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Conservation without Compromise: Waterpik EcoFlow Review & Giveaway

We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.

-Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia

I have another confession to make.

I used to boast about my Army showers. I’m in, I’m out, no nonsense, no water waste. Cool water to preserve my hair color because I’m just too lazy to keep applying dye (it’s vegetable based, which is gentle and earth-friendly but not known for longevity).

Since I’ve started running? Oh, how I love a long hot shower. It’s my reward for slogging it out on the track or the treadmill, washing away the sweat, unknotting my bones and muscles. Quite honestly, the one thing I most luxuriate in, especially now that the kids are old enough to not remember a hundred pressing needs once the water is running (although I’d say I do have to deal with someone maybe one out of every three showers. Still, a vast improvement).

I don’t shower every day, but a long shower can still waste a lot of water, using up to seven gallons a minute (for a really really vintage model shower head; standard shower heads manufactured after 1992 use 2.5 gallons).

So it follows that one of the easiest ways we (and you) can conserve water is by replacing your current shower head with a water-saving low-flow one.

EcoFlow shower heads by Waterpik can reduce your water use up to 1 full gallon of water per minute, depending on the model. That’s slashing your use— and your water bill— by nearly half, meaning this is a purchase that can pay for itself quite quickly.

We were sent one to try, Jeff had it up and running in minutes. Easy peasy.

The shower head has several settings (Full Body- Circular Massage- PowerSpray- Circular Massage + Mist- Misting Spray) and a 5-ft hose, which I absolutely require, to make my life easier washing Cassie’s hair and hosing down dogs. But my favorite feature has to be a water-conserving “switch” that lessens the spray for when you’re shaving or lathering up or whatever and don’t need the full blast. Super clever, and better than the usual recommendation of turning the water off during those moments (does anyone actually do that?)

I’m ohsovery pleased to tell you that my showers are still luxurious. They don’t have that crazy hard water pressure that you get in some hotels, but we’ve never had that anyway (and means hotels are still a super luxury in my eyes). So in this case making the eco-switch was in no way a hardship: I didn’t have to “get used to” anything or give anything up. My showers are still my favorite treat.

Pledge to conserve water, save energy and reduce pollution

The National Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation is a friendly competition between cities across the nation to see who’s got the eco-warriest of eco-warriors. It’s a great way to round out Earth Month, especially if you have kids: pledge to do those small things that add up to big changes, especially when those pledges add up across cities. Will you use refillable water bottles, plant with climate-appropriate plants, not use the sprinkler in the heat of the day? Take the pledge here and see just how much of an impact these changes can make. Oh, and pledgees will win prizes: sprinkler systems, water-saving toilets, Waterpik Eco-Flow Showerheads, 1000 (!) Lowe’s gift cards, and AHEM a Toyota Prius c Hybrid. Yeah. Go pledge, I’ll wait.

Giveaway

And, to round out Earth Month here, Waterpik is offering one lucky reader an EcoFlow showerhead of their very own, to have and to hold and take victory showers under. You can enter once or accumulate up to 12 entries, depending on how you roll. Just follow the directions in the Rafflecopter widget.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

P.S. Keep up with EcoFlow news, including new pledges and giveaways, by following EcoFlow by Waterpik on Facebook.

Disclosure: I was sent a Waterpik EcoFlow shower head as part of a promotional program with MomSelect. No other compensation was received. All opinions and eco-confessions are my own.

April 30, 2012
Graduation Day Looming

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.
-e.e. cummings

22 years ago at this time, I was counting down the days to my 8th grade graduation.

It was a pretty big deal. Catholic school, so I was with the same 50 kids from 1st-8th grade, day in and day out. Graduation was a real change from what we knew; a true sending out into the world. (I don’t recall my high school graduation having the same sort of emotional impact— I was just relieved to be out of there.)

Jake is graduating 8th grade this June, only they don’t do a graduation. To him, it’s not a big deal, which makes me sad. 8th grade graduation was one of the few days where I really felt… important. Like I was going to do great things.

So even if he is content to pass from 8th grade to high school without any fuss, I’m pulling my Mom card on this one. He’s sending out graduation cards. We are going to commemorate this moment, this landmark, where he officially ceases to be my little boy and becomes an obnoxious teenager.

It’s a rite of passage, for him, for me. I don’t want it to go unmarked. I don’t have any photos of myself at graduation (I think I even read at the Mass, I may have even received an award of some sort- I’m pretty sure I did- really it’s shameful); this one came courtesy of a friend on Facebook.

I didn’t know the value it would hold for me, remembering who I was and how I felt at that moment.

So I asked him to look at the graduation announcements over at Tiny Prints; they’ve certainly come a long way from the simple black-ink-on-cream-cards or blue-ink-on-white-cards that I recall. I got all choked up looking at them. (Yes, I know that’s dumb. I don’t know when doing stuff like looking at graduation cards became something that triggered my tear ducts, but it happened.)

Look.

Look how lovely and official.

Dang! President of National Honor Society!

And… here is what my son put together.

Yes, that’s a bear shark.

It’s a work in progress. I’ll show you the final cut on his last day of junior high.

*sob*

Is this going to get easier… or harder as I go through it with Maverick and Cassidy?

Why did my son have to have the same thick skin and bizarre sense of humor that I did at 14?

What did I do to deserve that?

Who said they were allowed to grow up?

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Tiny Prints through Global Influence. You can connect with Tiny Prints on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

April 27, 2012
I’m Thinking I’m Mud-Ready. #GoDirtyGirl
You must do the things you think you cannot do.
Eleanor Roosevelt

I wasn’t going to post about this because 10:40 a mile isn’t all that impressive, and being proud of it seemed mildly embarrassing.

My son is going to run a 5:50 mile at school for the Presidential Fitness Award this week. I had a friend at college who regularly ran 4 minute miles. I read blog posts by people, normal people, not super athletes, who sustain an 8 minute mile pace for half and full marathons.

Eff all that, dude. I frickin’ ran 3.28 miles straight, stopping just once to drink some water and bitch to Jake about how much my ears hurt. Previous to 7 weeks, 2 days ago, the last time I ran anywhere, no joke at all, was probably in sophomore year gym class in 1992. I’m pretty damn proud of myself and I’m going to go ahead and say it.

This was my Monday run. I so didn’t want to do it. The temperature had dropped from the gorgeous unseasonably warm high 60s to mid 70s that we’ve been enjoying for a while now; plummeting to the low 50s and windy, rainy, yucky. I rotate which park I run at too, and this time was the hilly one. There was not one ounce of me that was looking forward to this.

But, I wanted to get another run in today (Wednesday), since the weather was supposed to be good. That would give me Thursday and Friday to rest up before I hit Atlanta for the Dirty Girl run Saturday. If I waited until Tuesday, I’d mess that schedule up plus I’d have to run on the treadmill while Jake was at soccer practice. (The idea of running for 25 minutes on the treadmill makes me want to stab myself in the eye. I hate the treadmill.)

So out I went, and it was wretchedly cold running into the wind, and I forgot my headband to keep my ears warm, and I kept my hat down low to keep the drizzle out of my eyes so I couldn’t see more than a few feet ahead of me, and bitch moan whine. I took it slow and steady, doggedly, just getting it over with.

And… then I was done. And walking it out before I got in the car, I realized: I felt pretty damn good.

My legs didn’t ache. I wasn’t exhausted. My lungs weren’t burning. To be honest, I felt like I could run some more. I could have run faster.

Not at all the runner’s high people talk about. Just a sense of, I got this. I can do this. Ain’t no thing.

Whereas before, I was saying “Today I ran 2 miles and I didn’t die.” That was pretty much an accurate description of how I felt during and after those runs.

Why am I telling you all this?

Because for forever I said I wasn’t a runner. I don’t run.
- I messed up my knees playing basketball and they ache when it’s cold or the weather changes as it is.
- I smoked for almost 25 years, with a few years off here and there, but still. Most of my life.
- I’ve never been a runner.
- Running is boring.
I still think all of those are valid complaints, to some degree. But my knees and lungs seem to be adjusting nicely. And the others… I’m working on adjusting my mindset.

Every week doing Couch to 5K, I’ve hated stepping up the time increments. Every Sunday I’ve wondered if I can really do this. It felt like it shouldn’t be so hard.

Every Thursday, I’ve been amazed at how my body has strengthened in such a short while. What was difficult on Sunday is quite doable by Thursday.

Week after week. Just ongoing amazement at what a glorious machine the human body is. How it works to step up, to perform what you ask of it.

The starting is the hardest part. If you’ve been saying you can’t do it… just do it. You can.

It sucks at first. It gets better.

..that something is difficult must be a reason the more for us to do it.
-Rainer Maria Rilke

I often say that we need to give our children more responsibility, more chances to fail, so that they can become more capable. So that they can surprise themselves, trust themselves, exceed their own expectations, experience pride that has been really and truly earned. That this is the greatest gift we can give them as parents— to stop doing everything for them.

The same is true of your body, your self.

But if you want your body to step up, to perform, to exceed expectation… first you have to make demands of it.

___________________________________________

Weather is looking like a beaut for Saturday in Atlanta, 84 and partly cloudy. I’m still nervous, mostly about the travel part of it.

But I’m also excited.

Dude. I got this.
April 25, 2012