Today marks the beginning of summer, not only is it the longest day of the year but this year it is also a full moon, which is the first to happen since 1967. I plan to “force” Chuck to hang outside with me by the fire pit so we can see it.

It may be the full moon, the change in seasons, or the great vacation but it’s got me thinking about all the things, such as this year’s goals and our future plans.

Some of our smaller goals for this year included eating healthier and being more active, which is and is not working out. My shoulder injury has really put the ky-bosh (I have no idea how to spell that) on working out, but it’s slowly getting better, so I have hope yet. Meanwhile, Chuck has been doing everything around the house which is really keeping him in shape, that and the whole deck building thing. He has been a very busy guy, to say the least.

I’ve been doing my best to clean out the house and get rid of all the stuff that we have been accumulating since we moved in. I swear I don’t know where it all comes from! Additionally, I have been doing my best to reduce our waste output. It’s been harder with 3 people living here, but little changes can have such a big impact over the long term.

As the year moves on I think we are really beginning to settle into this house and our lifestyle. A few career changes are in the works (more on that later), and hopefully, some more house projects which we will share as they happen.

Things are good. We are happy. We are moving toward a more sustainable lifestyle, paying down the house, and really settling in. 2016 is a good year so far.

There’s this one thing. One little thing out there that we can all do that would have a huge impact on our entire world.

It also has a huge impact on individual lives, by allowing us to save money, eat better, breath cleaner air and find peace within ourselves.

I get that this sounds like a bunch of hippy dippy woo-woo crap but it’s not. Please here me out.

I promise this is not a scam, in fact even if everyone started doing this I would not make a penny (unless you click my affiliate links then might make a few bucks, but that’s a big maybe since I’m not exactly striking it rich on blogging over here).

It’s a little in that it requires everyone to take only a moment out of their day, to put in a little effort, but those moments will fill your heart and give you time to reflect.  Studies have shown that taking part in this one thing can reduce stress and improve overall wellness, perhaps even lower the risk of developing dementia. We all know time is our most precious resource, and in today’s world we are busier than ever, but if taking a few minutes each day to do this one task gives you health benefits while also feeding the poor and helping the environment and saving you money don’t you think it’s worth that time? I certainly do. I would be here trying to tell you this if that wasn’t the case.

So what’s this one amazing thing that can change everything? It’s as simple as a plant.

Yep, you read that right.

Even those living in the tiniest of apartments can grow a single vegetable or herb on a window sill. It will take a moment of your time to water or otherwise care for that plant each day, but it will provide you with food; food that can be grown organically, locally and sustainably right inside your own home.

There are personal benefits to growing your own food, even if it’s just a single basil plant. That one basil plant will provide a huge boost of flavor in your diet, encouraging you to cook more, and freshen your air as it grows. It will save you money from buying fresh basil from the store and allow you to make great things like pesto. It also reduces the amount of transportation costs and packaging making its way into our environment. Now imagine if you everyone did this? The environmental consequences would multiply exponentially. Imagine if you alone took on 2 or 4 plants of different varieties. How much money could you save? How many more meals with vegetables would you eat? How much would you help the environment?

(12 best Plants to Grow in Containers)

I think everyone should be a backyard farmer, even if they only grow a tiny salsa garden that produces a harvest once or twice. The idea of victory gardens during WWII was one of the best campaigns our government has ever run. I’m tired of seeing tick-tacky little houses in rows with grass everywhere. There are billions of species of plants on this planet and vast numbers of those are edible, so why are we spending our time planting grass? Grass lawns have high water requirements; with low wildlife value (Are Lawns Bad? – Huffington Post & Another Downside to your Lawn – Smithsonianmag.org) so why do we continue to waste precious resources cultivating lawns?

Our current model of factory farming is not working. It is not sustainable.

Modern farming practices rely on pesticides, monoculture crops (crop specialization or growing a single crop), fertilizers, and long distance transport. None of these things are conducive to a viable system. Each year we have to add more fertilizer, water, and pesticide to produce the same volume of crops, while the human population continues to grow. It’s obvious that this system is not working. A single blight or draught could cause food shortages across the country.

Transporting food from across the globe is by no means a sustainable practice either. The US ships in beef from other countries while paying our own ranchers subsidies to not produce as much cattle, because (the government claims) it’s cheaper. Perhaps they are right on this one, maybe it is cheaper but at what cost? For each pound of food grown in our back yards or in our neighbor hoods the volume of carbon emissions is reduced by 2lbs. What do we know about the quality of the food grown in other countries? What about the nutrition lost as fresh produce is being transported.

The easiest way to combat this is not in legislature but in our own homes. If we start growing more food, buying locally the system will be forced to change due to supply and demand. There will never be more flavor, and nutrients than in a vegetable grown organically in your own backyard.

Starting a garden is easy, the best advice I can give you is to just start. Purchasing easy to care for plants from a nursery is probably the easiest thing you can do. With a little water, sunlight and care they will be producing and you will be hooked in no time.

So you live in the city? Start with a small window sill garden, or a mini hyroponic garden. There are plenty of books (like this one) on small space gardening that can help you.

Convinced you have a black thumb? Be mindful about where your produce comes from, buy local and organic if possible, better yet join a CSA, shop at a farmers market or participate in a community garden.

Our world is struggling beneath the weight of an ever growing human population as well as the quest for advancement. As we advance we as a people are getting sicker and so many others are starving, when there is no reason for it. It’s time that we give back to the earth and to ourselves. It really only takes each of us to grow one edible plant to get this movement started to improve our lives and the lives of countless others.

Ok fellas those of you who frequent this blog may opt to bow out of this post, it might get a little dicey for you.

Today I want to talk about something that even I’m a little squeamish about discussing in a public forum, but for the good of the environment I’m going to suck it up. Are you ready? Periods. Yep I said today I want to talk about periods, a woman’s best friend.

Each month for a number of years like so many other women I pretty much without thought toiled with single use pads or tampons, thinking this was really the only option available to me to deal with the monthly scourge. I never liked the set up, being someone who likes to avoid chemicals and excessive packaging, regularly using a large wad of chemically dowsed cotton, wrapped in multiple layers of packaging was not my favorite. When I started to hear rumblings of this thing that could eradicate all that and save me money I was pretty interested, so I went and bought a Moon Cup.

This simple little thing made of medical grade silicone that could be reused for years and only costs $20 bucks seemed way to good to be true, but how could I not try it? I was pleasantly surprised how easy the process was, and how much cleaner (on more levels than one) when compared to conventional tampons and pads. Not to mention the avoidance of a number of side effects listed on the side of the box that are often over looked. This little tiny cup feels like a godsend and I think everyone should start using one immediately.

How it works: The small cup is inserted into the vagina and collects all of the ejected menses “stuff”. Once full the cup is removed, tipped out, cleaned and reinserted until it is full again. The process repeats until the period is over.  Yes ladies and gentlemen (if there are any still here) it’s that easy. Though that may be an over simplification, since getting the little cup up there for the first time can be a little awkward. The instructions on the package help and it does get so much easier. I promise.

The first time around can be a little weird. I swear I could feel it, and I was terrified of everything just tipping out everywhere. Rest assured, that never happened.

To add to the awkwardness cleaning out the cup means you actually see what your body is emitting on a regular basis. Maybe that’s not as freaky as I think it is, but for me it was totally weird. After a few months though the weirdness subsided and I learned how to gauge when the cup needed to be cleaned. Some time it’s only once a day, others it’s like 4, which totally depends on the day, and probably the person. I was also super nervous about needing to clean it out in public bathrooms, but it holds so much that I don’t need to worry about it for a fairly large stretch of time, and if it’s an emergency a bit of toilet paper will do. While I haven’t used it for camping yet I stumbled across this article from REI, which makes me think that this is totally doable.

So now I’m going to get on my soap box here and tell you why you should try a menstrual cup.

1. Money – At $20 bucks it pays for itself within a few months, but lasts way longer than that.
2. Saves the environment – Aside from the vastly reduced packaging in your life by skipping tampons and pads using a menstrual cup reduces pollution that created in manufacturing and distributing large quantities of them as well.
3. Health – There are no added scents or chemicals being inserted into your body, nuff said.
4. Cleanliness – yes the idea of having to clean out your menstrual cup may seem off putting, but when you really think about it having a garbage can full of cotton pads of the stuff is way more gross.
5. Ease of Use – Carrying around the cup in its fabric case is just as easy as carrying around a tampon, but way less obvious, plus you never have to worry about it getting crushed or wet when your water bottle leaks. You can always be prepared and never have to think about it again.

And because I love a good rap video.

Phew, ok I’ll down off the box now. I love this thing, but I am super interested in your opinions. Have you used it? Did you try it? Would you try it? Anything else?

 

Last year I chose one little word to be my mantra for the year, and I think it was a pretty successful choice. I chose BUILD because I had hoped that we would be able to build the foundation of the life that we wanted and I think we did a pretty good job with it. In 2014 I spent a lot of time figuring out what I wanted for myself, and 2015 was about figuring it out in terms of the family that Chuck and I were building together.

In 2015 we bought a house, got married and made a number of other small life changes, and now looking back it all I’m in awe of how much we were able to accomplish together. We truly did begin to build the life that we both want. There is still a lot to figure out obviously, but we are taking this all one day at a time. I get the feeling that this coming year is going to be no different in terms of the challenges that we are going to face. There are a lot of things that we both want to accomplish, a few more big decisions that we have weighing on us, but I think we can do this. We can live the dream life that we want, on our terms.

Isn’t that what everyone is looking for any way?

I really, really want to get there. I know it’s going to take time, and be a little hard, but it’s doable, luckily we are simple people so we aren’t looking for much. After a year of hard work I think we are ready to take some chances, and that’s why this year’s one little word is BRAVE.

I don’t want to hold back because I’m scared, or because society says I shouldn’t do something. I don’t want to fall in line with everyone else’s just ok. I want to chase my dreams and that is exactly what I plan to do this year.

There are of course the smaller goals that I think we each have every year that will also be a part of this larger goal. I’d like to get a little healthier (you know actually work out, drink more water type of thing), finish a number of projects around the house, spend more down time away from electronics, and hike a lot more. I’d also like to be brave enough to let certain relationships that are not serving me well go, and build stronger bonds with the ones that are. I think letting go is the hardest part, but sometimes it’s for the best. The small thing that I want to do most this year is actually take some time and check back in with these goals. I kind of fell off the wagon with that last year, as I seem to do every year. I want to change that for 2016 and remember everything that I want to do. I would love to accomplish everything on my list.

What are some of your goals? Do you subscribe to the one little word idea?