Falling Short of the Goal

Last week was a decidedly iffy week on the sustainability front, as you may have guessed from the presence of just one blog post.  So, let's look at how I did:

The Good:

• I baked two loaves of bread.
• I did all the week's laundry with my homemade laundry soap.
• I sewed five new wash cloths from some terry cloth I found in the remnant bin at my favorite fabric store.
• I heated the house with passive solar heat and good "window management" (that is, opening and closing curtains) for at least 48 total hours.
• I nursed some baby tomato seedlings to life (Mortgage Lifters -- let's hope they live up to their name!) and repotted a few pepper seedlings.
• I actually remembered to turn off the power supply to the in-house DSL network on Friday night, so I wasn't drawing unused power all weekend.

The Bad:

• I made two trips to the grocery that should have been rolled into one.  In my defense, I had some horrible Midwestern sinus thing going on, and one trip was just to get some OTC medication to get me through, while the next night I actually got supplies and did my banking run.
• I forgot to throw my lingerie bag of used-but-reusable make-up wipes in the laundry, so if I don't find a load for them in the next two days, I'm back to cotton balls until I do.
• I bumped the heat up a few degrees when the cold weather came back.  (See above-mentioned horrible Midwestern sinus thing.)
• I let a pint of blueberries die of neglect.

So how did I do?  On the one hand, I hate that I dropped a few balls in there.  But mostly, I'm proud that I have systems in place that get me through when my attention is divided.  On balance, even with a rough week, I think I did more good for budget and planet than I did bad.  That's the most any of us can do.