How My Crunchy Journey Began

Hey. I'm "Mama J".

I started this blog because I wanted a place to journal my journey into the world of "crunchy". What is "crunchy"? You can Google the term "crunchy mama" and get a few ideas, but I like to translate "crunchy mama" as this:

"someone who believes in doing things naturally whether it be childbirth, raising children, raising animals, growing or buying local foods, avoiding chemicals, etc. and loving the results so much that you just can't stop."

Generally mama's in a "crunchy group" (such as ones on Facebook) are at all sorts of different levels of "crunchiness". Everyone has to start somewhere and we don't all starting being crunchy for the same reason. So, for starters...I'll tell you what led me to my crunchy journey.

Growing up my mom was pretty natural minded. I'm sure in today's terms she would've been considered pretty crunchy. I was a homebirth baby who was exclusively breastfed through a year old and was allowed to nurse til almost 2 years old. When I was being introduced to foods my mom was a vegetarian so I wasn't introduced to meat until several years later (to this day I still don't like meat though I do eat it now, mostly thanks to my redneck hubby). My mom was very health conscious and chose healthy meals which she often prepared herself, from scratch. My mom also cloth diapered me, and though I received some vaccines in the beginning, after doing much research, she stopped vaccinations all together for me (which I am eternally grateful to her for!).

I was also homeschooled from the beginning... as a young child all the way though high school. Writing, social activities, and a Christian version of Girl Scouts (Keepers at Home) were my favorite subjects. A big part of the education she gave me was how to clean a house, cook meals for my family, and take care of children. Even when I was little I knew that one day I wanted to be a mama.

After high school I attended college while working part-time jobs in retail. I studied music, math and... health & wellness! I never finished college, but the classes I took, especially in health & wellness, have really helped me make better choices in my life now.

I met my hubby, "Mr A", through my co-worker/best friend. We started dating, and just over 2 years later we got married out at the river. It was a small wedding with extended family members and close friends. We have been married almost 2 years now and still going strong!

Last year (2013) we were on vacation visiting hubby's family when we found out we were pregnant with our first. I was already 8 weeks along when we found out! Pregnancy and I are not friends. It wasn't a horrible experience, but lets just say it will be a LONG time before I want to be pregnant again!! After a little juggling through a few different doctors, I ended up with a midwife. I am SO glad that she was able to be part of my pregnancy. Through her "Centering Pregnancy" group I met other mama's who were expecting babies around the same time as me. We talked about many things in that class including breastfeeding and cloth diapering! I have to give my crunchy parenting start to that class.

We found out we were going to have a boy! Even though I was desperately hoping for a girl I was honestly relieved that we were having a boy. "Little C" is such a precious baby! We have been on an amazing, though somewhat of a trial-and-error, journey and I am loving it! Breastfeeding was always apart of the picture from the moment I found out I was pregnant. We are blessed that it hasn't been a terribly difficult journey. About a month before Little C was born, and after much research, the cloth diapers I ordered came in. We knew it was very likely that Little C would have sensitive skin like both of his parents and wanted to be prepared ahead of time in case disposable diapers did not go well with his skin (and they didn't...but that's a story for another time). Homebirth was never part of our plan due to a heartbreaking experience hubby went though with a friend of his. We did a hospital birth and I am pleased with our choices because I did the best I could with what I knew at the time. In the beginning we did co-sleeping, which turned into bedsharing. I was misled into thinking Little C would be happier sleeping in his own bed, and went down that road, but even now at almost a year old, he will still sleep part of the night in his own bed and part of the night in bed with us so I guess it turned out alright.

Introducing foods to Little C has been a learning experience all in itself! We have gone through quite a bit with him having bad reactions to different foods (breaking out with eczema rash when things irritate him). This was also expected as I have a list of food allergies as long as my arm. We have taken it slow though and he is doing well with foods. I looked into Baby Led Weaning (BLW), but hubby & I were not comfortable with that since Little C only had two bottom teeth in the beginning so we have been doing purees. At first I used store bought baby foods, but in recent weeks I've been making my own 'purees' with organic foods and really love knowing exactly what I am feeding my child.

Food for the adult side of our family (hubby and myself) has been making a slow change over the past 4 months as well. I have been reading about the GMO's that are in food and am honestly quite horrified!!! Since I discovered that I have been putting a big effort into buying Non-GMO foods and many times they also happen to be Organic too so that's a double bonus! This is an expensive switch tho, so as things run out I have been purchasing their Non-GMO/Organic versions. This is something I am REALLY looking forward to sharing because finding these items is not exactly easy out here where I live.

When Little C was about 8 months old I started hearing about BABYWEARING. I really didn't know much about it, but I started looking into it... and then I started looking into the different style carriers... then I found one I liked (ring sling!)... and then I figured out how to make it myself... and I made it... and I used it... and both Little C and myself LOVED it!!! We have since added another carrier to our 'collection' (if two carriers can be a collection that is!)... an Infantino SwiftTM. Ive discovered that forward-facing babywearing isn't really recommended, and that my great score (I picked up the carrier for $1.50 at a local thrift store) really wasn't such a great carrier. BUT I still like it and we use it too because it works great for other situations where I don't want to use my ringsling.

Something that we are just getting to in our stage of baby life is Extended Rear Facing (ERF) in the car. I have been doing research and Little C is about ready to upgrade out of his baby seat so I've also been looking into which seat will give us the longest run for ERF. Not an easy task!

Hubby & I are undecided about whether or not we will homeschool our little one. There are a few private factors involved, but until we decide for sure I am all for working with Little C to learn things (as we have been doing since the beginning) at his pace. I am honestly very much looking forward to the toddler years since I am a creative person and am looking forward to having little hands helping me create new projects and do new things!

On to a few other topics!

I am ALL for homesteading...but really that's a project where I would be in way over my head. Hubby really helps balance me out in this area cuz I'm all "lets go buy a milk cow" and he will say, "but babe, are you going to milk the cow every morning and every night?" and I'll be like, "oh crap, I didn't think about that..." so yeah, it's a good thing I have him! Plus we live on just under an acre so really... homesteading is not practical for us right now. That being said... I totally have plans to get my own chickens and *hopefully* one day hubby will let me get a few goats too (since they will totally be ok on our small piece of land)... right now he said no to goats... still working on that with him... but our thought is one project at a time!

Gardening! Though I have GREAT intentions before the season begins, the last two years have NOT gone as planned. As it turns out, I'm a horrible gardener, BUT to be fair I was over 6 months pregnant when I started my first garden attempt, and this past year (2014) I have been trying to adjust to having someone completely dependent on me and just managing housework (and I haven't even been doing great at that, but its a work in progress!). There's always NEXT YEAR!!! Hubby helps me with the garden, but he also has to work a lot so the little maintenance of pulling weeds and watering it is stuff I do and I don't really love those chores either. This year the weeds just got away from me. Hubby is going to help me do wider rows so we can just run the tiller through it next year. I think that sounds like a FANTASTIC plan!

Oh! Also, sort of on the gardening topic...we have fruit trees and bushes too! Cherry trees, Apple trees, grape vines, blackberry bushes...I would eventually like to put in some blueberry bushes as well...but there is a huge blueberry farm up the road so even if I don't have my own they have good berries (which I've bought several years in a row now) so I won't be completely heartbroken if I don't add them. I LOVE making my own jellies out of the fruit from our yard. I would also like to put in a bed (or something) to grow strawberries.

One of my latest things of interest in the food department is RAW MILK. I am looking into buying raw milk from a local farmer and making my own butter and stuff like that. I'm actually pretty excited about this prospect. From what I'm finding, though its more expensive per gallon (the lady I'm looking at buying from sells for $5 a gallon) than store-bought milk, it also doesn't have hormones (well, for this particular person I'm buying from that is!) AND I will be getting milk + butter so its actually saving money cuz milk is what, $4 a gallon and butter is like $3 a pound? So already that's $7 on store-bought... so yeah, we're saving money AND eating better! Double score!!!

In the past few months I've also really gotten into herbal/homeopathic remedies. I grew up with a fair amount of knowledge in this area, but never really 'used' it myself until recently. I am LOVING the results of being more natural in the healing department. Less weird ingredient names to read off a bottle, and since many things are foods there are Non-GMO options which I am totally thrilled about. Essential oils are my new favorite part of this journey as I have researched uses of different oils and am finding that they actually help!

On the topic of natural... I prefer natural cleaning products. I like not having to worry about my child possibly getting into cleaning chemicals. I also save money and am happy with the many, many things baking soda and white vinegar can clean! I've been transferring personal care products over to more natural options as well. Its a little slower since there has been some trial and error involved, but we are gonna find what works for us and it will be wonderful not having to worry about what is in these things and how they are negatively affecting us in our daily lives.

As a completely random finishing note... I haven't cut my hair in like four years. It is finally almost to my waist and I am really happy that it is getting long. I LOVE long hair, so does hubby! So, again, double score! :)

I am sure I could go on and on, but really... this is a journal and meant to have many entries over time. Hopefully this gave you a good start and now you know a bit about me and how my journey to being crunchy began.