Happy Earth Day!

It's such a warm and sunny day today! A great day for getting outside and being on the Earth.

Here are some things we are doing to be kind to our planet:

We have put our order in for a car from Japan. It's a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado diesel - either a 1991 or 1992 model - so we can start using biodiesel fuel! I'm so excited about it. They drive on the other side of the road over there so the steering wheel will be on the right, which I hear doesn't take long to get used to. I'm looking forward to feeling good about driving a car.

I went to Home Depot today and bought a little push mower so I can mow the grass Leave it to Beaver style. I did the front and the back and I am in love with this thing! No noise, no polution, no cord, no sprained wrist trying to start it up. It was easy, and the kids helped. I recommend getting one if you have a small enough yard that needs mowing. I had read that they get stuck up on small twigs, and at first I found the same thing until I realized that if you keep walking at a quick and steady pace it goes over just about anything. Mine is only the 14" wide style which is plenty big enough to get the job done while remaining light enough to pick up with one hand.

Since we are getting some sunny days now I make sure we spend as much time as we can out in the yard. This afternoon Jackson and Frances ran around in the grass, watering our new tree, and generally being silly. Until Jackson stepped on a dead yellow jacket and got stung! Poor kid howled for about 1/2 hour until the Advil kicked in and now he's lounging dreamily on our bed with his feet up on a big pillow. It was an unfortuate way to get back to nature.

Darren and I are going to buy a tent and some sleeping bags so we can camp out in the yard this summer - once the fence is up, that is. We don't need any stray dogs and cats waking us up in the middle of the night. Maybe if we can get the hang of sleeping outside we will even try it away from home some time. Are there camping sites with hi-speed internet access? ;-)