Seeking God Knows What

Gosh.  It has been nearly two weeks with no posts! 

You would think since I’m not working at all, I might post more often but we’ve been busy taking advantage of the days with warmer weather.  We are still having cool windy days on occasion here, but Widget and I have been trying to walk to the park in the afternoon when it is sunny and warm enough.

I’ve had blog post ideas running through my mind but honestly, I just haven’t sat down to take them to more than just ideas. 

Post ideas like:

What I’m trying to change to live a greener life.

A possibility about adoption #2 (very, very remote but yet still a possibility).

What’s happening in our relationship with L and the future of it, particularly as Widget gets older.

The detritus of my parents’ life together.

How I feel like a round peg in a square hole when it comes to our church and its denomination: I fit but not exactly.  Whether I should be striving to be a square peg or should I be looking for a round hole?

My overall emotional wellbeing and how it has changed (for the better!).

So there’s few ideas running around

I heard about this book Healthy Child, Healthy World the other day.  Since I’ve been thinking a lot about what kinds of things we eat and use in our daily lives, it seems to fit right into what I want to do.

The book just came out this last week and since I had a gift card and a coupon for Barnes and Noble, I picked it up the other night. 

And then I read the introduction.  The people behind the organization that put out this book, Healthy Child Healthy World, started it because they lost their 5 year old daughter to Wilms’ Tumor in the early 90s.  Since they could not find a genetic reason for her cancer (nor is there one for my diagnosis), they wondered if something in their environment had played a role.  They decided to start advocating to create change in the types of products/chemicals used in our lives, particularly those children are regularly exposed to.  My mother and I have both wondered if there was an environmental factor behind me getting cancer as a kid because I have been the ONLY child in either side of my family for generations to have cancer (I actually don’t know of any child in my familial history).  In fact, the only cancer diagnoses have been with the older adults and those have been very few as well.  Anyway, I was surprised to learn that in the past, chemicals and products have been rated on how they affect a 155 lb adult male, not a smaller much more susceptible child.

While I’ve only gotten a chance to read the first couple of chapters, I love how they present ways to change your lifestyle to a greener and healthier one by giving you 10 steps to change in each chapter.  I’ve already gotten a lot of good tips on cleaning and products to use as well as why the products I have used in the past are not healthy, particularly for kids.

So here’s my recommendation, if you are looking for ways to change your lifestyle, this book is a good one start with :)  Also check out their website.

This post is in honor of Earth Day

One of the most common things I hear as I’m starting to tell people about my desires to live a life more focused on using natural and/or organic products is “You aren’t going to become some weird hippie, are you?” along with “But won’t it cost a lot more?”

On the first question, nope, not a chance of me becoming a weird hippie naturalist.  Some things in my life won’t change: I believe in modern medicine, considering that it saved my life, so I won’t be going the homeopathy route in taking care of myself or my family.  I have a few indulgences that I probably won’t give up either: Edy’s ice cream and I usually have a coke or can of mountain dew a day.  I will probably end up driving a minivan down the road, though I will be sure to research and find the most environmentally responsible version when the time comes.

As for the expense, some things will be more expensive, yes.  But I can still buy them within my budget.  It might mean buying less overall but isn’t that part of the point? Reducing our family’s consumption of goods to lessen the impact on the earth?  My plan is to gradually replace what I use with a more earth-friendly product.  When I buy groceries, I’m buying the organic versions.  When I need new sheets or towels, I’ll buy organic or earth-friendly.  When I need more paper towel, I’ll buy the recycled brands.  When we need new furniture, I’m going to look into buying furniture from a sustainable living source.  I’m planning to cloth diaper when we adopt again, so that will be a greater expense up front but when I reflect on how much money we spent and how many disposable diapers we used with WIdget, in the end, it will be cheaper.

You don’t have to change everything at once.  But making gradual changes towards living a healthier, more earth-friendly life benefits not only you but those around you.

Taking responsibility for the impact our lives have on this earth means preserving this planet for the future. 

Living green doesn’t make you weird.

Think about it.

My younger sister is rubbing off on me.  Not her craftiness because crafty and Erin don’t work together.  I try, it looks, well, like Widget made it.  At the age of 30, I still cannot cut in a straight line with a guide tool.  It is hopeless.  Really.  I gave up on it a long, long time ago. 

But she does have me thinking a lot about the food we eat, the toys Widget plays with, and eventually what baby products to have at the ready whenever we do adopt again.  MK hasn’t gone completely crunchy because she does like her Starbucks lattes and Target, but I’d call her a ”half-crunchy mama” because she does like babywearing, co-sleeping, breastfeeding, minimal television for her kids (mostly Kipper, Signing Time and Thomas videos) natural fabric, fibers, wood toys and products, organic foods- she practically lives for the farmer’s market in the spring and summer.  She hasn’t done cloth diapers yet, only because she hasn’t had the money for all the stuff you need but she wants to. 

Right now I’m focusing on trying to buy healthier foods for us.  I have started buying food without high fructose corn syrup and food dyes when it comes to Widget, meaning it takes me longer at the store because I’m reading labels and trying to decipher the ingredient lists.  There aren’t a lot of choices when it comes to organic food and products around here, so it is still much more expensive to buy organic except at the farmer’s market for produce in the summer.  We have a couple smaller “health food stores” and the regular grocery stores are carrying small quantities of organic goods but we could stand to have a store like Whole Foods nearby with more variety.  It would still be more expensive to buy all organic than not but I’m beginning to think it is worth the expense to know that there are less chemicals going into our bodies.

And when we move this next time, I am going to go through and try to get rid many of the plastic and noisy toys Widget has- side note: hopefully into the house we went through on Friday- yes we got our deposit back from the property management place with a little bit of a hassle.  I have been buying her more wooden and natural toys in the last few months but she still has a lot of junk.  If only I could get certain family members to either not buy her so much crap or when they buy her stuff, to not buy noisy and plastic.

And I’m thinking about when we adopt again, what kind of bottles to use.  I know I don’t want ones with bisphenol-A in the plastic and I’ve heard some things about the plastic drop-in liners, which we used with Widget, possibly leaching chemicals if they get heated too hot.  I’m worried about glass bottles with how “helpful” Widget is likely to be.  I would like to use organic formula if I can find it reasonably priced somewhere.  I also know I want either a pouch or ring sling and I’m thinking about cloth diapering.  T was rather alarmed at the mention of cloth diapers because he was afraid of pins and poking the baby but then I told him that many types do not use pins but snaps or velcro.  So I have some research to do to get things figured out

What is rather funny about all of this is that when my two youngest siblings were babies and preschoolers, my mother went through an organic/natural phase.   And since I was a teenager, I felt it was my duty in life to say that everything organic was disgusting and weird. 

Now, here I am contemplating the same thing.