My husband has always been into green living, but quite frankly, it wasn't really a priority for me as a busy mom, until this year. I think I suddenly realized that we could make small, simple changes as a family, without sacrificing our lifestyle. So we made it our New Year's resolution as a family to be a little greener. We're into the fourth month of the year and actually improving our lifestyle, saving money, and teaching our kids good values.

In many ways, we are the typical busy, overscheduled family. Too often, we have taken the easy route because we're tired (jump in the car, buy that pre-packaged dinner after soccer practice, throw away all that food that went bad in the fridge). This year, though, we are looking for very simple, easy ways to have an impact, and to raise our children with an environmental conscience. The kids are the perfect ages for it (7 and 10).

Here are 20 simple green things we are doing together as a family:

1. Walking to work one day of the week (even on the cold days in winter).
   We walk either as a family, or I walk with my best friend (the Wondertime art director who is also my neighbor and we get to work in exercise and girl talk).

2. HUGE effort to buy locally (food).
   

   As a foodie/cookbook author and a mom, I am also trying to focus on reducing our family's food waste. My daughter went to Nature's classroom and had to weigh the food left on her plate at the end of the meal and it was very eye-opening for her. She came home and we realized just how many leftovers in our house go down the garbage disposal. I'm also trying to buy local foods and teach my kids about where food comes from (that strawberry came all the way from Mexico — on a truck!). We are baking and cooking from scratch a little bit more, too (making our own bread instead of getting in the car and driving to the store, and I even organized a big bread baking seminar at my daughter's school to inspire other families).

   Note: This is a book that got me thinking about eating locally more seriously Animal, Vegetable, Miracle – A Year of Food Life

3. Fly Less/Use Less Fuel.
   

   Instead of taking two vacations a year, each one to a warm climate and on an airplane, we are going on only one airplane vacation and the other staying closer to home because of the fuel and the impact of planes on the environment.

   In a few weeks, we are going with friends to the Grand Canyon (we're renting a Prius instead of an RV, as we dreamed of doing. Our friends are still renting the RV so it should be funny to see our two families in very different vehicles traveling in tandem!
4. Idle the car less.
   

   We are trying to use less gas by not idling the car. There are many parents and teachers talking about it at drop off at my daughter's school (it's in the newsletter almost every week!). I am guilty of idling because I am freezing in the cold mornings and want to warm up the car before I get in it. My 11-year-old is constantly reminding me to bundle up and turn off the car engine...I still need to find a solution for this.
   This is a tough one for me!

5. Recycle as much as we can.
   

   My 7-year-old daughter Maisie draws and draws and draws and she asked my husband to make two boxes by the craft area, one for reusing and one for recycling. We also throw in toilet paper tubes, glass and plastic bottles, and other recylables. This junk bin has really inspired her creativity.

6. Save on heating bills.
   

   We bought a woodstove and we are saving on heating bills. Plus, it's a great family activity to sit around the fire and play cards at night. We turn the thermostat down and burn more local wood and biobricks (my husband read about these lightweight bricks made of wood chips and carbon neutral; and they are easy to light, even for me!). We cut our heating bills in half.

7. No more disposable bags.
   

   We finally stopped using disposable bags for our grocery shopping trips and picked up some canvas reusable bags at Stop and Shop and keep them in the car.

   Note: Here are some reusable shopping tote ideas.

8. We replaced a leaky old toilet with a new water efficient toilet.

9. The girls and I use reusable lunch box containers and pack lunches almost everyday.
   

   I still have take out lunches about 3 times a week, and notice all the excess packaging. This is another one I'm working on...

10. We invested in some compact fluorescent light bulbs.
    They're dimmer (to me) but they save lots of electricity (according to my husband).

11. We are big water drinkers so instead of buying all those plastic water bottles, we installed a water filter in our sink.
    

    The kids pack their own "water bottles" for soccer and school. Speaking of the water cooler, I brought into the office a nice tea cup from home and am trying to use that instead of those very-conveniently-placed styrofoam cups.

12. Plan weekly meals.
    

    I am really trying to plan weekly meals, then write the shopping list, so we only make one trip to the store a week (again, saving on gas).
    

    I have a grocery list/menu plan I keep on my computer that's organized by store aisle – created by my husband!

13. Turn out the lights!
    

    Such a basic thing to do. My mom used to always say when we were kids "The house is lit up like a Christmas Tree! Turn off the lights!" I'm now saying the same thing to our girls.

14. I'm really trying to buy less stuff and think before I make yet another trip to go shopping.
    

    Every weekend, I used to say "I need to go get storage boxes, I need to go get a new outfit." I think I was in a habit of shopping for fun (and I still definitely do that, but I'm trying to think before I shop and bring more stuff into our house). I was influenced by a web video my husband found called "the story of stuff"

15. We are hoping to start biking to work and school in the spring, inspired by this "gas money jar" idea from a Northampton family...
16. Community Events:
    

    We participated in the Earth Hour by wearing headlamps and playing cards at home. Our school fundraiser on Saturday has the theme of a Green Gala and we are going to that. Wondertime donated dozens of eco-friendly, unplugged toys to the silent auction.

17. Cool eco-friendly products:
    

    My friend and VP of Wondertime/Family Fun said she bought wind-up flashlights for her boys and they are so fun to use. Before she bought the lights, her boys drove her crazy leaving flashlights on so that we were tossing batteries left and right....They're cheap and take no batteries!

18. Carbon Imprint Tool
    

    We tried out this and found it very eye opening.

19. Use helpful tools.
    

    Another editor at the magazine has a gizmo from the power utility company that shows the energy use in a home in real time according to your area's killowatt/hr cost. So if it's at 5 cents/hr and then you turn on the dryer and it goes up to 80 cents/hr, you know what that load of dry clothes is costing you. The kids think it's fun to turn off the appliances that are sucking up the most energy and see the numbers go down.

20. New Car
    

    We are seriously considering trading in our RAV 4 with the third row of seats for a Prius. This is a difficult decision for us because we carpool our kids' friends to and from playdates and we are into many outdoor adventures like skiing and canoeing. The car really suits our lifestyle right now, but the reality is that the gas mileage is pretty bad. One daughter really wants the Prius; the other loves that third row of seats. My husband, of course, is dreaming of that Prius. And I'm somewhere in the middle. So we'll see how it all plays out!!