7

I was just caught, red-handed, pulling out Andy's discarded Coke can and plastic bottle he tossed in the trash.  I wasn't digging, just grabbing what was on top.  When asked "what on earth I was doing," I wiped the sheepish grin off my face and told him "we need to recycle everything we can."  When he stated the recycling bin was overflowing(!), I told him "you can thank Jen Hatmaker for my renewed vigor in recycling.  We need to be stewards of the earth that God has given us." Andy just turned around and headed back into the den to keep plugging away at work (thank goodness April 15th is in sight).

Y'all... 7: An experimental mutiny against excess by Jen Hatmaker is life-changing, perspective-changing, makes you think.

Thanks to my friend Alicia for getting me hooked on this excellent read.  Even if you don't agree with everything Jen suggests, I highly suggest reading it.  Jen focuses on 7 areas of excess: clothes (have a baby, and it's easy to limit your post-baby wardrobe to 7 items), shopping (but much harder to limit shopping for said cute baby), food (I'm not even there yet; justification: I can't fast because I'm supplying nourishment to my infant.  But in all seriousness, I will consider fasting when I am done breastfeeding); possessions (I've been in a purging state, but this takes it to a whole new level); media (you'll have to discuss this with my husband...TV is our 5th family member these days.  I might consider a Facebook fast in the near future); and stress (I haven't gotten to this chapter yet).

Back to recycling...I have always been conservative when it comes to conserving energy, recycling, budgeting, a semi "save the earth" nut.  Shocker.  Type A firstborn rule follower to the T.

I turn off the water when I'm brushing my teeth.  I turn off lights when I leave a room.  I keep the air at the levels the "experts" recommend.  I budget and coupon to be a steward of what God has provided for us (although there's always room for self-improvement there).

True confession, never before breathed to a soul...Barney got me hooked on recycling.  Yes, the big, super smiley purple dinosaur.  And no, I'm not that young to have watched Barney.  I would "watch" Barney with my little sister, 5 years younger, when I was in the third grade, and then laugh it off that I was watching my kid sister's show. A surreptitious, closet Barney Watcher.   But...I do have to say, Barney talked about recycling, shutting the fridge door when you get out the milk, turning off lights, turning off water.  I'm sure he even sang some rhyming song about this.  Anyways...thank you creators of Barney for stimulating my little mold-able mind, for bringing out the guilt trip in me, for making me conscious of the things I so take for granted in my privileged world...running water, immediate electricity, a cold fridge, a freezing freezer, hot heat, cold a/c, etc etc.

So...enough of rambling, and if you've made it this far in my wordy post with little to no pics of cute smiling baby faces, then I have a feeling you're going to check this book out.  No, I'm not going to buy a flex fuel car that she recommends, b/c A) thankfully our two cars are running great; and B) we don't have ethanol fueling stations here.  I mean, come on guys, Birmingham is a great city with adorable villages, fantastic public schools, James Beard winning chefs... but it's Birmingham, about 10 years behind the times and severely in debt (thank you former Mayor Langford for putting our county in severe debt.  You and Obama must have had a picnic to discuss the glee of making your peons suffer.)  But Jen has me thinking.  Thinking that I need to cook food in the slight hoarding tendencies I have in my gigantic panty.  I will spare you a pic of my 18 boxes of cake mix.  My family makes fun of me.  (But I buy on sale, b/c when I make a cake as a surprise treat for a friend, last minute, I don't want to pay full price.  I want the BOGO sale with a coupon at Publix.  Steward of our budgeting...right? But since I'm being so honest with the world in this post, I really am justifying making the Cake Mix Cookie Bars...I have a sweet craving...but I will give 1/2 the pan to my friend with sick child. There, confession.)  So the past 2 weeks I've been depleting our pantry, only going to the grocery store for fresh produce.  And it.feels.good.  I'm liking this.  Living with less.  Thank you Jen.