green isn't always a good colour on me

                                                               Source: jackrogersusa.tumblr.com via Krista on Pinterest

i’m jealous

i’m jealous of people out there who are able to pull off living “simply”.  You know the people/blogs I’m talking about. The people who un-school their children, make all 3 meals from scratch (i’m talking right down to slaughtering livestock), knit a sweater a day, don’t own a t.v, hand make fresh bread each morning, have time to read, go on hikes, tap some trees, watch their children play NICELY with eco-friendly toys and then tuck everyone in under their handmade quilts after some sort of gratitude ceremony... oh and I forgot that the house ALWAYS looks neat, tidy and uncluttered.

Yes, I know that blogs are like reality tv, its all in the editing but that doesn’t stop me from  flying into a jealous rage at least once a day (only a minor exaggeration).  Sri would at this point mention to me that the above person has actually complicated their lives by not taking advantage of modern conveniences and is probably running around like a maniac trying to get everything done and making everything look “perfect”.   

We like think that we are living simply and then we look around our house and at our lifestlye and re-think “EPIC FAIL”.  We have way too much, spend way too much on nothing really, spend a lot of time watching TV (ahem, hello Netflix) and don’t spend enough of our dollars locally.

So in conjunction with 2012 being my year for organization it is also going to be a year to simplify.  buy less, make more, shop locally, watch less tv and get rid of excess.  

We are going to start with small steps and not my usual "okay thats it...throw out all plastic toys, any food that comes in a box and cancel the T.V".  We are thinking about starting with fermenting our own gingerale.  Is that starting small?