Seven Sustainable Things

Time for another edition of Seven Sustainable Things, in which I tell you seven things over the past seven days I've done to live a sustainable lifestyle.  This time, the cold weather December edition.

1.  We harvested a lime!  Since my lime tree is tempermental at best, there is no such thing as a regular lime crop around here.  So, it's always a treat to get a lime to put in our iced tea.

2.  In the interest of losing weight and saving money, we have set a new rule that we can't have desserts unless we bake them ourselves.  That means no mixes, too.  The result over the past two or three weeks has been more organic ingredients in our desserts and, more importantly, more days that we don't eat sweets at all because we're too tired to bake.

3.  To cut the heating bill, I've started spending an hour or two in the morning with my office door shut and my space heater on, but with the house heat still turned down.  Since Mr. FC&G is on a slightly different schedule than me, I just wait until he starts his day to turn up the heat.

4.  This is high sales season for our Etsy store, Carrot Creations, so I've been busy at night crocheting yoga socks as fast as I can for Christmas-time sales.  Hopefully, these gifts will help others live a more sustainable life too!

5.  I picked up an extra class to teach this coming spring semester, which will help the budget out a bit while giving me a fun new opportunity to spend time with my students.

6.  We've got an appointment for an oil change and check-up for our everyday vehicle.  Now, spending money doesn't sound all that sustainable, but last year we caught a brake problem before it turned into an expensive repair.  A little preventative maintenance can go a long way.

7.  Finally, let's hear it for the fireplace!  December is a wonderful time for us to have fires in our fireplace with its stove insert.  It lets us turn the house heat down and convert some of our wood pile into heat while enjoying the festive ambiance.  Win-win!