Small Steps

YEA!!!!!!!!!!  We now have a working worm compost bin in our kitchen.  I’m so excited by this it’s ridiculous.  It’s a small step but a step nontheless. 

Our son was so excited when it arrived and completely bummed out when I had to tell him that the worms would be coming later.  He helped me put it together and it sat in our dinning area until they arrived.  When our daughter came home from college and asked what it was, you could see in her demeanor that she thinks we have gone off the deep end.  What will she think when she comes home this Wednesday and finds that we now have a pound of worms as our new family addition. 

It’s silly but I feel this is my first test.  Will I be able to keep them alive?  Will I love it in the beginning but bore of it?  Are we really going to change the way we live? 

On another note…I have talked to my husband about hunting.  I read on a woman’s blog about her first time hunting and I was inspired.  If I’m serious about my concerns and the changes I want to make I have to think about much more than I originally thought.   Things that just 1 year ago made me uncomfortable.  I like that my beliefs, skills, habits and etc are being stretched.  I may learn how to shoot after all.  Guns scare me.  I’ve shot before, guns are powerful and makes me a bit uneasy.  I wonder if I’ll ever shoot at anything?  I have to at least try and see how it plays out.  I’m a meat eater and always will be.  My husband has been after me for years to join him in this activity.  I’ve always blown it off.  “It’s just not ME”  Well time for me to shut up and learn and question myself.  We’ll see…

Plain & Simple

It’s hard for me to write.  My ideas and thoughts go around in circles so fast it’s hard for me to stay on topic long enough to write about it.  I also OVER THINK EVERYTHING!!!!

Jospeace Island

A couple people I know and enjoy spending time with mentioned to me that I might be happy on my own island with my own government.  While this sounds darn appealing - let's face it it would be lonely.  I am frustrated and disgusted by politics.  Things are absolutely crazy out there and no one seems to mind that they are part of it.

Our systems (education, health, drug war, military, etc...) are completely OFF.  I have not heard from a single person that they think the way things are handled is the right way.  So what is the answer?  I don't know.  I know that doesn't help does it.

When you look ove the history of the earth you realize that we are a small pinprick of time.  But I get the feeling that if we don't change some very basics (food system as an example) things will only get worse.  What does that say for the future for my kids? 

The small minority of money makers and large corporations seem to have a strangle hold on our lives.  When will we say enough is enough?  I am trying each day as I remove myself from the "consumer" culture we live in today.  I am not going to give up everything and live on an island or in the middle of the woods (a cabin to get away would be nice however).  But I am going to learn how to balance modern life and learning how to be more sustainable in life.

Remember to Vote on Tuesday.  In the meantime I'm going to watch the "Rally to Restore Sanity" this weekend and maybe just maybe I'll see hope.

REPOST from TMA

Transition Madison Area to host a community POTLUCK!

Transition Madison Area is hosting our first all-community potluck! Come hear about what we are doing, how you can get involved, and what this Transition Movement is all about!

Friday, October 29th at 6:30pm
James Reeb Unitarian Universalist Congregation
2146 E Johnson, Madison

Bring a dish to pass, your family and friends, and any ideas you’d like to share. We plan to share our stories and hope our future events incorporate your ideas of community!
If you can, please let us know if you plan to come so we know how many plates to have out. [If you decide last minute to join--- PLEASE DO!--- rather than worry about not RSVPing.]

RSVP to transitionmadisoarea1 (at) gmail.com

Focus already!!!

Every time I start writing my brain starts doing cartwheels all over the place.  I can’t seem to focus on one topic.  No wonder why my son answered this question “What is frustrating to you?” with “my mom can’t stay on topic”.  This was on a homework assignment this year.  What can I say?  I’m a A to W to D to S type of person.  Isn’t everything intertwined somehow?  In my head it is.

This blog is something of an open diary which brings with it feeling vulnerable.  I HATE that feeling.  But without putting things out there – where do we end up?  I end up in my head and from past experience that is not always the place to be, if you know what I mean.  Things get warped and out of control in there.  Neurotic Mess!!!  :-D

This morning I said something about the food I’ve been buying because it really goes against everything I’ve been talking about being important to me.  One of the reasons is that my budget keeps getting a knock down because I’m also trying to keep my daughter fed while she continues to try to find a job and making sure my boys have food for their hunting excursions this fall.  With having to divide it up like that it doesn’t leave much for the day to day eating.  Well my husband looks at me after I make a comment and says “so where does smoking fit into this new lifestyle”.  DOH!!!!!!!  I hate it when he pins me down like that.  Sure go ahead and throw the obvious contradiction in my face.  LOL. 

On a positive note I’m down to an average of 5 cigs a day, which is great.  But he’s right with everything the specific corporation and the tobacco industry as a whole represents I want nothing to do with them.  But he’s also right that I am having a hard time making the decision to REALLY quit.  I’ve been trying for the past 1½  years with small successes.

Why on earth is making decisions that in the end make me feel good about life and myself so damn hard?

So what do you do about contradiction you find in life day to day? 

Do you see how it bounces all over the place.  I admire anyone that can follow…

How to start a blog...?

How do you start a blog?  Especially when you are not naturally a writter.  Well I'll start by telling you who we are...

My name is Jocelyn and so far life has been quite the journey.  When my husband and I were married he adopted my daughter (now 18) and I think we just put our heads down and pushed forward because we didn't know what the heck we were doing.  We were only 24 & 26 at the time.  We had our son in 1998 (now 12).  We didn't think about where our food was coming from, what we were doing to the earth, what we were doing to each other.  Then in the beginning of 2005 our family just about fell apart because we were not paying attention to anything.  It was a wakeup call.  In the past 5 years we have been waking up and continue to try to be as REAL as we can. 

Which brings me to the last year or so.  I have always been a bleading heart liberal and my husband has been more to the center liberal.  So when we started paying attention to what was going on around us and to the future for our children and their children we HAD to start doing something about it.

When I was a kid I LOVED the outdoors.  My husband has always had a passion for nature.  My passion was stiffeled because of different events in my life.  However I've been allowing myself to open myself up more and see what is out there.

One way we are starting to change is paying attention to the way we eat and hopefully someday having an Urban Homestead.  It's hard to know where you want to end up and having no idea of how to begin.  I've started to read many different blogs on Urban and Rural Homesteading.  Very interesting people out there that have been doing what I see us doing in the near future.  Sometimes I get down on myself because it took me so long to open my eyes.  But then I remember that there is a whole population out there that still hasn't even began opening them.  And if there is hope for them there definately is hope for us.

I've gotten involved with Transition Madison Area.  http://transitionmadisonarea.wordpress.com/ and look forward to working on re-skilling workshops for this area.  There are so many things I want to learn and how better than to help bring these things to my area for everyone else out there that want to.  Things like canning, homesteading, chickens, butchering, crafty/artsy, permaculture, herbs, etc... 

So I guess this blog will be a free-flowing diary of sorts.  What am I feeling, what are we doing, how are we doing it...etc...