Becoming Conscious

For those of you that know me personally, you know that over the past 4 years my husband and I have implemented some significant changes in the way that our family lives.  These changes include some changes in our personal philosophy on life, our parenting choices, and numerous changes regarding the products that we utilize in our home, put on our bodies, and ingest.  Some people like to label these choices as hippy, crunchy, granola, woodsy, earthy, holistic, green (take your pick as I really do not care what you choose to call us).  I prefer to just consider myself as conscious.  My family and I are making conscious decisions based on research and information that we have acquired and are not blindly accepting things because they are the standard or what is considered socially acceptable. 

This post is the beginning of a series of posts that I plan on sharing a little of this lifestyle.  At this time I do not think I am going to put any boundaries on what this may include.  Perhaps one day it will be a formula for one of the many things that we utilize around the house, maybe it will be a project or craft that has improved our lives, perhaps a recipe that our family has come to love, or perhaps just a discussion on why we have made specific choices during this journey.

So let me tell you a little about us (perhaps this should have been my first post, but I definitely have developed some excellent procrastination skills throughout my life):

We are a home water birthing, breastfeeding, baby wearing, co-sleeping family.  We are intactivists and believe that circumcision is an unnecessary and harmful procedure in most circumstances.  We believe in extended breastfeeding, baby led weaning, and baby led feeding.  We cloth diaper including cloth pull ups for potty training.  We try to eat clean: organic, local, and in season fruits and veggies, local grass-fed and finished beef and pasture raised pork, local free range chickens and eggs.  We attempt to treat maladies with natural healing modalities: acupuncture, chiropractic & craniosacral care, dietary therapy, homeopathics and herbs, and essential oils first before turning to other medical practices and medications.  Though our oldest child goes to a charter school, we also home school at every opportunity to try to help make up for what we feel the local school systems are lacking.  We believe that every question and observation that our children make can be an excellent learning opportunity.  We try not to be helicopter parents and instead try to allow our children to make their own decisions even if the consequences are less than desirable, but we are far from being completely free-range parents.  This list could go on and on, but I think you are getting the idea.

However, I will be the first to admit, we do not always succeed at living this lifestyle.  In fact, there are days that I just plain suck at being “crunchy” (or whatever you call it), those days I am just not cut-out for being THAT kind of mom.  There are some things that I have tried that I have failed miserably at.  I cannot keep a plant alive to save my life, so it is highly unlikely that my family will ever be able to live off our land (unless I pay someone to tend to it or suddenly get blessed with my mom’s greener thumb).  I have never been great at sewing, knitting, or crocheting and therefore the amount of homemade items that I produce are limited, they are often created only with help from my mother, or they take an eternity and half to complete.  I have bought non organic veggies off the dirty dozen because I was just too lazy to find organic ones.  I have used products that are filled with toxic ingredients: parabens, phthalates, triclosan—oh my!  There are evenings that I am just too [insert adjective] to cook and therefore my family eats frozen pizza, crappy food out, or *gasp* they have to fend for themselves.  I yell.  Awful, I know.  I do not know where I got it from—neither of my parents are yellers—but some days I yell and I am a force to be reckoned with.  There are other days that even yelling does not make me feel better.  Those days, I want to run away from it all-that madness that is created from being a stay-at-home mom.  I want to crawl into a dark, quiet, childless hole (with a margarita or two or a nice cold beer).  

So, yes, I am far from perfect.  I know this wholeheartedly but what matters to me is that I try and I think every day I become a little more of who I really want to be.