I am making changes around my home.
I'm homeschooling myself again and you should see our dining room table. All the instructional books! Mary Jane's Farm Magazines and lamps and paper and pens. For years I've made tiny upgrades in our diet and lately I'm making huge changes.
I'm so weary of eating, sipping and breathing chemicals.
You won't believe it (and I'm not suggesting anyone else does this), but today I unplugged our microwave and lugged it all lopsided down to our basement. Well, after phoning Tom at work to see if he would mind. It's just that I read that microwaving food (and even water) changes the molecular structure. That makes me nervous. And since I found myself, even after hearing that bad news, popping food into the microwave like an automated zombie, I thought the basement would be a more proper place for it.
Of course, on a trial basis. Perhaps I'll change my mind in a week. Who knows.
Some people want sprawling, modern, stream-lined kitchens with all the latest, shiniest, space-age ovens and step-saving gadgets on Planet Earth and cupboards stuffed with boxed mixes for everything from whipped cream to fruit pies to a three-course meal inside a box.
Me? I want to be more like my grandmother. I want to travel what many would call backward and slip on my apron and bake from scratch using organic flour and making pies with un-chemical-laced fruit and lemon juice. I want to return to baking in an oven, raising my own vegetables, using vinegar as a weed killer and never sip another diet soda or eat a fast-food burger again.
And I want to dry my clothes on a clothesline in the backyard and take Vitamin C and cranberry juice to clear-up infections and use natural soaps for my skin and the laundry and baking soda to clean my sinks. I want to make potpourri from the roses and lavender in our yard instead of spraying more chemicals inside my house to make it smell 'fresh.'
Through the years, I've done it both ways, natural and unnatural, unprocessed and processed-beyond-belief. And lately I'm crossing over to the natural side and remaining there. I hope.
Already I'm feeling better--and I've only just begun.
******
I know what you are saying. I am making a more slow, gradual change.
ReplyDeleteI have my 3rd load of clothes on the line right now, I'm cleaning with baking soda and vinegar, I have a pot of beans on the stove that I soaked overnight and have been cooking for HOURS, and I've been writing down different ways to make my own laundry soap.
I still have my microwave and some boxed meals -- but I'm using them less and less.
And can you believe I actually thought about canceling cable tv?
Blessings,
Sherry
We are on this same train. Changes are not easy to make and take time, especially when it changes whatever the norm is for cooking!! But daughter is going to have to eat VERY restricted for the next maybe 6 months...and then we will have to be more careful than we have been (which is kind of careful) about rotating everything. SIGH...but it won't hurt us either. We basically eat awfully plain. Yet more changes equals yet more recipes for my alternative cookbook I have been working on for several years now. We have to find ways to make challenges into blessings I think. We are not using our microwave much and I want to discard it entirely. I do think often about how much healthier our parents and grandparents were...surely the more pure food was part of that. But today, it is not easy to eat only the pure stuff...if we can even find it. I am trying out the Amazon.com grocery ordering service...of things I find difficult to get here in this small town. If you order $25 or more of what they sell, the shipping is free. I think it will save time and gas! And time is money.
ReplyDeleteSuch good moves you have made. Living without a microwave is no big deal, just have to heat the leftovers the old fashioned way. I don't even use plastic wrap or aluminum foil, I cover my casseroles with cookie sheets and use glass containers for food storage. Just keep up the good work and honestly going backwards is going forward !
ReplyDeleteI make natural soap at home and sell it some. I love it. I have been doing it for quite a few years now, and my skin is amazing. I suffer from great eczema and it helps incredibly. No one gets to buy soap from the store anymore. I would NEVER put that junk on my skin again! It is so bad for you!!
ReplyDeleteI have a thrifted copy of Doris Longacre's book "Living More with Less" which is helping me make some much needed changes.
ReplyDeleteI'm not even planning to pack it, I'll just carry it out with me when I go.
Since I tend to be an "all or nothing" sort of person, I'm struggling to do this slowly and sanely.
Much to learn about that!
I just wrote my daughter over the weekend, telling her I feel I'm returning to my food "roots" of the 70s and 80s when we ate whole foods.
ReplyDeleteI have a tiny microwave, mainly only used for my husband to warm his coffee (which he has a habit of setting down and forgetting where he put it).
Your lifestyle changes sound so wonderful! When I was a stay-at-home mom (21 years) I tried to live that way too. There was a comfort in doing things the old fashioned way and knowing you were doing what's best for your family.
ReplyDeleteAfter my husband died I had to go to work full time and it was a whole different story. I found myself relying on things "quick and easy" in order to have time to do the million and one other things I no longer had time for. (like laundry and vacuuming and shopping....)
I was so much happier at home everyday where I could fulfill my roles as wife, homemaker, mom....with ease.
I envy you! At least I'm still able to grow my own veggies and have a stockload of homegrown blue berries in my freezer to get me through winter.
Oh Debra....you're homeschooling yourself...something I keep telling myself I'm going to do after Leah leaves for school this fall :)
ReplyDeleteLove your new look too...
where in the world did you get the energy???
ReplyDeletewe are in the 90F+++ temps and humidity ... and this condo has A/C (thank you Lord!), first time for us ... yet still, i am in the lazy hazy summer schedule ...
but i admire your spunk! :o)
Thanks, Everyone, for your supportive comments and great additional suggestions! I really appreciate the input and knowing that I'm not alone in this... Thanks again! Blessings, Debra
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