As this is the last day of the challenge I feel happy with the efforts I made and want to continue to make to have a greater impact on benefiting the environment. While these challenges were kind of hard at first I feel like I adjusted pretty well and it makes me feel happy doing these things because I am making an effort and want to continue to do even more.

Last day of the ecochallenge and It has been eye opening. I did mine with a focus on recycling and can truly say that I am more aware of what I purchase and how it contributes to waste and recycling. 

Zero waste cooking was one of the most fascinating things I've learned. Although it is simple to think about not throwing away food, the hardest part is breaking the habit of throwing away the stems of vegetables. My personal favorite trick I learned is saving onion and garlic ends, carrot and celery ends, vegetable peelings, and zucchini ends in a container then in a couple of days use those veggies to make a broth. 

So far in the weeks that i have been participating, I have volunteered for two hours or more every week, by volunteering with Reclaimit! or portland parks and recreation. 

Hooray, Team, it's the last day - we did some great things in this challenge! For me personally, being mindful and meditating were the hardest challenges. I will need to continue practicing them. The most fun and rewarding challenges were the ones I roped my family in to doing with me. I hope my kids learned there is value in not being plugged in all the time (and that their friends won't abandon them if they don't keep their string going instantaneously). There were some home and garden challenges that were things I have been wanting to do for years but never made the time to do them. It was good to have the motivation needed to finally jump in and get them done. I am grateful for having participated!

Making the most out of the 32 oz Nalgene!

It has finally turned into a habit to use my reusable bags for grocery shopping. :)