Seven Quick Takes #1 Or "Boxes, Cloth, and Demons"

Well, friends, it's Friday! My first Quick Takes (hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary-another of my favorites!)

http://www.conversiondiary.com

Thanks, Jen! 

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Today also happens to be a Familia day! Familia is a program for "Mothers of Young Children." Each year, we read a church document on motherhood, marriage, or femininity; this year's is JPII's Familiaris Consortio. We meet every two weeks to discuss, and while, like every group, we started off slow, I'm really happy with the way we're coming together this semester! It's so nice to have a supportive group of women for whom faith is a strong priority.

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Shopping addiction

You know the feeling when the doorbell rings and you open the door to see that fabulous brown package? It's kind of my favorite. I might have a spending problem. As much as I try to only buy what is absolutely necessary for my family's well-being, there are just so many fun and shiny things that I just KNOW will make our lives healthier/easier/better. I'm a sucker, even without real advertising. Maybe it's my great imagination. I create my own mental advertising! Catered specifically to my weaknesses, of course. 

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Cloth transition

This week has just happened to be a big one in our "natural/sustainability" journey! My mom helped cut up t-shirt scraps for Josh's wipes, and we had enough left over to start family cloth! (If you don't know... don't ask.) We have some "unpaper" towels and reusable plastic baggies on their way to us, AND the fabric for our cloth napkins is washed and ready to go!

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Out of groceries

A plus of the "freezer cooking" fad comes with weather like this! I planned to go to the grocery store this week, buuuut it's been pretty yucky out there. So we've started cleaning out the freezer. Usually I use the slow cooker meals for days when my babysitting boys are here, but they were nice to have for snow days, too! Cilantro Lime Chicken- two thumbs up!

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Surprise vacation

Speaking of my babysitting boys, apparently I have two weeks off! Their family goes to Florida every winter, and we hadn't really communicated about it well until last week. I've got all kinds of project ideas! (Probably too many; I'll need to pray for realistic expectations!) I'm open to suggestions, but here are a few:

•replacing the elastic in some of Josh's diapers

•working on my t-shirt quilt (VERY in progress... but I took a few months off for Christmas projects

•make our cloth napkins

•refill our freezer! (including lunches for Bryant)

•organize our basement- it's a scary place...

•maybe work ahead on Bradley and PSR plans! But, really, how likely is that?

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"Style and the SAHM"

http://thisfelicitouslife.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/style-and-the-stay-at-home-mom-the-quest-begins/

This link leads you to the beginning of a series that became a project for me this week. For those of you who get my Facebook updates, I posted one about dressing like a hobo. Just to prove I wasn't exaggerating, my dad was surprised that I was "already dressed"... at 9:30 this morning when he stopped by to visit. So the good news is a change has happened!

Thanks to the inspiration of the above post, I have a trash bag full of clothing in our hallway to rid myself of. I'll probably share more about my "minimalistic momiform" in it's own post soon, but just know I'm excited to no longer be dressing like a slob!

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"A Screwtape Letter for the Unappreciated Mom"

http://www.organizinglifewithlittles.com/2014/01/26/for-the-unappreciated-mom/

I ADORE this post. Many wonderful people write about things moms need to watch out for: not spending time with your husband, not taking time for prayer and to rest... but none of them have hit home for me the way this one does. Every word was written just for me. 

And it's a good note and reminder on which to begin the weekend!

Progress

I just want to take a moment to celebrate baby steps. (No, not literally; we've got a few months yet for that!) I went to the Farmers' Market and Dillons today and came home with hormone- and antibiotic-free beef and chicken, selectively organic produce, no bread products (because I'm making them at home), and just a handful of other items. This is a huge transformation from not too many months ago when we were buying frozen meals and canned goods (which I now try to make myself, as well). I'm just really proud of the work I've done to help my family be good stewards of our bodies. I know winter will make it more of a challenge, but I'm taking advantage of this moment to just be thankful.

Goals

I love everything about being a mom. Including the "I had something I wanted to write about the other day, but Josh started having more trouble with his teething so I totally forgot," and other excuses. But especially waking up from co-naps on warm days and just having that really good nap/cuddle feeling.
Oh! I think it was goals. Goals are what I was going to talk about.

It's crazy, how your productivity and outlook changes when you have a little person for whom you are solely (while Dad's at work) responsible. To be honest, I still have a lot of goals. I just don't really put them in unnecessary time frames anymore. I used to have this crazy organization in which I had a list of urgent and flexible to-dos, and sometimes specific times to do them, etc. Now, my main goal for the day is to drink enough water. Did you know people are supposed to drink half an ounce of water for every pound they weigh every day? And I'll tell you, that put me close to 100 oz. of water when I was pregnant. It's a lot, lot more than "they" say: "8 cups." (Well, unless you're my mom or my friend Angelica who actually weigh less than 120 lbs. In any case, I've been doing well on that these past couple days because I have a 33.8 oz smartwater bottle and I just tell myself I need to drink about three of them a day. (No, I don't still weigh 180-something; the extra is for nursing.) Isn't it interesting how one tiny thing can make a big difference? The water has been one of my goals, gosh, for several years now. It was a New Year's resolution, then more recently a pregnancy thing, and now a nursing thing. But maybe I've actually got the hang of it now? We'll see.

Other than that, my goal is to serve my husband and raise a holy child (or twelve).Some days that means having a nice dinner started by the time Bryant gets home, and some days it just means feeding a baby off and on for the whole afternoon. Yesterday and today I've been able to do both of those! However, I have not been to the store for over two and a half weeks...

This could be one of those blog posts that goes on and on. I don't even remember when I started it, but it'd definitely been a draft for more than just a couple weeks.

In other news, I'm eating leftover shrimp that I just microwaved. Keeping it classy, yo.

So since this post apparently had a point earlier, I'll get back to it. I came across something somebody posted a couple days ago that said (lots of good things, but this is what I remember) "Change one thing a week." I'm applying it to my whole "eating organically/living sustainably" shift. Sure, I want grain-fed meat and real, true sugar and a lot less gluten and cloth napkins, "un-paper" towels, wipes, etc... but I sure can't do it all in one day! There are 52 weeks in a year; imagine your life if you changed 52 things by next fall! And, of course, the same applies to virtue. In high school, I was in a group called the "Handmaids of Mary" and we tried to work on one virtue per week. I skimmed over a quote last night from a saint who said something that translated to me as meaning "The worst way to grow in virtue is in a hurry." The "God, I wanted to be perfect yesterday!" mentality, if you will. So, here goes.

Virtue of the Week: Hospitality. I want Bryant to look forward to coming home even more than he does. I will try to greet him with a kiss and a smile, no matter what else has been going on that day, and save the negativity for at least an hour (negativity= challenges of the day, criticisms, things to do, etc.). If I do that, that hour worth of negativity might just disappear! Because how much of it was really necessary anyway?

Natural Life Goal of the Week? (I'll think of a better name): Cloth wipes. I already have a lot of scraps from starting my t-shirt quilt; all I need to do is bring them from my parents' house and figure out the spray!

Maybe next month starting my birthday week I will write out a few months worth of goals. Nope. Next month I WILL write out a few months of goals, then go back and check them off (or not) each week. Okay. Sounds like a plan! See you then! ;)

"Crunchy"

I recently came across this word in one of our natural childbirth videos, and now I'm hearing it everywhere! I used to call it hippie, and still do sometimes, jokingly, around friends who probably wouldn't recognize "crunchy." If you're one of those people, crunchy refers to people who make natural and/or eco-friendly lifestyle choices.

I'll be honest, our- okay, mostly my- crunchy choices come more from priorities of health and financial stability, rather than concern for the environment. Maybe eventually I'll be more convicted in that area. Bryant is supportive, but he's kind of along for the ride.
I'd say at this point we're beginner or first tier crunchy. Most of the things I'd consider most crunchy about our household have to do with Baby Joshua/parenting. Starting with NFP! I'd consider Natural Family Planning kind of crunchy, considering all the inauthentic options, although of course our motivation for it is more on the moral/spiritual realm. The same with the Bradley Husband-Coached Natural Childbirth Method: we started the classes because I had an emotional desire for a natural birth, not because I necessarily wanted to avoid drugs at all costs. As the classes went, and I became more educated, my motivation widened and deepened, but that's another soapbox! Now, there are all the parenting choices. Cloth diapering, ecological breastfeeding, babywearing, co-sleeping... things that are normal in other cultures, but foreign to us. (I could go on a soapbox on each of those, too, but for now, we'll just make a list.)
Now, I could go either way at this point: all the things I wish we did, or some of the small things we are already doing... I guess I'll start with the worst one: We don't recycle! Gasp! Sooo not crunchy. I used to in Emporia, but since we moved here, I haven't found out where to drop things off and such. Terrible excuse, I know. But I suppose it can go on the short-term goal list.

1. Start recycling again
2. Make laundry detergent
3. Find less scary alternatives to typical household cleaners

Long-term goals... I don't know. I have this huge mind block that says "Buying organic food is too expensive and sometimes unnecessary!" Really, I'd say my goal would be to have a garden and chickens, as much as buying organic produce. To add to the short-term goals, though, we already have a bread machine and pasta maker. I just happen to have never used them yet. 

1. Continue improving food choices (including less going out)

Here's another shocker for you: I still don't know the difference between reducing and reusing! But I do try to avoid plastic water bottles, and I'm good about my reusable shopping bags... donate to Goodwill, shop at garage sales... all the little things that (kind of) add up. But really, who wastes things on purpose?

Anyway, I guess my question is (to borrow from the Sweet Cheeks facebook post): Do you consider yourself crunchy? What are some of your goals for crunchiness?