July 23

This month is practically over and I've blogged 0 times about this month's 7 challenge.

Here's the naked truth:  I feel lazy.

I actually don't even want to write this blog post because I don't feel like explaining this month's challenge.  So, if you were looking for a fun, wordy post...look elsewhere.

This month was supposed to be focused on green living.  

Jen Hatmaker focused on these 7 habits for her 5th month:

Gardening

Composting

Conserving energy and water

Recycling

Driving only one car (what?!?!)

Shopping thrift and second hand

Buying only local

I do a lot of these things already but there is certainly room for improvement.  However, I apparently didn't feel like improving this month.  I am trying to decide if I should just say I took this month off and start the green challenge in August or just skip it all together.  Because I'm lazy.

Let's talk about gardening. 

 I am SO over it.  Yesterday a friend asked me if I was getting a lot out of my garden and I replied, "Not really, I didn't plant much this year.  And as far as I'm concerned what I did plant can just rot out there.  I'm sick of it."  

Except I still love looking at my plate of food and realizing that so much of it came out of the dirt I own.

I want the reward without the effort.  There's probably a spiritual truth in there.  I'll think about it later.

Composting:  We have a pile of food junk on the ground at the edge of our tree line.  It's not really a compost pile because we don't do it right.  It doesn't turn into wonderful dirt.  It just lays there like the pile of rot it is.

Conserving energy and water:  The energy part we are pretty good at.  We hardly use our air conditioning (because I like the windows open, not because I love the earth), we turn off lights in rooms we aren't using, we even turn off our hot water heater for most of the day.  But it's because we are cheap, not because we are environmentalists.  Then there is the water part.  Don't mess with my long hot shower.  The end.

Recycling:  We do the basics.  There is more we could do but I again present the evidence of laziness.

Driving only one car:  We can't do this because I have more excuses.  Excuse #1:  Larry is unwilling to ride his bike to work at 3:30am.  Excuse #2:  I am unwilling to ride bike anywhere with 4 kids and I'm surely not going to stay at home with the little monsters all day, every day until Larry gets home.  Judge me however you will.

Shopping thrift and second hand:  I am good at this.  Again, because of being cheap.

Buying only local:  I'm going to guess that half my purchases are made locally.  I should keep track so I know for sure, it would probably be eye-opening.  In my half-hearted (quarter-hearted?) attempt at this month, I've only been to Wal-Mart one time.  Save your applause for later, please.

So there you have it, the raw and gritty of this month.

I'm thinking I should start over again in August and put my heart into this month.  I really do think making an effort to be more green is important.  God created the world and all it's beauty for us, for me.  How can I be so cavalier about this amazing gift?