We are making changes for our family. Some big & some small.
For our health. For our environment. For our future.
When we had Judah one of the biggest leaps we took in how we would care for him in a simple way was in choosing to use cloth diapers. From there we started to evaluate all the "details" of raising a child...
What would we use for body care for our baby?
What would we feed him?
What would we clothe him in?
What will he play with?
How will we take him places?
It is not always easy to switch from the "conventional" way of doing things. A lot of times it can be cheaper and more convenient to do them the main stream way. And we have not been perfect, even knowing what choices are healthier, but this year we are going to dive in head first and slowly make the changes we have been wanting to implement over the past few years.
I hope to share many of the changes we are making on here as a way to inspire or guide others who might be interested.
Here are some of the areas we will be making changes in:
1. What we eat. We already try to eat locally as much as possible and cook homemade meals. But, as Andrew starts his venture into farming & his first CSA, we are really focusing on what we feed our family even more. I will be learning how to can and preserve all kinds of things this summer :) We are committing to not eating any prepared frozen meals (don't do this often, but if we do it has been from Trader Joe's--no preservatives, ect...but a heck of a lot of salt!) We will eat organic fruits and veggies as much as possible/available and a lot less meat (and when we do, it must be local.) We will not eat out often, but will choose instead to cook from scratch, at home & make it a fun, family activity...we really want Judah to have a love for cooking.
2. What we put on our bodies--shampoos, body washes, toothpastes, deodorants, ect. Our skin is the largest organ in our body and absorbs everything we put on it! I will be trying the "no-poo" regime (more on that later) and researching everything we use & sharing here. It is so scary to think about all the things in body care products and what the possible affects could be on our bodies years down the road...many chemicals in them have been linked to cancers, birth defects, ect.
3. What we buy. We want our kids to not only understand how to wisely spend money, but also to have a respect for the environment & what affects buying new has on it. We are committing to buying used as much as possible, reduce, reuse & recycle! Clothes, furniture, cookware, toys. When we do buy new, we want to buy from environmentally conscious companies, preferably made in the USA. I also want to learn more about sewing and creating things for our family with my own hands.
4. Driving less. It will be tricky now that we have 3 kiddos, but we have never shyed away from a challenge :) Two parents plus two Burleys= transportation for the whole fam!
A lot of times when I talk about this people say their number one reason to not make changes like these is cost. Let me tell you, Andrew and I are some of the most frugal/cheap people you will meet. It PAINS us to spend money, we hate it. I will be sharing about how you can really make it LESS expensive to make a lot of these changes!!
There is SO much more running through my head in ways that we can/need/will make changes...I am so excited to share this journey here!
I'm super excited for your updates! I've been slowly wanting to and trying to make these kinds of changes too!
ReplyDeletealways cool to see how people take on challenges to change like this, especially if their environment isn't super-conducive to it. (for example, here in berkeley some of these are fairly easy and almost engrained into the local culture, but madison is more difficult, and anywhere remotely suburban even more difficult than that.)
ReplyDeleteand to think, when you were pregnant with judah you were puzzled when you asked if you could microwave your diner at our place for small group and i made sure you had it in a glass container rather than the plastic that it came in... =)
We have been already doing a lot of these things over the past year, but not consistently enough. I agree, it is difficult to implement some of these things because of where we live, ect. Also, I think a lot of it has to do with the culture we grew up in in Northern Wisconsin. It is SO hard to break out of the mold you grew up in sometimes, even when you have been removed from it for quite awhile. A lot of these things seem "weird" or "out there" to many people from that area of Wisconsin.
ReplyDeleteI remember that specific time you are talking about at Bible Study. I had a little soup that came in a "microwave safe" container. I remember you slightly freaking out when I wanted to pop it in the microwave in that container! haha. It is funny how much has changed since then. It makes me cringe to think about doing something like that now!