Sunday, July 18, 2010

Organic living, 2nd quarter

I know that you've all been waiting waiting waiting for my 3rd (of 5, the end is in sight) post on organic-ness. So, tah-dah! It's here. Good thing for the few who may read this, it's going to be a short one. Why??? Not much to update, but I'm trying to be faithful to my New Years resolution. Craziness, I know. This is kinda like something that's on my personal bucket list: complete one New Years resolution at least once.

This quarter's update:
*We're in a groove where it's almost comfortable to choose organic broccoli for $3.29 versus "regular" broccoli for $1.79 (totally making these numbers up, but it's something like this).

*Ben doesn't question my organic choices. Maybe he's just learned to hide his squeemishness? Maybe he's more comfortable as well.

*I have found out that people who would in no way be exposed to this blog and therefore have virtually no idea that this is my goal this year are in dialogue with me about organic and/or environmentally friendly living in interesting ways. My babysitter randomly mentions a place that she knows of to buy organic eggs. My mother-in-law tells me about vegetarian cooking and then invites me to eat it. My closest community is increasingly like-minded, though this is probably because I'm leeching onto others' ideas, not because anything I'm doing is groundbreakingly brilliant. Regardless, it's encouraging to know that we're not exclusively hippie in a land of McDonald's addicts. I also recognize that at least 50% of my green community does not live in Kokomo, which does introduce some challenges in communication. My siblings-in-law may have a really cool farmer's market that I'd love to go to, but they live nearly 3 hours away, not convenient.

*Convenience is probably as much of a challenge as cost when trying to live organically or earth friendlier.

*We haven't changed our cleaning habits as much as we could.

*It can be a bit difficult to talk with people who are close to me and don't make the same choices as I do. We don't spray every weed on our property with harsh chemicals or pay for lawn treatments, which isn't always understood by others who see these actions as expected.

*We LOVE our gDiapers!!! Love love love them and wish that we had invested in them much earlier when we had first heard about them months ago. And, after 2 months, they have half-way paid for themselves. I haven't bought diapers in 2 months, and that's with Abby wearing a disposable every night.

*We switched to a low-flow shower head for a reason that wasn't solely because we love the Earth, as in we had a monetary reason for doing so, and I personally love it quite a bit.

Basically, it feels good where we're at right now. I'm still not losing weight by not eating nearly as much meat. This continues to be a huge disappointment in my life.

1 comment:

Fugitive said...

Hi. Apparently I'm in a chatty mood tonight. Sorry. This summer we have really enjoyed having our own herb garden. We have yummy things growing in big pots-sage, mint, basil, tarragon, dill, parsley, oregano, thyme...it's easier than veggies because if we don't pick them on time they just keep growing, they don't go bad. And we have fun making sage honey cornbread that we've never tried before. Delicious.