And yet, not a drop to drink.

I’m speaking, of course, about the whole plastic water bottle/Number 7 plastic/BPA additive/no throwing away without recycling disaster. I’m a huge advocate of drinking lots and lots of water, and, until last week, we had scads of reuseable water bottles filled and chilled, ready to grab and go on our way to various activities. I don’t like to buy the single use bottles - I’m cheap and we have a water filter, so why waste my money?

When I read the recall of Nalgene water bottles with a 7 in the recycling triangle on the bottom - and, in reality, 3 and 6 aren’t really any better - part of me wanted to stick my head in the sand and sing, “Lalala!!” I’m a parent, though, and I don’t have that luxury. When I checked our bottles, many of them were 7. Out they went. I replaced them with SIGG bottles. I dumped sippy cups and plastic bowls, anything with the dreaded numbers. But I wondered if there was still more that I could be doing. surfing around, I found a lot of information on a great site called The Nest - Baby. A community offshoot of The Nest (which runs off of The Knot) containing blogs, boards, and information on topics ranging from infertility to diaper rash, I found many things that peeked my interest. In particular, an article about living as a green couple caught my eye.

I do what I can to keep my family safe and healthy, at the same time trying to help improve the environment. I don’t use plastic bags at the grocery, I turn off water and lights, reduce my gasoline consumption, and try, as much as possible to reduce my carbon footprint in general. Listing and trading on Zwaggle goes a long way to help with that.

Reduce, reuse, recycle. Do your share. Be ecologically responsible. It’s not that hard, and think what the payoff will be - a healthier planet, healthier children, and more money for you. What’s wrong with that?

I was lucky enough to grow up in a very uncluttered home, which was simultaneously a blessing/curse situation. If there was anything in that house that wasn’t necessary—little picture frames and maybe a few Hummel figurines aside—it was dispatched with extreme prejudice. Mom was such a firm believer in ridding ourselves of what’s called “memory clutter,” that if the fingerpaintings that I brought home from Kindergarten were anything less than Renoir quality, out they went. I was OK with that, but if tomorrow’s homework was mistaken for yesterday’s, I was doing it all over again sometime between dinner and bedtime. Ouch.

I learned quickly that bare surfaces, wide-open basements, and garages with cars in them were good. I also learned that if I wanted to spend my evenings watching the Carol Burnett Show instead of rummaging through the garbage for the homework I had left laying around, I had better keep my poop grouped, to re-word a certain, less G-rated phrase.

On the flip side, my dad and I were never allowed to help around the house, for fear that we would mess everything up. Mom was afraid that we would do everything wrong, and so she did it all. The shame in all that was not that I ended up watching too many old movies instead of doing chores, but that I grew up convinced that adulthood was going to gag me with a spoon, so to Valley-speak. I would have to do my own housework just right, all the time, or the sky would fall. What a conundrum.

So imagine my delight upon discovering Marla Cilley, or as she’s known among the Internets, FlyLady. Marla has spent a good chunk of her life learning to declutter her life and take control of her family, home, and self care routines, and now she teaches others. One of FlyLady’s tenets is that any effort towards making your home a nicer place is a good one, and that we don’t have to do it all right now; in fact, all we have to do is a little, each day. “Don’t worry about catching up,” she writes. “Just jump in where we are.”

To take a page out of Zwaggle history, Marla joined Zwaggle on BlogTalk Radio to discuss the magic that happens when we pass along our things as we declutter, whatever those things may be. And that’s what hooked me; if I’ve been lucky enough to receive something useful, someone else can ride that lucky streak too, all by way of Zwaggle. (I wonder if donating my Zoints to charity counts double.)

We’re all in this together, and life may be short, but the life cycle of our things can go on and on. We can bless others with the things we part with, and there’s no way to get it wrong, which I think is another way of saying that Zwaggle is for people who love to be right. No wonder I’m a fan.

What the younger generation has been saying all this time is really true: It’s all good. Don’t worry, though. Now that I’m 400 years old, I’m not going to start uttering youthful catch phrases out loud. (In fact, the image I have in my mind of my dad attempting the sentence, “That freaks me out!” still gives me hives.) As long as we keep at circulating our own fortune and goodness, progress is inevitable, and so on and so on.

I’ve written before about my love for Work It, Mom! Well, not much has changed - I still adore the variety of writers and can always find many ways to spend hours and hours of time on the site. If you don’t believe me, check out that pile of unfolded laundry in my house…

This week, Work It, Mom! is celebrating their first birthday. Like the very best, most gracious guests of honor, they have decided to give the gifts to US! Yes, all of the gifts for this very special celebration are just for us. From gift baskets to help keep your children clean to generous gift certificates, and even exclusive French chocolates (ooh, lala!), these are all gifts that I’d gladly welcome in my mailbox. The process to enter couldn’t be easier - all you have to do is leave a comment. Each of us is allowed one comment per day, but you can comment each and every day, in order to maximize your chances.

Happy, happy birthday to a site that is tops in my book. Now, go get busy and enter!

Good luck to all of you, but just know that the French Chocolates are coming my way. So don’t plan on winning those!