But…there’s one song that always makes me sing along (out of key) and get up and move (usually like Carlton from the Fresh Prince). We always called it “The September Song”.

Do you remember, 21st night of September?

Love was changing the mind of pretenders

While chasing the clouds away

 That’s right, my go-to jam (which no wedding is complete without) is September by Earth Wind and Fire. Sure, it’s not Piano Man or Captain Jack, but I might just love it the most.  September was always my favorite month for a number of reasons. It was my birthday month (where my Libras at?!), all my TV shows came back, school started up again (super-nerd), and fall clothes shopping was the highlight of the year for me. I always hated the heat, never worshipped the sun, and my Sassoon jeans and Benetton sweater collection was on point.

But now that I’m older, I’ve cut the cable-cord and watch Netflix and Hulu whenever I want, school shopping has become dragging 2 complaining kids from store to store, and September is the dreaded month where my heating bills may start up again.  In short, September has lost some of its luster for me.

So, without further ado, I’d like to introduce you to my new favorite month…April. Why April?  Is it the sunshine? Seasonal allergies? Start of baseball season?

Nope! It’s Earth Month.

Come on, how long have you all been reading my blog?  You knew Earth Day was coming at some point!

So as you may already know, Earth Day is April 22^nd, but thankfully with all the renewed interest in climate change one day has turned into a MONTH-LONG quest to kick people in the ass to make changes to help heal Mother Earth.

Earth Day in my house is a huge deal all year round, but in April we go BIG.

• One year was putting 47 glorious, heat loving, solar panels on our roof.
• Another year, I said goodbye to my gas guzzling SUV and got a hybrid (twice).
• Another year was the birth of my raised organic food garden.
• Another year we got a rain barrel.

Sure, radical BIG changes are great, but lots of little changes are great too. One person putting solar panels on their roof is certainly awesome, but thousands of people turning off the lights when they leave a room can have an even bigger impact. One thing I’ve always taught my girls is sometimes a little bit of effort can do more than spending a lot of money.  Little changes can make a big impact when we all work together.

So this April, I’m posting super short Facebook and Instagram videos (no singing, I promise) each day giving you ideas on how you can SAVE MONEY while SAVING THE PLANET. I tend to be a little wordy, so these are short enough to watch while you’re waiting for your coffee to brew.

Make sure you stop by each day this month for your daily tip and later this month learn what I’m doing for Mother Earth this year (hint: it’s HUGE!!)

So while I still love me some Earth, Wind and Fire…right now it’s just about the Earth. My gift to you is a month of tips to help the Earth and to help yourself. And maybe you won’t remember the 21^st night of September, but it’s my job to make damn sure you remember the 22^nd day of April.

The post Goodbye September…Helloooooo April! appeared first on Living Clean and Dirty.

One of my faves was Pretty Woman.  A love story about a sexually philanthropic woman, a corporate vulture who pays for sex and Hector Elizondo.  It has it all, and it also has a super-random quote from “Happy Man” as described by IMDB.

“Welcome to Hollywood! What’s your dream? Everybody comes here; this is Hollywood, land of dreams. Some dreams come true, some don’t; but keep on dreamin’ – this is Hollywood. Always time to dream, so keep on dreamin’.”

We’ve all got dreams. Just the other night I had a dream that I was a real life poop emoji and Bruce Springsteen was chasing me around a dairy farm with a loaf of bread singing a song about a turd sandwich.

You know, the usual stuff.

But my real dream…my dreamiest dream is that one day I would be the greatest most powerful eco-warrior in all the land!!!  I would be like the love child of Ed Begley Jr and Wonder Woman (although that has the potential to be a disaster, and hopefully that conception would be immaculate). Well, about 7 years ago my dreams took a another leap forward and my eco-warrior status reached new heights, and as it turned out that height was about 25 feet from the ground.  Eminem knew how to raise a roof but I don’t think he ever thought about putting 42 magnificent sun-guzzling solar panels on it.

My BFF, who shall remain nameless, doesn’t even recycle…can you imagine? I say to her all the time “Allison (that’s with 2 Ls) it takes all of us working together to save the Earth.” To which she will respond “you’re right Ellen, feel free to recycle all of the soda cans in my car”.  And that’s why she’s my pal.  She calls me “Mother Superior” because I love the planet and I love for everyone to know it.

She loves me but thinks I act all superior about my reducing, recycling and reusing but I’m not (well, maybe just a little)…I just love helping others find their inner eco-warrior. I do more than your average bear, but I know I can’t stop climate change alone. In the opening of Knight Rider they say “one man can make a difference”. Now I may not be a man with a sweet perm and a talking car, but I am an Earth-loving mama who drives a hybrid and loves saving money and the Earth, not always in that order.  You may have read an earlier article about my hate-hate relationship with the sun and how I go from pasty white to crimson burn in no time flat but thanks to the magic of solar panels I fell in love with the sun all over again.

I grew up with a dad who would scream, “Turn the lights off, we don’t own LILCO.” (For those of you who didn’t grow up on Long Island it’s the equivalent to “We don’t own the electric company!” And I mean the company who supplies power to your house, not the oddly psychedelic kids show from the 70s which featured such inspiring icons like Bill Cosby, Morgan Freeman and Woody Allen). My father was a great man, but not what you would call an eco-warrior, he was more of an econo-warrior…finding ways to save money was his passion.  He hated paying high electric bills and nobody was prouder than he was when my electric bills started to drastically go down faster than Kevin Spacey’s career.

The ancient Greeks, Romans and Chinese used glass and mirrors to harness the power of the sun, the 1950s saw the introduction of solar cells using silicon, and in the 1990s the government started offering grants and incentives for solar while efficiency continued to rise. For years, I watched, waited and researched if solar was right for us. After living in our home for about a year, the stars and the moon (and the sun) aligned and the time was right to give my family the gift of solar. I’m pretty sure my girls would have preferred the gift of a pony and my husband would’ve preferred that first edition printing of “How to master the male multiple orgasm” that he’s been on the hunt for, but in the long run I feel I made the right choice.  Back in 2011 when we installed solar, you couldn’t rent panels or add them to your house for no money down. Putting solar panels on your roof was reserved for die hard Earth lovers with money to burn…sun-burn if you will. Sure, you got half your money back from tax incentives but you still had a big nut to put down or take a loan for the other half. Fortunately, now going solar is not just reserved for people with extra money in the bank, ANYONE can go solar. ANYONE can lower their electric bills.

Sounds great, right? I’m sure you have the same question that everyone else asks me…were those three guys really on the Electric Company? The answer is yes.  And usually the follow up question is “How much money am I really going to save by going solar?” To give you an idea, my husband likes our house like a freezer in the summer. As soon as the temperature hits the high 60s outside our AC is now officially on until it snows.  He’s got that thing working harder than the mop-boy at a peep show.  We’re now about a month into “hubby-summer” as we call it and with the AC blasting we just paid our electric bill of $13.02. Our system has paid for itself in roughly 7 years (which was early because our system performed better than we projected) and we’re looking at 20+ more years of minimal electric bills.

I had never been happier to have something finish earlier than expected.

The post I’m A Solar High-Roller appeared first on Living Clean and Dirty.