Just joined

[Meredeth]

Hi all. I'm Meredeth. I am so excited to find this place. Natural living has been an ongoing journey for me for about 10 years now. Motherhood has really helped motivate me to implement more and more changes. I'm excited about the things I can learn here-and hopefully share.

[Pat]

Welcome! Are there new holistic areas that you are exploring? Areas that you are passionate/an activist about?

I'm kefir crazy at the moment. LOL And learning to soak/cook with whole grains. But, I prefer easy meals, so I'm hunting for simple recipes.

How old are your little ones? We have one son, age 7. We homeschool.



Pat

[Meredeth]

I'd say that I'm most passionate about vaccines (we have a toddler and a newborn) and homeschooling right now. Both of those are choices we would like to keep and I feel like they could both soon be in jeopardy.

I love to cook. LOVE it. So I'm always trying new things. Lately I'm exploring ways to get other yuck out of our lives (hence my post about soap). I've switched to using mostly vinegar as my cleaner, but other just "natural living" practices are of interest to me.

[Leigh Fransen]

Hi Meredeth,

That's great that you love to cook. Do you focus on natural/organic/local foods at all? I've been into natural/organic foods for a while now, but I'm getting interested in trying to eat seasonally and locally. I'm just getting started learning which foods belong to which seasons. I feel like this is stuff I should have learned at a very young age, but I never did! The extent of my seasonal eating was knowing the traditional Thanksgiving foods. :-)

Why do you say that homeschooling and vaccines (I assume refraining from) will be in jeopardy for you? Just curious!

Looking forward to meeting you,
Leigh

[Meredeth]

LOL- Well it's been an ever evolving process. The more I've read and learned, the more my priorities have shifted. I'd have to say that now I tend to think that local organic is my favorite, then local, then organic. Of course home grown trumps all, but I didn't get to have my garden this year. Generally speaking most local farm stands and markets are producing organics; they just haven't jumped through the certification hoops.

To answer your question about our choices being in jeopardy-hmmm, how to do that w/o getting political...LOL In my research of the candidates I have discovered that one is not in favor of selective vaccinating or homeschooling. I guess I would just encourage you to read up on them.

[Terri Wilson]

I agree that motherhood is a big motivator. It has definitely pushed me to change the way I do a lot of things. Funny thing is though I feel like my decisions are actually more me than any I made in the past.

[Leigh Fransen]

What, is there something wrong with talking politics? ;-)

Do you mean PRESIDENTIAL candidates? You think that one of the candidates for president has a pro-compulsory vax or compulsory out-of-home schooling policy? Or is this some local thing I'm not yet aware of?

It is ok if you aren't comfortable to reply... I understand not everyone wants to discuss things with a political nature. Sorry I'm coming back so late. We've had a little computer issue. :-)

[Meredeth]

I thought I saw on here where we aren't supposed to discuss politics. But yes, I am talking about the presidential candidates. I tried to send you a pm, but couldn't find the link to do that.

[Leigh Fransen]

Oh, I haven't seen that. And I don't know how to pm either! You can email me if you want. My email is extremeleigh at gmail dot com.

[Joette]

Hi Meredeth and Leigh,

You can send a private message to someone by clicking the "send message" near the envelope. There are 2 ways to do this: when someone posts it will be by their name and picture or go to their member page and it will be to the left. When the message screen pops up it will say "To Meredeth" "From Leigh".

Hope that helps.
Joette

[Meredeth]

Well, that's what I thought, but that envelope doesn't appear next to Leigh's name. So I wasn't sure if I could just type in her name or what.

[Joette]

Where are you looking that the envelope does not appear?

[Meredeth]

Next to Leigh's name. As I'm looking at your reply, right next to your avatar is a little "send message" envelope. But that is not there next to Leigh's name.