Bar Soap?  Is that the best I can do?

I am barely a month into this journey and I already feel easily discouraged.  I want to make all of these changes over night.  I want them to happen quickly…not one bar of soap at a time. 

However, I am trying to make changes only as I am able to write about them.  Writing paces me and helps me process the impact of each change.  Writing forces me to go slowly even though it may feel frustrating.  I hope a slower pace will allow me to maintain each change.

In the meantime, I thought it would help if I wrote out a list of things I would like to accomplish this year as I learn to live like Grandma.  This is not an exhaustive list but a start.  Yikes!

Adopt a general attitude of “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
Can or freeze and store as much food as possible
Eat seasonally, eat locally
Maintain my garden and prepare for next year
Compost
No eating out or ordering in
Make homemade versions of our favorites - pizza dough, bread, tortillas, etc.
Cloth napkins - no paper towel
Find a coffee percolator
No microwave
Use fewer small appliances in general
Save and reuse as much as possible
Learn to fix broken items
Hang dry my clothes all year
Cloth diapers
No new clothes for me or my hubby
Buy clothes from resale shops for my kids
Use hankies for cold and flu season
Homemade laundry soap
Homemade cleaners
Homemade hair and beauty products
Safety razor or straight razors for shaving
No make-up or less with minimal packaging
No nail polish or other chemical based products
No hair dryer or straight iron
Use less water and use leftover water
Use less toilet paper
Follow the rule, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow, if it’s brown, flush it down.”
Use a Diva cup - not disposable tampons or pads
Gas free lawn care
Paint my walls with low or no VOC paint
No movies or TV (for me)
Choose quiet over the radio
Walk more
Drive less 

Some of you may already do many of the things listed above, some of you may do a few and some may do none at all.  If you already do something, then teach me how to do it, if you want to learn something new, try it with me, and if you are too overwhelmed, think about things you can do in the future.  No judgment here.  This is a movement toward a more sustainable and simple lifestyle.  I do not think I will ever declare that I have arrived.  I hope I will always be moving forward no matter how slow - two steps forward, one step back.

I am reading a book by Anne Lamott called, Bird by Bird.  It is a how-to book on writing but I think the following words really relate to my Grandma journey:

“E.L. Doctorow once said that ‘writing a novel is like driving a car at night.  You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.’ You don’t have to see where you’re going, you don’t have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way.  You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you.  This is right up there with the best advice about writing, or life, I have ever heard.”

And that is how my journey feels.  I feel like I am driving in the dark.  But if I steadily move forward I know I will cover significant distance over the coming year.  I hope I will be surprised at how far I have come when I look back.

Do you have any suggestions?  Is there anything you think I should learn to do like Grandma (or Grandpa)?

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!