Welcome to the Den

Welcome to the Fox's Den!

This blog is going to document my journey, from here on out, as I strive towards a more natural, sustainable, and healthy family.  Perhaps my journey can inspire others to strive towards sustainable living, natural parenting, gentle discipline methods, and possibly even taking education into their own hands!  This blog will be about life, family, and leaving a positive impact on the world that surrounds us.  The Earth is our home and we've been treating it far too poorly.  Our bodies should be respected and cared for, since they're the only ones this life will grant us, yet we abuse them and feed them with toxins.  Our children are our future, yet we fill their heads with garbage, negative social programming, and so much else that gets in their way of a positive, happy lifestyle.  I hope to change those patterns so I may respect the earth around me, respect my own body, and raise happy, healthy and aware children.

My journey started years back with Girl Scouts.  It began with recycling, planting trees, cleaning up the environment and other things that were positive for the environment.  We were very big on the environment back then.  I almost began to think Girl Scouts was more about being green than taking care of the world around us!  However, it made an impact on me.  I cared about environmental issues.  I cared about the Earth.  I hated seeing the way it was being damaged, yet didn't know enough to do much about it at the time.  All I could do was hope for the best and do what little I could.

Years later I became involved with people and groups that showed me there was far more to all of this than tossing recyclables into bins to be picked up on trash day and planting a few seeds.  There was more reason for it, and I had far more to gain because of it.  There was so much more I could and should be doing!  I had spent my whole life forming negative habits that I would soon have to change.  My whole opinion about life turned about!  I wasn't thinking with the narrow view I had grown up to have.  My life was forever changed.

At this present time, I'm finally starting my path to changing my life for the better.  I'm a mother of three children.  I have a six year old daughter that is currently homeschooled.  I have two sons, a two year old and a three month old.  I'm separated from a man who did no real good for my family.  He didn't share any of my values.  He saw that change needed to happen, yet was unwilling to do more than sit and complain about it.  Instead I'm involved with a man who is younger than I am, and far more naive.  He doesn't have the understanding of life the way I do, but he's making an effort to educate himself.  He's starting to see things my way, not because I'm brainwashing him, but because he sees the positive benefits a more natural, earthy, and sustainable life could have for our family.  We're hoping to some day settle down, buy our own land, and create a positive place for ourselves with minimum impact on the environment around us.

There are many things holding me back from actually attaining this lifestyle.  For starters, I'm kind of lazy, though I'm willing to admit it.  In this world, it's easier to live in a damaging and unhealthy way than it is to live in a positive one.  I'll admit, it's so easy to eat fast food and I have quite a thing for orange soda (often referred to in my house as "nuclear orange death").  Though I have a dairy allergy, I'd rather live with it and enjoy cheeses and the like than give it up.  In general, society has come to a point where it's just easier and more convenient to be lazy, and we're all being programmed for it.

Thankfully, with my children, I've started on the right path.  While I'm homeschooling my daughter, we're taking more of an unschooling stance.  I let her learn as she chooses to learn and don't try and force knowledge on her.  We've been working with reading and writing, but I've only been encouraging her, not forcing it on her.  She's been learning a lot about weather, nature, how things grow and where things come from.  She's taken an interest in history and learning how other cultures do things.  Thankfully, she hasn't stopped asking the magic question of "Why?"  I've done the baby wearing thing with all my children, including the new one who seems to like it more than the older two have.  I've shared a bed with my children, each until the point where it was no longer possible or practical.  The baby will be sleeping in the bed until he decides he no longer is interested.  They're learning about things like saving water and recycling from a young age, and I try to keep them as involved in my life as possible.  I let them express their own interests and creativity.

In the next year I hope to make some changes that will make all our lives better.  I hope to start cooking for my family, cutting back on eating out, perhaps even starting a garden.  I want to start taking the kids for walks so we can start taking lessons out into the real world.  Hopefully there will some positive changes to write about soon!