New Year's Resolution

Ok so I almost never make resolutions. I believe in life long change. This year though I would like to try an experiment with my family. No eating out or fast food. There will be a few exceptions.

-When we have a gift card
-When we are with family and we first can't convince them to eat at home or they are paying
-When we are traveling and won't be getting to our destination before we are starving

There are a few reasons that I want to do this. The biggest is money. The next is health. The third is sort of a combination of both again, but we are planning trip and the extra cash and thinner waist line would be great.

I will have to truly crunch the numbers, but it seems like we go out to eat at least twice a week. That's at least thirty dollars a week if we eat fast food. If we go somewhere else... We usually have at least a partial meal here at the house. For ten dollars we could probably buy the missing ingredients for way less then that. It should be interesting. It'll take some will power too. I always like to stretch those muscles. Eating out is a bit of an addiction for me. I'm hoping that by putting it on here, and blogging my progress I'll stick with it.

A wonderful weekend

PPD was awesome! We had a perfect fall day. The day began with Gabe wiping out in the parking lot before we even got through the gate. We ended walking in with a sobbing limping six year old. Our wonderful friends helped to cheer him up. Soon he had forgotten all about it, and he was off and running.

I love my friends, and I seem to quickly be making a new one. Last spring a woman moved in next door, and our boys who are a month apart in age became fast friends. Well, do to the ouse not being up to standards they moved down the road. We still try to get the boys together though. Anyways, she called while we were there. I hadn't shared our beliefs with them, but I figured what the hell! I invited them to come. The showed up and his mom who I must say I was getting really close to calling a friend myself. She was so excited. She was a practicing pagan before she met her husband. She was so excited to see books, and ritual again. The boys had an awesome time too. There is a sword fighting group that comes every year. In between there shows they have soft swords...I've forgotten what they are called. For a dollar they can fight each other all day. Gabe and his friends all went in and beat up on each other. Such a perfect activity for these boys. Permission to be rough and dirty!
My son in the one in orange.
Cyan had a good time too. The man with the nose is the jester. He has been coming for at least three years, and he's very good. We also have belly dancers, lectures, rituals, and of course sword fighting. Usually we do face painting for free, but with Cyan this year that was not possible.
The alter this year.

A very good year with a wonderful turn out.

Karl went out afterward to watch boxing. Per our agreement he spent the night at his friends. I just have this fear of him driving home when he's that tired. Plus they usually drink during the night. He usually stops hours before coming home. I just don't like it. I've also asked him not to tell me how much he drinks while there, and never come home hung over. Anyways I spent the evening juggling tired kids, and he had a fun evening out. Which I'm glad we all need that time. Next weekend I'm going out on Sunday. I'll probably take the baby though. We have enough milk in the fridge, but I haven't been apart from her yet more than an hour for shopping. I think Gabe would like some just him and Daddy time too. We'll see once it gets closer. I think Karl might like some time with his daughter alone too. I guess we'll have to talk about it.

We spent Sunday doing some work around here. We sorted through boxes of stuff from ages ago. We now have less clutter!

Tomatoes

I just finished washing two quarts of cherry tomatoes. Now I'm not sure what to do with them. I was thinking spaghetti sauce. I'm just not sure how much I'll actually get. There are still a bunch on the vine so maybe by Sunday I will have decided, and more will be ripe. The other option is to just freeze them and make something out of them later. I also have peppers out there that I could throw in the sauce or just cut up and freeze. Last year I froze green beans, but they didn't really turn out as well this year. Probably because of the cool weather.

Cyan is asleep at the moment, and Gabe is at school. Usually Cyan naps in my arms, but it's beginning to get harder and harder to convince myself to let her nap like that. It would be very nice to take that time and throw some stuff in the wash or knit Christmas gifts. Or clean something.

Tomorrow is Pagan Pride Day here. I'm finally going do something with that formula that's been sitting in my house since May. Entrance is free but a food donation is asked for. Then it all goes to the food bank. Most years hubby and I do free face painting. I'm taking the stuff, but with a clingy baby I have no intention of painting this year. Instead I'm setting up an area for nursing. The woman that was supposed to be helping bailed out though. I wasn't going to do much just chairs and blankets to sit on in the shade. Perhaps my brain won't be so muddled next year, and I can really organize something.

The why and who of it

I've had a blog for nine years. I began it in college, and it followed me though my dorm life, moving ib with my then boyfriend, getting pregnant with my son, having him, getting married, several moves, and finally the birth of our daughter this last May. All of these things have made me change and evolve. When our son was born we were 21 and 22. We did standard medical care. We thought it was crazy to not vaccinate. Six years of research has changed us. This time we did just about everything differently with out daughter. We chose a Midwife for her birth. We did have a hospital birth based on the decision that we would be more responsible to be able to pay our bills than pay four times as much for a home birth.

I am exclusively nursing, and have been from day one. My son, Gabe only got partial breast milk from day one to three months. Cyan is almost four months now, and I plan to nurse her until at least two years of age. She has never had a vaccination. We stopped vaccinating Gabe at six months when it became clear that he was reacting badly to the vaccine. Cyan sleeps in out bed. I will say that Gabe did this too, but we began using cry it out when he was nine months. That will never happen again. We also use cloth diapers this time. I personally love them.

Other things have changed for us as well. We now have a garden that we live out of in the summer. We are slowly making changes that may make more work for ourselves, but perhaps be less reliant on the rest of the world. I would love to buy property in the next three years or so and change it to almost off grid living. Internet would be the only connection. Then when we retire we could live comfortably.

Most of this blog will be about the changes that we have made. How they work. If we struggle. Things like that.