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My friend Cindy posted a link to an interesting book challenge. The From the Stacks Challenge challenges you to read 5 books between November 1st and January 30th without buying new books. I’m planning to take on this challenge. I have a book buying habit. I just can’t help myself. I LOVE books. I have always loved the idea of having a room dedicated to being a library in my house, and now we finally have one. We have plenty of space for new books (though have decided to limit ourselves to owning only what can fit on our library bookshelves). I just can’t resist coming out of a bookstore with an armful of books. My wishlist is never ending! Though often it seems that my eyes are bigger than my brain, and I have stacks of books in my house that need to be read. I even have an entire bookshelf dedicated to books that I have borrowed from friends. It’s time to start digging into these unread treasures. I can’t begin to list them all, but I have listed below a large number of possibilities for me to choose from when doing this challenge. This is not an exhaustive list of my options. Hrm, this is a real eye opener for me!!!

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe by Douglas Adams
Kushiel’s Justice by Jacqueline Carey
Kushiel’s Mercy by Jacqueline Carey
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Deal Breaker by Harlan Coben
Drop Shot by Harlan Coben
Just One Look by Harlan Coben
Dancing in the Dark by Dee Davis
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
So You Want to be a Wizard by Diane Duane
Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis
Thursday Next by Jasper Fforde
Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde
Rainbow: The Story of Judy Garland by Christopher Finch
World Without End by Ken Follett
Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke
Inkspell by Cornelia Funke
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris
Dead Sleep by Greg Iles
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel
Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman
Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
The Seventh Sense by T. J. MacGregor
Wicked by Gregory Maguire
A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin
A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin
A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Gabriel by Garth Nix
Eldest by Christopher Paolini
A Short History of a Small Place by T. R. Pearson
Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult
Second Glance by Jodi Picoult
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
Russka by Edward Rutherfurd
Flyte by Angie Sage
Magyk by Angie Sage
Physik by Angie Sage
A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks
Ptolemy’s Gate by Jonathan Stroud
Devil in the Details by Jennifer Traig
An Audience for Einstein by Mark Wakely
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Now that we have the responsibility of raising a child, we are looking at our own habits to see what we need to improve. I thought that in addition to our Green Challenge, we could start a Healthier Living Challenge. I’m thinking that this can be a variety of things – eating healthier, introducing a new healthy recipe, or exercising, for example. The first challenge is something we’ve been doing for the past 2 months. We are no longer purchasing any groceries that contain high fructose corn syrup. Adding this to the dairy free restriction has definitely been a challenge. We carefully read just about every label before placing them in our shopping cart!

Here are a few foods that do not contain high fructose corn syrup or dairy (and I know that some of these products are not the healthiest or necessary, but that’s for another month):

Heinz Organic Ketchup: This is the only brand and type of ketchup in our local Harris Teeter store that does not contain high fructose corn syrup. The taste is a little different than normal ketchup. Surprisingly, it seems a little sweeter! I think it’s one of those things that you don’t notice the difference unless you’re comparing the tastes one after the other. We started using this in our Stuffed Bell Peppers recipe and now use it for all of our ketchuping needs.

Thomas’ Square Bagelbread: It’s a challenge to find bread that does not contain milk products or high fructose corn syrup! We have found the tasty Thomas’ Square Bagelbread and love the wheat and everything varieties. Neither contain dairy or high fructose corn syrup. They have been perfect for sandwiches, hamburgers, and breakfast or snacks (the wheat variety with a little non-dairy “butter” and cinnamon sugar, yum!).

Spicy Sweet Chili Doritoes: Snacking is one of our weaknesses. We will possibly address this in a future month, but for now our snack options are at least somewhat limited. I was disappointed to find that Wheat Thins (I love the Sundried Tomato variety) have high fructose corn syrup. I was surprised to find that all Doritos fit our new criteria! I was also excited to find that they have at least one non-dairy variety: Spicy Sweet Chili. As far as I know, this is the only one. This has been great for road trips as junk food seems to be a necessity when I’m driving… Many chips and crackers have high fructose corn syrup, so at least our snacking choices are somewhat healthier now.

Paul Newman Marinades: The majority of dressings and marinades contain high fructose corn syrup. We had to stop buying our favorite marinades and search for new ones. We found that all of the Paul Newman marinades were free of high fructose corn syrup. We haven’t checked the dressings, but I’m guessing that those may be free of it as well. The ones we have tried have been quite tasty so far!

The Immaculate Baking Company’s Better Bakes Ready-to-Bake Chocolate Chunk Cookie Dough: We found these in Harris Teeter one day before our avoidance of high fructose corn syrup. I’m not sure if other cookie brands contain hfcs, but the exciting thing about this particular cookie dough brand is that they are dairy free! I’m not sure if all of their varieties are dairy free, but I was excited and surprised to find a chocolate chip cookie that fit our restrictions. Yum!

Quaker Simple Harvest & Nature Valley Crunchy Granola Bars: We have granola bars for snacks and breakfast-on-the-go all the time at our house. I was disappointed when I found out that the regular ones that we used to get not only contained dairy products but also high fructose corn syrup. We have since discovered Quaker Simple Harvest granola bars. They even have a chocolate chunk variety that does not contain dairy! We love these! The Nature Valley Crunchy Granola Bars also have varieties that are both dairy and high fructose corn syrup free.

The green challenges for our family has been going pretty well. We’re still using our canvas grocery bags, and we use cloth napkins for every meal at home. We even try to avoid getting plastic bags when shopping when possible, asking if we can just take the purchases and receipt without a bag. We’re doing pretty well at limiting our napkin and paper towel usage elsewhere, but we have had a few baby incidents in public which I do not feel guilty about at all. I’ll spare you the details in this post.

This month’s challenge is to reduce the amount of paper coming into our house. This one is going to be difficult for me as I like to file away all of my bills and bank statements, you know, in case I need them. What if the bank or utility company screws up something? I pay all my bills electronically, but I get all of my bills and statements in the mail. I just haven’t been able to take that leap into doing it all electronically. September is the month for that for us.

Some things that we plan to do:

• Sign up for electronic billing and bank statements whenever possible.
  
• Contact any catalogs that we receive and get them to take us off of their mailing list (we have done this in the past since the previous owners of our house received a TON of catalogs).
  
• Reduce the amount of junk mail that we receive by contacting the senders and by following these tips by the NC Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance.
  

Feel free to leave a comment to suggest more things that we could do to reduce paper (or ideas for future months).

It’s time for me to talk about about our family’s Green Challenge. This month, we are attempting to use less paper towels. This is a little harder to measure. Last month, we started using the reusable canvas grocery bags. We LOVE them! The bags hold a whole lot more than the plastic bags. We keep them in the trunk of our car, and we have used them every time we’ve been to the grocery store.

So, how will we use less paper towels? I’ve been pretty bad in the past about using paper towels excessively. In the past few weeks, we have been using cloth napkins with our meals. We use cloth diapers to clean up baby messes (and sometimes for our own messes). We’ve been trying to use our dish rags and kitchen towels instead of paper towels in the kitchen. I’ve also been more conscious of my paper towel/napkin usage outside of the home. I’ve been trying to use just one napkin instead of 2-3 at lunch. I try to use just one paper towel when drying my hands in the restroom. I believe that even though our efforts are small, it all adds up over time!

Lately, we have been thinking about various things that we can do to be more “green.” My company has started an incentive program to encourage employees to generate less waste when it comes to the cafeterias. Each time you get a lunch without using any disposable containers, styrofoam cups, or excessive baggies, then you earn a sticker. Collect enough stickers, and you get a free meal. For me, it has been just enough to motivate me to be better. It’s not the free meals that motivates me, but just the existence of the program gives me the extra push that I needed.

Previously, I had been getting a disposable cup every single day. I got take out containers and plastic forks to bring lunch back to my desk (even when I used the cafe in my building). I always got 3 napkins. I will even admit to throwing away plastic bottles at work rather than taking them home for recycling. Since the program started, I have been very good! Rather than get disposable containers, I take my tray up to my office and return it when I am finished. I have been limiting myself to one napkin (which I will save for later, if unused). I’ve been taking home all of my empty bottles to recycle. And it feels good! And now I want to extend our efforts at home.

So, the idea is that we will do something new in an effort to be more “green” each month. I’m always tempted to jump into something and do *everything* at once, but then my energy for whatever it is fizzles after a short period of time. I figure that by adding something small each month, we will be able to stick to it and create new habits for our family.

This month, we are doing something that we have thought about doing for a while. We bought reusable grocery bags, and we intend to use them every time we go to the grocery store. We always kept the plastic bags for reuse, but we have SO MANY of them. Our pantry, a full kitchen garbage can, and several cabinets have been literally overflowing with them. We can’t possibly use them at the rate that we get them. Reusable grocery bags really make sense! The plastic bags are handy, but we can always get them if we need to restock our supply. So far, we have done well with using the canvas bags! The only time we didn’t use the bags was when we were in Gatlinburg (and we did reuse those plastic bags for packing for the trip home at least). We love the sturdy canvas tote bags. They hold a lot more than the plastic bags, so it makes the groceries more manageable. We bought ours from Harris Teeter, but I know that many grocery stores and online retailers carry them.

Stay tuned each month for the little things that we are going to try to incorporate into our daily routines! I’ll also be reporting on how we are doing with our goals.

A few of the simple things that we are already doing in our household:

• Replacing regular lightbulbs with CFLs once the old ones need replacing.

• Recycling all cans, plastic bottles, glass, newspaper, magazines, and cardboard in our town’s recycling.
• Collecting our chipboard and white paper to take to the local convenience center for recycling. Unfortunately, these items aren’t picked up by the town yet.
• Carpool to work every day (except when Gabe works from home, of course). We have arranged our schedules to make carpooling work. It’s not always convenient, but we enjoy the family time together. These days it is saving us a good chunk of change each month as well!