Granola or Roots Ramblings
Let me start by saying I
As I was stirring up the dough, rolling it out, grating goat cheeses, pureeing broccoli, then sneaking it into the pizza sauce, I was thinking gone are the days when I could rip open the plasic and shove a frozen pizza in the oven. Gone are the days of picking up the phone for pizza delivery. While I love cheeseless pizza, Easton does not. Mine are better for us all anyway although maybe not cheaper.
It took 2 months and numerous recipe trial and errors between my mom & I to make a gf bun Paxton loves and the same for muffins that everyone can eat and actually think tastes good. My mission became baking a yummy muffin for my muffin loving kids that they could all have. Have I mentioned my disdain for baking!!
After giving birth to P&A, my smell sensitivies got worse. I used to get headaches just from some smells like perfumes, rubber tires, new carpet but now I couldn't tolerate cleaning products, scented soaps and the like either. We changed over to unscented then vinegar/water/baking soda/borax for cleaning + laundry. For more cost savings, I made 90% of their baby food.
These days my husband calls me granola / crunchy / or whatever else means the same because of my more holistic and natural approaches to everything. I put cut up onions in my kids (& my) room to make colds go away faster, I put a mustard powder paste on my sons back to help get rid of his nasty cough (totally works), I've tried lavendar essential oil to help them sleep thru the night (not working for my kids), I'm finding recipes to make my own dish soap and I have read about using a cut lime as deodarant (I am too scared to try it.) among many other things.
This morning, I got to thinking...am I granola or am I returning to my roots? Growing up we always had a garden, our milk was delivered, my mom made all our meals and snacks from scratch, she made my lunch everyday for school thru high school, we ate sugary cereal a couple times a year on a trip to our friends cabin. When I was young my mom made many of our clothes (she is also an expert seamstress/that skill skipped me and moved onto Paxton) until I refused and had to have store bought. While my mom's cookies were yummy, I remember wishing for prepackaged cookies like everyone else. We went on lots of trips and ate out too. Our food was less commercial, less pesticides, less hormones (or less knowledge of their effects) less fast, less convenient.
So maybe I'm granola and maybe I'm returning to my roots, no matter which one, I'm doing things I didn't think I would EVER DO but are necessary for feeding my kids and alleviating my worry that I'm not doing enough for their health.
If you've made it this far...thank you. I'd love to know is there something you do now that you don't like to do but need to?
or
do you do something now you didn't see yourself doing?
or
are you a crunchy granola returning to your roots type of person?
(I also didn't see myself with twins(s), living in a small town or driving a minivan to name a few)
Comments
With my son's severe nut allergies and discovering that I'm lactose intolerent...cooking, baking, eating is much more challenging. But it's well worth it -- eating healthy feels so good!