I managed to convert several short air trips into train segments during trip to Europe. Train travel takes a bit more time and some planning but is possible and even preferred. Also learned how to use several local trains/trams/bus systems.

I watched a BBC doc series called The Green Planet hosted by David Attenborough. The first episode is Tropical Worlds and explores all the action taking place in a very busy and complex tropical forest ecosystem. The time lapse videography is amazing and showcases how the plants, insects, animals, and fungi make their moves and defend themselves in search of sunlight and nutrition. It also highlights the dependencies between all species. The drama is amazing and very appropriate for sll ages. Additonal episodes feature water worlds, seasonal worlds, desert worlds, and human worlds.

I made vegetarian lasagna which included zucchini and bell peppers instead of ground beef. It turned out quite well!

In an effort to reduce plastic consumption and microplastic generation, I am experimenting with switching out my sponges with dried Luffa fruits - this is not a fruit that is commonly grown in the US, we only have plastic imitations so when I learned about the fruit I decided to experiment. My initial results have been very promising, the fruit gets much softer when wet so its almost like you are scrubbing with a rag, but it maintains its coarseness and some rigidity making it great for cleaning hard bits of food residue. Would definitely recommend at least trying it! Next steps for me is to investigate more sustainable sourcing options because Amazon is not the best choice.

Goodness this turned into a massive project...but I got my old Nest thermostats off (technically they are also "smart thermostats" but they don't act like it, they were supposed to be self-learning but they never unlearned anything and the scheduling features were awful) and replaced them with Sensi devices. The wiring ended up being a huge challenge because my house HVAC systems are very strange, but I learned a ton about the systems and re-asserted my dominance over the spiders in my furnace crawl space for the first time in a year. Also now I have great Sensi thermostats that are helping me save energy and money!

I used Impossible Beef from Plants in my first ever home-made veggie burgers! They actually turned out wonderfully, likely due to some of the other ingredients from the farmers market that I used! A much more sustainable (and frankly delicious) meal than most previous Mondays of my life :)

Health, fresh air, awareness of our environment, face to face contact - we need these for our physical and mental well-being.

With a puppy that is losing his teeth and still learning right from wrong, there were a few items around my house that needed some repair. I sewed a blanket and pair of pants, and painted some furniture instead of trashing any of it and buying new!