I've updated this post with some old photos I found. Couldn't find a working scanner ('hole nuther story) so I decided to just take pictures of the pictures. Not ideal, but wanted to share them anyway.
Welcome to the March Carnival of Natural Parenting: Vintage green!
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month we're writing about being green — both how green we were when we were young and how green our kids are today. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
Lots and lots of tomatoes.
I've never really liked tomatoes. Still don't, actually (unless they are fresh and firm and sweet). My mom loved them so much she would pick one right off the vine and eat it like an apple.
But, I digress. My mom homeschooled us in my younger years, and we'd often spend our mornings out in the backyard working the garden. She'd let Abby run around without a diaper to help clear up any diaper rash. Meanwhile, my sister Hilary and I would be sweating in the dry summer sun, hoeing beans, coaxing the squash, picking tomatoes and washing chard. My mom did a lot of things "from scratch." She baked bread, made her own spaghetti sauce, did all her baking from scratch. She hung our clothes out on the line. We carted bath water from the house out to the garden (this was during the water-rationing drought days). We made compost. We canned the summer bounty.
I was up at my mother's house this weekend and while we were doing dishes together, I asked her why she did all these things. Was it because she was trying to be earth-friendly? Economical? "No," she replied, "I just love doing things that way. You know how you like hot showers? Hanging clothes out on the line is like that for me."
Our backyard clothesline.
My sister Hilary would hang upside down by her knees and do all sorts of fancy tricks on it.
My sister Hilary would hang upside down by her knees and do all sorts of fancy tricks on it.
Gardening is like that for my mom, too. Today, she lives up in the Southern California mountains and nurses along her wild plants and gardens in the post-fire landscape, spending many long and hot hours under the sun. It is her escape, her calm, and one of her dearest life's pursuits.
I did not inherit her green thumb. I've always joked that nurseries were invented for people like me who bring home a plant and have to replace it four weeks later, after it's died. I have to admit, though, that I've been deeply inspired lately about the food I eat, how it's grown, and where it comes from. I've read a few books where the author's love of food and its relationship to the earth has made me realize that I want my food to be more than plastic-tasting, shrink-wrapped "nutrition," grown and sold under fluorescent lighting. I have realized that I don't want to lose my connection to good, brown earth and the life cycle that brings plants up from seeds, to plants, to our table, back to earth.
So, thank you, Mom, for teaching me how to work a garden. I might be biting off more than I can chew, but perhaps I shall give my patio garden another swing this year. Instead of just drought-resistant [read, Molly-resistant] plants, though, maybe I'll throw in a few vegetables for our table.
Maybe a tomato, or two.
Visit Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants.
(This list will be updated March 9 with all the carnival links.)
- My Momma Was a Hippie — Jessica at This is Worthwhile is continuing her Earth Momma mother's way of honoring nature by taking her child outside every day. (@tisworthwhile)
- Mom Did Know Best, About Diapers at Least — Guavalicious at They Are So Cute When They Are Sleeping has a dirty secret about cloth diapers: They're easy. (@guavalicious)
- The Force that Drives the Water Through the Rocks — Shana at Tales of Minor Interest remembers her first spiritual connection with nature, granted to her through her father's care for the spirits of the earth.
- Confessions of a Cabbage Patch Kid — Joni Rae at Tales of a Kitchen Witch Momma learned about landfills and recycling through gardening. (@kitchenwitch)
- Seeing My Grandmother Through Green Colored Lenses — Michelle at Seeking Mother was raised by a grandmother who wouldn't let anyone throw out used clothing — ever — and who believed baths were water enough for two or more people at least. (@seekingmother)
- Through Green Tinted Glasses — Thomasin at Propson Palingenesis realized her family didn't so much choose green as it chose them, since not being green would have cost a lot more.
- Green or Die! — NavelgazingBajan at Navelgazing remembers berating her family for not turning off the faucets — and notes that her efforts to save the planet for another 20 years must have worked.
- Natural Parenting Carnival: Green Living — Sarah at Natural Parenting is doing more to make her children's generation green than what she had as a child.
- Natural Parenting Carnival: Vintage Green — pchanner at A Mom's Fresh Start used to fill her own water bottles from a spring — before doing so was cool. (@pchanner)
- Getting Dirty — Molly at Molly's Place is inspired by her mother's camaraderie with nature. She's going to get back in touch with the real food cycle, as opposed to the "shrink-wrapped nutrition" you can buy. (@KPMolly)
- My Vintage Green Raincoat — Mama at Maman A Droit is wearing her brother's bright green raincoat — 16 years later! (@MamanADroit)
- Vintage Green — Darcel at Mahogany Way hasn't realized it yet, but she is slowly turning into her parents. ;) (@MahoganyWayMama)
- Vintage Green — mrs green at littlegreenblog reminds us that children can be green simply by being kids. (@myzerowaste)
- March Carnival of Natural Parenting: Vintage Green — Lauren at Hobo Mama was eco-chic before it was en vogue. (@Hobo_Mama)
- Growing Up Green — Chrystal at Happy Mothering honed her green instinct from an early age. (@HappyMothering)
- greener pastures — The Grumbles at Grumbles and Grunts has a list of ways she's transitioning from green living as a novelty to green living as a lifestyle. (@thegrumbles)
- Vintage Green: The Hot Water Tank Is Not Sexy — Zoey at Good Goog had to go green when moss started growing around her feet. (@zoeyspeak)
- We Walked Softly — Starr at Earth Mama wrote a beautiful post about how her parents instilled a love of and respect for Earth and nature in her, and how she is passing that gift on to her own children.
- Save the Mermaids! — CurlyMonkey is learning from her daughter how to keep the mermaids happy. (@curlymonkey_)
- March Carnival of Natural Parenting: Vintage Green — Dionna at Code Name: Mama sees glimpses of her mother's greenness frugality in her own life - but she draws the line at pantyhose soap. (@CodeNameMama)
- I Thought I Made Them Green, But Really They Made Me — Melodie at Breastfeeding Moms Unite! thought she made her parents green — until she took a closer look. (@bfmom)
- A Culture of Less — Alison at BluebirdMama explained why homebirth is the green childbirth choice. I love this thought! (@childbearing)
- 5 Ways to Embarrass Your Children While Going Green — Acacia at Be Present Mama shares some of the embarrassing things her parents did to her in the name of being eco-conscious.
- Ending Is Better than Mending? — Paige at Baby Dust Diaries is teaching us how to darn socks armed only with a light bulb. (@babydust)
- There and Back Again: A Green Girl's Tale — Lactating Girl offers a gentle reminder that certain eco-conscious practices shouldn't be "ideals," but realities. (@LactatingGirl)
Here I'm feeding little Susie (is that how you spell it, Hilary?)
