I guess we're Green? Kinda? No? A liitle? Ok.

Earlier this week two new and fantastic boxes arrived on our doorstep. One big box, one little box. The little box contained these, my big summer "splurge"/early Mother's Day gift/Memorial Day gift/Arbor day gift/early birthday gift... the justifications are endless! Haha! But really, I found them on ebay for a GREEEAT price, and I thought "one little bid, how harmless could that be?" But really, I love these shoes and they make my feet look feminine (I'm used to wearing my much-loved but clunky Dansko clogs and Doc Marten maryjanes). Plus, I've always wanted a pair of red shoes. I wish I could take a photo of my feet proudly dawning their ruby slippers, but our camera is out of commission. So check out the link if you want to see 'em (and if you want to drool and make your husband break into a cold sweat over the budget).

Oh wait... this post was supposed to be about the BIG box I received. Well, since Job and I do not have a washer and dryer in our apartment (or hookups), we have been investigating the Wonder Wash. It's a small, hand-crank manual washer that washes small loads of clothing without the need for electricity or large amounts of water. We discovered it in our quest for conventional washing machine alternatives. Last week when I was perusing for my pretty red shoes on ebay, I thought I'd see if any Wonder Washes were on auction. I found ONE, put in a low bid thinking I'd get outbid, but was delighted to discover that we were the winners! Wahoo! Hence, the arrival of our Wonder Wash.

Yesterday I did our first load, and the W.W. proved to be simple enough to use! The wash, rinse and hang-up time was probably the equivalent of 15 uninterrupted minutes (my time was, of course, interrupted by my little Mushball). Our "dryer" is a wood clothes rack I set up in the tub.

Let me just say that even though doing my family's wash in the W.W. will take a bit more physical energy and time, it was VERY liberating to be able to do laundry in my own home. For the past year I've tried just about everything. I've tried doing laundry in the on-site facility here at our apartment complex. But the prices are remarkably STEEP and the machines are remarkably sub-par and inefficient. Our parents helped us out with our laundry by letting us do wash at their homes or just doing it for us altogether (blush). A generous friend of ours even gave us a spare key to her house to let us do laundry whenever we wanted. The older V. got, however, the more difficult it was to haul her AND 3 loads of laundry around and sit and for hours on end in someone else's home, waiting for clothes to dry.

As I was cranking away at the laundry yesterday, I occurred to me how unintentionally "green" we are. We do it because it's cheaper and because there's a bit of a thrill to doing things unconventionally, thinking "outside of the box" sometimes (I take after my dad in that regard). Granted, I could be "greener" and I lot more environmentally conscious; buying a "Wonder Wash" and a clothes rack doesn't exactly make me Al Gore. But it makes me think more about being a better steward of, well, everything that God has given me. Instead of being ungrateful for our apartment and pushing my husband to buy a house with a washer and dryer, "thinking green" allows me to use the resources I have at hand. To think, we almost spent 6 figures just for a washer and dryer! That would have been the most expensive laundry ever.

So lately I've been challenged in my thinking and my spending (apart from my new shoes... *eek* I sound like such a darn hypocrite). How can I spend less and use what resources I have? Make coffee and muffins at home instead of going out to a coffee shop. It's not only cheaper, but I get a dozen muffins to share with friends instead of buying something for myself. Again, these are only small things, but they're starting points for me.