Holy Crap, I'm Starting to CRUNCH

Ok, ok. Im the last person in the world I ever thought would be writing a blog like this.  I'm an uber-conservative woman who sees all that crunchy "green" stuff as liberal propaganda.  Ok, not quite THAT bad, but "green" to me equals hippie dippie person with too much time on their hands.  My momma smoked, drank and did God only knows what while pregnant with me and I turned out fine.  Cloth diapering has ruined me and my child is not even born yet.  *sigh*

~I will admit that this all started as a money saving venture for us.  It started with the diapers.  Seriously though, who DOESNT want to save a few thousand dollars within the first 4 years of their child's life?  I know I would!  Then my attention was directed to that awful incident with the sposie diapers BURNING kids from the chemicals.  Wait....there are chemicals in those things?  What else is lurking in my convenient throw away products?

~After the diapers came the paper towels.  Yes, there is still a roll of them on my counter.  I live in a house with 4 men from 3 different generations.  Not EVERYONE is on board with me, but by me not using them we are STILL using less...saving a little more.  Now my counters are wiped down with old rags and Landon's socks that have gone through divorces while in the dryer.

~Well, if the paper towels are going the way of the dinosaurs..why not the wipes too?  Next thing I know I have spent 2 days with old t-shirts cutting out and sewing 50 cloth wipes....and then I find myself wanting to take the left over t-shirts to make rags for the above mentioned paper towel debacle  simply because it was so much fun to make the wipes that I dont want the fun to end...or all these t-shirt scraps to go to waste.  *sigh*

~I breast feed, that's a given.  Again, started out as a money saver, but my, oh, my what a wonderful way to save!  NOTHING in this world brings me more pleasure than cuddling a baby close and knowing that it is getting EVERYTHING it needs from little old me.  All those anti bodies and nutrients...makes me feel like a super hero!

~Cleaning my house was a challenge this pregnancy...being restricted to what I could and could not use...my windows are now cleaned with vinegar and a little baking soda goes a long way.  I still love my bleach, however, and you cant have it.  :)

~This morning I had the opportunity to sleep in thanks to the ice storm, but hot flashes had me up and in the front room instead.  Next thing I know Im up to my neck researching mama cloth.  OMG.  I'm a tampon girl through and through and here I am looking at cloth pads?!?!  My thinking?  Well, save some money if I can get Hubs to go along with the initial start up...and I'm doing the extra load of laundry anyway with the dipes and wipes.  Then I find out there are nasty chemicals in my tampons as well...not just the wierd TSS ones that my grandma freaks out about, but ones that cause CANCER?  Having had surgery TWICE this past year for HPV cancer is NOT on my "play around with" list.

Then I stumbled across THIS blog and it was like heaven opened up and the angels started singing to me.  Yeah, she's still a little over the top for me, but the title is SORTA crunchy.  I dont think she wants me to just jump on the band wagon...just listen to some suggestions.  Most of them save money any way...like no water bottles.  Reusable ones instead.  Landon and I JUST had this convo the other day.  At the end of it I nearly broke into tears apologizing for being so crunchy lately...and then he asked me if I had any ideas of stopping my dirty little habit of burning my trash out back.  I looked at him like he lost his mind and told him no...and he told me that until I stopped burning holes in the o-zone layer the crunchy people would want very little to do with me.  Words never sounded so sweet ;)

So, yeah, I cloth diaper, breastfeed, use as little additives in my laundry as I can, sing praises to anything I can make out of old shirts, and wash my house in vinegar.....but I take my trash out back and burn it like any other self respecting, southern bred, conservative, red neck.  And I enjoy it.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm waiting on my next shipment of "fluff mail."