It's Not Easy Being Green

The other day I was moving around some furniture and cleaning out the area behind our couch when I came across a few of those reusable shopping bags.

And when I say "a few" I mean ... 34.


34 reusable shopping bags.

Apparently Bruce and I are the greenest people in Atlanta.

Or perhaps we are just lazy and forget to bring the bags into the store, yet still are plagued with environmental consciousnesses and therefore buy more once we get inside the store.

We decided to put the bags into the trunk of our car.  We figured that the likelihood of us using them would increase if they were actually IN the car when we arrived at the store.

Fast forward to today on our way home from church.  Bruce and I did some menu planning for the week (I've been inspired to try this by SnoWhite over at Finding Joy in My Kitchen - we'll see how this goes!!) and put together a shopping list for me to take to the grocery store.  As I was gathering my keys, wallet and phone, Bruce said to me, "Don't forget, the bags are in the trunk."  I responded with a confident, "Right, right, right.  Have a nice run."

So I get to the store and realize that 2:00 on Superbowl Sunday is perhaps the worst time to be at the grocery store.  I didn't want to mess with the crowds and don't mind walking so I just found a spot towards the back of the parking lot and took the hike into the store.  I grabbed a cart and was just about to head towards the deli when I suddenly realized ...

... I had left the shopping bags in the car.

I'm not going to lie.  The thought crossed my mind to just carry on and try to remember next time.  It was a beautiful day, the store was only going to get more crowded as people got out of church and I wanted to get home and take a long walk before kickoff.  But we bring entirely too many plastic bags into our apartment every week, we genuinely do try to live as green as possible and Bruce had even REMINDED me that the reusable ones were in the car.

So I took a deep breath, returned the cart, hiked back out to the car and retrieved the bags.

It's not easy being green.

(But somehow I do not think that was what Kermit was singing about.)

You all have a great week.