{ everyday is earth day }

Love this print from EcoJot. Here are some of my Earth Day ideas for families that I shared last year. We'll be doing some of these again all week long but its good to remind ourselves that everyday is earth day.

print above via EcoJot

{ earth week }

Next week's learning theme at home is Earth Week in celebration of Earth Day! Here's what we're going to do to celebrate, feel free to join in!

1) Pick up trash along a mile of the road we live on.
2) Create in the Happy Earth Day Coloring Book. Download here.
3) Read earth themed books from Library.
4) Watch Wall-E for family movie night.
5) Take a field trip to the dump & recycling center.
6) Make pine cone bird feeders.
7) Enjoy a gift of new little eco jot notebooks & colored pencils to tote along on a family hike.
8) A no-waste picnic in the yard this weekend.
9) Make Earth Day bars and these carrot snacks.
10) And possibly take an impromptu road trip to one of our favorite National Parks.
11) Sign this earth day pledge.

{ the garden }

Happy Earth Day everyone! I spent the past weekend and free time this week working on our garden and getting the chicken coop ready! Who-hoo! I am so excited! I've been really inspired by this nationwide revived approach to the {victory gardens} concept. Check out this post too. And if you need even more inspiration to start your own, check out this article about 10 Ways Gardening can help you through a recession and reasons why gardening is great exercise.

In addition to planting a vegetable garden this spring, in honor of earth day we also put up a clothesline and I am giving up using paper towels (why does this seem harder than it should be?) We are also doing some trail work this week and cleaning up some trash along one of our bike routes. What are you doing in celebration of Earth Day?

Speaking of the recession, I've joined in a voluntary {spending hiatus} for the remainder of 2009 at Mostly Mod. More on this soon - what my exceptions will be (handmade products, birthday gifts that I can't make, garden supplies, and a few things on our list of things to buy this year - eg. our landscaping project and belay device for our home climbing wall and items that help organize and simplify our lives.) So there won't be NO spending going on, but there will be totally mindful consumption and LESS spending overall and my Dave Ramsey envelope system wallet. I need to buckle down if we are going to meet our lofty saving and debt payoff goals and have our pot of travel funds this year. Anyone want to join in?

Adorable garden illustration via My Tiny Plot.