Its not about where you are, but rather the course you have charted. The only rule: In order for your family to live a sustainable life – you HAVE to have a plan! This stage requires us to ANALYZE our behaviors and develop tangible strategies.Mothers for the most part are natural planners. We make multiple decisions daily. Living a sustainable life requires a lot of planning – especially when you have large family with diverse needs! We have found that by establishing core values to live by we are able to define the parameters to work within.
For example, transitioning to eating all organic food was a deliberated process. First we had to get around our preconceived ideas about organic food – “it costs too much, it doesn’t taste as good…”. We had to determine eating all organic food as a priority. Once we unraveled our misperceptions we realized that what it would require is some adjustments to the way we were used to eating. Figuring out how to make this happen in our lives was the next step.
We also don’t shop or eat the way most American families do these days. For example, we eat very little packaged or processed foods. Sometimes we have to be creative, but in the long run ,we probably save a ton of money by eating whole foods that we cook or prepare ourselves - even with the high cost of organic produce, which is what we primarily eat.
Every once in awhile I have one of those days where I get frustrated at the lack of options available to us as an organic family. After much hard work and effort we have all reached a consensus on what we will and will not eat and we live our lives accordingly. We are all in agreement that we will only eat organic with exceptions to some locally grown foods for our own health and that of the planet. This resolution has limited us to only one place to eat out in our state that is within our budget and something we all enjoy (besides our own organic café). Going out to eat is a special treat that we savor only on special occasions.
After homeschooling six kids and preparing three meals a day, seven days a week, some nights I just want a break. Perhaps I didn’t plan our dinner options well enough in advance and would like to have something ready to go with little thought involved. Last week I had one of those nights with my oldest being picked up from dance class at 8pm. We had few interesting food options to work with. My husband and I are eating all raw living foods. Our oldest is eating vegan with no wheat; the second oldest, vegetarian, and our only boy - no dairy. This leaves only three with no specific dietary needs or requests, and one of those three being my pickiest eater. Augh! It was looking to be some kind of “special” night for sure.
Our one “special” place to eat out is a twenty minute drive one way without traffic. That’s a lot of CO2 for us because we have designed most of our activities around the central location of our home and business which are a five minute walk away from one another. It is 5:30pm and everyone is hungry. I pull myself together and devise a plan, and quick. It always seems to work out and the kids deal with it. Tonight’s best option would be a simple meal of cooked quinoa and steamed veggies. We might not have the most interesting meals every night but we do eat what we refer to in our family as “the best food on the planet”.
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