Inspiration

Certain major events in your life always make one think about how you are travelling. Going in hospital last week scared me a little and made me realise how much my family means to me. I guess there is always a risk with any anaesthetic and I did make sure I told my children that I loved them as well as my boyfriend and tried to spend lots of time with them the few days prior to my day surgery. Of course I came through with flying colours but it made me think about how I am living my life and what I would change given the opportunity. Being a single parent has made me frugal in a lot of ways, but I guess I still have things I like to splurge on. I have spent more time reading more blogs about people who are living simpler, more sustainable lives. I guess this is a path I am exploring and may eventually want to head down.

One person who really inspires me is Rhonda and her Down to Earth blog. I loved her post today about "convincing the family" and these words in particular summed up what I am trying to achieve with my family:
"It's more about giving up what you can do without so you have money for things that are important."

I have to say though that on the whole my children are great, they remember to turn off lights and since my son did a unit at school last term on sustainable living we have had a bucket in the shower. I mostly make a lot of our food from scratch, due to my son's food intolerances. I am taking baby steps to achieve my long term goal.

Other things I am trying for the first time are :
-growing my own veggies my spinach and bok-choy are growing very slowly, but given the prices of green vegetable right now i will start to give them a little more TLC to see if I can harvest the young leaves soon.
-a compost heap, which has been somewhat neglected, but as I have a few days off on the weekend I am hoping the weather will co-operate and I can mow the lawn (i.e. weeds) and fork over the compost heap!

Wish me luck !
Take care of you.