Henry had another baseball game today. He has 1-2 games every weekend for the next month or so, so it is no surprise he played today. In my last post, I guess I was accidently saying t-ball instead of baseball. My apologies. Henry would be drastically hurt if he thought I didn't know the difference (but I really do). This game was at a new ball field and the weather was perfect. We got some great pictures and I didn't want to hold back, so I put them all up here. I hope you enjoy them. I mostly will be talking about other things, but the pictures will be good eye candy.
I am still a really poor sleeper thanks to the steroids. If in my whole life there has been one thing I have really excelled at, it has been sleeping. If given the chance, I will take the whole 9 hours and not turn back. The contrast of a cool room and me tucked beneath my multiple quilts...aaahh...nothing better. Now I find myself not really able to settle down. I seem to fall asleep okay (while usually on the couch next to Aaron), and then once I get in bed I just cant stay asleep. I don't know what to do with myself. Get up, go to the bathroom, check my phone, lay in bed...aaaaa.... This is not really my kind of fun. To make it worse, Franny is having some issues at night and has been needing comforting. If there is a chance that I am actually asleep, she will wake me up and then everything starts all over again. I know it is the steroids and it makes me even more anxioius to get done with them. I am starting to really symphathize with poor sleepers. I want to be out of the club!
Because of these sleepless night, around midnight or so last night, I started thinking about a blog post and how to set it up and what to say and all the intricacies. Before I forget half of what I wanted to say, I thought I should write it up. This is a little bit of a departure from my normal posts, but maybe even more important.
I guess I should start out and say that I feel like am a normal, pretty rational person. I don't feel I have many or really any extreme views. I guess I am a product of how I was raised. Yes, I was a suburban girl, but beyond that, both my parents were raised in smallish towns (is Fargo small?). My mom's best childhood memories are when she got to go the family farm. She was raised on self sufficiency, hard work and a lot of drive was the key to everything. My grandmother saved EVERYTHING. Even in my house, I have a hoard of buttons I know my grandmother painstakingly removed off old clothing so they could be used again some day (some have). I probably have a half a dozen quilts or more that both my grandmother and mother have made. I treasure them because, one they are awesome, and two, they were hand made for ME!
On my father's side, my grandpa was a carpenter, a meticulous one. The summer before college, I spent a week with him building a wooden chest to take to college. Do you know how many times I had to sand that top of the chest until it was good enough for him? A long time, but you know what, he was right. I can look over to the right and see the chest now, in perfect condition. Beyond this, I also have the bedroom set he made for himself and my Grandma. All goodness.
The reason I am bringing this up is not to brag, but to tell you that besides my normal childhood, there was some always special about doing things yourself and if you could, you should. It is probably the most correct way to life. I don't have any pretense that it is the easier way, just the right way.
Now that I am getting older, I feel like there are even more choices about the world, specifically ecologically. I think there is no way a rational human being can deny global warming. I mean, they can choose not to think about it, but it is there. Things I do, or not do, really impact what happens, and I think there are a lot of small things I can do about it that feel right.
Because we are renting our house here in Minneapolis, we are in a stand still and that has given me (and Aaron) time to reflect on what we want for the future.
Again, I am not an extremist. I like most parts of government (although they lie too much). I think it is important to support people who were not born into lucky situations. Every day I see the value of Medicaid. I do no think society is evil. I do not want to withdraw. Yes, the environment is important, but even more important is people and community. I want to be part of that community, not sheltered away. I love public schools. They have given Henry so many more opportunities that I could ever give him, and that is the way it should be. I like technology. I probably use my cell phone too much and am happy about all the access it gives me. I could never own a farm, or horses or dogs because then I would have an asthma attack and stop breathing. Oh, the other really important thing is that I believe in science and vaccines.
Why am I saying such a speech? It is because I am so normal, and I feel pretty strongly about what Aaron I need to do. We want to get as self sufficient as possible. Tesla just came out with a solar power battery that could let you store energy for your house. Using gray water in the house to decrease water consumption just makes sense. Houses are getting bigger and bigger, but people are not really having more kids. I want to be in the same room with my family while one cooks, the other does homework and the other just goofs off. Every week we mow our massive lawn, why? The kids play in the cul-de-sac!
I have been trying to research what the next steps are for us. We will like move to another house in 1 1/2 years or so. I don't want to build a house, to me that defeats the whole purpose on re-using and where we live there is not much free land. I want to find a nice smallish house and convert it to be eco-friendly/partially off-grid.
I don't know if I am looking wrong or what, but there is just a paucity of information here. There is a lot of homesteading off-grid information about living far away from society, but what about right about here in the city? My guess is it is just coming on now, and slowly. I can't be the only person like me, right?
Besides the house itself, I want to be a better gardener. I by no means have a green thumb, but I am trying and learning. It seems to me polyculture/permaculture makes the most sense on how to set up fruits/veggies in the yard. There are some local chapters here in Miinneapolis and I am excited to start learning about them. This will likely be more secondary after the house, but when buying a house it has to have the right kind of land. It doesn't have to be big, just right.
We went to the library today and I picked up three books about living off-grid or something like that. I'm not really sure they are the right books, but this is my official start of research. It is time to get real and start acting off what I feel (or more so than before). As of right now, we do about the medium. We recycle, we have a CSA that will be starting soon. Hopefully we will also get some local eggs. I just found a local meat market that we will frequent, but really we don't eat meat every day. Before my somnolence syndrome I started biking to work. I hope to restart that soon. I have a meager garden, we'll see what happens with it this year.
I think I also need to say I love my job. It is a great job and very fulfilling and I like going almost every day. I never plan on stopping working, or getting out of the "rat race." Like it or not, my job is part of my identity. Because this job is well paying, I probably have options in the future that are open to me. I am not unaware of this. This affords me to do things right, not just cheap. Actually, I have no idea how much we are taking with finances. I am hoping to learn more down the road. I picture this thing done in stages, hopefully none will be too overwhelming, but who knows. If we find the perfect house with good bones that is unlivable, maybe we would do it all at once.
Okay, okay. I think I have said my piece. If anyone has any good resources for me to move forward with, I would be much obliged. Everyone else can watch the journey. I'll probably just be reading and researching the next year or so, so it might get a little boring in the mean time. Good thing I have some cute kids to keep you interested in this blog.
I guess I will just leave you with some pictures from the end of the game.
