Those of you who know me well, or have been following my blog for a while, probably have noticed a dramatic shift. And so, just to ease some concern, I thought it might be appropriate to explain myself a bit. To some, I'm sure (probably my mom, lol - love you!), it looks like I've jumped off the deep end so to speak.
So, for starters, I'd like to say that no, I have no desire to transform myself into a "crunchy granola head" - whatever that is... And no, I will not be isolating my children from society or depriving them in any way, shape or form. In fact, to the latter, just the opposite.
So, for starters, I'd like to say that no, I have no desire to transform myself into a "crunchy granola head" - whatever that is... And no, I will not be isolating my children from society or depriving them in any way, shape or form. In fact, to the latter, just the opposite.
About a year ago, exactly actually, I came up with a list of things I felt our family needed to improve upon or needed help in. Nothing super drastic or major, fortunately, we have always had a pretty stable environment. But just because something is stable, does not necessarily make it good. And so, my list from last year looked something like this...
1) Improve the quality of our meals
2) Spend more time together, just the four of us
3) Allot some sort of vacation time for just the four of us (nothing frilly, just a larger chunk of time)
4) Establish traditions
5) Be "Greener" - vague, I know, but I really didn't know what I was walking into at that point in time.
And truthfully, as I write this, I'm realizing that we accomplished all of those goals of mine. Which brings me to this year. I'm not big on the whole "New Year's Resolution" thing - in fact I'm quite certain if I made one, I'd break it in a day, truly. But I do like to set broad goals for myself, and what better time to do that than at the first of the year ;)
I spent most of my effort last year on improving the quality of our meals. My family has come a long ways since one year ago, but it took that entire time, and we (eh em, I) still have more work to do. To sum it up quickly, we have learned to make most everything we eat from scratch except for dairy and meat. Does that mean that's all we eat? No, but every month we seem to be eating less and less processed foods and most of what we buy is either grown or made locally.
I am getting to my main point soon, I promise! So that healthy eating journey led me down a whole lot of other side roads, and is responsible for all the wonderful new things I've learned that have absolutely nothing to do with food.
I became slightly obsessed with the whole idea of self-sufficiency. To the point that now, my ideal future would have us on a farm - yes, a farm. It might happen, it might not, but I figure it can't hurt to start learning and living as much of that lifestyle as I possibly can from where I am right now.
The farm ideal introduced me to homesteading. The ultimate in self-sufficiency. And so I started absorbing as much information on that as I possibly could.
Homesteading led me to natural child rearing. Making most of a child's needs by hand. Natural child development and seasonal growth.
Natural child rearing led me to Waldorf education and the idea of rhythm in our days and activities. I will never be a Waldorf purist, but I am definitely using a lot of the Waldorf methods.
Whew! And that is where I am right now.
So, for this upcoming year I only have one goal in mind, though it is a huge one to tackle.
I want to live simply, by choice, and teach my children the art living that way. Because truly, in today's world, to live really simple is sort of an art form.
Why?
Well, because I need my children to appreciate the small things in life. I need them to know that they are incredible human beings just for being them. That gadgets and gizmo's won't bring them happiness. The only thing that will bring them happiness is themselves, and their ability to shape their lives. They need to know how to be self-sufficient, because no matter how well they do in school, if they don't know how to take care of themselves, both emotionally and mentally, they will not reach their full potential.
Do I really think living simply will do this?
1) Improve the quality of our meals
2) Spend more time together, just the four of us
3) Allot some sort of vacation time for just the four of us (nothing frilly, just a larger chunk of time)
4) Establish traditions
5) Be "Greener" - vague, I know, but I really didn't know what I was walking into at that point in time.
And truthfully, as I write this, I'm realizing that we accomplished all of those goals of mine. Which brings me to this year. I'm not big on the whole "New Year's Resolution" thing - in fact I'm quite certain if I made one, I'd break it in a day, truly. But I do like to set broad goals for myself, and what better time to do that than at the first of the year ;)
I spent most of my effort last year on improving the quality of our meals. My family has come a long ways since one year ago, but it took that entire time, and we (eh em, I) still have more work to do. To sum it up quickly, we have learned to make most everything we eat from scratch except for dairy and meat. Does that mean that's all we eat? No, but every month we seem to be eating less and less processed foods and most of what we buy is either grown or made locally.
I am getting to my main point soon, I promise! So that healthy eating journey led me down a whole lot of other side roads, and is responsible for all the wonderful new things I've learned that have absolutely nothing to do with food.
I became slightly obsessed with the whole idea of self-sufficiency. To the point that now, my ideal future would have us on a farm - yes, a farm. It might happen, it might not, but I figure it can't hurt to start learning and living as much of that lifestyle as I possibly can from where I am right now.
The farm ideal introduced me to homesteading. The ultimate in self-sufficiency. And so I started absorbing as much information on that as I possibly could.
Homesteading led me to natural child rearing. Making most of a child's needs by hand. Natural child development and seasonal growth.
Natural child rearing led me to Waldorf education and the idea of rhythm in our days and activities. I will never be a Waldorf purist, but I am definitely using a lot of the Waldorf methods.
Whew! And that is where I am right now.
So, for this upcoming year I only have one goal in mind, though it is a huge one to tackle.
I want to live simply, by choice, and teach my children the art living that way. Because truly, in today's world, to live really simple is sort of an art form.
Why?
Well, because I need my children to appreciate the small things in life. I need them to know that they are incredible human beings just for being them. That gadgets and gizmo's won't bring them happiness. The only thing that will bring them happiness is themselves, and their ability to shape their lives. They need to know how to be self-sufficient, because no matter how well they do in school, if they don't know how to take care of themselves, both emotionally and mentally, they will not reach their full potential.
Do I really think living simply will do this?
Yes, I do.
So over this next year (hopefully more!), there will likely be a lot of posts on this topic.
So over this next year (hopefully more!), there will likely be a lot of posts on this topic.
I'd love to hear from you. What are some of your goals for this year?
Great post!! I've ben wandering through your archives & look forward to more posts on homesteading & self-sufficiency :)
ReplyDeleteThank you! I have to say I tend to jump around a lot and while self-sufficiency and homesteading will always be the ultimate goal, the last few months I have been focusing most of my energy on reducing, organzing and updating. So, a lot of my posts are about that right now. I hope you choose to stick around and thank you so much for visiting!!
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