Life Changing

Luke and I have recently seen a film that has required us to take a stand and dramatically reform our lives. The film: Bag It. The reform: say no to disposable plastic. The result: an epiphanous feeling akin to the washed-clean relieving one of forgiveness. It feels so good!

But let me back up a little.

One of Luke's graphic design teachers showed Bag It to the class. Luke was so fired up that we bought it and watched it together the next Friday. And Saturday we set off on our first plastic-free grocery shopping endeavor. Not an easy thing in our world as we know it. But a necessary thing, all the same. Because animals are starting off like this:


And ending up like this:


With guts that look like this:


Because humans are fine with throwing away this:

And allowing it to end up like this:


And this:


And even if it seems overwhelming, we've got to start somewhere to start cleaning up our act. So Luke and I took the challenge and are now trying to eliminate disposable plastic from our lives. It isn't easy, and maybe wouldn't even be possible for us if we didn't have a Whole Foods Market in the vicinity. (Hooray for bulk bins!) But we're doing the best we can, and it's amazing how good it feels! Luke put it this way: "It's like I've been walking around with all this wasteful-consumerist guilt because I didn't know how to get rid of it, but now that I have, I feel great! It's like the feeling that comes after repentance!" Ha Ha Ha!

Taking the challenge has endowed us with a new gift of creativity. Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say, and if we don't use plastic, what will we use instead?

The laundry basket has shown its truly useful nature by doubling as a grocery transport. Here Peter is showing off its roomy interior, as he has taken to playing inside it recently while mom gets stuff done:



For produce bags we've switched over to hemp or cotton drawstring. Making some more from cheese cloth is going to be my first sewing project. Sewing intimidates the dickens out of me, but I really want to try.

We also made an interesting discovery. We've recently gathered several cleaning spray bottles that had less-than-safe chemical-laden cleaning liquids in them in an effort to begin baby-proofing the house. Peter's attempts at sitting on his own are getting better and better, which means crawling is just around the corner! Observe:





Anyway, Luke looked at the top of a glass bottle of vinegar we were throwing out (glass recycling center anyone?) and thought it looked about the same as the top of our old bottle of glass cleaner. Sure enough, when he screwed the spray-top onto the vinegar bottle it fit like a glove. Ta Da! Who knew?


And so it goes. As Gandhi said, "Be the change you wish to see in the world." So we're trying.

Other than that, not much is new. Except that our beautiful baby gets more wonderful every day! And it appears he has a gluten sensitivity. The eczema rash on his cheek and legs got better when I eliminated it from my diet, worse when I re-introduced it, and is getting better again now that it's back out. It's quite possible that he'll grow out of it, but for now at least anything with gluten is a no-go, for mom or baby. This includes such delights as wheat, rye, spelt, barley, and anything made with them. Which has been a very eye-opening thing for our family, as we realized just how much we relied on bread to keep us going. Bountiful Baskets, in addition to my exciting diet of late, has opened our eyes to the wonderful world of fruits and vegetables! And there ain't no goin' back! However, a bread-less life would by a joyless life, so I have been experimenting with rice, buckwheat, and millet flour to make pancakes, muffins, biscuits, and even some yeast bread. The pancakes, muffins, and biscuits have turned out all right, if a bit dense. The yeast bread was a gummy failure. I'll have to keep trying with that one.

It's a shame to say good-bye to glutinous products for awhile. But would you look at that baby?




Anything's possible for a boy like that. :)