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? 

Is it fun or is it child labour???

In an effort to organize my life I am going to start blogging again... and I know that all of my faithful readers are jumping out of their computer chairs with joy.  My life is so full of excitement and change right now that I feel like I should be documenting it (I guess a plain old journal would have done the trick).

We have eliminated TV from our home for a one year experiment (except for Friday night movie night) in an effort to become more creative as a family a la Soulemama and her book The Creative Family .   It has only been a month so far and I think we are all doing really well except for the minor freakouts that quickly pass with the suggestion of playing Mr. Potatoe Head.  I am hoping to include pics of our daily creativity and fun because I am finding that without TV we all have really become more imaginative and willing to participate in life....which always makes for hilarious pictures.  

Today we spent a lot of time playing in the sink washing dishes.  Lady A decided that it was essential that she pull her little chair up to my tiny sink area to wash the dishes and play in the sink, so I let her have at it.  She spent so much time scrubbing the pots (for fun)that they actually came clean for once. She also spent a lot of time dumping large amounts of water out of the sink and onto the floor.  I am certain that I am now going to have to battle for a place at the sink every time the dishes need to be done.  I tried handing her the dishtowel so that she could feel important with the ever so  helpful job of drying but she quickly threw it to the ground yelling "NO YIKE IT" and hopped back up on her chair.  I think we both learned something today....Lady A learned the obvious fun factor of playing in the water and I learned that fun at the sink actually equals a lot of mother labour in the clean up department.