photo by Larry White Buffalo

For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.  Martin Luther

Do you have a favorite tree? I do. It's the rose cypress just off the North end of my house. Throughout the years I've spent countless hours there with my children playing under it's boughs.

I'm joining Suzy again this year for One Small Change and as always it gets me thinking of just one more way we as a family can lessen our footprint on this planet. 

For my first look at changing small in 2012 I've had to revisit something and that is the idea of paper usage. 

I sort of chalked that one of the list because I'm so dutiful in recycling but last week I did an experiment. I wanted to see how much "unwanted" mail we received every week. Usually I grab the mail, pass the recycle bins, drop off what I don't want, and then head into the house. Out of sight, out of mind.

I was astonished to find this many catalogs in my mailbox after 7 days.

These are all catalogs which I love to look at and read when I'm eating my cereal in the morning. I love all those pretty photos which give me ideas of what to craft, cook, sew, etc. I never ever order out of one of these catalogs unless it's Chinaberry. Love Chinaberry. So when thinking about One Small Change I had to ask myself, is my morning entertainment worth killing a tree over?

The answer simply is no.

So I signed up here to remove myself from the catalog and mail lists. 

And for the sake of disclosure, I also sent an email to Chinaberry asking them not to take me off their list. 

What's your one small change?