I missed the boat on Earth Day

Because we were up in Cooperstown (which was AWESOME, btw. You should check it out if you like beer, wine, baseball, or delicious cheese), I missed Earth Day completely. This is a little troubling for me. I've got to admit, for having a hippie hubby, I've slipped off the earth friendly bandwagon recently. Yes, I still do the normal stuff like recycling everything I can and reusing things for a long time and using eco-friendly non-toxic cleaning products and whatnot, but I know that I'm not doing all I can. I've slipped in recent years. I no longer make my own cleaners. I don't hang my clothes out to dry (this is really because of my fear of the cave crickets in my area, who are huge and gross and crawl inside everything and would give me a heart attack if I found one in my sleeve). We occasionally eat red meat, and haven't had tofu anything in MONTHS. I even leave my computer on when I'm not in the room. I know, I know, that should be punishable by death. But let me tell you what happened, because I think it's a common story.
My kid was born.
Yeah, that did it. Before Stenni came around, I thought I would exclusively breastfeed and cloth diaper. Well, I mostly breastfed, with some pumping and a little bit of formula because the pediatrician really pushed for it at first when Stenni was really little. Cloth diapering? Yeah, not so much. My parents, who watch the baby a lot, wouldn't hear of it, and when she was born I had trouble finding small enough cloth diapers! Then I just gave up, despite knowing how easy it was supposed to be. Maybe I'll try again the next time around.
But there were other places where I gave in when she was born too. My mother-in-law came over with a Costco-sized case of paper towels and a million paper plates (along with pizza and beer, which were obviously appreciated), which had both long been banned from my house. But they just seemed so EASY! They made things tremendously effortless. So I jumped on the paper goods bandwagon, and still haven' t jumped off. We generally use them as kindling when we light fires, which I suppose is repurposing but certainly isn't perfect. I keep depending on these things, especially paper towels, even when I know how easy it would be to stop using them. I admit I've cut back, but they're still haunting my linen closet.
For Earth Day this year, I'm not going to buy paper towels anymore. Not on this trip to the store, and not on the next. And paper plates? Forget them! It takes 2 seconds to wash a dish. It won't kill me. Probably.
However, I can't promise that this effort will continue once the new baby is born and well-meaning in-laws come over with crates full of paper goods.
As an added Earth-Day bonus, me and Stenni are going to bake some banana bread with some old brown bananas that my hubs won't touch. Plus, then I get to eat banana bread. It's a win/win!