Crunchify
January 16th, 2008
OK,
so “crunchify” isn’t a real word, I’m going to use it anyway. I have
been working on crunchifying my life for the better part of 4 years.
I’ve never been completely mainstream,I was homeschooled for 7th grade,
after which I became a bonafied “unschooler” which I very much enjoyed
since I was able to “follow my bliss” as it were. I’ve always enjoyed
being a little “different.”
Since becoming a parent it has become more and more my passion to
live more naturally, more in the flow of life rather than against my
instincts. I birthed at home - once with midwives and once unassisted,
I breastfeed, practice child-led weaning (although sometimes I wonder
if I’m insane for this… my 3 year old nurses more than my 1 year old),
recycle everything I can (did you know that the polystyrene egg cartons
are recyclable?), cloth diaper (I’m stalking the mailman for my Fuzzi
Bunz bought 2nd hand off of DiaperSwappers.com ), babywear , co-sleep,
use cloth menstrual pads and “family cloth” (that’s the nice way of
saying cloth wipes instead of toilet paper), we use fabric shopping
bags instead of plastic, my kids don’t eat anything with artificial
additives, I made our laundry detergent (still looking for the perfect
recipe), we use only compact fluorescent light bulbs (or we did before
moving)…
Even with all of those things I want more crunchiness. There are
still much healthier choices to be made within our family. We want to
go solar, get a hybrid car (actually Mike wants a hydrogen-powered
car), garden and eat our own organic veggies, buy local organic meats
(no chances of us going vegetarian, we’re omnivores), raise chickens
for fresh eggs and pest control, build our dome home, unschool the kids
(ok, we’re starting on that already), put out a clothesline, get Mike
to stop drinking Pepsi.
OK, if it were up to me we’d live in the mountains in a yurt on
solar power (with satellite internet of course!), bartering for the
food we didn’t grow ourselves, making our own clothes, while the kids
play with all-wood toys and never watch TV again. Not gonna happen. But
I am still striving to bring our family to a crunchier, greener way of
life.
