Trying to live the organic life

I started thinking about the “green” life. I usually eat local, organic produce that I buy at the farmer’s market. I try to buy mainly organic meats, but of course, I fail often. I replaced a few bulbs in my house with new compact fluorescents. I’m getting used to the different glow. I try to be kind to the earth. I don’t try especially hard, but I try.

I picked up a book the other day for my website called the Organic Pregnancy. I thought this would be a good thing to check out since we are thinking of getting pregnant in the next year or so, and hey, I can write it off. It is scary. Like super, really-I-have-to-completely-change-my-life scary. I wash my clothes in Tide. I know it isn’t great for the earth, but I like the way it smells. I clean my glass table with Windex. My housekeeper uses Pine-Sol to clean who knows what, but my house has a just cleaned smell when I return from work. And now all I can think is, oh my god. I am breathing in chemicals. Toxins. I am filling my lungs, my skin, my house with toxins.

I decided I will start buying non-toxic cleaners. When the Tide runs out, I’ll get a natural detergent. These aren’t too hard to do. I’m not going to completely panic, but make small changes. By the time we are ready to conceive, all the really nasty toxins should be out of the house. At least cleaning supplies. We’ll talk cosmetics and my favorite hair products another time.

I was just starting to relax when it hit me. We just moved into new offices at work. I know the company is not using natural, $43 a can paint here. Workers are sanding the new PVC windows behind my desk (yes, I have windows) releasing toxins into my work place. They are painting these windows with more toxic paint. Yesterday, I had these windows open to air out my freshly painted office as per the book. It said something like if you have to sit in an office all day with toxins all around, open your windows as much as possible. So I did. Until they put more toxins on my windows.

Being green isn’t easy. I think I am starting to panic… I think I need a drink of my water that was bottled in the south pacific and flown here. I think I have a long way to go to get to “green.”