Some of you may remember The little Green Project last March.  If not click here, scroll down, and read through all of the March little Green Project posts!

I had a blast last year reading through all of the posts YOU linked up sharing YOUR little Green Projects.

This year, The little Green Project returns!  Only this time, we’ll just have one special day to link up our Green Projects:  Wednesday, March 17.  What better day to share our little Green Projects than St. Patrick’s Day, huh?

So what is The little Green Project?  It’s a time for you to share ANYTHING at all that you’re doing that is GREEN.

It may be a way you’re saving green (penny pincher ideas!), going green (save the earth!), earning extra green (entrepreneurs unite!), eating more greens (Bring on the broccoli!), using your green thumb (woohoo gardeners!), crafting something green (lime colored scarf anyone?)…anything you want to blog about that is in any way related to the color GREEN.

Tuesday night (the 16th) I’ll publish my little Green Project post along with a Mr. Linky for all of you to link up your little Green Project posts!  Link up more than one  if you want!  It’s a great opportunity for us all to share our GREEN ideas!  Then on March 17, we can all click around on all the posts, reading about every one’s little Green Projects!

Any questions?  Leave a comment here and let me know!  Any good little Green ideas?  Oh yeah…you know you have lots of good ideas!

Be ready to share them next week!

Don’t have a blog?  Plan on leaving your wonderful little Green Project ideas in the comment section!

Okay, wow.  After typing the word GREEN about 37 times in this blog  post, suddenly it doesn’t look like it’s spelled right anymore.  Anybody else ever do that?  Did I spell green right?  Wow.

(More little Green Project links here.) 

Here’s what I learned this week:  Going green goes way beyond my little understanding of green-ness.  I’ve understood going green in the way of eating organic foods and using eco-friendly cleaners.  And composting.  And recycling. 

But recently my cousin Michael introduced me to a new concept in going green by showing me his amazing new website, Eco Smart Insurance.   READ THIS:

“EcoSmartInsurance.com is the internet’s first site dedicated to recognizing and promoting ‘green’ auto insurance providers in the United States.  Why auto insurance?  First, almost everyone has to insure their cars.  So make sure you pay your premium to an environmentally sound insurance corporation. 
 
Secondly, insurance companies are historically big and wasteful.  However, a good many of the nation’s largest auto insurers are taking big steps to cut down on the waste and give policy holders eco-smart options.  Some of these options include paperless billing, hybrid-fuel corporate vehicle fleets, partnerships with carbon credit providers and other environmental groups, and other efforts to reduce their CO2 footprint. 
 
Using a good, better, best scale EcoSmartInsurance.com users can see if their current auto insurance provider excels in green business practices.  If not, they can use the site to make the switch to a more eco-conscious provider.  Who knows, going green may even save you some green.” 

I LOVE this idea.  Why shouldn’t all the businesses around us get on the “going green” bandwagon?  Slowly but surely, maybe most of them will.  I love how EcoSmartInsurance.com makes it easy to find the auto insurance that agrees with my green lifestyle.

AS A WAY OF CELEBRATING our final week of The little Green Project…Michael, owner of EcoSmartInsurance.com is offering one of my readers a $25 Gift Certificate to gaiam.com (which oh my goodness, you will want to win because they have SO MANY FUN ”green” items!!)!

To be eligible to win the $25 Gaiam Gift Certificate…go check out the EcoSmartInsurance website.  Then come back and leave a comment telling us what you learned about YOUR current auto insurance.  Is your auto insurance eco-friendly?  (Ooh, I’m excited to report that our auto insurance gets a GOLD thumbs up…woohoo!)

We do our best to conserve water around here.  Partly because we know it’s the right thing to do for the earth…and partly because it saves money on our water bill.

We’ve taught the boys to turn off the water while they’re brushing their teeth.  We always have a full load of dishes in the dishwasher when we run it (crammed full…I might add).  When I wash pots and pans by hand, I only put a little water with soap in the sink…really it doesn’t take very much. 

However…showers around here have been a problem.

Three out of four boys can take a shower on their own now.  (hoo-rah!)  We usually say something like, “Okay guys go get your showers real quick!” 

Do you know what telling our boys to so something “real quick” looks like?  It looks like…it’s kinda like…well…it’s slow.

There are distractions and fun things and ”I can’t find any clean socks in my drawer” all along the way to take a shower.  Then, once one of them is in the soothing warm water…all thoughts of doing anything ”real quick” that were remaining go…down the drain.

It can take them sometimes three or four times as long as it takes me and it is my personal opinion that the mama’s shower should be the one that logistically takes the longest.

Is it just my boys?  Do little girls do this too?

We finally made the “taking of the shower” routine into a race against the clock.  ANYTHING that is timed or “competitive” usually works for our kids. 

They now set a watch timer right before they hop into the shower and then see if they have “broken their shortest shower record” as soon as they hop out. 

This little plan is working so well for us…and I’m pretty sure the boys are still getting clean. 

Have you found any tricks to help your family learn to save water?  My boys We would all love to hear about it. 
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How about another little Green Project you have up your sleeve?  Blog about anything you have going on or want to try that has to do with saving green, going green, making extra green, eating extra greens…anything at all that has anything at all to do with the color green!  Link up here with us so that we can read about your little Green Project!

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It’s almost time to plant our garden!

Just as soon as the ground thaws out long enough to be tilled. 

Just when it seemed that spring was coming to Nebraska…we woke up to days and days worth of freezing cold weather again.   

Oh Sunshine…I need you.  Where did you go?  Where are you now?

Okay…enough whining (hopefully).  Some day soon it will be so hot I won’t even want to turn on the oven to make brownies.  (yeah, right)

So, just pretending that I really will be able to get my hands into some soil soon…here’s the garden plan we drew up.  We try to rotate our crops each year.  By the way…I have several different garden spots.  We started with one when we first moved here…but every year we keep tilling up more because we just want more…MORE!   We’re saving a little bit of yard for soccer playing though.  Aren’t we nice?

(Well…you know my  name is Simon…
and the things I draw come true…) 
(PLEASE tell me you remember that song!!  Or am I just that old?)

So, I can’t draw as well as Simon…but I did my best.  (Yeah, it’s pitiful, I know.)

And, obviously I didn’t take the time to draw this to scale.  There’s actually a good bit of yard between “onions” and “tomatoes” that is our official soccer playing field.  In the picture I drew, it looks like I’d have to shimmy sideways through that area to get through.

Someday when things are green and lovely (but before the weeds have grown in) I’ll take you on a tour of our yard.  Until then, you get to see my little garden drawing. 

We’re also hoping to plant a bunch of sweet corn with a friend who has a larger garden area…we’ll see if that works out!

Sooooo, are any of you planting a garden this year??  What are you planting? 
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Let’s see YOUR little Green Projects this week!  Working on going green, saving green, eating something green, making some extra green….ANYTHING green?  Blog about your little Green Project then come link up with us here! 

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When I announced the little Green Project in this post…Sarah admitted,

“Whenever I think of green in March I think of Green shakes at McDonalds. (Horrible I know, but they are so yummy!)”

I haven’t had one of those in forever, in fact I forgot they existed.  BUT, since she brought it up, that’s all I’ve been able to think about.  Mmmm!  Shamrock Shakes.

SO, I did what I MUST.  I tried to re-create a minty milkshake.  They aren’t the healthiest things on the planet…but because I knew the ingredients in them I KNOW they’re healthier than the McD’s version.

And because I made them myself, I know they’re less expensive than the McD’s version, so I saved some green.

Okay, so my milkshake isn’t green.  I tried to find some fresh mint, but I wasn’t successful.  I had to use mint extract instead.

Hey, if you want to add green food coloring…I’ll look the other way. 

Instead, I put a green straw in mine and took a picture of it on my green tea towel. 

We all found this milkshake to be SO refreshing and a very fun treat (that I’ll probably make once a year…sometime in March.)  My men love it when I experiment with recipes for you.  :)

March Minty Milkshake (Oh how I love coming up with ridiculous recipe titles)

3 cups vanilla ice cream (unless you’re using homemade, I recommend Breyer’s ice cream since at least it uses real ingredients)
1 cup whole milk
1 1/2 t. pure mint extract

Mix all ingredients well in a blender.  Makes 4 one cup servings.

So that was my fun little Green Project this week.  What fun little Green Project did YOU come up with to share? 

Blog about anything green…saving green, eating greens, crafts that are green, ANYTHING you want to that has any possible thing relating to the color green.  Link up with us here so that we can come read about YOUR little Green Project!

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Spring is coming…I can smell it.  (Okay, right now sometimes I just smell icicles…but it’s almost March so that must mean something, right?)

So when I think of March…I think of GREEN.  Even though St. Patrick’s day doesn’t really cause me to plan a party or anything.  And I certainly would never pinch you if you weren’t wearing green on March 17. 

But I’m thinking in shades of green nonetheless.

So…I was kinda hoping you’d start thinking green too.

Think of all the ways you’re trying to “Go Green” (Yay for recycling!).  And all the ways you try to “Eat More Greens” (Woohoo, spinach inside a slushie!).  And all the other fun foods you make that are green (Avodaco anyone?). 

Or…maybe think of some great ways you are “Saving Some Green” (all you frugal zealots out there).  How about a great way you are “Earning Some Green“?

OR…if none of those green ideas make you want to break out in song…maybe thinking about your latest scrapbook page that is all different shades of green excites you and you’d like to share it.  Or maybe another craft project you made that is green?

If all else fails…perhaps you have some favorite green socks?

Whatever green things are on your mind…I’m hoping you’ll join the fun and take part in…

The little Green Project.

Each Saturday during the month of March…we can all blog about and share our little Green Projects. 

So…start thinking in shades of green.

Recipes, going green tips, saving or making money tips, crafting ideas….anything and everything that is…green.

Blog about it, then post up here with Mr. Linky every Saturday in March so we can all read about your green ideas.

What do you think?  Can you come up with some little Green Projects in March?