Let me just start by saying, this is all Oprah’s fault. I was watching her show today as a celebration of Earth Day (Happy Earth Day by-the-way!) and that is how all of this started. Well, actually, I have been thinking about how to eliminate plastic for a while now and it has been bothering me that I have Noah drinking from plastic all the time. I have been pondering and pondering about SIGG bottles for quite sometime now. So, Julia Roberts is on Oprah today, looking fabulous and ECO friendly. She starts talking about how it is fine and dandy to say that you are going to reuse plastic water bottles we buy from the store, but the bottles are made for one use. After we fill them up again, the chemicals in the plastic starts coming out of the plastic and going into our water. I was not aware of this. If the number on the water bottle is under 5, chemical will be released into the water if the bottle is reused. I start flipping out a little because Noah has been sipping from a plastic water bottle that we have been reusing for many months. So I bought a SIGG bottle today. It was quite premeditated, I have to say. I went to a local store in Cochrane (NOT a chain, and owned by a cool Mom. Her four year old son worked quite hard to sell us the bottle!… oh wait, is that considered child labor??

I was talking to Tom about this tonight. This was a difficult situation for me. I have found the more we get into our journey of not buying, the more other issues pop up. I have become a lot more concerned about our environment, and fair trade. I have also really become concerned about what is going into our bodies (household cleaners, plastics, organic food). So it seems that when changing your lifestyle as a whole and learning more and more, there are certain needs that pop up for health reasons. I hope that doesn’t sound like a sour excuse! To be honest though, I don’t feel too bad buying it.

For more info about SIGG water bottles go to: http://www.sigg.ch/

This weekend we finally watched the documentary What Would Jesus Buy about Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping. It was made by Morgan Spurlock who made Super Size Me and the 30-Days series. Spurlock does an amazing job of blending honest storytelling with humor, to educate the masses about critical issues. In WWJB Spurlock follows around Rev. Billy and “his church” as they tour across the country in the days leading up to Christmas, sharing the gospel of a consumerism free Christmas.

It is a very interesting movie and Malora and I both really enjoyed it. It is intriguing to watch Billy and the choir interact together and see the beautifully odd community they have created. They are not shy about their message going everywhere from the headquarters of Wal-Mart to the main street of Disneyland. The reverend Billy is a performance artist acting the part of a street corner evangelist denouncing the evils of consumerism and the coming “Shopocaplypse”, and the choir that joins sings gospel songs about not shopping. Though uncomfortably on the edge of being considered blasphemous (not so much against Jesus more against pentecostal preachers), I believe that everyone should watch this film.

I enjoyed the cameos by Jim Wallis and Judith Levine. The actual information about consumerism is well communicated and deeply convicting. The story of the tour adds flavor and heart to the message of the movie. If you have a chance to watch this film…do it. You will not be let down, and beware of the Shopocaplypse.

Tom’s been gone for almost a week in Chicago and Arizona. I have been holding down the fort (and feeding the alpacas- I am really turning into a farm girl. In fact, I was wearing running shoes and a skirt outside today and I felt like I was really home, home on the range!) My mom came and stayed with NJ and I for a few days and we said good-bye to her today. We were feeling rather melancholy this afternoon all by our lonesomes (Noah said “mommy we don’t have any friends.”) So I was trying to think of something fun to do together to cheer ourselves up. In the past, (say December 31 for example) I may of packed us up into the car and headed out for some retail therapy. But not this year. We headed into Cochrane and went to the river instead. It was the most beautiful day. We did a little pretend fishing, throwing rocks and got good and mucky. We ended the afternoon off with a Bubble gum ice cream cone from MacKay’s Ice Cream Parlor for NJ and watched some hang gliders flying in the sky. It was just what I needed. I read this book called “serve God Save the Planet” By Matthew Sleeth a while back and he said you need to be out in nature and not see anything man made for some peace in your life (I am paraphrasing). I just looked out across the river into the little forest and felt a deep peace from our creator. All that to say, the river is so much better for your soul than the mall!

I have been thinking a lot about buying products that are FAIR TRADE APPROVED. Fair trade is a commitment to social justice in which employees and farmers are treated and paid fairly, sustainable environmental practices are followed and long-term trade relationships are fostered(definition from www.bctheorganicway.com). I believe that we all have a responsibility to find out where the products we purchase are coming from. Everything seems to be imported from China, one of the worlds worst human rights violators. How was that cute little sweater made, who made it, and at what cost? I am starting to think about how not buying is going to influence our family even after this year is over (and it is FAR from over!) Before now, I really have not cared much, or even really thought about, where the products I buy are coming from. But, my demand for cheap things is having a negative influence on the rest of the world. It is influencing people by not paying them what they deserve and making them work in horrible conditions, even having children make the things that I can just not live without. My demand is also influencing the environment by having to ship all of my cheap things across the world, package them in plastics, and then, when I get tired of them, adding the waste into a landfill. I want to make informed decisions when I make a purchase by checking out which companies are making fair trade a priority in their business.

As a side note, my new favorite kind of tea is Bengal Spice which is 100% natural and a fair trade tea. It also tastes really good.