There is this guy who calls himself No Impact Man.  He lives in New York City and he recently spent one year, along with his wife and daughter, living a carbon neutral lifestyle.  His story is inspiring and his site has been rated one of the top 10 “green” sites by Time magazine.  You will hear about him soon enough as there is going to be a book and a movie about his journey.

No Impact Man was a big inspiration behind My Grandma Was Green.  I thought if he could manage to do such an extreme experiment for one year, surely I could challenge myself to make some changes.  However, I have a few limits as I try to live like Grandma.  I feel hesitant to post them because you may find them laughable or disagreeable.  However, I am committed to documenting the changes I make with as much honesty as possible and these limits reveal where I am at right now.

Limit #1 Health: My year of trying to live more sustainably and simply will be much more enjoyable if everyone in my house stays healthy.  My kids and I take a few nutritional supplements every day.  I also order a couple of food items online and have them shipped to my house.  I hope I can learn a thing or two from my grandparents about healthy living but until then I am going to stick with the supplements and a few imported foods.

Limit #2 Sleep: Things will go down hill really fast if I or anyone else in my family end up suffering from “Grandma” induced sleep deprivation.  My husband and I have agreed to not put an air conditioner in our bedroom window.  We are also going to try to do without one on the main floor but we do have a window unit in each kids’ rooms.  We generally turn them on when the kids first go to bed and turn them off after their rooms have cooled.  Incidentally, you have to walk through the master bedroom to get to our daughter’s bedroom.  I would be lying if I said I didn’t like the fact that her air conditioner cools off our room a bit too.

Limit #3 Safety:  I am a fairly paranoid person (I think I have read far too many “Drama in Real Life” Reader’s Digest stories over the years).  Ideally, I would like to walk or ride my bike more places to save on gas but I will not walk or ride after dark if I am alone.  I also happen to think a secure window air conditioning unit is the safest way to cool my 2 year old’s bedroom versus a box fan stuck in the window.  Safety is another argument in favor of the air conditioner.

Limit #4 Marital Happiness: I currently stay home full-time while my husband works full-time but this project is not an argument for a return to the gender roles that were present in my grandparents’ generation.  I fully respect women who work as well as women who stay home and any combination in between.  Although I am spearheading this project, I am happier knowing my husband is willing to make these changes with me.  With that said, a great deal of waste is generated by the way we manage our home and so this project will deal with a lot of domestic issues.

I am sure I will revisit each of these limits over the coming year and that is a big reason I want to do this project.  Trying to live like Grandma will force me to examine my choices and the impact they have both locally and globally.   

I have developed the following 5 questions to help me determine which practices from my grandparents’ generation I will keep or toss out.  These questions will form the basis of each Grandma Challenge.

1.  How did my grandparents do it?
2.  How do we do it now?
3.  Which way seems most ideal as I try to live a more sustainable and simple life?
4.  Can I maintain my ideal within the context of my current life situation?
5.  If not, what changes do I need to make to close the gap between my reality and my ideal?

I am not advocating for a return to everything my grandparents did because they certainly did not do everything right.  They were probably only “mostly green” and not everything they did was simple.  I purposely chose to examine my grandparents’ generation because their stories provide a measure I can relate to and learn from at the same time. 

These five questions will help me determine if I should do something my grandparents way or if our current way of doing it is better.  I know we have made progress in many areas.  I suspect I will often end up doing things in a way that honors the spirit of my grandparents while bringing the best of both worlds together.   

These questions are also important because I do not live in a bubble.  I am a wife, a mother, a friend, a daughter, a sister, and a neighbor.  I plan to make some significant changes in my life this year, but I have to weigh my desire to learn to live more sustainably and simply with the impact it will have on those who live directly around me - especially my husband and three children.

My changes will not have staying power if I am driving myself and those I care about stark raving mad.  If a particular change is creating an enormous amount of stress, I may have to try it on a smaller scale or ditch it altogether until my circumstances become more accommodating.  This is a key part of the process.  If I find I cannot maintain an action or attitude in the short-term, all is not lost because I can make a plan that will allow me to implement it down the road. 

Throughout the course of this year, I am going to challenge a lot of my own long standing assumptions about what actions and attitudes I have a right to as well as what creates a genuine sense of well being in my life.  I hope I discover a life lived sustainably and simply is infinitely more satisfying, but I cannot say for sure.  I only know I am willing to try. 

I came up with the title “My Grandma Was Green” because it seemed catchier than “My Grandparents Were Green.”  Who is Grandma?  “Grandma” represents each of my grandparents as well as others of their generation.  It also represents your grandparents as you share your stories.

Both sets of my grandparents were born around 1930 covering the years 1929, 1930 and 1931.  My paternal grandmother passed away two years ago.  My paternal grandfather and my maternal grandparents are still surviving.  My husband’s maternal grandparents were both born in 1925 and are alive as well.  His paternal grandparents were born in 1917 and 1919.  Unfortunately, his paternal grandmother passed away in May just one week shy of her 90th birthday.  His paternal grandfather also passed away a few years prior. 

I am particularly interested in examining stories from the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s.  These years covered my grandparents’ younger days as well as when they married and started their own families.  Each of these three decades encompasses a significant historical event.  The 1930’s entailed the Great Depression.  The 1940’s were punctuated by World War II.  The 1950’s is when many of the modern conveniences I now take for granted first made their appearance.

Interviewing my surviving grandparents and others of their generation is a key part of this project.  I will use excerpts of my interviews as well as other stories people share to guide me as I try to live like “Grandma.”  I will post my interview questions for others to view and use.  Each person I interview will become an official member of my “panel of experts.”  If you have a story you want to share, please email me at april@mygrandmawasgreen.com.