Taking Stock and Taking a Blog Break

When I my kids ate 3 raw beets and 4 purple carrots after school for their snack one day, I knew something major had changed in our family. Since then I've had writer's block. Maybe because this blog has served it's original purpose for me. It has made me follow through on things I might never have done otherwise - and now I'm hooked, I don't need the cyberspace motivation anymore. Our progress has been beyond my wildest expectations. Thank you to those who have read the blog, commented, emailed or debated with us for the last several months.

In the last 4 months, our changes have focused on food, chemicals, and consumerism. But the more I learn, the more I confirm that all of these components are interconnected. As I change my food patterns, I discover community. As I change my shopping habits, I contribute to a more fair, sustainable economy. It's been eye opening, and surprisingly easy. It turns out that an average, somewhat lazy, but socially conscious mother can actually drastically change her habits in just a matter of months.

If you're interested, here's my inventory of changes:

• purging all processed foods from our diets, with a few exceptions that allow us to function socially!
• switching from about 10% organics to about 90% when it comes to fruits, vegetables, wine, baking supplies, oils, nuts, cosmetics and pretty much everything else except clothing (one of these days...cotton uses an insane amount of pesticides). We aim to choose local products where possible.
• switching to organic meats, with particular attention to grass fed beef and dairy (avoids feedlot agriculture, and provides a more healthy balance of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids) and cooking meals with smaller meat portions.
  
• eating more vegetarian meals with beans and lentils to make up for our expensive meat
  
• phasing out new toys for birthday parties and baby gifts (unless they are very needed). We recently gave an "e-charity gift" from Plan Canada. Our choice was a "Birthing Kit" (to be used for a woman with no access to clean medical facilities) to honour the birth of a friend's child. For the new big sister, we chose the gift of a year's worth of school supplies for a girl who would otherwise have no access to school.
• vowing to avoid loot bags and dollar store toys that don't last. Vowing to have gift free (or recycled gift, or charity gift) parties for our own kids, at least until they're old enough to really fight it.
  
• making way more foods from whole grains, and from scratch (ie. bread once or twice a week, muffins and cookies occasionally). We love our Ontario grown and milled Grassroots Organics flours. When we're stuck, we buy Stonemill wholegrain breads - they even bake with 100% green power!
  
• phasing out refined sugar and replacing it with agave nectar when possible
• choosing Fair Trade certified products when possible. Ten Thousand Villages makes a good shopping adventure for this, and stores are carrying certified goods more frequently than they used to.
  
• working towards homegrown food, even on our deck (and shared garden at my parents' place) where we're hoping to grow our own huge tomato crop so we can make our own tomato sauce, diced and stewed tomatoes to get us through the winter. We're also growing herbs, peas, beans, carrots, cukes, melons, and squash, some of which we will can, pickle or freeze for winter.
  
• teaching our kids about healthy foods, and watching them start to get excited about heirloom tomatoes, atomic red carrots, stripey beets, and kale chips (and actually eat these things!)
• avoiding canned foods (because the linings leach phthalates -endocrine disruptors)
• getting rid of most of our plastic containers in favour of glass
• buying less packaging (including finding products in refillable containers like Harmony milk in glass bottles and "NatureClean" laundry soap)
• replacing all of our chemical filled soaps, shampoos, and detergents with more natural ones. We're particularly avoiding parabens and phthalates. While I'm still not crazy about my natural shampoo, I'm trying different brands until the right one works for me. We've also avoided all fragranced products to reduce our exposure to phthalates.
  
• chucking my aluminum based anti-perspirant in favour of a crystal...even though I still sometimes get panic attacks about my aroma.
• reading more non fiction books (for fun) than I have in my life about organic gardening, container gardening, whole foods cookbooks, food industry critiques, politics of food, and the eye opening Anti-Cancer book. I've learned some really compelling reasons to follow through with our changes so far.

The result? We're all working harder and spending more time in the kitchen and the garden...but it feels like an adventure instead of like a chore for a change. The kids are being great about this, more and more adventurous with new foods each day. I feel like I'm finally doing my best to keep my family healthy, safe and socially conscious instead of using my old excuse about not having enough time or money for these changes.

So what's next? More of the same. My next project is to build some homemade test models of the Earth Box to see if they can help me produce even more food. And to continue to find more options for foods like kale, chard, fresh herbs and other veggies. And to learn how to can and pickle stuff. And to switch to baking soda and vinegar for cleaning. And to compost in the backyard...the list is endless, but the focus remains the same. I think I will need my blogging time this spring to tend to the garden, bake bread and soak beans. I'll post updates as things come along, but for now, I think I need a break!

Thanks for reading!