the journey has begun!!!! Yeps, I'm going to say it out loud.... My aim is to have this family back to basics again and being as self sufficient as possible within the next 6 months. That means making maximum use of our veggie garden, fruit trees and getting back to real food and cleaning etc... At the moment I know we do a decent job using environmentally friendly and allergy friendly products, but here we have a house that makes it possible to be even more back to basics than using orange oil products etc....
Soooooo.... where do we begin - it's simple - baby steps!!!
Today we brought a bread oven - a HUGE expensive one (NOT) $29.95 from kmart - minus our 5% staff discount of course hahaha. Anyways, I brought some leuke bread mix - the one we were recommended previously when we were doing the whole elimination diet thing... So we're finally getting back to baking our own bread and reducing preservatives and chemicals in the kids diets there. This Saturday there's a scrapbook crop and one of the lovely ladies attending bakes her own bread very successfully from scratch and she is graciously going to let me in on the know how so we can go even further back to basics and get back to real old fashioned bread and different variations - looks like I'll be in the market for a bread loaf tin, but that's not neccessary to start with ;)
What else are we doing - well the veggie garden of course.. But with an over-productive lemon tree in the yard I want to start looking into using the fruit off this tree as a cleaner in the house. I know bi-carb and vinegar are great, but I'm pretty certain that I've seen where you can substitute the vinegar for lemons - a bit more research there, but hopefully we'll be moving away from store brought chemicals and sparkling up this house naturally ;)
We already use cloth nappies (MCN) for Domenik - hopefully this summer he'll be toilet training so we can reduce day nappies all being well (as cute as they are **sob**) but even with nappies I wash using Earths Choice, but I plan on moving back to soap nuts. Seriously, these little brown bits of nuts are great for washing - even better in the powdered form!!! We've still got some here in the back of a cupboard hiding (for some reason) I really should dig them out and put them back to work...
I've always been a 'green' girl at heart. I love the environment and want our home to be as safe as possible for my kids. With Domenik breaking out with red cheeks and dermatitis and then Williams long fought battle against allergies and anaphylaxis I want to make everything as safe and healthy for them as possible. If making a few changes helps them then I'll be as happy as a pig in mud - if it doesn't reduce these reactions then so-be-it.. at least we've made a change that will have benefits for the environment as well as for us in a fiscal manner ;) After all the back pocket needs looking after as well ;)
BTW - I'm not going to be anal about any changes - if it doesn't work then we'll go back to what is working for us now... I wont force my ideas onto anyone - everyone does what works for them, far be it from me to tell you what you should be doing - this is my plan... By putting it in writing I feel I need to be somewhat accountable and make action on the plan - otherwise it's simply another idea in my head that may not come to fruition - this way it may have a chance of working out ;)
Soooooo.... where do we begin - it's simple - baby steps!!!
Today we brought a bread oven - a HUGE expensive one (NOT) $29.95 from kmart - minus our 5% staff discount of course hahaha. Anyways, I brought some leuke bread mix - the one we were recommended previously when we were doing the whole elimination diet thing... So we're finally getting back to baking our own bread and reducing preservatives and chemicals in the kids diets there. This Saturday there's a scrapbook crop and one of the lovely ladies attending bakes her own bread very successfully from scratch and she is graciously going to let me in on the know how so we can go even further back to basics and get back to real old fashioned bread and different variations - looks like I'll be in the market for a bread loaf tin, but that's not neccessary to start with ;)
What else are we doing - well the veggie garden of course.. But with an over-productive lemon tree in the yard I want to start looking into using the fruit off this tree as a cleaner in the house. I know bi-carb and vinegar are great, but I'm pretty certain that I've seen where you can substitute the vinegar for lemons - a bit more research there, but hopefully we'll be moving away from store brought chemicals and sparkling up this house naturally ;)
We already use cloth nappies (MCN) for Domenik - hopefully this summer he'll be toilet training so we can reduce day nappies all being well (as cute as they are **sob**) but even with nappies I wash using Earths Choice, but I plan on moving back to soap nuts. Seriously, these little brown bits of nuts are great for washing - even better in the powdered form!!! We've still got some here in the back of a cupboard hiding (for some reason) I really should dig them out and put them back to work...
I've always been a 'green' girl at heart. I love the environment and want our home to be as safe as possible for my kids. With Domenik breaking out with red cheeks and dermatitis and then Williams long fought battle against allergies and anaphylaxis I want to make everything as safe and healthy for them as possible. If making a few changes helps them then I'll be as happy as a pig in mud - if it doesn't reduce these reactions then so-be-it.. at least we've made a change that will have benefits for the environment as well as for us in a fiscal manner ;) After all the back pocket needs looking after as well ;)
BTW - I'm not going to be anal about any changes - if it doesn't work then we'll go back to what is working for us now... I wont force my ideas onto anyone - everyone does what works for them, far be it from me to tell you what you should be doing - this is my plan... By putting it in writing I feel I need to be somewhat accountable and make action on the plan - otherwise it's simply another idea in my head that may not come to fruition - this way it may have a chance of working out ;)
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2 comments:
Sounds great treens. Don't forget to share what you;ve been doing.
I have a book that I love to read when I want to get back to basics. It's not green or anything just a lovely Day Book that gets you back.
I used to read it all the time especially when things would get too much with Randalls behaviours and things. I find myself always wanting to get back to basics when times get tough.
Anyway have a looksee for it. I bought mine in Angus and Robertson.
"Simple Abundance: A Day Book of Comfort and Joy" by Sarah Ban Breathnach. Was an Oprah book years ago
Here's a link for you
http://www.angusrobertson.com.au/search/sarah+ban+breathnach/mediatype/all/
Good luck with it all Treens. I like the concept but would probably die if I had to do everything from scratch though. Right now I clean mostly with products from Norwex which really only requires water - the glass cloth they have is particulary AMAZING. There is noone in my family right now who doesn't have one. If you are interested let me know. Hugs....and save some bread for me......as much as I hate to cook it from scratch....I lurve to eat it.
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