My Life

This is the start of a crazy week. My twins have their annual physical tomorrow, then the next day my oldest has an appointment with his autism doctor, and then I take my LICSW test on Wednesday.  Along with this I have to work at three different nursing homes this week.  As usual, I am continuing to try to figure out life.  I keep trying to living the handmade and natural life that I want to live, but for some reason, it always seems so illusive.

I just read a blog post about " Our Year Without Groceries"  and I am re-inspired to continue with this dreams and desire to live a handmade and natural life.  As always, there is a balance, but I haven't quite found the balance I want or need.  I'm not sure that I could go a year without going to a grocery store, but I would love to try it.  I need to figure out how, just north of Boston, I can afford to eat local. I have a garden, and we should be set for tomatoes and kale, but I'm not sure what else.  Farmers markets here seem to be more of the "in thing" instead of a way of life.  I love going to our local farmers market, but, unfortunately it is really an expensive way to buy food.  I would love to support my local farmers, but I need to figure out how to keep it within my budget.

Along with the food issue, I need to work on the clothing issue.  I just read a story to my children about being green.  One way I want to live a greener life, other than with eating less processed foods, is to reuse clothing.  I have been really lucky with hand me downs for my kids, but I haven't been as lucky or as good with thrift stores and hand me downs for me.  I want and need to stop buying and adding to the excessive amounts of "stuff"

Once I pass my LICSW test Wednesday, I am hoping to do more than just nursing home social work.  I am hoping to do social work with my love of handmade and natural living. I would love to work with people to teach them how to live this way, But I need to learn how to live this way too.  I will keep trying and learning and failing and getting back up and trying again.

This blog is my dream and my ultimate goal and I will continue to work at living the life I desire.  I may not always live it and I may fall really hard, but I will continue to get back up and try again.  I hope that at some point, I will be able to share this with others!

Amy

On Being Previvor

If you didn't know, I recently found out that I am a "previvor".    A previvor is a term, I believe, that was founded by force.com to designate a term for people who are positive for the BRCA gene.  I now am faced with the decision to have prophylactic surgeries to remove my ovaries and my breasts.  This has been something that I have thought about for the last couple of months.  I had started thinking about it before I got tested, but the reality of this is just finally hitting me.  Last night was really the first time that I allowed myself to break down.  I was out doing my walk/run and in the middle of it, I broke down and started crying.  I started talking to my husband about what happened and he said I really need to do research and figure out what I need to do for me and that he will support me in what ever decision I make.

If you couldn't tell by the name of this blog, I believe in living a more natural life, but I also believe that there is a balance that needs to happen when living a natural life.  This decision is one area that I believe needs to be balanced.  I don't think that it is an easy decision to make: to either have surgery to remove parts of my body, that for a lot of women including me, are part of who we are as women or to use more alternative means to prevent cancer, breast and ovarian.  Right now I am leaning to not doing surgery with the potential of maybe having my ovaries out, but not having my breasts removed.  I have felt that this was going to be the way that I would go from the beginning, but I am scared of making the wrong decision and getting cancer and leaving my husband and 3 young children before it is time all because I made the wrong decision.

The New Year's goals that I have written about are based a lot on my BRCA2 + status.  I think that if I can work harder on these goals and actually meet them or at least continue working on them, I have a good chance of preventing cancer.  There is a lot of writing out there about having a gene and getting cancer.  There is also some information on how your genes are not your destiny.  I am hoping that I can make changes to my life to help change my genetic destiny.  I need to do a ton of research, and I need to find people who are on the same page as I am.  I haven't really figured out how to find these people, but I am hoping that there may be a group that I can find, maybe a support group type forum that actually meets in person.  I love that the internet allows for all sorts of info, but I really want to meet people and talk to professionals in person.

I am hoping that at some point in my life, I will figure out what I want to do professionally and hope that the less stress I have career wise will help with less stress overall.  I would love to have a career that took into account my beliefs of living a handmade and natural life.

Wish me luck on my research endeavors!
Amy

Wishcasting Wednesday and CTWW

I love Wednesdays for blogging, at least on this blog.  On Wednesdays, I love to see what Jamie over at http://jamieridlerstudios.ca and what http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com prompt me to think about.

This week Jamie asks: "What guidance do you wish for?"  As usual, Jamie's question follows right along with things that I have been thinking about.  For me, I wish for guidance in following my dreams and my passions.  I know what my dreams and my passions are, at least I think I do, but I think I need guidance on how to follow though with them.  How do I make them them a part of my life instead of just a dream in my mind?  Is it possible to take them and make them something I could make a living at and if so, how do I do it?  How do I follow my dreams and my passions and not give up on my social work profession?  How do I follow my dreams and passions and afford to do it?  I guess these are just a few of the questions that I wish for guidance on.

Last week, for change the world Wednesday, I wrote about reducing my waste.  I guess on some level I made a pretty huge goal for myself.  One of the things that I have to remember in my life is that I can take small steps to get to the large goal I have, I don't have to leap to the large goal right away.  I have done better this past week with making my own tea and bringing food for lunch, but I have not been perfect.  I still need to get better at planning and making sure that I have food in the house to make dinner and that I actually make dinner.  I also need to get better at packing my dinner for work and using up leftovers.  I have been better this week, but not where I was hoping to be.  I also want to do better at not buying my coffee or my tea out.  A lot of my goals will help reduce waste and also help my finances, a win win situation.  As I wrote above I want guidance in following my passions.  One of my passions is living a greener more natural life and that includes reducing waste.  So, this is a goal that I will be continuing with and hopefully as time moves on, the small changes I make will lead up to the large goal I have.

This week, reduce footprints asks us to look at our fridge and see what we can do to make sure that it operates efficiently.  There are lots of suggestions that they have and I plan to follow through checking out my fridge.  One of the suggestions is to change the gasket.  I know that we have replaced it recently, but I will double check to see that it is still working right.  I will plan to write an update of how things go after I follow reduce footprints suggestions.

Amy

CTWW: Proudest Green Acheivement

Once again I am joining in the change the world Wednesday.  This week we are asked to talk about our proudest green acheivement.  For me, my proudest acheivement is making many green changes over time and actually sticking with those changes.  For some things, I still have a ways to go, but for other areas, I am truly happy with what I have acheived. 

One thing I have started doing is looking at what health and beauty items I use and how I can make greener choices.  I have attempted to make sure that the products I use are as natural as possible, and if I can I like to make my own products so that I know what healthy green ingredients are going into them.  I also hope that I can reduce packaging by making my own products.  Currently, I am using baking soda and essential oils for toothpaste, coconut oil/baking soda/corn starch/essential oils for deodorant, soaps with natural ingredients (I hope to make my own someday soon).  I am always on the look out for new recipes to try so that I can be more green and more healthy.

I try to be very conscious about recycling.  I try to make sure that if we can recycling things in our recycling bin, we do so.  We currently have a house guest who does not seem to get the recycling piece of things, even though he likes to think that he is really green.  I have made sure that the containers that he uses get recycled along with what we use.

Last year we started our first garden.  Along with starting our garden, we started to compost.  Our neighbor was looking to get rid of a composter and gave it to us.  Not only did it help us financially (since we didn't have to pay for it), we were able to keep an old composter (that still had years of working time) in use.  We now compost everything that is able to go into the compost bin. 

These are just a couple of changes that I have made, but I think the biggest change I have made with regards to going green, is I now think before I act.  I may not always make the best choice, but it is a conscious thought out choice and I try to make the most eco-conscious choice I can depending on the situation at hand.

What are you most proud green accomplishments?

Amy

CTWW:Review of Goals From Last Week

Unfortunately, I am not going to participate in CTWW this week.  I'm sure that I am looking at activism in too intense of a way, but I just don't think I have time right now to commit.  I have a social work background and when I return to work full time, I would love to work in an eco-friendly activism area (which is why I am probably thinking too big with this challenge.  I may look more into doing it, but right now I'm not going to commit for this week.)

As for last week, my goal was to get coffee out, but to make it at home or just drink tea.  I didn't quite meet my goal.  For some reason, iced coffee just kept calling my name and I tried to avoid and ignore it, but I didn't plan well enough to have cream in the house for coffee, so what did I do?  Did I go out and buy the cream?  No, I went out and bought iced coffee at local coffee places (and by local coffee places I don't mean small shops, I mean chains).  So my new goal is to stop buying coffee out and if I can't stop actually drinking the coffee, I will by the creamer at the grocery store, not the coffee at my local Dunkin Dounuts or similar places.  In general, I am going to try to stop buying processed pre-made foods, but make my own.  A big part of this is due to some food intolerances of me and my children as well as my husband.  I am wondering if there are hidden foods that we are eliminating that maybe causing at least one of my sons to have an issue.  Also this will greatly reduce waste and be better all around!

Where I did meet my goal or at least come close to my goal was in the area of driving for no reason.  I made sure that when I went out in the car, I had a reason to drive, not just to go for a ride.  I made sure that I knew what errands needed to be completed and where and tried to make it so that it was more economic and environmentally conscious to drive.  If I had a better grocery store closer, I would walk with the kids and get what I needed daily or close to daily so that I could get in my exercise, get the kids outside, and not use my car as much.

After sitting here writing this post, I think I am going to re-look at the CTWW challenge and see f it is something I can do.  I may have to think outside the box, but I really want to try to do this challenge and the challenges that get presented every week.

Amy

Who Am I Update

I've written a bit about who I think I am and what some of my life goals are.  I am actually starting to feel like I am accomplishing some of the goals that I have set for myself.  When my mom got diagnosed with Breast Cancer, I took a long hard look at my life and decided to make some changes.  Unfortunately, I decided to make the changes all at once.  I should know myself better and I should know that I need to go slow.  I need to make some small changes and make them stick and then move on to a few more small changes so that in the end I will have made all the big changes, just over a long time period.  I have totally eliminated soda from my diet.  With all of the new information surrounding soda, I am hoping that eliminating this will help in many ways, not just eliminating the bad things in soda.  I am doing better with eating healthy foods.  I think today might have been the first day I have been totally vegetarian, lacto-vegetarian, but vegetarian at least.  I know need to continue in this manner then start moving towards vegan, yet if I have some meat at some point, I won't beat myself up about it, because I know that will just spiral me back to where I don't want to be.

Now that I have a working washer again, my laundry is getting more manageable.  I am back to using cloth diapers.  It's a little hard with Michael being in school and wanting to ensure that I have enough diapers for him.  I have enough, but I just need to get into more of a routine with ensuring that there are cloth diapers for school.  It's only been two days of school so I know I will get into more of a routine as time goes on.

As far as crafting and being creative, I just don't seem to make the time.  I should plan better so that I have a project to work on while I watch my favorite tv shows.  I am participating in http://flirtyapronswap.blogspot.com next apron swap again.  I am really excited for this one.  I have requested a full garden apron and put that I love bright floral prints.  I am so hoping that my partner sees what I like and makes me a beautiful apron, like the ones that I have already received.  I love how creative others in this swap can be.  I am really looking forward to getting my partner and working really hard to get a package together that is really special.

Lastly, not that this is a major piece of who I am, it's really just the outward appearance of me, but I am again considering cutting my hair really short.  I have spent the last year and a half growing it out and am actually for the first time in my life, loving my curls, which is what is making this decision so much more difficult.  For years, I had a pixie style haircut and loved it.  I felt a little outrageous, probably not the right word, but I can't think of a better one.  I felt like I was saying yes I can be feminine and have really short hair.  I loved wearing makeup and really wearing dramatic colors with the short hair.  This was also pre-kids.  Not that short hair is difficult, but you really need to get your hair cut often, especially me since my hair grows in so fast.  I really need to wear make up to really make the short hair look right.  The funny thing is, when I was getting married, I contemplated growing my hair out and my sister in law mentioned that it may be foolish since short hair was what I had been wearing for years and was at that time who I was (not that you should be defined by what you look like, but short hair was who I was).  I am thinking that short hair is who I am and I should go back to wearing my hair short.  I think my husband will shoot me if I tell him I want to go short again.  I was thinking that given that my mom is getting chemo and that there is a good chance that she will lose her hair, I would cut my hair short in support of her losing her hair.  I wish my hair was longer, then I would have no qualms about cutting it.  I would go pixie short once again and donate my hair.  I don't know that I can wait long enough to let my hair grow tile there is 8-10 inches of hair to donate.  I don't know why hair is always my thing to obsess about.  I think for a bit, I was afraid that to be feminine I needed to have long hair.  I'm not sure I feel that way anymore.  I think that I had fun with short hair and I think that some day soon I may end up with short hair again.

Just a few things about me.  I hate to say that the hair paragraph is really what I needed to write about.  It's not exactly what I want to focus on with this blog, but it is who I am and I think that I needed to write about it to figure out what I want to do, not that I have made any firm decision yet.

Amy

One More Way To Go Green

I recently started to try to focus myself and this blog and write more about not just my struggles with healthy eating, but my attempts to be a little more green in my life.  I had forgotten about my desire to start hanging up my clothes after washing them versus just throwing them in the washer.  I had started hanging up my laundry in the basement while the weather was still cold, but recently got away from that when my laundry got a little out of control.  I was reading Facebook today and noticed that one of the pages that I follow, I also follow their blog http://greenlifestyleconsulting.com/, posted something about the weather here in MA getting nice enough to start line drying outside again.  I remembered that last year, I had wanted my husband to put up a clothesline in our backyard.  Unfortunately, we never got around to doing it since we had so many other projects.

This year, my goal is to get that clothesline put up and line drive all of my clothes!  The ironic thing about this is that if you had asked my just a couple of years ago, I would never have said that I wanted a clothesline.  I would have talked about how happy I am to have a dryer after growing up without one.  As a kid and a teenager and even until my early thirties, I remember hating the thought of line drying.  A dryer was so much more convenient.  Now, I am starting to think about what kind of impact I am having on the environment and what some of my practices are doing to me and my family, never mind the cost savings.  I am even thinking about switching to washing my clothes in cold water.  I guess I just always assumed that my clothes got cleaner using hot water, but at what cost?  I am also going to start using vinegar in my risnse cycle as fabric softener, especially since I am going to line dry more often!

I know that I want to continue to also use environmentally safe cleaners.  I am trying to remember to use vinegar and baking soda not bleach.  There is a new mop on the market that I want to get.  It has a refillable sprayer and a reusable cloth pad.  I am thinking that this will be something useful to clean up after the kids eat and throw food on the floor.  I think it may also just be a nice quick easy way to do daily clean ups on the floor and also use my own cleaning solution.

I am very excited that the weather here in MA is starting to warm up.  I am so looking forward to getting out with the kids.  I want to start exercising and getting some fresh air for me and the kids.  I also can't wait to start our garden, one more way we are trying to be more green.  I have started saving scraps for the composter.  I want to start a few plants with the kids so that they can watch things grow.  I can't wait for the flowers to start coming up again and  I can't wait to walk out myu back door and get food for my meals.

What are you dong to be more green?
Amy

Organizing

Ok, so yet another organizing post.  I am starting to attempt to do my version of spring cleaning, even though Spring isn't officially here yet.  With trash day tomorrow, I decided I would be good and clean out the fridge.  I really need to get a system for storing leftovers, reminding myself what I have in the fridge and what needs to be used when.  I couldn't believe what I threw out.  Here I am trying to be money conscious, a little green, less wasteful, etc, and here I was throwing out all sorts of food that had gone bad because I had forgotten about it, or because I wasn't really sure if it was bad, but I didn't want to take the chance.  My older son is going to pre-school in a couple of weeks, and I want to keep all of the paperwork I need somewhere safe.  I want to have toys put away yet accessible for me to get for the kids.  I have started putting some things in bins, but I think I need to be better at organizing the toys and only allowing certain things out at a time.  I think I need to get more bins, shelving, space so that I can have a place to put eveything.  I want to have their art stuff accessible so that we can do projects without trying to find the supplies.  I want to have their favorite toys all together so they can easily play with them.  I want to have a living room where I can feel comfortable having people over  no matter when they may pop in.  I want my kitchen to look clean and pretty, like other people's kitchens instead of cluttered and crazy. 

Right now, I have a bunch of things that I want to work on, but I need to remind myself, babysteps.  It didn't go crazy over night and it won't be fixed over night.  I just have to take baby steps each day and maintain what I have already completed. 

I would love my own desk, but I have no idea where I would put it.  Maybe in the spare room that is just being piled with toys and clean laundry right now?  I really need to utilize my space better.  I kind of have a plan and I just need to follow it.

Amy

Back To The Whole Reason I Started This Blog

I started this blog about a year and a half ago to talk about my struggles and triumphs of balancing living a handmade and natural life.  I feel like this blog has gotten a little away from that, probably partly because I have gotten away from living my life like that.  I have been struggling to follow through with some of my beliefs that got me started writing this blog.  I feel like lately all I have been writing about is my diet, and even though that is part of what I had hoped to talk about on this blog, it is not all I wanted to talk about.  I guess, in order to remind myself why I started this blog, I want to write a few bullet points on what living a handmade and natural life means to me.

1. Diet:  I want to eat as seasonally and as locally as possible.  I know that there are going to be times that I can't or won't do this, but in the long run, eating this way is a much healthier way to eat.  I want and need to find recipes that are based on eating local/seasonal foods.  I know that there are a few books out there, I just need to find good ones.  Currently, I have "Clean Eating" and am looking to get "Clean Start" by the same author.  I am also working on moving toward a vegan diet.  I have been starting my day off with raw green smoothies.  I feel like I do so much better if I start of the right way.  I am going to try to plan a menu for the month of March up front instead of flying by the seat of my pants and trying to figure out what to make each night.  This has been a goal of mine for a while now, but I just never seem to follow through.  My other goal is to finally eliminate all of the potential allergens that cam back on my blood test.  Again, I've attempted to do this, but lack the follow through.
2. Handmade Things: I want to start to make more things myself.  This includes food, but so much more.  I don't want to always rely on going to large stores to get what I need.  There are going to be times that I need to do this for financial reasons, but my goal is to buy supplies to make the end product, not by the end product out right.  I also want to make sure that I find time to create.  Making things myself will force me to find the time to actually make the things I need.  I guess that would be the other piece of how I want to live; I only want what I need.  I don't want to have that feeling of needing to have something just because I want it!  I also want to use what I have, not go out and buy more supplies.  The only way I want to buy more, is if I run out of something or I absolutely need to buy something to make a project.  I would rather choose a different project than buy new supplies adding to all the stuff that I already have and then I can save money too!
3. Living Green: I am trying to live as green as possible.  Some of the things that I have already mentioned fit this, but there are many other things that I can do.  I need to make sure that I continue to recycle.  I need to use my reusable bags more often.  I try really hard, but sometimes I go shopping and I don't have them.  I need to start composting again.  I try to reuse ends of veggies to make veggie stock.  I feel like this way, I am using all of the food not just part of it. Since I pay for it all, I should use it all.  Also, why buy veggies to make stock and then throw them out when I can use veggies that I would have thrown out if not for the stock.  And then, Why spend money on stock with who knows what type of ingredients, when you can make your own and now what is in there.
4. Exercise: I want to start exercising and including my kids in the process.  Hopefully, with March starting tomorrow, the weather will start warming up and we can get out for walks.  Even if it doesn't so much warm up, I need the snow o be gone so that I can push the double stroller safely.  What I really need to do is find some good DVDs with mom and kid exercises that we can do together when the weather is bad.  I think it will be a good thing for the kids to do to get out some of that pent up energy that they have not being able to go outside.  I also want to add in some yoga for me and for the kids!  When the weather gets better, I want to start bringing the kids to Breakhart and places like that.  I will definitely need another adult or two with me, but I want to add being in and enjoying nature to the exercise mix.
5. Living a Wholesome Balanced Life: I want to incorporate everything that I have written here as well as continuing to use natural body products and home cleaning products.  I want to continue to use more natural remedies for the different things that ail me.  For example, this weekend, I felt the beginning tingle of a cold sore.  Since I was up at 4am, I started my lysine regime right away.  I am amazed that I neer got the traditional blister that i aways get.  I must have caught it at the right time because two days later I do not have a cold sore!  I have been using my own deodorant (baking soda, cornstarch, coconut oil and essential oils).  I want to get back to making my own toothpaste (baking soda, salt and maybe some essential oils).  I will continue to try to not use shampoo when washing my hair, but if I need shampoo, I will use those without sodium laurel/laureth sulfate.  I want to start making my own soap (I need to get my husband's cousin to do it with me so I can learn the right way).  I want to start making more of my own cleaning supplies.  I know that I have a bunch of recipes printed out, but now I need to start making them. 

I'm sure that there is a ton more that I can write.  I won't bore anyone that reads this with more things that I want to do to change my life.  This is really an outline for what I want to do with my life so that I can start living the way that I want to live.

Thanks for reading this lengthy post.  This felt really good to write and I think I need to do this every so often so that I write down my goals of how I want to live.  My next posts won't be nearly as long and won't be nearly as boring.

Amy

My Blog

I feel like I am constantly writing about my diet and lack of will power, my addiction to all things that I shouldn't be eating, my inability to follow through with the things that I set out to do.  I started this blog because I wanted to make healthy lifestyle changes.  I wanted to eat more whole foods, more healthy foods.  I wanted to live a more green lifestyle.  I wanted to enjoy my love of crafting and homemade items.  Have I followed through with these things?  Yes and no.  Fortunately I still strive for these things.  Unfortunately, I still strive with what feels like little luck. 

1. Diet- I really want to be a vegan.  Lately, I am really not enjoying meat at all.  I seem to be ok with eating things like hamburger, but actual chicken, beef, and pork seem to just churn my stomach.  I haven't eaten meat since Saturday when we had steak that I really didn't enjoy (I really thought I would).  I did eat a taco salad tonight which was bad on more than one front, but I am moving on.  I really need to eliminate the foods that I think I have an allergy/intolerance to.  Now my kids may be facing similar allergies, only theirs may be more involved than mine.  For me, I tend to get digestive issues and maybe some nasal issues, but my kids are having issues with ENT stuff, like fluid in their ears and maybe enlarged adenoids and/or tonsils.  I am cooking more at home and eating out less.  I am eating a little healthier.  I really need to continue on the healthier track with my diet.
2. Living Green-I guess I am doing ok at that.  I re-cycle.  I am trying to re-purpose clothing and free-cycle for things so that I am not buying things new all the time.  We were composting, but since the winter is here, we really haven't been able to get the composter open easily.  I really wish we should start composting again.  I am trying to use my veggie peelings, my veggie ends, etc for things like soup stock.  That way I am making my own, I am not throwing away useful food, and I know what is in there.
3. Crafting and Homemade Items- I really need to focus more on this.  I spend one night a week with a friend to craft, but I never quite plan enough ahead of time so I never have a project (out of the million that I have that i want to do) ready to work on.  I am still buying things at stores(which I wanted to limit).  My twins second birthday is coming up and my older son will be three one and a half months later.  I still haven't made them a quilt.  I still haven't started their birthday gifts (the twins birthday is in a week and a half).  I wanted to start donating crafty things and haven't even thought about that, ok I have thought about it but have done nothing about it!
4. Organizing- I still need to get myself organized.  I am getting better, but it seems like everytime I make headway, something happens and I fall behind.  Sometimes it feels like one step forward two steps back.  I still need to get better at having a plan in place.  Most of this means keeping the house neat and orderly.
5. Exercise (weight loss)- I haven't done much exercising since the summer.  I still chase after teh kids, but that's just not enough.  I need to make time to exercise so that I can be healthy for me and my family.  I hope that when the nice weather comes, I'll be more likely to get out with the kids.  I can't wait though.  I need to find something now!

At least I have down what i need to work on and I want to work on it.  It would be really bad if I just have the energy or the desire to work on it!  I'll just keep plugging away and maybe, just maybe some day I'll get there!

Amy

Creative Inspiration

I've decided that I love reading blogs!  I especially love reading creative, health, and food related blogs.  My newest blog that I love to read is http://newdressaday.com/ .  I literally just started reading this blog today after seeing the blog owner, Marisa Lynch, on The Early Show this morning.    This blogger decided that she was going to make a new dress every day out of things that she finds at thrift store, flea markets etc.  She stated that she decided to do this most likely since she was turning thirty, she was laid off from her job and she was inspired by the movie Julie and Julia.  So far, she has done a dress/article of clothing a day, and from what I can see, she hasn't spent more than three dollars on the item that she refashions.  She is a total inspiration to me.

After seeing this blogger, I started to get re-energized about my blog that I had started January 1st.  Unfortunately, that blog did not go the way I planned.  Why I thought that I would have time to create very day with three little ones under two (at the time I started this), I have no idea.  Initially, I had the same inspiration as Marisa Lynch, the movie Julie and Julia.  I started out thinking that I would at least work on a project every day hopefully completing these projects sooner than later or letting them become UFO's, unfinished objects.  Unfortunately, this was too much for me to take on and I just stopped.  I kept up with my other blogs, but let that one fall by the wayside.  I plan to start that blog again.  I may not write every day, but for my own sanity, I plan to attempt to craft every day and post comments and pictures as often as I can.  This blog is at http://thecreativelifeproject.blogspot.com/ .

I plan to be creative, finish projects, use the supplies I have, and get organized while doing this.  I think that using what I have is going to be a huge deal.  I have so many supplies and unfortunately thay are not as organized as they could be so I often go and spend more money and take up more space than I should.  Using what I have and if I don't have the exact item that I need, I will look to see if I have an alternative so that I can be a little more green with my crafting.

As an aside- I have been cooking mroe and trying out new recipes.  I am loving trying new things, so I am really being creative in different areas of my life.  I am also working hard at eating healthier and I do well sometimes and then other time not so well.  It is always a work in progress and will probably always be something I struggle with.

Amy

Living Well!

I continue to try to live my life the way I truly want to.  There are many things that I am working towards at the same time.  I am trying to use as many handmade items as possible, eat as healthy as possible, exercise, be creative, garden, raise my children as naturally and healthy as possible, and be a good person as well as teach my children to be good people!

Handmade items:  I am trying to cook at home, make most of my products ie: body care,  house cleaning, gardening, even some clothing for the kids (If I get good enough I will eventually include myself in this).

Eating Healthy:  I had started out saying that I wanted to be a vegetarian or even vegan maybe, but I am now actually doing the Body Ecology diet.  This diet is for people with issues with Candida.  I am trying this diet for a multitude of reasons, but I have an allergy to candida which I am taking weekly shots for, and there are other issues that I have that I won't  go into!  I mentioned this diet to one of the nurses doing my allergy testing and she said that this is a diet we should all be following for just basic health.  My husband did the diet a few years back and when he retested for Candida, he was in the normal range!  That is good news.  He wants me to get tested so that I can know wether or not I have it and that will dictate how seriously I follow the diet.  Either way, this is a diet that I want to follow to help with my carb issues.  I have been following it for a couple of days with some difficulty, but this is probably the best I have ever done on it!  You'll be reading more about my struggles with the diet!

Exercise: I need to exercise more.  I am planning on trying to get out and walk daily, with or without the kids.  I am also planning on doing some yoga.  I am really looking forward to getting healthy and getting back in shape after being in grad school (was not healthy at all), getting married and pregnant right after graduation, then having twins 10 1/2 months after my first son was born!

Be creative: I really love to be creative!  I used to scrapbook, rubber stamp, make jewelry, and so much more.  Unfortunately 3 kids limits the amount of time that I have to do any of this!  I think it is really important for me to maintain this since it is something I love to do!

Gardening: We pretty much finished the butterfly garden and most of the gardens in the front of the house.  Now it is just a waiting game for them all to bloom!  We need to get started on our veggie garden since I would love to not have to rely on the grocery stores this summer of at all possible!  I would love to go to the farmers markets to buy what ever I can't get from our garden or from family and friends.  My only issues is that i feel like the farmers markets near me are more for people to go to since it is the trendy thing to do, not because they truly want to be healthy and eat local, but that's a rant for another day!  I plan to look at some farmers markets out in Western MA to see if they are any different since I truly believe that there is a different way of life out there!

View of the butterfly garden from the kids window!  Doesn't look like much now, but once it blooms, I think it will be beautiful!

I just want to raise good kids and live a good healthy, happy, life!  It is going to be an ongoing struggle to live the way I want to, but it is a struggle worth doing!

Going Green

Well my plan to go green has not been going well at all.  I started out doing great when I started this blog, but now that Tom is back in school, it's crazy how busy I am.  Things are much busier and we haven't been able to get to the farmers market as much as we were during the summer.  I still try to cook more than doing take out, but we are doing take out more than I would like.  I am also spending more time in my car, which is definitely not green.  I have not been walking like I wanted to.  My goal was to shop daily by walking to the grocery store with the 3 kids.  That way, I would be buying what we needed, not using the car as much, and getting some exercise.  Unfortunately I have not been doing this.  I was actually going to start today, but it is raining and I am not taking 3 kids for a walk in the rain.  Thankfully I had bought most of the stuff for a crockpot version of butternut squash soup.  I believe that the crockpot (slow cooker) is a pretty green way of cooking.  Not only can you save energy this way, but I can get dinner started in the morning and not have to worry about it for the rest of the day.  So far I have made 2 new recipes in the slow cooker.  Tonight is the squash soup with no dairy.  Supposedly it's just as creamy as other versions that are ladened with cream and fat.  We'll see how it turns out.  I did buy a new slow cooker cook book that I will be trying out often (I hope).  I hope to get back on track with my going green!  I am still trying to recycle, but still need to work better on not driving as much, cooking for my family, and trying to eat either locally or what's in season!  Also I need to continue to eat healthier, exercise and use green cleaning products!

Go Green!