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My daughter just turned one over the weekend.  Needless to say, past year has been a learning experience for me.  Somehow my Super Woman switch got turned on as soon as I had Luna and I felt it was my job to save the world. Maybe this happens to all moms, but man, it is exhausting! I challenged a lot of norms over the past year including trash, cable and other technologies, vaccinations, food, disposable diapers and other modern conveniences. I led my family on a wild goose chase as we gave up trash, cable, disposable diapers, certain foods, and so much more.  The journey was a learning experience for all of us. We have all learned to be less wasteful, more responsible and much more aware. 

Life quickly became frustrating and far from enjoyable. We found without some of the modern conveniences life became very stressful. For example, without trash pick up you have to learn how to shop to avoid waste. Mainstream does not make this easy. To avoid problems in our family and relieve the stress we all compromised in our changes. We kept the cloth diapers, but got back trash service, however, we increased our recycling load and decreased out typical trash load significantly. We still don't have cable. We replaced it with Hulu and Netflicks and saved a bunch of money. Since then, my husband also purchased a $15.00 antenna and now we get ten clear channels! As for our foods, we are still learning, but we try to keep our foods local or organic whenever possible. We grew some of our vegetables as well.  Some of my opinions and decisions also brought about controversy, I guess that is all about standing up for what you think is right.

It really has been a great year and I feel confident about the changes that we have made as a family. I am also grateful for the people that have taken the time to listen to our experiences and support us. My perspective on life has definitely changed drastically and the challenges have made me a better person. Time to relax and enjoy life a bit.