Monday, September 14, 2015

Simply Green N Frugal: Reduce Your Water Bill, Save The Environment

Hello, Friends!

Who doesn't want to do our part to save the environment? No one, I think. But who's got the time? No one! So in Simply Green series, I would share what we do to reduce our waste, conserve energy, and save money at the same time, that require very little effort, time, and money. Thus, we were more compelled to do that on a consistent basis, because it doesn't feel like a sacrifice nor a hassle.

Afterall, we are all stewards of this beautiful planet the Lord has given us, so we'd better do what we can to take a good care of it.

Today the topic is about conserving water.

Tip 1. I read and heard often that you should turn off your faucet while brushing your teeth. Well, in reality, it's not very convenient and sometimes I just forget to do so. But why complicate things when we can simplify?

Here's a tip: use a reusable cup when you brush your teeth.

I use this green plastic cup that I got from the hospital where I gave birth to Michael. Instead of throwing it away in the trash and left it at the hospital, I carried it home and have been using it to brush my teeth for almost three years now.

I fill the cup with water, turn off the faucet, brush my teeth, then rinse with the water in that cup.

As simple as that. I don't need to turn off and turn on the faucet, and I just use one single cup of water per brushing. Easy as pie.



Tip 2. How much water do you use each time you flush down the toilet? According to Wikipedia, modern low flush toilet use 1,2-1,6 gallons (4,5-6,1 litre) of water for each flushing. Older models use 3,5-7 gallons per flush. Let's say you flush five times per day, that's a LOT of water to flush down the toilet bowl per person per day. Try to calculate it times 30 days! Do we really need that much amount of water to flush down the toilet?

My toilet is the older model, unfortunately. And this is my secret weapon:

 
Here's a tip: fill a used plastic bottle with water, then put it inside of your toilet tank. It will reduce your flush level.
 
I used a used up body lotion bottle in 600 ml. It reduced my water bill, too, hence I save money while conserving water. Pretty neat, rite. And very easy.
 
Installing solar panel on our roof top will be very very desireable, but since we cannot do that yet, we do what we CAN do instead.
 
What is your easy tips to save the environment and live a greener life? Please share in the comment!
 
I'm linking up to these wonderful Ladies:

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Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Week in Recap: Pleasing Our Husbands, Yay or Nay?

Hi Friends!
 
 
Another week, another week in recap! I'm so thankful of the simple life that God has given me and my little family, and we unwrap each day as a special gift from the Lord, tied with a sunshine ribbon!
 
We started last Saturday morning with gathering up our recycleable trash for pick-up day. In Indonesia, recycling is not that common, hence separating our trash is not a common activity either. By no means I try to show off on social media, but I do make a point to capture it with picture and post what we are doing on my personal Facebook for my friends to see. Why? Since the first time I posted our green efforts to lessen our household waste, some friends have shown interest to try that, too! So I thought, why not try to post it out there so if anyone wants to do something for the environment by reducing their waste, they can get inspired from my posts and message me about where to call the nearest recycling facilities! I have to say, though, that I offered a friend who owns a restaurant near my house if she wants the recycling facility to come over to her restaurant to pick up mineral water bottles left by customers, and she didn't respond. Well, everyone has their own thoughts, of course. Still, even I encouraged just one person to start recycling their waste, it's a huge success!
 
This is our dry trash from the previous week that I collected in an old plastic laundry basket. I wouldn't call it our zero waste effort, because it's waaaaayyyy far from zero waste.
 
 
In the evening, our little family went to Mass as usual. It's a family ritual that we all enjoy. Michael used to refuse to go to Church, because he got bored; but after several times, he began to enjoy the time we spend worshipping together as a family, and now he's looking forward to Church time! His favorite hum song is "Our Father", or the Lord's prayer. When we go to Church, I deliberately don't bring any special toy for Michael. Nor do we allow him to play with my cell phone when he gets bored. We want him to know that Church is time for worship, not for toys nor gadgets. We allow him to sing softly to himself, or play or move around - he's not even three years old, let's be realistic here - but we make sure he knows that going to Church is a time for worship.
 
 
Wearing proper shoes is a must when we go to Church. We dress up for job interviews and date nights and parties, why don't we dress up for feast held by the Lord?
 
 
Hubby was having a crazy time at work, so naturally he was feeling a little bit stretched out and needed a break. We are pretty much homebodies who usually only roam around the neighborhood on the weekend, but on this particular Saturday night, he wanted to go out and "have a good time like free young people". So after Church, we told the childminder that we were going out for a night on the town. I even changed my outfit to something more festive. This dress had not seen the light of day - or night - for several years now, and I was delightfully surprised that it still fits me! I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get into it, since I had gain some weight after having Michael. Afterall, I'm almost 40 and my metabolism has slowed down compared to when I was a twenty-something year old single woman.
 
We went to a glitzy restaurant/pub downtown, Social House. It was jampacked with young people, not-so-young-people, and what I'd call "glamorous creatures of Jakarta". Since there were only the two of us, we were able to get a table right away. We were seated at a table on the way to the exit, so while we were there we could people watch, which was fun. I love seeing the glamourous women (and girls) all looked so dolled up. All the women wore high heels, and from where I sat, I could see that some women really master the art of walking in heels, but some walked clumsily or military style like a robot! It was entertaining and amusing at the same time. I myself have long ago abandoned trying to twirl in a pair of stilletos, choosing wedges or lower heels instead. Three-inch heels is maximum height for me. Luckily, I'm pretty tall for a woman, so I don't need sky-high heels to stand out in a crowd, literally.
 
As you can see here, even my evening outfit is not that revealing. Like high heels, I long ago have left any desire to show too much skin even when going clubbing.
 
We already had a satisfying dinner at home, so Hubby just had some wine, me some iced tea (I don't care for alcoholic drink), and between the two of us, shared a plate of enoki mushroom snack. The food was okay but overpriced. Well, we came to such a place more for the vibe and ambiance, not for the food! And Hubby definitely had a good time. He tried a new wine that he had not tried before, from Chile.
 
Did I really want to go out? Not really. Still, that sweet Hubby of mine almost never asked for anything, so I wanted to please him and agreed to what he wanted to do.
 
 
On Sunday morning, Michael wanted to see "horsey", so went to the nearest mall so he could see, well, Horsey. Actually it's, well, they're colorful wooden carousel horses at a cake shop named Collette and Lola, not real horses! The T-shirt Michael wore in this picture was a gift from my brother, emblazoned with both our - me and my brother's - almamater: Texas A&M University. I'm a proud Aggie momma!

 
 
Hubby still had the itch to go out in the late afternoon, so off we went to a nearby coffeeshop. We found it several years ago, and Hubby had wanted to try the place out. He is a coffee lover. I'm not, but I know that any coffee shop will sell hot chocolate, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE hot chocolate and won't mind trying new places, so I was gladly obliged. Well, not gladly. Actually I much prefer to stay home. Afterall, we went out until late the night before.
 
I'm glad I did, though, because we ended up finding a new favorite place to hang out. The place called Oke Coffeeshop, which also a Chinese restaurant, located in a modest home near our neighborhood. It's located next to one of our favorite noodle shop, so it was odd that we've been going there for years, and not once we thought to give this place a try.
 
It is a family business, and the proprietor, a man about fifty years old, welcomed us warmly. The daughter of the family gave us the menu for the Chinese food, and we politely declined, explaining that we just wanted some coffee. It was about three in the afternoon, not lunch time anyway.
 
Apparently, for coffee, there was no menu. We were ushered to the front porch where we could select the type of coffee bean that we wanted. They had plenty, stored in individual containers, and when we opened the containers, the smell of coffee bean was just heavenly.
 
 
The shop also had cute traditional coffee pots like these.
 
 
The owner prepared the coffee himself. I ordered hot chocolate, that I must say, tasted very very good!
 
 
This is how the shop served their coffee to customers.
 

 
In the evening, Hubby STILL wanted to go out. So we ended up going to a new noodle shop that we stumbled upon. Michael came with us, and even the little man of mine agreed that the noodle was really good. I didn't take pictures of the noodle shop, but it was called Lake Toba Noodle Shop. You can tell from this post that during hard time, Hubby is the kind who release his stress by going out and about. On the other hand, I am the type who prefer to stay home.
 
During the week, Hubby came home from work very late every night. He didn't reach home until around 10 pm that he missed seeing Michael before bedtime. Fortunately, he didn't have to arrive at work at eight on the dot, so he could still sneak in some time to play with Michael in the morning before leaving for work.
 
In the middle of the week I took these two selfies and sent them to him. That's the beauty of technology and chat messaging! It's like, sending smiles to my husband. He said he loved it, that it made his day that I was so attentive and caring. So it's not vanity alone that I often take selfies! Well, not often, just sometimes.
 
Well, what do you think? Do you think I'm trying to please my husband too much? What do you think about trying to please our husbands when we are able to do so? Is it a yay or a nay?

 
 
I'm linking up to these wonderful Ladies:

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