Earth Day 2009!

Yesterday was Earth Day and we had a fun-filled day planned together! You see, in high school I had an amazing teacher that was a strong Christian and an environmental consultant. She taught at our school and then did consulting for companies helping them make wise decisions about how to make money for themselves and their families while being a good steward of the earth God has given us to live in.

She made a huge impression on me and when I attended Samford University after graduation, I majored in Environmental Biology. I was going to be an environmental consultant too! I took every class I could in that major before I headed to Auburn to finish taking the core classes that would easily transfer. I took crazy things like Microbiology, Botany, Topography, Geology, Zoology, and on and on and on.

When I transferred to Auburn the Environment degrees were under Engineering...um...can you say MATH?!?! And, truthfully my grades weren't all that great in my science courses...that autoclave was my nemesis! I remember going to the dean of the Engineering department and sitting down to see about signing up to major in Civil Engineering (What was I thinking?). He smiled and kindly told me that it would require lots of math, chemistry, and better grades! He suggested a nice degree in English...since I seemed to have amazing grades in that. So, I walked myself right over to the school of Liberal Arts and got myself a degree in Editing...and a minor in Biology (thank you very much!).

But, all that is to say that I have always been involved with being green. I was taught early on that everything we have is a gift from our God and we are stewards. We know we shouldn't waste and fly through carelessly the money God has called us to be stewards of, we know that our bodies are given to us by God to use for His work in this world and we should be a good steward of it...and I believe that the earth is a gift God has given to us (and it declares the glory of God so that no one has an excuse) and we should be good stewards of it as a gardener would care for his garden.

So, we are what pop culture calls "green." We use all compact florescent bulbs in the lamps around our house (the apartment dictates the other bulbs since they own the place!), we recycle, we use those cloth reusable bags when we grocery shop, and we do our best to be good stewards of the beautiful place God created by His Words for us to live in for a while!

We began our day with our devotion time and shared with the girls what WE believed Earth Day was all about. We told them exactly what I just shared above and that we are NOT to worship or focus on the gift more than the Giver! But, we are to be good stewards of anything and everything He has given us by grace. We don't save the earth...we are stewards of the earth. Only God saves!

After we spent some time washing out all our plastics and aluminum cans, we headed over to the Hobgood Recycling center. We always recycle these things at our apartment, but I wanted to the girls to see where we can take it and have someone teach us a little more about recycling. We got to sort the things we brought and then listened to what would happen after it left this center. It was really good for the girls...and for me too! This center recycles much more than our apartment does...so we will be bringing more here!

My "green" girls!

Of course, we played at the park on this beautiful day...considering I locked my keys in the car and Jay had to come and bring another key! Always an adventure! But, if you have to get stranded somewhere, a park on a gorgeous day is the place to do it!

We left from there with Dad and took the picnic we had prepared to Woodstock City Park for a free concert and lots of fun activities at their first annual Earth Day celebration! It was such a nice day and having lunch outside listening to live music was really fun!

They had lots of fun activities for the kids to do while they focused on ways to help animals and nature. Virginia works on spreading peanut butter on pine cones for a natural bird feeder!

After the peanut butter they dipped and covered them in birdseed.

They even got to decorate little bags to take the bird feeders home in so they would make a mess!

Next, we headed over to make a homemade chia pet! This was such a great idea! First they took old pantyhose that were cute below the knee. Then, they had little paper cups with the bottom cut out to make a funnel to dump the grass seed into the pantyhose.

They tied off the pantyhose and let the kids add cute accessories to make animals! Isn't this so cute? I have no idea what it is...but its adorable!

Virginia made an elephant! Talk about cutie patootie! We have to get rid of them because they are grass seed...and she is allergic to grass...I didn't even think about it! But, she did fine.

There were jumpy things to enjoy!

My pretty girls in front of the fountain.

What beauties!

We headed home to get some school work accomplished that afternoon. But, first we hung our bird feeders in the trees right next to our apartment!

We hope the birds and squirrels enjoy an Earth Day treat! We sure had a blast and even went to see the movie Earth together late that afternoon...but it was a little too intense for Anli. There were several scenes of baby animals being killed...I couldn't believe it...it's by Disney and rated G. We were shocked and had to leave because Anli's little heart was breaking. She asked if we could leave...and believe me...I wanted to also. They kindly gave us our money back and enjoyed a nice night at AWANA.

What a wonderful Earth Day! Think of small ways you can be a better steward of the gifts God has given you. Most importantly...give all glory to the Giver of all good things!