What next?

That is the question I have been asked most often. What do you do after four year long family challenges? What do you do after you have bought nothing new for a year and eaten local and tried hard to reduce your energy use by 40 % the Madison average. What next? We have been in a holding pattern. I found my what next....I just finished my first day of the Sustainability Leadership Program at Edgewood College. I am one of 18 people who have made a one year commitment to explore what it means to be a sustainability leader and change agent. I realized right away that one of the things I have been longing for is community..I want and need company on the journey...

One of the first things we did was create a grid showing what we know/what we don't. Although we have a lot to learn ( which is why we are here) there are also strengths to draw on in the group. We are teachers, entrepreneurs, public service, environmental educators, artists ( I love that there are 4 artists)..I am the only pubic health person.

To introduce ourselves we chose a photo that "showed" how we felt starting the program. Mine was a group skydiving....this feels like starting an adventure...and I am excited to be doing this with people who are making a commitment to "be the change"

To be "Extraordinary"

I went to the Earth Day Conference yesterday...and in the session "Inspiring Change with Stories and New Media" saw the story of our family. One of the students who created the digital story about us was on the panel. The humbling part of all this was when the teacher talked about us as "one extra-ordinary family" which I don't think of us as all..but I probably grew two inches taller hearing someone else title us that. Leah ( the student) added.." when we left their house..we felt like we had to do something too. It ( telling our story) definitely made an impact on my life." Here is the story Leah and another student created. Greener, Faster, Better, Stronger This was the first digital story they have ever created. They did this as part of a class.

Two more loans

With the repayment money in my Kiva account I sponsored two more loans.

$50 to Gbedokpo Group in Benin to purchase bunches of bananas
$25 to Naseem Begum's Group in Pakistan to go towards buying a new sewing machine for her sewing business

Feeling like a sustainable investment specialist

Instead of Christmas gifts, I added up the money I would have given to friends and family and gave a loan through Kiva.
"We" loaned $475 to Duo Carisma Group, a women's weaving group in Guatemala.

To date, they have repaid 67% of their loan ($320)

At this point, I could withdraw my money or reinvest...I decided to reinvest..

Here is the rest of our portfolio
$175 Mwale Group in Tanzania: a women's coop that sells fish
$25 Solidarios in Mexico: a women's food catering coop ( they only needed $25 more for their loan request to be complete)

We now have $90 in our Kiva Credit. Want to influence our next loan? Make a recommendation by Friday, March 30.

Check out Kiva, loans that change lives. Right now you can get $25 free to make your first loan.

Low and Local

Well...eating low on the food chain has been a less than motivating call to action for the boys. Here is what I have learned....I'm better off not to fight resistance. What can I do to make our efforts...fun, easy, popular?

So here is what we are trying..rather that just sticking to eat low..we have added local. This would include meat and cheese ( important and motivational to the boys)

The good news...talking about including more beans and grains did lead us into the discussion of whoever cooks has more control over what we eat. This led to Nate emailing my Mom for the slumgullion recipe ( a stew he loves..which includes meat)

Luckily my Mom is very responsive...he got the recipe, wrote down the ingredients, made the stew, it was delicious...he was proud of himself and ready to try that sequence again ( something I want to support)

So, if out of this effort, the boys step up and starting cooking a meal or two a week. I will claim success!!

Photo:flickr:spudvalley

Volunteer of the Month

I know I tell others "You should be willing to be interviewed, photographed, videoed. You shouldn't be shy...celebrate your successes..and share them."

It is way easier to say that to others..than do it myself.

I was hesitant to be interviewed as WI League of Conservation Voters Volunteer of the Month. I haven't been active as a volunteer lately. But in the spirit of celebrating what I have done...instead of focusing on what I haven't...here is my interview..

WLCV Member of the Month

photo: flickr silusgrok

Low on the Food Chain

We were hoping we could find one goal for the year....we all liked that "Buy Nothing new" was a year long doable challenge. So far we haven't found one that our whole family can agree to. So just to keep things going...for January we are increasing the number of times we eat lower on the food chain.

Our goal is to eat beans and grains...or total veggie meals at least twice a week. This means no meat or dairy. I have to say this isn't exactly a popular challenge for the whole family. Nate and Ben have some serious concerns..they love meat and cheese. So we'll see how this goes.

So far, I made a big pot of black beans and we had bean and corn soup and a layered tortilla Cassandre ( like Mexican lasagna..though this did have cheese in it.) Mark made dal for tonight ( Indian lential stew)

For each dish we are rating it as a family...and they we will write in the cookbook if we would make it again. No four star meals...yet!


Photo Source: Daniel Gies

The End of the 2011 Challenge

We are officially done with our "Year of Buying Nothing New"
So how'd we do..........

1. It wasn't as hard as we thought.
We found out that most of the things we wanted we could find used. We were worried about Christmas...but Mark asked the boys to make their lists early ( in September) and he enjoyed the challenge of finding books and even video games used ( the big score was Skyrum for Ben)

2. We messed up a couple of times..but not as many times as we thought we would.

-At the beginning of the year, we got carried away and bought Ian's T-shirts.
-I bought some flowers for the garden( the boys felt that qualified as new)
-Mark bought a little rug to go by the cat's litter box ( he couldn't stand the mess)
-Mark bought Nate 3 soccer jerseys that were overstock from last year ( so not really used) Other than that we can't think of any big mistakes.

We did buy the boys shoes and underwear ( so we did make use of the exceptions)

3. Did we save time/money?
In general yes to both. We saved time because there was no point in even going into most stores...which is the same reason we saved money.

However..when we did need to purchase something it took longer...either because we had to research to see if we could find it used...or we had to stop in at a resale shop a couple of times to see if we could find what we wanted.

What did we learn-
-It is easier to buy used than we thought. Even new books and video games ( of concern to the boys) become available very quickly.
- If you let people know you need something..they go out of their way to help. People have things laying around their house that they don't need (that's how I got a new used iron)
-There were multiple times we thought we needed something...and we got over it. Time passed and realized we were doing fine with out it.

So what's next...we are struggling with what our goal(s) should be for 2012...let us know if you have an idea!

What to give?

After reading "Half the Sky"...a book that shares the stories of women around the world what are marginalized because their lives are not valued but also shares stories of hope...what can happen when we invest in women.

I wanted to do something to help...since this is the season of giving, I have made a loan in our family's' honor.

How I chose-
-a woman
-a country I know ( Guatemala)
-a group...the woman is part of a lending group that will support her
-she has children that she wants to send to school

Our loan was $475 which we gave in honor of my mother and stepfather, my sister and her brother and their families, my aunt and uncle and Nate's godmother and her husband.

Here is a link to the description on Kiva

Duo Carisma Group

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

Blessings and Peace

Julie, Mark, Nate and Ben