My Revelation

It seems these days that the "IN" thing to do is to go green. And by going green they mean changing your lightbulbs, carrying cute reuseable bags and so on. Well, I guess that the awareness of it is great, but are they really doing enough?

I recently read the "No Impact Man" book by Colin Beavan. I was blown away by how much I could be doing but havent. I was a somewhat green person before. I used the bags, changed the bulbs, went vegan(decided it was too hard) then went to organic only vegetarian. I even declared that my soon to be 2 year old son Leland was now also an organic vegetarian. My husband Craig still loves his meat too much, so we made a comprimise that he only eat grass fed local meat instead.

So here we go. Another "going green" blog. Another journey. I would like to think that my journey is a little different than most. My journey will be a little harder than you would think. You see, I live in the suburbs of Northern Indiana. Right now the snow is so deep that even the thought of riding a bike, walking anywhere, growing any food or getting any local food, is just insane. Not to mention people from Indiana LOVE their meat and put it in everything!

So how about we start with a little background of me and my family, to makes things easier. My husband and I both grew up in Indiana, him from Fort Wayne and myself from South Bend. We met at Ball State University, him studying Landscape Architecture and I, Art and Art History. I never finished my degree because I decided that it would be better to follow my new guy out to Colorado and marry him on an impulse over his lunch break one valentines day. We loved Colorado! It opened our eyes to a completely different kind of culture. Back in Indiana everything was so meat and potatos and obesity. Here its riding bikes, Whole Foods, and doing everything outdoors in the sunshine. It wasnt hard to fall in love with Colorado.

But it didnt last long. Craig found a job in Tennessee and as fast as Colorado came, it was gone.

So Nashville here we came. Yes, the country stars were everywhere. When I went to get my drivers license changed to a TN one, I sat accross from Bucky Covington. He mysteriously went into the bathroom for 20 mins came out, complained about the line, and him and his tall bald friend got to cut everyone and leave. Of course at the time I had no idea who he was. While in Tennessee I learned so much about religion and how crazy they where. Dinosaurs apparently where put in the ground by the devil to confuse man crazyness. We stopped believing in anything the few years we where there and because agnostic. Religion made people so mean, ignorant and stuck up, we just never wanted to become that. We hated Tennessee. Only one good thing came out of there and that was our son Leland. Our wish came true about getting out of TN by ways of the economy. Craig was laid off and we had to move back to Indiana. Back in with his parents. Which is where this journey begins. So where are we at today?

Right now I sit in a dark basement. Even though the sun is out outside, its too cold to enjoy it. My husband is rocking our son in a swing which we attached to the basement ceiling. He is watching Ratatouille.. if thats how you spell it. The movie about the cooking rat in Paris. He loves anything pixar. The TV watching really has to stop. When it is on I can walk up to Leland, say his name several times, wave my hand in front of his face and nothing changes. He is addicted. I blame myself for letting him watch Hannah Montana and Phineas and Ferb so much as a baby. Craig and I both agree that the TV has to go. Its just a matter of when. We dont really have control over when it is on and off. His parents do. Well, Leland looks like he is about to fall asleep. Better get him down for his nap.

So the adventure begins. I hope some of you come along for the ride.

-Natalie