This weekend, we stopped by the local farmer's market for the first time. Unfortunately, we didn't get there until it was near to closing time, so most of the fresh veggies and all the strawberries were gone! Still, we walked around to each of the vendors, maybe a dozen of them, and saw their locally produced honey, homemade soaps and crafts and my favorite... wooden toys. There was a plane, a few cars and even a tank! I look forward to getting one for Iris - I love wooden and fabric toys, you know, things with character!
I hope we can start visiting the farmer's market more often. I would like one of our little changes to be considering more often where our money is actually going. I used to do a lot of online shopping on Amazon.com but have recently started buying from Etsy.com and other family owned businesses with websites. For example, I recently bought a new warm-weather ring sling from BabyEtte on Etsy and all of my cloth diaper purchases have been from a family owned business in Ithaca called Jillian's Drawers. They have absolutely amazing customer service, by the way!
With the economy and unemployment rates being as they are, I think it's important for us to do what little part we can to benefit people locally and those who own small businesses as opposed to big companies and corporations. I'd like us to spend money on things that are healthy for us as well, like maybe those homemade soaps, healthy wooden toys and organically grown whole foods. We still do and eat our fair share of unhealthy things too, like using toxic bath products and eating Poptarts.
I've done my best so far with our budget to buy organic cereal and snack bars, locally grown foods (when the market closest to us wasn't destroyed by the recent tornadoes), and purchasing products that are not tested on animals. My goal for the future is to eliminate the harmful things that I can, while not altering our lifestyle to the point that makes my husband think I've morphed into some 'damn hippie'!
I may not be able to make a specific 'small change' every Saturday, but I will certainly be writing about things like supporting your local economy, healthful living and other things that may be inspiring me! I invite you to make little changes along with me too, it's not as hard as it may seem! If you invest in reusable grocery bags, just think how many plastic bags you won't be throwing into a landfill over the next few years - it's a big impact if you think about it!
(I still haven't brought my reusable grocery bags to the grocery store! Marius has suggested that I tie them around my neck so we stop forgetting them.)
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