The New Me

I've been given a few new nicknames around our house lately!
~ Brainwashed
~ Tree Hugger
~ Mom's gone CRAZY!

Why? Because if you knew me three years ago, these would all be appropriate names considering the way I used to be and the things I'm doing now! The cleanses I am doing have promoted lots of additional reading on being more healthy in general. After pondering some of these things for over a year, I've decided it's not as daunting and difficult (or crazy) as I've always thought. Here's just another one of those things I said I'd never do and lo and behold . . . here I go!

So what am I doing to "go green?"
~ I've changed over all our cleaning supplies to all natural ingredients such as hydrogen peroxide, white vinegar, baking soda, cinnamon or tea tree oil. Club soda works for many things too. One author who has been cleaning like this for years said that she has calculated that using these materials is not only safer for your health and the environment but is actually 1/10th of the price you pay for commercial cleaning supplies. (Keep in mind the switch over will cost a bit upfront to get the supplies to start.)

~ I've found recipes for homemade toothpaste (haven't tried it yet), homemade shampoo (haven't tried it yet), homemade deodorant (currently using), and homemade dish soap. They are all very easy and not very time consuming.

~ I'm slowly switching over my use of white flour to whole wheat, white sugar to sucanat, honey, maple syrup, or agave, and trying to eat more whole foods. This one is the toughest change with 4 kids used to eating everything American Standard Diet!

~ I ditched my laundry detergent and decided to try Soap Nuts. Soap Nuts are berries from a tree that has saponin in them. They deseed and dry the berry and then you toss it in your washing machine! It costs about 7 cents a load and they get my clothes clean.

~ The kicker for Abiel is that I decided to make homemade strawberry freezer jam! She has asked me to do things like that in the past and I would adamantly say something like, "I'll probably never do that sort of thing! Too much work!" Again, eat my words (and jam!) I found a SIMPLE recipe for freezer jam sweetened with honey or sucanat and it only took me an hour to make 16, 8 oz. jars!

So here is the new me that I swore I'd never be. But here's my catch. My baby is now 2 years old. It is my firm belief that until your baby is 2, it is very difficult to make any dramatic changes to your life. It seems that once your baby is 2, life (or moms) normalize. So unless you are more "with it" than I was with children under 2 (which is VERY probable) or you grew up in a home where these things were modeled, I don't really suggest trying to do a whole house makeover for awhile.

If you want more information on any of these things, feel free to email me (see "contact me" in sidebar) or check out this website. This is where I found the majority of information for most of my switches. She's really gung ho, but if you sort through the personal conviction to find things that work for you without feeling like you have do try everything she suggests, it's a great site. Passionate Homemaking is the website.

My blog will not be about "going green." I don't plan on talking about it any more than I talk about anything else I am living out. I hesitated sharing because I hate feeling like I'm coming across as "This is the way everyone should live." I don't feel that at all. In fact, I could write pages and pages of how I've come to this, and my thoughts about why so many people aren't ready to make these kinds of lifestyle changes. It IS hard to teach old dogs new tricks and there is NOTHING easy about changing the way you do everything simply because it's "better for you!" I only share to encourage those who have been thinking about changing over some things. If I can do it. . . anyone can!

So come over for a visit and we'll share some jam and bread! ;-)