Paper Saves Lives

So I try to do my best to not kill off Mother Earth.  I recycle - even if my kids occasionally throw some food in the little white bin.  I fully support other people riding bikes or walking rather than driving.  I try to reuse... stuff.  Oh, oh, and I never litter!

But I had a little epiphany this past week.  See, it was a busy week with field trips and school programs and ear infections.  Typical family life, really.  So I decided that something had to give.  And it was going to be dishes.

I busted out the paper plates, plastic utensils and cups.  I only ran the dishwasher when absolutely necessary.  (Translation:  When some rogue family member thought they were allowed to use a dish or drink from a cup during what was clearly a paper week!!  Get with the program people!)

As I threw away paper plate after paper plate smeared with pbj, ketchup, marinara etc...

* because you can't recycle it if there's food on it... which makes NO sense!  I'm not going to wash the paper just to recycle it.  The entire point of me using paper is to avoid washing.  Honestly..... *

I had little pangs of guilt over how much waste I was creating.  I was adding to the wasteland of an earth that my poor children and grandchildren will have to inhabit.

And then it hit me... paper saves lives!

See, 'cause this past week if I'd have had to add dishes to my list of things to do I would have snapped and gone all Wolverine on the kidlets.  And they maybe wouldn't have lived through all the growling and slashing and muscle flexing.  And if they're dead than it really doesn't matter what the state of the earth is.

Are you with me?

So, really, I used paper, it kept them alive, and now thanks to my sacrifice they will live to enjoy the earth for years to come.

Someday, when I'm sitting in their beautiful new home, I will look back at this past week and be grateful that I used paper and saved lives.  And I'll never tell them that we're sitting on the front porch of an old landfill.