What is Growing a Green Family all about?
When I first got interested in green living years ago I found a lot of green sites and blogs that made sense for individuals but not families in particular. That inspired me to help launch another green blog, Tree Hugging Family, that I’ve been writing at for years. However, Growing a Green Family is my personal green family site.
Getting green takes work. Sometimes it takes small steps, and sometime large, but trying to incorporate green living when you’ve got a family and limited resources is tough. Growing a Green Family focuses on how families can live green (or live greener) with all the other ups and downs of family life.
It’s hard to balance green living and family life…
Before my son Cedar was born I was kind of green. I carried a reusable coffee mug, recycled, turned of lights, and more, but the impact of my life didn’t actually hit me full force until Cedar was born. This is when my thinking changed from semi green to I should absolutely live green for my son. My goals were to make the world safer and greener for my son and to raise Cedar to think green from the start while also managing all the other tasks that come along with parenting, including dynamics such as your partner or spouse, siblings, school, extended family and friends, and more.
I was a single mama on a limited budget trying to keep it green (hard) for years, and now I’m living in a merged household with my boyfriend Dave and his two daughters while also trying to keep it green (even harder) so I’ve run into a lot of problems while going green. Growing a Green Family will look at the issues I’ve run into while trying to go green while in a family, such as…
- Seasonal issues such as greener holidays and celebrations, back to school time, and summer camp.
- Growing green kids by focusing on safe green products, eco-activities, and educational resources.
- Earth issues like climate change, water conservation, recycling and reuse, energy use, toxins in household products, and preserving nature.
- Green home and living issues like organic foods, organic gardening, cooking, green cleaning, natural health and wellness, and green home audits.
- Consumer issues such as being a smart green consumer, saving money, actually being able to afford green living, green products that are really green vs. greenwashed, and how you can take action as a family to help improve and preserve the environment.
Above are the issues I’m interested in seeing families take on together – these are the same issues I’ve had problems and successes with over the last nine or so years.
Who is Jennifer? Aka your friendly blogger.
I’ve been living different shades of green for years and I’m also a problogger and freelance writer mainly in the eco-genre, and mama of an eight-year-old boy Cedar. Currently, I’m located in the nicely gray and drizzling Pacific Northwest, which feeds both my green living and unruly coffee addictions. I wrote about green family living at Tree Hugging Family for over two years. I’ve also been working on other writing projects such as websites, blogs, copy for non-profits, national magazine articles, and business proposals.
I’m a community manager at Green Options and I currently write for a handful of other green minded sites as well.
Who are the other players here at Growing a Green Family?
Cedar: My eight-year-old who is in fact much greener than me. He was raised vegetarian, and now he’s still almost totally vegetarian by choice. He’s great at recycling, grabbing reusable bags for the store, turning off lights, and he’s knowledgeable about organics and non-toxic stuff. He’s also very good at encouraging others to keep it green as well. All of this says to me says that encouraging kids to go green early on does make a huge impact. Cedar was unschooled at home for years, but also attended an eco-charter. Currently he’s attending a free school that is focused on various issues like democracy, green living, and independent thinking.
Dave & his girls: Dave, my boyfriend lives with Cedar and me full-time, and his two daughters (13 and 11) live with us part-time. Dave is a computer tech by day but his first love is music and he’s in two bands. He’s also an avid skateboarder, and all around awesome guy. His daughters are awesome, creative, and all around great kids. The downfall of a merged household? Dave is super busy and him plus his girls do currently live a lesser shade of green than Cedar and me. Like any merged family issues, this has created some challenges.
On the positive side, Dave is open to green living and this merging of two households has created some excellent opportunities for learning how to tackle green living in new ways. Plus, while I’m super gung-ho about most green issues, Dave provides alternative viewpoints that I don’t always agree with, but it does keep me thinking about the issues in a way that’s probably more typical to the average newbie or family trying to go green.
That’s Growing a Green Family in a tidy nutshell – hopefully you’ll stick around, check out the blog, and if you like, leave a comment telling me all about your green family.
