As part of my two week break from blogging, I spent three days at a monastery called, St. Gregory’s Abbey in Three Rivers, Michigan.  There is almost no quieter place on earth than spending time in the company of monks.

It was just what I needed.

From the moment I arrived until the minute I left, I found myself pondering one thing - the fact that my life has grown too noisy (again).  I knew very little about the blogging world prior to starting my own and while this has been a deeply satisfying journey, it does not fit well into the other parts of my life.

And so it is with a true sense of sadness that I have decided to close down My Grandma Was Green. 

I have struggled with this decision because on the surface it seems my reason is as simple as my life has grown too busy and full.  And in the American culture where a full schedule is praised, personal busyness hardly seems a reason to step away from something.  However, I have discovered that busyness can be and often has been a source of disconnectedness and pain in my life.  Consequently, busyness hardly lends itself to creating a more sustainable and simple lifestyle.

I never took time to define the word sustainability while writing my blog but I think I have started to form a working definition for my own life.  I believe living sustainably means taking only that which I need to live a meaningful, generous and connected life. 

In order to do this I need to be diligent in learning how to distinguish between wants and needs - no small feat in a culture that is saturated with advertising aimed at turning every single thing into a need!  I realize my definition is somewhat ambiguous because the words meaningful, generous and connected can be defined in a variety of ways.  However, when I view sustainability in this context, it puts me on a path of wanting to take less and give more.  It breaks down the walls of my everyday, ordinary life and forces me to consider the well-being of others in each decision I make.

I seem to have a passion for “s” words such as simplicity and slowness.  I am now committed to moving forward in my journey with another “s” word to pursue - sustainability.  Each of these words is connected in so many ways but the tie that binds them together for me is relationships.  I believe I can pursue deeper and more meaningful relationships with self, God, my family, friends, neighbors, community and the world if I commit myself to simplicity, slowness and also sustainability. 

Therefore, I am going to persist with the changes I have made and I will continue to make more changes in the future.  Only now I will have to record my journey in the old-fashioned way - in the pages of my journal, through conversations with friends and family and in the quiet moments of my days.

I am not sure which part of this short journey has been the most important - recommitting myself to a slower pace, my growing awareness of important changes I need to make toward a more sustainable lifestyle, or reconnecting with my grandparents and my own history.  I guess each one is important in its own way.

If you are interested in learning from and connecting to your grandparents or any older person who is significant to you and/or learning about sustainability by looking to the past, I would encourage you to make use of the extensive questionnaire developed by Virginia Allee called, A Family History Questionnaire.  It proved to be an invaluable resource in asking my grandparents to share their story.  I trust you will find the same.

Thank you for all of your support in this endeavor.  I have learned a lot and will continue to be inspired by the stories I have read and by those individuals who are making great changes through the blogging world.

Goodbye for now,
April

Today is an anniversary of sorts for My Grandma Was Green.  I have been writing this blog for exactly three months and have managed to see my way through twelve Grandma Challenges. 

It is time for me to pause.

The chair in the picture is my favorite reading chair.  It is tucked into a corner in my living room next to a table with a lamp.  I love to sit in this chair at night when the house is quiet and my kids are in bed.  It is a precious moment of the day when I can read, reflect and rest.

I have not been able to sit in my favorite chair nearly as much since starting My Grandma Was Green.  I am okay with that since I knew this would be a season of action.  However, I do feel the need to take a little break in order to rest, regroup and reflect on what I have learned so far.

Stay tuned for for my next post on Tuesday, October 7.  I will share some of my reflections and return with a new set of Grandma Challenges as well as some updates on the ones I have already implemented. 

In the meantime, please continue to collect your best “grandma” stories and dig around in the archives if you are new to my site.  Although I am taking a little break, feel free to leave a comment or drop me a note at april@mygrandmwasgreen.com  I will still check my site and take time to respond to your comments and stories!

I was listening to a local radio show a few weeks ago and a couple of hosts from a local television show called Take Five and Company were on.  They were promoting their program because it was changing from an afternoon show to a morning show.  At the end of the segment, the hosts from Take Five said something to the effect of “We are always looking for great local stories!  Let us know if you hear about one!”  And the little voice in my head replied, “Hey!  I am a great local story!”  Before I could talk some sense into that little voice, I drove home and emailed Take Five and Company about my blog.

Sometimes you get what you ask for.

I was interviewed for Take Five and Company on Monday and it aired on Wednesday.  I was a nervous wreck the night before the interview.  The little voice inside my head seemed to have come to its senses as it shouted, “What in the world have you gotten yourself into?!”  After I calmed myself down, I realized I was not crazy for doing a little shameless self-promotion.

Each and every Grandma Challenge is a new experience for me.  If I choose to take my blog into a second year, it will not feel the same as my first year.  I will never again experience the excitment of successfully canning my first batch of strawberry jam.  I will never experience those triumphant feelings of cloth diapering my daughter for the first time.  I will never experience the thrill of eating my first homegrown cucumber.  I will never experience my feelings of frustration over learning to line dry my clothes for the first time (I hope).

I want to share my first year experiences and all of the ups, downs and in betweens of learning to live a more sustainable and simple life as honestly as possible.  I hope my story will encourage you wherever you are in your own journey.  So come along for the ride!  The more the merrier!  However, I must admit that living sustainably is not always easy.  My story may convince you to run the other way!

Either way, here is your chance to see my “grandma hair” live.

By the way, I only have 40 or so tortilla chip bags saved.  They will be the subject of a future Grandma Challenge, along with changing my water usage habits!  Yikes! Oh, and the pages of writing you see in the video represent each Grandma Challenge I have done so far.  I have them taped to my dining room wall so I can take notes on how each one impacts my day to day living.