My eco-story

Thank you again to all the wonderful guest bloggers that helped us to celebrate Earth Month by sharing their personal eco stories. I really enjoyed getting to know all of you a little bit better and learning the different reasons why you decided to “Go Green” and why you have chosen to share that journey via your blogs. (Which, BTW, I am happy you did because I love reading them.) You truly are inspirations to me!

Being inspired by their sharing, I thought I would share my own eco-story. I also thought that I would “introduce” myself to you. It was recently pointed out to me that it was difficult to find my name on my blog. Others have asked if I could put a name to the face. So, those seem like good places to start.

Hello everyone, my name is Lena. I am the face and thoughts behind this blog Over Coffee – the green edition. Thank you very much for stopping by and taking the time out of your busy days to read my blog. I really appreciate it!

In addition to this blog I am also a contributing writer for The Green and Clean Mom forum and the Healthy Bliss channel of Blissfully Domestic.com (don’t let that fool you though because I am far from domestic).

In the non-blogging world I am a Quality Assurance specialist, wife, and mother of 2 children ages 4 and 8. To say that my life is full and busy would be a slight understatement (as is the case with all moms).

A little over a year ago, in one of those rare quiet moments, I was flipping through a National Geographic magazine when I saw pictures of plastic bags; plastic bags in the landfill, in the ocean, hanging off trees, being eaten by cows, wrapped around a turtle, floating down a stream, blowing across a field. I stopped and read the article. That weekend I bought my first reusable bag and declared to my family “We Are Going Green!”

I started reading about simple changes people could make in their daily lives that would have huge impacts on the environment. Things like using reusable bags, buying local, using reusable coffee mugs, changing to CFLs, using reusable water bottles, and packing lunches in reusable containers. Those all seemed very doable so we started doing them.

I was so excited about the things that we were doing that I started telling all my family and friends about it. (When I am passionate about something I have a hard time controlling my enthusiasm. Just ask anyone who has ever been to one of my children's birthday parties!) This was one of those times!

In Aug of 2008 I was presented with the opportunity to become a contributing writer for BD. I of course jumped at the chance. I saw this as a great opportunity to spread the word to more than just my family and friends about how easy it was to be green.

One of the requirements for being a contributing writer on BD is to have a blog that you can link your posts to. I have had a “personal” blog for a few years now but did not want to link my posts to that one (for what I think are obvious reasons). Thus the birth of this blog.

My blog has taken on a life of its own and has grown and evolved in ways I never imagined. My blog has introduced me to many wonderful people, amazing companies, and ingenious products. It has directed me to great resources which has enabled me to learn more and further my eco adventures; composting, planting an organic garden, using worm poop, starting a shoe recycling program at my son’s school, etc, etc, etc. The list just grows every day.

The more I learn about the affects we are having on our planet and how small changes we make today can help preserve this beautiful planet for our children and grandchildren the more passionate I become. The more passionate I become the more I want to do and share. It is a wonderfully vicious cycle.

I truly believe that every little bits counts and that together we can make a BIG difference, one little eco baby step at a time!

That's it, that's my eco-story.

What’s yours?

I would love to hear your eco-story. If you would like to share it with us please e-mail me at overcoffee@rocketmail.com.

Thank you again for supporting me in my journey!

(Thanks to my wonderful friend Cheri for my very cute button)