Back to school supplies are expensive. If you have a child going back to school, you’ve probably received the dreaded laundry list of pens, markers, notebooks and tissues that your student must bring with them. These plastic and paper products waste money, and create an abundance of unnecessary waste. Save money and the environment with these practical earth-friendly back to school supplies.

Papermate makes recycled pencils that are inexpensive ($4.39 for 48 pencils) and made of 100% recycled materials. Even the lead is recycled! Skip the daily brown bag lunch, and send your child to school with a stylish, reusable lunchbox. These lunchboxes are typically pricier, but the rewards to the environment are priceless. Ecojot makes a variety of stylish notebooks made from 100% post-consumer materials, so your little student will be happy to tote around an eco-conscious notebook. There are also a variety of tissue companies that use at least a percentage of post consumer materials when manufacturing their tissues and cardboard boxes. Using supplies that are good for the Earth doesn’t have to be boring. These products create adorable back to school supplies your student will love to carry around this fall.

It’s hot out. However, if you’re environmentally conscious and want to avoid cranking up the air conditioner, there are ways to stay cool AND save energy. Take advantage of cooler temperatures during the morning and evening hours, and use a fan during these times. Invest in heavy, dark shaded drapes or blinds in your home and keep them closed to block the sunrays from beating heat into your home.

Cook smarter during the hot summer months, and grill meals outdoors, to avoid turning up the oven and heating up your home. This will save energy and keep your home cooler. When spring approaches, be sure your windows are updated, and free of any leaks so heat won’t enter your home. Lastly, don’t use your dryer during the summer and hang clothes out to dry. Not only will they smell great, you won’t create unnecessary, “artificial” heat in your home. It’s easy to turn on the air conditioner and enjoy a cool home, but it is terrible for the environment. Beat the heat this summer, save energy, and help the environment with these tips for staying cool.

Global warming and other environmental hazards have everyone looking for ways to minimize their carbon footprint and take better care of the Earth. The inherent creative nature of the human race allows many inventors to discover exciting ways to save the environment. While solar powered cars and wind turbines have made giant leaps in the way of green inventions, here are a few simple and creative green inventions.

For example, many people are taking advantage of naturally renewable bamboo for flooring and other home needs. Inventors are now using bamboo to build many environmentally friendly laptops! Another popular green invention is the bamboo toothbrush that minimizes the use of non-renewable and harmful plastic. There is also a water-powered alarm clock that can run for six to eight weeks on nothing but water and a splash of lemon juice – no joke!  Scientists are even working on a solar powered cell phone! It’s easy to get excited about the environment with these ingenious inventions. If you’re working on improving your personal environmental policies, take example from these inventions, and get creative.

Visiting a friend down the street the other day opened my eyes to something I had never thought about before; flies. More specifically was why did they have such a terrible problem with flies and I had seen so few at my house? When I told my hosts that I didn’t have the same issue they were floored! It seems that they have been battling these little pests since late spring and it was only getting worse. It was a mystery and I wanted to see if I could discover what was going on.

My first guess was it was a chemical that our bug company uses so I gave them a call. They were pretty sure that the organic chemical they used would not keep flies away like that so I was searching again. Then I found it; basil! Believe it or not, houseflies hate the smell of basil and avoid it like the plague. We grow tomatoes and I plant basil as a companion plant to keep as many bugs off of the tomatoes as possible because there are a lot of bugs that don’t like the smell either. So now you know, plant basil around your house or keep a potted plant or two in your home to keep the flies away. I just took one over to my neighbor!

When I married I had no idea that I had married into a family of hoarders because they called themselves “collectors”. The problem is that they collect everything! I am lucky because my spouse and one sister see this and know it is a problem. They both struggle against the compulsion to hoard some things but being aware and having each other to talk to about it has been a life and marriage saving activity. The other sister and brother as well as mother and step-father are another story.

When my mother-in-law came to our home and realized we had given away a chair, I thought she was going to cry. She asked my wife why she wasn’t called first because she would have taken the chair even though we know she has no where to put it. We just don’t tell her about anything that we throw away because she would be aghast to know the cards and letters have been recycled as well as baby clothes, etc. We simply tell her that they are stored in the shed out back as it tends to make her physically ill if we tell her we have thrown them out. I hope she never figures out that our little shed has no way of holding everything we have told her is out there.

I love homemade foods. I love homemade cake and pizza. Homemade soup is one of my favorites. But my favorite of all is homemade bread. I should say dough because that is the more accurate. With homemade dough you can make pies, pizza, and many others things; bread included. Bread is something that you never really stop and realize how much you eat of it. I didn’t realize that my family eats at least a loaf a day. We eat sandwiches in our lunch. We use it for dipping in our soup or pasta. We use it in stuffing and meatloaf. My family eats a very large amount of bread so we make a lot of it to accommodate our taste buds..

That’s one reason we have lost our taste for store bought bread. Since we can make our own dough now, we make homemade bread all of the time and it is truly delicious. The kind we make still has the soft inside but the crust is not soft like store bought bread. Our homemade bread has a very crisp, almost crunchy, crust that really adds some enjoyment to simple sandwiches. Homemade foods really are better, especially bread.

My mother has always been the type that says she can cook anything they serve at a restaurant. The best part about that statement is she can back it up! Her cooking is delicious and much better for you than going out to eat at most restaurants. Another great thing is that she has proven feeding a family of five is it is cheaper.

Ten dollars can feed one person at a restaurant. At mother’s house, ten dollars can still feed the family and with plenty of leftovers. The ingredients just aren’t that expensive. Either that or my mother is very resourceful plus she does grow some of her own herbs and vegetables so I like to think it’s both. And the way the food tastes makes up for any other flaws. Flaws would be how the food looks. I don’t really think this is a flaw because it always looks homemade.

Another thing is that home cooking is much better for you than restaurant food. At home the cook has time prepare the meal with ingredients that improve the flavor. At a restaurant they just throw tons of butter and salt to make it taste wonderful. And I would also like to point out that I never eat as much bread as I do at a restaurant. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

My wife and I recently saw Food, Inc., a documentary by Robert Kenner. We were stunned to find out the lengths to which the public is kept in the dark about the food we eat. This is an even more important issue given that we are in a national obesity crisis.

One thing that I found particularly disturbing was the ways that food companies like Tyson, Perdue and Smithfield keep the farmers under their thumb. The farmers must continually buy expensive new equipment or face termination of their contracts with the companies. This keeps them heavily and constantly in debt.

Since most people love white meat, the food companies have genetically modified chicken so they have bigger breasts. This is achieved by injecting them with hormones. Naturally these hormones make it into our bodies, causing any number of health problems for us.

Our beef has also been tainted because cows have been taught to eat corn feed instead of grass. This deprives the beef of the natural nutrients that grass fed cows have long provided. In turn, it affects our bodies in a negative way.

What we took from the film was the need to know what is in our food. We cannot assume that our best interests are being looked after. Knowledge is the best weapon.

Okay, call me Scrooge but I don’t even want to start talking about Christmas until at least Halloween is over and really not until Thanksgiving dinner has had a chance to get cool on the table. There are too many holidays back to back in the fall and now Christmas wants to make an end round and completely smother Halloween and Thanksgiving! It’s not right. Let the kids have their day of dressing up and spooking as many people as they can and gathering up candy, staying up late and getting sick first. Let the grown ups visit with family and friends before we have to get crazed with guilt and buy things we know as can’t afford and that will never be used or re-gifted to someone else during the coming year.

And what happen to the “real” meaning of Christmas? You know, the “good will on earth, peace to all men”. I rarely see anything alluding to being good to your neighbors or not laying off anyone this year; now that would be a great Christmas gift! This year we only have one ask for Christmas; a job for my spouse. Once that happens we can go out and shop and pass on the good fortune. (I hope Santa is listening)

Hallelujah! Amen Brother! Finally a study showing what most Americans who know anyone that is gay already knows; you cannot convert a gay person into being a heterosexual. Please forgive my entrance into the subject as it is not meant to be snide or sacrilegious. It’s time we realize that just because we don’t understand something or fear it doesn’t make it wrong or unacceptable.

Growing up with a great uncle that was gay as well as another uncle and several cousins had an impact on me as I saw so many people turn against people who happen to be born gay. No one in his right mind, especially back in the 60’s and 70’s, would ever have chosen to be homosexual. To make that choice back then, and now in some places, would mean potentially loosing your family, your church and many of your friends. It was great to be raised in a family that championed love over everything else and I was taught God is love above all things. Maybe people who are different than us were placed in this world to see how the rest of us would treat them? I tend to think it is us, those of us who proclaim love and forgiveness as our mantras, who will be judged far more severely in the end for we choose to love or hate; people who are gay didn’t get a choice.