Changes

Did you notice the template change? My old blog was green and blue and I really loved it, but when I started the second blog I wanted it to be different. I must have been very tired when I chose that pink scheme. Funny thing is, I didn't pay much attention to it, but tonight I logged in and it was staring at me with its glaring Pepto Bismalness.

Speaking of the old blog, I've noticed that more and more lately I write about life, and not just homeschooling. The old blog was titled "Simplicity in the Suburbs", and my self-criticism at the time was that I wrote too often about veganism, food, and cooking. So perhaps I don't really know what to call my blog. I'll stick with the current title, and hopefully the rest of you won't mind that many of the posts aren't about homeschooling per se, but about life, learning, laughter, and love.

Another change was our transition away from veganism. We all eat small amounts of organic pastured eggs and wild salmon, as well as other fish occasionally. No beef, pork, goat, chicken, turkey, lamb, or any other flesh except fish, and no dairy. We wouldn't eat the eggs if we couldn't find them locally and humanely raised.

We have done this for our health. Now, please spare me the lecture on how everyone can be perfectly healthy following a vegan diet, because I spouted it for years. But right now we can't. Food allergies have taken their toll and we need lean, concentrated protein to aid in our healing. A vegan diet is fantastially healthy, but not optimal for healing a leaky gut and putting some weight on a skinny 6 year old. Nothing is the way it used to be, and we can't get the same nutrition from our factory-farmed grains, beans, vegetables, and fruits as we did 100 years ago before the advent of fossil-fuel based pesticides and the depletion of our nation's topsoil.

You know, I used to worry what people would think, me going from vegan to vegetarian, back and forth, then adding in fish (after 12 years of no flesh at all), then taking it out, and so on. Now I don't care. I remember meeting a woman 14 years ago who said in a very knowing way, "I was vegetarian for 10 years". At the time I couldn't fathom how a person could make an ethical decision like that and change their mind. Now I see that there are so many shades of grey, and that even a vegan diet and lifestyle do not exist without harm to some creatures. The fields are pretty bloody after the harvester goes through, littered with the carcasses of the small animals that make each field their home. The earth is polluted with the exhaust of trucks and ships bringing us produce from around the world. To exist as a human being, as least as a human being in North America, means that others will be harmed by my existence. There is no perfection, and you can drive yourself insane trying to be "good" in every area of your life. Ask me, I know...I've been to the edge and back. I struggle with it still.

There may very well come a time when we are back to living in local communities with local economies and local food sources. While right now I can't imagine eating my friend the cow, I do know that in the end I will do what I have to do to survive, and if I have to humanely raise and slaughter an animal to keep my children and grandchildren alive I suppose I will. I hope it doesn't come to that.

Anyway, I'm not going to change the part in my profile that says I enjoy coming up with plant-based meals for my family, because I do. Most of our meals are completely free of animal products. I understand that my position isn't good enough for staunch vegans, because I've been in their (leather-free) shoes.

Other changes: I've slowly backed away from 99% of my message board and email list participation. My computer time is now focused on writing in my blog and moderating a homeschooling Yahoo! group for Enki users. I haven't time for much else. The writing feeds my soul; I have always loved writing and I have finally found that blogging allows me to share my words with the world. It is enough for me: I need to write - I don't need to be published or paid.

So the blog may take a different direction. I'll still write about holistic homeschooling, because it is a huge part of my life. But I'm also going to write about all of the other things that I think about, things that catch my fancy, things that bother me, things that bring me great joy. And maybe, just maybe, I'll figure out how to post pictures without it being a huge time consuming task.