So, Mom Goes Green just returned from a nice, long vacation at the OBX with my fantastic family! There is nothing like fresh ocean air each and every morning, noon and night. We experienced everything again this year… from dunes to surf, to sun to moon…
Surely I didn’t leave my green principals behind. We conserved (lights off, no waste), we recycled (more on that in a moment) and simply enjoyed the purity of a beautiful environment.
Truly, after evaluating our trip, I feel no guilt. We were honestly conscious not to be wasteful (especially three minutes after arriving in our condo and experiencing a power outage!). We made sure not to waste energy or over-consume — from lights to waiting for a full dishwasher — and even purchased all of our usual organic food and earth-friendly products.

We recycled absolutely everything too. This ended up being much to the dismay of my dear husband who was sent to deliver our recyclables to the local recycling center on the morning of our departure and, as he approached with an ENORMOUS industrial-sized bag of recycling, was informed that “they must be sorted”… ewwww, (*heavy sigh*) … he had to pick each and every item from the bag and place it in the proper receptacle… and for me (*smooch, smooch*) he did it, and nothing met the trash can!
I could
go on and on about all of our practices but, for me, the shining moment was when I took time to sneak to the beach in the late-night, moonlit hours while everyone else was fast asleep and stood there, awestruck. How amazing and peaceful.
With the risk of sounding incredibly cheesy… I felt so lucky that this planet actually ALLOWS us to live here. Really… everything we need, in perfect harmony, supplied by this beautiful planet (see, I told you it would sound cheesy!) but the moon and the waves… just me and an empty beach… truly, I invite you to take a moment, stop, and just think about it. It’s pretty incredible that LIFE can be so generously sustained here.
THAT is why I do what I do… I refuse to abuse this “gift”… thank you, Mother Earth…



Did you know that bottle caps are the second most littered items behind cigarette butts? Did you also know that bottle caps are one of the top ten most common items found littered on beaches? Sad, isn’t it?
Now that summer vacation for both of my kids has finally arrived, it’s time to compile that list of “to do’s” that has been taking a backseat to kid’s activities all school year long.
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How often are you given something you want to give back or never even asked for? (Well, I can think of about a dozen things when I think back to my wedding gifts. Of course, my thoughts then were something like “my god, WHAT were they thinking!” 
Recycling in my home is a must. Everyone knows “the rules” and our set-up is simple, but if you’ve ever wondered about the wonder of recycling and if your efforts are well worth the effort, then take a look at these facts I discovered via
right back into another edition to hit the newsstand!
Weekend fun for my family included a trip to the fabulous 

The post-holiday wrap-up is being wrapped up! So sad to see it all come to an end, but alas… it’s back to the less dreamy and festive real world!
be accepted until February 28, 2010. Just bundle them up and mail them off to:
What a whirlwind this holiday has been! It’s hard to refocus after all of the craziness… and to top it off, this is my 250th post! Ironically, last year’s post on the same date was my 100th post… 150 posts in one year! I knew I could be a chatterbox at times but never imagined I would chatter that much!
One of my favorite gifts this year came from my mother-in-law: a
This year I’m posting early! November 15 is
newspapers