Well, since the focus of this blog is supposed to be progress on all of these wonderful changes that I'm making, I thought I'd do a little progress report for 2008.
Cloth Diapering
Satisfactory - I'm pretty proud of how I've done with this. I decided to cloth diaper, and come hell or high water I've stuck with it. I admit that there were a few times I got behind on the diaper laundry and used disposables for several changes in a row, or even several days in a row. But, overall I'm happy that I've stuck with it. Keeping up with diaper laundry can be very difficult. When I was working full-time it was really hard. It's a bit easier now that I do home daycare (still hard as I'm still very busy). It took awhile to figure out what we like. I have prefolds and LOVE Thirsties Diaper Covers. T and I love Bum Genius. I don't have to worry about T cheating as much and using sposies now that we have invested in some Bum Genius one-sizers. Of course I have them stuffed, sized, ready to go for him. When I stop procrastinating I will sell off a lot of the pockets, some fitteds, some covers, and eventually get more BGs for the next time around.
Natural Medicine
Somewhat Satisfactory - I'm giving myself a little bit lower score as I think I could be doing better in this area. I really want to learn more about herbs and homeopathy so that I feel confident in what to do about different ailments. Also, I keep forgetting to take my probiotic daily as well as make sure Boo gets some. I think this is especially important now that we're in winter season and sickness abounds. Hopefully this will be a good reminder for me. It's time consuming to read and educate myself on this subject matter. Also, materials are not always readily available when I need them. So ordering some basics that I can't find at the local health store would probably help me on my way. But I'm still trying. So that's why I still get satisfactory tacked on to the end!
Crafting
Somewhat Satisfactory - I don't think that I'm making this a priority like I should be. I get the satisfactory because I have done some successful scrapbooking and knitting towards the end of the year. But in order to maintain my mental health and creativity I need to get better at carving out a time for this. There's a local group that gets together to be creative. I've only gone once out of several opportunities. I need to make it a priority for next X-mas as I did no homemade gifts this year. That made me sad. I did homemade last year and loved it. I want to get back to that as it's so much more from the heart.
Attachment Parenting
Satisfactory - This is an area where much of my effort, research, reading, etc... went last year, especially as we went from infancy to toddlerhood. For me, AP wasn't horribly difficult with an infant (I have an easy baby), but it's gotten increasingly harder as he's entered toddlerhood and become more sure of himself and is so able to get to everything in this house! Overall though I feel like I really try to keep my voice gentle and get off my butt when I discipline him, rather than shout from the across the room. Easier said than done a lot of days though. I try to treat him in a way that's respectful and I try to acknowledge his feelings. I could definitely use lots of improvement, but who couldn't? One can always be a better parent. One thing I would like to improve on this year is work on the kitchen area so that there are less "no"s in the environment. Of course a room like a kitchen is always going to be full of hazards, but I'd like to have more things in there that I can direct his attention to if need be. For example, I'd love to have a child-size broom and mop set in there as well as some fridge magnets, things that are okay for him. I've even toyed with the idea of putting a play kitchen set against one wall in there, so that he can cook at his stove while mommy cooks at hers.
I have gone through periods where my patience is not what it should be. I think this is a result of not caring for myself and not giving myself time that I need (see crafting above). So I'm going to work on this so that I'm mentally and emotionally able to be more loving and responsive.
I also think that I could improve on babywearing. There are times at home where Boo simply needs to be worn because he's exhibiting a high level of need at this moment. And sometimes I'm just lazy and don't want to wear him while working around the house. This is okay when he's content playing, but it's really not okay for me when he's unhappy about it.
Environmental/Social Responsibility
Somewhat Unsatisfactory - Well, we're much more consistent with recycling this year. But I feel like that's about all we've done. I do buy clothes used a lot for Boo. But I still tend to enjoy consuming quite a bit too. I did look for responsibly made things though for Boo's X-mas gifts. However, I broke down and bought mass-produced stuff from companies that aren't so great for other gifts. Part of the reason is that I didn't make time for crafting and was buying a lot last minute. Better planning could go a long way in this area.
Also I've talked to T about doing more in the way of contributing regularly towards a social cause that we believe in. For me, I definitely feel burdened by the issue of clean water. As a mom I can't imagine watching your children get sick and die from lack of clean water. It just breaks my heart. But being sad is about all I've done for this cause. So my goal for 2009 is to research this issue and organizations and how I can help.
Well, I'm sure that there are other areas that I could comment on, but I feel like I've touched on a lot of important things already.
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