Friday, March 13, 2009

Greening my family

In my previous post I explained the new family that will living in my house. Let me first start out by saying that I am the green tree hugger of the family. When I announced in January that I would not be buying anything except veggies from the farmer's market they all asked if I needed money. This is very sweet of them and I love them for looking out for me, however, they don't always get what I am about.
In fact, I recently took my parents to the local farmer's market (where I bought the veggies for the week), and as we were leaving my dad said, "I just don't get it. Why would you pay more money to get things here instead of just going to the grocery store?"
I replied with all the reasons such as locally grown, supporting local farmers, less fossil fuels, it tastes better...
"I still don't get it." he said.
My father is a wonderful man who usually humors me with all sorts of passions, however food is just not his thing. And after all, money is money.
I have also had the heater off for the past two months. Living in the central valley of California is not as bad say as Minnesota. It does freeze at night, but for the most part the daytime temps are in the 50s-60s. This past week has been amazingly beautiful - 60-70 degrees, sunny and makes me want to dig in the dirt. Coming in from digging in the dirt the other day, I was hit by a heat blast and I could hear the heater running. My mom casually said, "did you know your heater was off? It was 58 degrees in here!"
"Yes, I know." was my reply. I was very proud of myself for not starting a fight that would have just hurt her feelings. She is trying to take care of me and my kids. I did however turn down the thermostat as I walked by...
Does anyone have any tips for handling sticky family situations that involve trying to green your life?

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