Internet searching, but have used Google a few times when the GS results don't seem to be quite right.

-making my own liquid hand soap.  This was a bust.  I guess I'm just too used to the cream soap, and couldn't find a consistency when making my own that didn't send water flying everywhere, or cause us to waste half the soap when we pressed the dispenser.  I bought some triclosan-free cream soap (again an improvement), but then decided just to use the dish soap I really like as hand soap.  I'll use up the cream variety and then will switch over to the dish soap.

-buy only Canadian juice.  This has not been going well, because I really don't like apple juice.  The kids love it, so I buy it for them.  For DH and I, though, I've been buying orange juice.  The label states "100% Florida orange juice" and "Made in the USA", so I am hopeful that I am at least buying a juice that is grown and produced in North America.