I am amidittedly scared to face the answers to How Would Grandma Bathe?  Awhile ago, the mother of one of my son’s friends nicely commented that I always look put together.  I laughed and said, “It’s not vanity, it’s sanity.”  And that is mostly true.  I am a mother to three young children and it has been important to me to maintain a personal sense of style.  Perhaps that sounds shallow.  However, taking care of myself in this manner has been vital to my sanity.  If I feel nice, I tend to act nice.  The converse is true - if I feel crappy, I tend to act crappy.  How Would Grandma Bathe? is not just about jumping in the shower.  It is also about how I present myself for the day.  I am curious to know, How Would Grandma Bathe?

It all starts with the water heater for the warm water it provides.  My kids like to bathe in our claw foot tub.  I prefer to shower.  Shampoo and soap products are required to feel (and smell) nice and clean.  Unfortunately, my hair does not look this way naturally.  It takes some work and a good haircut.  Thankfully my sister is a hairstylist because my attempts at cutting hair have produced some scary results.  My husband and I both use styling products in our hair.  Just look at my bathroom cupboard!  It is full of disposable plastic products and tubes filled with chemicals I can’t pronounce.  I often use a blow dryer, a round brush, a regular brush and sometimes a flat iron.  I wear makeup everyday.  My makeup bag is full of more little, plastic containers.

There are additional items needed for personal hygiene.  We use our sinks and hand soap a lot and all have a strong preference for toilet paper.  Cotton balls and Q-tips come in handy too.  I also have to deal with all of the feminine hygiene products which have changed a lot since my Grandma’s days.  My husband and I both need razors for shaving and the products that go along with that habit.  A spritz of cologne or perfume is nice once in awhile.  Oh and it is summer - I like to paint my toes.  I think you get the point.  I am sure you could look in your own bathroom for some more ideas.  So tell me How Would Grandma Bathe?

Thank you to everyone who took a moment to answer yesterday’s post: How Would Grandma Eat?  You said Grandma ate food from her own garden or food that had been raised locally.  I planted my first garden this year and I try to frequent the local farmer’s market.  Grandma ate food that was in season and probably put a lot of food away in preparation for the winter months.  I liked Drew’s comment that “anticipation makes everything taste better.”  Grandma ate homemade food.  Jackie pointed out that cooking from scratch cuts down on packaging. I plan to pay close attention to how my food is packaged, prepared and stored this year.  I have found myself wondering, “How did Grandma manage without all of the plastic products I use for my food?”  Some other questions I would like to have answered are “How often did Grandma go out to eat?”  “Did Grandma eat any imported foods?”  “Did Grandma buy food from a local cannery?”

Stay tuned tomorrow for: What Would Grandma Use To Get Around?  If you are wondering what this is all about check out the post What Would Grandma Do?

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!