Becoming Crunchy

Image by efedefoto via Flickr

What is crunchy?

Kind of a funny word, first of all.

I first discovered it when I started obsessively reading parenting blogs and websites with the coming of my daughter. It’s a word that definitely has more than one definition when you apply it to people, but this is what I’ve boiled it down to for me:

An ‘Attachment’ parenting style. A healthy lifestyle. A more natural way of living.

You might also find it grouped along with words like hippie, natural, granola…all those types my husband definitely never aspired to be (but guess who’s currently heading full tilt in that direction?)

I will admit that I’ve always sort of aspired to being this type of person, but I never really managed to put in the effort.

Until now.

As anyone reading this who is a parent knows, having children changes everything – and everything can change in a very short amount of time.

For most of my life, I was the one who would immediately reach for something chemical to clean my house. I had no problem whatsoever eating processed or canned food. I didn’t even question the idea of using pesticides to kill bugs. I liked the idea of organic food, but I wasn’t going to shell out for it all the time.

Now that I’ve had my daughter, those rules have changed – in fact, it seems like a completely new game.

Things I wouldn’t think twice about before are now major considerations – and that goes down to the smallest details of what kinds of containers we will use to store our food.

In the past 6 months, we’ve made some radical changes – but we’re not there yet.

This blog is the record of a journey of a family that is becoming crunchy – not all the way there, not always happily, but we’re doing it for the sake of our daughter and whatever brothers and sisters might eventually come along to join her.

When I ask myself, what is crunchy? – I think of the legacy that I can leave her – the legacy of healthy eating, healthy living, a strong attachment to her parents to be her jumping off place into the world – and every step is worth it. Every failure leads to another attempt. Every sacrifice becomes a joyful gift.

If you’re joining us on this journey, you are welcome!   You are joining a family that is far from perfect, knowing that we probably won’t be successful in every area and being OK with that, hoping to learn a lot along the way while keeping open minds and our sense of humor. We would love to have you in on the discussion!

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