Tales From a “GREEN” Minivan

I thought it was fitting today to write about my minivan and why I’ve chosen to change my blog’s name ever so slightly!

For the past 2 years or so, our family has been doing many things to reduce our ecological footprint.  We know that larger families can be a bigger burden on the environment, so we’re really trying to do our part. I ‘m hoping to be able to inspire other families to try some of the things we’ve been doing that work for us.

So today I’m going to talk about the star of my blog and that’s my “Green”2000 Mazda MPV minivan!  There are many days that I think that I’d love to buy a “new to us” van (I’ll never buy new again- I’ll save this story for another day), but in reality it is much “greener”  and much more economical for us to continue using this van for the next little while.

So why is keeping this older van  better for the environment  than buying a new one?

I did some research and thinking on this. With a family our size a minivan is really one of the few options we have for a vehicle if we all travel together.  We are very fortunate to live within walking distance of Andrew’s work therefore only need one vehicle.  Our van is paid for, it’s actually the first time I can remember since my early 20’s that I haven’t had a car payment.  I honestly thought a vehicle payment was one of those things that would always be there.  It’s very good on gas, I looked at the latest models and  fuel efficiency hasn’t really changed much in minivans, which is pretty sad.

So while it would be really nice to get a newer vehicle with some better features and a few less quirks, environmentally it’s much better to keep our van in good mechanical order than buying a new one.  A study in 2004 by Toyota actually revealed that up to 28% of a vehicles carbon monoxide emissions can occur just in the manufacturing and transport to the dealer!

So just as I was happy with our choice of keeping our van a little longer, it dies on our driveway!

It was fortunate that it was a snow day, as I have to drive the kids to school each morning.  We tried boosting it but had no luck, so I had to call a tow truck!  The sad thing is that the mechanic is only 1 block away, but I still had to get it towed!

Did I mention that the South End of SJ was an absolute mess?  Just on my street heavy trucks were stuck, cars spinning, even the tow truck got stuck in my driveway!  The boys thought that  the tow truck was just awesome and glued to the window in awe!

I was fully expecting to get a call that I was going to need an alternator or starter. But we got off easy this time, it was only a battery!  So after the towing fee, battery and labour, it was still less than half of what a monthly van payment would be!

So as I peer out my front window at my “Green” minivan happily back in my driveway, I feel confident in our decision to keep it a little longer.  Just don’t as me about it on a -25 day when the sliding door won’t open!

I must say that I had been relatively fortunate thus far into the school year to have not caught any of the bugs brought home by the kids. Well my luck just ran out!  It was a pretty stressful week and I ignored the signs that I may be coming down with something by throwing myself into work and staying up WAY too late at night.  These choices caught up with me as I lay here in my bed on this non-productive Saturday.

I then started to think more about my own diet and the fact that I’m probably not getting as many of the essential vitamins that I need.  I have a confession to make, I am not a really big fan of fruit.  I can stomach it in smoothies,but grabbing an apple and snacking on it just would not happen. I’m certain that I’m a Supertaster.

Supertasters experience tastes with a far greater intensity than the average person. For me it’s the intense sweetness in fruit that I have trouble with.  To me taking a bite of an apple is like eating a sour candy for the average taster.  Smoothies have helped as I’ll take some of the bite out of the fruit by adding frozen yogurt.  It’s still something I struggle with though as smoothies are not as practical or appealing this time of year for me.

So I started thinking that perhaps I should start taking vitamins.  Earlier in the week I made it my mission to seek out some vitamins and was met by this:

After glaring at the eternal wall of bottles I quickly glazed over and became overwhelmed! Is one brand better than another? Is a multi-vitamin the way to go or should I be taking higher doses of individual vitamins?  Needless to say I left the store more confused and empty handed.

I do eat a lot of vegetables (still working on the greens though), and the rest of my diet is fairly balanced, I just think I may be compromising my nutrient intake by my lack of fruit. So do you take vitamins, and will they help to pick up the slack of what my own diet is lacking?  I’d love to hear your thoughts!

This is how I spent a luxurious 45 minutes today! Working from home is an absolute dream for me, but I often feel guilty taking some time away from the computer during crunch time and deadlines. Today I just needed to recharge my batteries, (not to mention shave my legs for my Yoga class this evening)and I thought a bubble bath would be the perfect way to do that as the little guys are at daycare and the older two are still in school.

Well I have come back from the depths of my bubble filled tub to tell you it worked and I feel totally relaxed and refreshed! Another plus is that my bathroom is now sparkling clean as I could not get into the tub to relax with a huge mess staring me in the face.

Mission accomplished, now back to work!

grocery aisles that is! More about that further below.

Welcome to 2009! Yes I know I’m a little late, but I just didn’t have the right topic to write about until this week!  I’ve decided to make a few changes to my blog and over the next few weeks it’ll have a whole new look and slight name change.  Why change the name? Well as a family we decided to cut back on some travel this year, I will be working a more regular schedule so my love of last minute travel just won’t work this year! :(  That said though I’m so excited to be doing a job that I love so much and I’m looking forward to contributing to CPO in a few new ways!

So it’s that time of year. A fresh new year, the time when we reflect on some goals that we’d like to achieve, or perhaps some things we’d like to change about ourselves. This year though I’m going about it completely differently, you can read about the CPO Team’s Resolutions here —> Resolutions Revealed

I’ll tell you more about the Blog Name Change a little later.  So on to this week’s adventure…grocery shopping!  Just getting there was a task!

This surprise blizzard hit us, the roads were nasty and I could’ve waited until tomorrow, but going kid-free allowed me to browse at my own pace and was well worth heading out in the winter wonderland!

I decided to hit the brand new Sobeys that opened up just a little over a month ago. Going to an unknown store with kids in tow is never a good idea, as I end up having to make a few laps of the store to pick up things I’ve missed on my list the first time around.  Going solo was pure bliss today and since the weather was so bad the place was empty!

With my meal plan list in my hand I knew what I had to pick up for the week as well as some items that were on special this week.  They are having a “Buy 1 Get 2 Free!”sale this week.  Unfortunately the sale started on Friday and this being Sunday, all of these items were sold out until their next shipment  tomorrow morning.  GRRRRR!  Looks like I will have to make a trip back with the boys in tow afterall.  I just wish they had the shopping carts that can accommodate 2 kids!

One thing I plan on doing more this year is reading labels, and trying to make healthier choices.  One of the meals on my meal plan called for some  prepared chicken broth.  I noticed that Cambell’s was on sale for the same price as the store brand, so I grabbed a box of the Campbell’s low sodium choice. Out of curiosity I took a look at it’s label to compare it to the other Campbell’s selections, the regular as well as the Organic Chicken broth.

Now I’m sure you probably will have some trouble with this next photo, but it’s the labels.  The thing that I want to point out is the Sodium content.  For each 2/3 cup (150 ml) serving here’s the results:

Campbell’s Regular-580mg

Campbell’s  Less Salt- 370mg

Campbell’s Organic- 380mg

Now normally I go for price, so my normal choice would be the store brand low salt. As seen here:

It touts 30% less salt than regular, it must be comparable to the Campbell’s right?

No…WRONG!!  The store brand low salt actually contains 670mg of sodium!  They were sold out of the regular (scary thought) so I couldn’t get the Nutrition Facts on that one, I don’t think that I’ll be buying it ever again though.  It just goes to show that reading those labels is a good idea!

After the shock of this revelation, I  kept wandering through the aisles and then found myself chuckling and mumbling to myself after seeing this:

There’s no need to adjust your monitors that TP really is pink! I thought coloured TP was not so great for the “nether region”, the dyes causing problems and what not?  So I went to my friend Google and I actually found an interesting conversation going on in Yahoo! Answers entitled, “Why don’t they make colored toilet paper anymore?”  The last answer totally cracked me up!

I finished off the rest of my shopping and decided to bite the bullet pay the $4 for a 3lb bag of apples since the ones that were Buy 1 Get 2 free were gone.  I really wanted to try out a recipe in my Slow Cooker to have for dessert.  When I arrived home Andrew and Finn were happily waiting for me in the bay window and he helped to scoop up the grocery bags (yes I remember my reusable bags!) and I proceeded to put everything away.  Last week I picked up some of those “Green Bags”meant to keep produce fresher in the fridge as I’d like to start buying bigger quantities of veggies since it’s more economical.  I broke open the  bag of apples I reluctantly and begrudgingly bought and instantly got angry! Take a look:

About 4 of the apples were completely rotten…looks like the boys and I will be making that trek back tomorrow!

Edited to add:

How ironic that this interview with the Globe and Mail would appear in today’s issue online!   I had no idea as I did the interview early last month!  LOL

Globe and Mail-How low will we go?