Starting Our Homestead
By Jessica Marie I realized that I have given updates on our little homestead for the past several months. But I never gave it any formal introduction. What we have, what we do, why, and where we plan to go. So, this is to give some context for our fresh little homestead so that the updates I give every month in the Monthly Catch-Up blog posts make a little bit more sense. Where We live on 80 acres in central Maine. We currently have 30 hens and one rooster plus 2 Guineas. One has been missing for awhile, we aren’t sure if she is sitting on a nest of eggs or if something nefarious has befallen her. We also have 3 farm dogs that are mostly guard dogs for the family. They are not livestock protection dogs, as they have amply demonstrated for us, but we know their limits and capabilities and have adjusted accordingly. Chickens I grew up with chickens, at least half of my life has been lived with chickens in some form or another. Last year we started with 6 hens and brought them with us when we moved from Colorado to Maine. In March of this year we got 24 new hens as day old chicks. We suspect a few are laying their first eggs as we have found a small egg here and there. The first eggs are often smaller than usual. We got a year-old Rooster from a local farmer who had too many roosters. Guinea Fowl Disclaimer on guineas. If you, like me, have seen and heard of these unique albeit bizarre birds and are considering getting them, I have some information that doesn’t seem very common. Now, I hadn’t done extensive research, but I had done some research on Guinea Fowl before we purchased them. I had heard they were good at protecting or at least alerting your fowl to intruders, and would attack small rodents and snakes. But their biggest complaint from homesteaders was their loudness. Which is true, guineas are loud. However, we have plenty of land so it doesn’t bother anyone. But what seems to get left out is that guineas are also bullies. They will chase, peck, and otherwise harass your chicken flock no matter what you do. Our entire flock is completely free range, no fences, lots of waterers and feeders. I know how animals get angry and territorial when there is lack of food, water, or shelter. That is not an issue here. Know they are bullies, know they will be aggressive with your flock. Garden We have a garden that is about 80x40 feet with corn, tomatoes, pumpkins, potatoes, garlic, onions, peas, beans, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, lettuce, broccoli, brussel sprouts, carrots, and one sunflower. This is our second year planting in a large garden. In years past we had a small, micro garden in a rolling bed that could be rolled in the garage in bad weather and rolled into the driveway in good weather. Last year we had primarily tomatoes, peppers, and carrots in raised garden beds. We learned a lot from that previous garden. We learned we must harden off seedlings, we lost most of our seedlings last year due to lack of hardening off. We also learned the importance of weeding regularly, and to pay attention to sun and shade loving plants. This year, we built a great fence that has done wonderfully in keeping critters out of the garden. We built fence posts from trees from our own land, we have 8 foot tall fencing to keep deer out. We use wind chimes and ribbons to keep birds away, and these have been working wonderfully. In the adjacent field we have no ribbons or wind chimes and crows have eaten nearly an entire field of corn seeds. We didn’t have enough mulch to properly mulch the garden, however, and so our biggest enemies are the weeds. This year we intend to collect more mulch that we can use on our garden next year in hopes of diminishing that issue. The Wild We also are incorporating what is wild or already present on the property into our homestead. There are pear, apple, cherry, and peach trees on the property that are all beginning to fruit nicely. There are wild raspberries all over the edges of the forest. We have collected thousands of raspberries and cherries and made them into jams, raspberry lemonade, and frozen for smoothies and pie filling. We also are avid hunters and fishers and will be trying to fill in our needs from hunting and fishing. I intend to begin learning archery within the next year for both hobby and hunting. What’s Next? What’s next? We haven’t decided yet. We are looking into sheep, goats, cattle, rabbits, and swine at the moment. I haven’t worked much with livestock so I am in the research phase on all options. We are deciding what our goals are and which animals will be most helpful in meeting those goals. I also want to fully understand the needs of each animal so that I can ensure what we have available will best suit the livestock we do get. I personally lean towards sheep but some others on the homestead prefer goats, so I am learning about them all to see what will best benefit both our needs and the needs of the livestock. I want these creatures to live their best possible lives no matter if we use them for dairy or meat. I want them happy and healthy, they deserve nothing less. We intend at harvest to do canning, so far we have canned beans and jams. We know our garden isn’t big enough to support us for an entire year, which is a goal. But we know it will take years and practice to get to that point. To learn the best set up and the correct ratio of plants that we can eat during the summer and can for the winter. Come winter we intend to learn to make our own soaps. Both bar soap and laundry soap. I already make our deodorant and have for two years now. Much Love, Jessica Marie
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My Experience with Floor Sleeping
By Jessica Marie I grew up my whole life using a traditional western-style bed. Thick mattress, lofty, fluffy, pillow top. This was fine for most of my life, but in recent years I started to notice more and more back pain. I would go to the chiropractor anytime from once a week to once or twice a month. This would help but it seemed abnormal to me. I asked advice from an acquaintance if she had any resources that she might suggest outside of the medical field for me to research or try. She suggested I read 8 Steps to a Pain Free Back by Esther Gokhale and Earthing by Clinton Ober. This set me on my path to floor sleeping. Earthing & Beyond I began to earth more regularly and with intention. In warmer months I try to walk or sit barefoot (skin on ground) on the lawn every day. With the further knowledge from my research that softer sleeping conditions are not best or conducive for everyone, I decided to research even more. I found other people in blogs and YouTube videos who engaged in floor sleeping for some of the same back issues as I was experiencing. Others did so out of a desire to live more minimally. I also found that in many Asian cultures they traditionally sleep on the floor or on harder mattresses/surfaces. People I found engaged in floor sleeping arrangements that varied from a yoga mat, blankets, to shiki butons and futons. I was fascinated and had to give it a try. Floor Sleeping I decided on a full size Japanese inspired shiki buton. I simply measured the size of my current bed (as I wanted to maintain the size) and chose a floor mattress that matched that size. A true, traditional shiki buton or futon can still be purchased, hand made via ancient tradition in Japan today. I decided to switch to floor sleeping at the very beginning of the pandemic (April 2020). Due to shut downs, shipping slow-downs, and cost I purchased my mat on Amazon. It is not made of the same traditional materials, but it fit with my needs at that time. You can see my unboxing and several updates on my floor sleeping journey on TikTok (wayfaring_jessica). My Experience My personal experience has been positive. My back pain decreased and has stayed lower ever since the switch. I started on carpeted floors, so I needed nothing under the mattress (which is about 3 inches thick). When I moved and now am on a wood floor (in a basement so concrete under the wood floor) I added a 1.5 inch foam pad under the bed. It simply was too hard to comfortably lay/sleep on. You can use camping mats/pads, a tatami mat, blankets, etc. in order to provide a little extra loft/cushion under a floor mat. Pros and Cons Pros include less back pain, better sleep, easy to move and clean mat. Cons include being on the floor and having to adjust to getting up off the floor. Being on the floor (and in a basement) can lead to more bugs/spiders in/on/near the bed. Being on the floor, the bedding can get dirty quickly and will need to be washed regularly. You also lose any storage space under the bed. I am going to be building a platform for the bed so that I can regain some of the storage space while, hopefully, not losing any of the benefits of being on the floor. How I Care for my Bed Once a month to once a quarter I take my floor mattress and hang it out over a railing in the sunshine. This airs it out helping to rid bacteria, sweat, dirt, dust, etc. trapped in the bed. I wash all sheets every 2-4 weeks. Conclusion I have been using this sleeping system since June 2020 and I have enjoyed it ever since. I currently have no plans to switch back to a traditional western style bed. I’m glad to have discovered this method of sleeping and encourage you to research for yourself if this might be a good fit for you as well. Much Love, Jessica Marie Disclaimer: I am not a doctor or other medical professional. Nor am I an expert on these sleeping methods or cultures. Please listen and defer to those who have first-hand cultural knowledge as far as terms, pieces, etc. This is merely my own understanding from the research I have done. I very well could misunderstand or be incorrect. I am open to any and all corrections, if you find anything I have said to be wrong or offensive please let me know and I will correct it. Please speak with your doctor, chiropractor, or other health care professional before switching to this or any type of sleeping method. This does not count as medical advice. Always seek proper counsel. 5 Sustainability Ideas
By: Jessica Marie When I first began my sustainability journey 5 years ago, I looked to the sustainability influencers on Instagram for ideas on how to start my journey. As I grew more and more interested in the homesteading community, culture, and other methods of living that were in tune with the land I have found a wealth of information. Not just on how to be more self-sufficient, but how to live in closer harmony with mother nature. I don’t want to give you a list of products to buy as that defeats the purpose. It makes it seem like in order to be sustainable you must invest in this non-circular capitalistic system that does damage to the environment. So, here are my current top tips on sustainability. Gardening No, you do not need to make a huge garden that will be your food supply for the entire year. Not only is that difficult and expensive to upstart, it actually takes years to build up to that point. It is also a lot of work to have a large garden. It can be a part-time job to start and maintain a garden. But I do want to encourage you to start small. I started as a plant mom and slowly incorporated herbs and over the course of years my parents and I began to work together to build larger and larger gardens. You don’t have to buy seeds either. Some of my first seeds I collected from bell peppers and squash that I had purchased from the store. I looked up how to harvest and store seeds then I planted them. You can also reuse old plastic containers as plant starters. It can be very low cost to start up a garden if you need it to be. Many gardening supplies are reusable. Once you have them you can use them for many seasons. Most all of our gardening supplies we have been reusing for many seasons now. Compost Composting goes hand in hand with gardening. As you will be collecting food scraps and waste and throwing it away, why not sort some of it out and turn it back into food for yourself? By taking the compost you are naturally enriching the soil, which enriches the plants which you are feeding to yourself. It can also be beneficial to the soil. Make sure not to compost dairy or meat products. While they are technically compostable in time, they smell bad and will generally ruin your compost. Look up backyard composting to get started. Recycle/Upcycle/Thrift I thrift things all the time, from marketplace, from garage and estate sales, from my own house. Beyond buying used clothes, there are tons of things that can be thrifted. I buy picture frames at estate sales almost exclusively; they are far cheaper and it saves them from the landfill. I make lists of things I need or want and then I get to looking. Not from Amazon first, but on Marketplace, thrift shops, and estate sales. The more time you have to find things the more luck you’ll have. I have furnished entire homes for staging using only what I found on Marketplace. Get creative. Is there something that you want that you can make yourself or collaborate together from other things to make what you want? For example, I wanted a sunglasses display rack. I found this really cool picture frame at an estate sale, I tied some twine that had been wrapped on a gift through the frame and now it holds all my sunglasses. Plus, it kind of looks like art. Cost me $2 total. Save the Fat Or the bones, or the veggies. You can pay money for bone broth or bar soap, or you can make it yourself. If you boil chicken, beef, or veggies you can save the water they were boiled in and then you have broth. When a recipe calls for any of those broths you already have it for free. Same with fat, if something you are making cooks off a lot of fat, save it. Pour it through a strainer to get the chunks out, then store it in the freezer. You can use the fat to oil your cast iron pans. Or if you save enough of it, you can use it to make your own soaps. I know this is a very different type of recycling, but it counts. Taking those statements of reduce, reuse, recycle to a whole new level. Start small You have to do sustainability, sustainably. This means that you have to grow at your own pace. Something I see people do that saddens me is comparison. Both inside and outside of sustainability. We see someone who has been on their sustainability journey for years and think ‘I can never be like that’. It is too easy to get overwhelmed and see the expense of changing to different sustainable products or methods. Some of the things on this list are kind of big, multi-step processes and they might seem overwhelming. That’s ok, maybe they are end goals. For example, I’ve been on my sustainability journey for over 5 years now. That means for 5 years I have been learning, growing, and adopting new methods into my life and routines. I did not wake up one day and do everything I do today. It took me 5 years, and a lot of what gets done is a family effort. Do not feel bad for not being able to switch everything right now. Don’t feel bad for only doing one thing. Do that one thing that you feel drawn to until it is easy, and when you want to, when you feel ready, add another. In 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, you will be amazed at how much you have combined into your life. I want to encourage you not to compare where you are to where someone else is. It is good to be inspired, but it is important to give yourself time and grace along the way. Take it slow, take it one step at a time. Pro Tip – Moving: We all know about getting boxes from stores like Wal-Mart or Best Buy. Which are great resources that I stand by. But for packing paper, I have two ideas. One, scuba shops. They get really nice material packaged around their goggles and such that are perfect for moving dishes. Two, local newspapers. If you have a local town paper or university that has a newspaper, call and ask for their old papers. They will gladly pack it in a box and give it to you. You can also check marketplace. I’ve seen people giving away their old moving boxes and materials. This is also an option for you as well. People may not come and get them, but you are at least offering to give these single use packages more than one life or use. Those are my current top 5 sustainability tips. I am sure I will have more in the future. But these are ones that I have been working on/towards recently and I wanted to share them with you. My biggest goal with this list was to help you think outside the box. To think beyond one item, one idea, or one product as a sustainability practice. To realize that maybe something you already do is sustainable, or maybe something you never considered was a sustainability practice. I hope this inspires you. Until next week. Much Love, Jessica Marie How to Donate to Charity Even When You’re Broke (Without Volunteering)
By Jessica Marie We all want to help charities and donate to their causes. But I also know how discouraging it is to be low on funds and truly be unable to donate to even our more cherished causes. Aren’t there ways we can help that don’t break the bank? Yes! This is a list of 3 ways that you can help charities and non-profits by doing things you already do and don’t cost you a penny. Ecosia Ecosia is a search engine like Google but, the money they make from their ad revenue goes towards planting trees. I have been using the non-profit Ecosia for years now and it works great! Only once or twice a year do I have trouble finding something and have to give Google a try. Plus, you don’t have to feel guilty clicking on those ads at the top of the search results. Rather, by doing so you are helping to plant trees. It works on mobile too, I added Ecosia to my phone and use it for all my searches there too. All phone brands can use Ecosia now. You can add it as your default by searching for it in the app store. On your computer simply search Ecosia.org and set as your default search engine. Now go forth with your online searching and help plant trees at the same time! Tabs for a Cause Did you know that every time you open a tab on your computer you can help raise money for charity? Tabs for a Cause does exactly that. It works by placing ads on every new tab, then you simply type in your search (using Ecosia of course) and now you have earned 1 heart that can be donated to charity. This happens at absolutely no cost to you! After 50 tabs have been opened you can donate those hearts to a charity of your choice. Basically, the ad revenue from the ads on the tabs are being sent to charity. There is a limited number of charities to select from, but it still gives you the chance to donate to charities by doing something you already do every day. To add this extension to your web browser, follow this link and you can start donating to charity at no cost to you. Here is the link: https://tab.gladly.io/?u=JessAnthro Amazon Smile Did you know there was a way to donate to charity every time you shopped on Amazon? Use Amazon Smile and you can select any non-profit to donate to, and this comes at no cost to you! It does not affect the price of your items on Amazon at all. I currently donate to a local Wildlife Rehabilitation center, but there are more charities and non-profits than you can imagine to choose from on Amazon Smile. You can change the charity or non-profit at any time. So, next time you have to buy something from Amazon instead of a small or local business, be sure to make a difference by using Amazon Smile. And once you set it up, if you accidentally go to Amazon.com, Amazon will remind you to switch back to Amazon Smile. Search smile.amazon.com on desktop or search for it in the app store and you can set it up today. Those are three ways that you can help charities and non-profits that don’t cost you any money. I’ve been a student and a struggling college grad and know how hard it is to want to donate to charities and non-profits but also realizing I have to feed myself and my dog. I hope these can help you feel better until your bank account is full again. Please share with anyone who might also be looking for ways to donate. Much Love, Jessica Marie Happy Monday all! Yes, today’s blog post is dropping a day early, for a very special reason. Today is the first Impact Day of 2020! I’m sure you’ve noticed over the last four months I have one post every month that starts with “Happy Impact Day”, and you may be wondering, what this impact day is. Well, I am about to tell you.
Back in October I was accepted into the Wild Keeper Ambassador program with Keep Nature Wild. Keep Nature Wild is a company based in Arizona that picks up trash with profits made and awareness provided from the selling of their merchandise. The KNW Team alone picked up 74,802 pounds of trash in 2019! Their Ambassador program helps them with their mission to pick up trash and help make our planet and our wild places just a little bit better than we found it. This last round of Ambassadors totaled almost 1,500! That’s 1,500 people every month picking up trash, on top of the clean-ups that KNW hosts in their local wild areas in Arizona. That means not only is more trash is being collected, but in more places, as their program is world-wide. Ambassadors alone picked up 14,507 pounds of trash in 2019! This spreads awareness of the idea of making a positive impact in several ways. First, ambassadors can share the importance of packing out what we pack in. Second, ambassadors can share the importance of everyone picking up trash we find, even if it isn’t ours. Third, it can encourage people to either use something reusable or biodegradable when and where possible to help alleviate our impact even more. We can do this in person, for those who cross paths with ambassadors during a clean up and ask ‘why’ they’re cleaning up. Ambassadors are also sharing this concept online by posting about it on their Instagram and other social media platforms, especially on Impact Day. Which is the day all of us Ambassadors flood Instagram and social media with the trash we’ve picked up and the Impact we’ve made on our local wild places. I joined this program to help make me put my money where my mouth is. I do my best to live a low impact lifestyle, and I am always trying to improve and do better in my personal life. But it is also an important reminder as to why it’s so important to me to be low impact. Seeing trash in places where it doesn’t belong, damaging the environment, helps solidify why it’s important to do what I can, recycle where I can, and avoid as much as I can. Because, inevitably, it can end up out there, damaging a park or natural area or animal that accidentally eats it. Even in the landfill, trash is out of sight but it is not truly gone. That’s why its important to compost and recycle as much as possible. Other than cleaning up trash I also get to connect with other Wild Keeper Ambassadors, see and hear about their experiences. I also get codes to buy Keep Nature Wild gear that I can sport, I have KNW stickers on everything, and I have an awesome hat! Overall, I have had an amazing experience as a Wild Keeper Ambassador, I hope I get accepted into another term as an Ambassador (fingers crossed!). No matter what, it’s been a great opportunity and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to make a positive impact on our environment. You get to clean up trash, get outdoors, meet new people, and add a new experience to your repertoire. If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, I would highly recommend you apply! It’s free, you do not need a huge following to be accepted (just a public Instagram account and be 18 or older), clean up trash and post about it. Here’s the link for their Spring 2020 Ambassador program: https://keepnaturewild.com/pages/wild-keepers I hope to see you as the next Ambassador! Much Love, Jess Well, here we are. It’s the first day of 2020. With the passing of 2019 we also begin a new decade. I’m not going to do a highlights and lowlights list. Life isn’t a competition of you versus everyone else, I’m not going to say if/how much things have changed because that simply drives the competition angle that often comes from social media. Every life is different. Every life is unique. My path is not your path and visa versa. So, as this year comes to an end and we prepare for a new year and a new decade I want to help end the social comparisons, to stop feeling bad for where you are in comparison to someone else. Yes, we can and should change and grow constantly, but it should be an inner organic desire, not an outside pressure pushing down on you making you feel inadequate and small. That being said, I’ll list a few things that felt completely organic to me and gave me joy. My organic goals for myself for the next year, and some ideas to achieve them.
My favorite moments of 2019 were: Going to Mexico with my human best friend, adopting my furry best friend Holmes, and reading over 15 books this year! My Organic Goals for 2020 I really want to be healthy. I know that is absolutely everyone’s first item on their list, but this past year I yo-yoed a lot and got to see first-hand and feel the difference between when I was truly eating and exercising intuitively and when I was out of control. Not only my weight, but my energy, my sleep patterns, and feeling sick. Lately I’ve felt sick more often, gotten sick in relation to foods consumed, and just felt tired, heavy, and generally unhealthy. This is not a societal pressure, this is a personal desire. I want to feel healthy, home, and capable in my body. I also want to focus more on what I eat, where it comes from, and how it was prepared. I want to eat more all-natural and organic foods as often as I can. Eat more alternatives or buy from local small farms and/or family farms. More whole simple foods like seeds, nuts, berries, vegetables, and unprocessed meats. I do not like diet culture. I find it to be repressing, depressing, and creates shame and guilt around food. This is not healthy mentally or physically. I want to re-develop a healthier relationship to food where it is seen as nourishing or not, pleasurable or not. Not as an enemy or as a substance of avoidance. To listen to my body when it is hungry, nourish it, and not over-compensate. My goal for the year is to lose 50 pounds. This will fit in with a healthy shift in action and not cause stress around the goal. I also do not want to be limited in what I can do because of an unhealthy body, one can lose weight and still be unhealthy. It’s important to move every day. Rachel Hollis lists this as one of her musts for creating your best self, and she’s absolutely right. To be in tune with our bodies intuitively for eating carries over into being in tune with it physically. I already do martial arts 2 days a week. I will add Yoga 2 days a week, walking/running 2 days a week, and stretch on Sundays. I will also go to the chiropractor once a month to keep my body in alignment. Meditation and prayer. I have also noticed a difference in not engaging in a prayer/meditation session at least once a week. Research has shown that religion or spiritual beliefs and experiences create a positive outcome for those who participate. Just taking a few minutes a day or each week to disconnect, get outside of ourselves, and find peace in the divine is as helpful and positive as physical activity. Of course, it only is positive if you are having positive experiences with the people involved, the religion or activities being engaged in, and there is genuine belief. Issues in any of these areas completely negate or make impossible the benefits. So, it is important to follow what truly resonates with you, whether you were raised in it or only recently adopted it. If it calls to you in a positive way then it is an extremely powerful and positive force in the human experience. Whether you believe you are talking to God, the universe, or simply taking a moment to sit in peace, releasing stress and other burdens is good for the soul. This is not an inherently feminine practice either, people of every identity can and should seek peace. On this note, let’s not judge what other people believe. Hatred and anger will not build peace in our hearts and world. Two habits I started last year that I want to carry into the next are reading every day as well as practicing my Spanish lessons. I also have added more low impact and sustainable lifestyle practices like creating a compost bin, switching to shower supplies that are recycled, plant based, and cruelty free, using only reusable k-cups, eating a plant-based butter alternative, using toilet paper and tissues made from recycled paper, and buying my own bamboo straw so I don’t need plastic ones anymore. Every year I add a little more so as to create less of an impact on this precious planet. Next year we are switching to a local dairy, this will cut down on Co2 emissions from shipping milk to a supermarket, as well as being delivered in reusable glass bottles versus toxic plastic bottles. I know I’ll add more, but we’ll have to see what they end up being. These are my goals and the logic behind them for 2020. Do you have any personal or professional goals that are organic to you and come from an inside desire and not an outside pressure? I would love to hear about them below! Let’s make next year, next decade, a time when we are driven not pushed. Much love, Jess I am a huge believer in continuing to learn post-graduation. It doesn’t need to be formal, and it doesn’t matter what caliber of degree or certifications you hold, it only matters that you don’t stop where you left off. We live in a time where information is everywhere and we know we can learn anything we want just by Google-ing it. However, we are also extremely lucky to have access to so much information. In the past most people were illiterate and books and other forms of knowledge were written in languages that could not be understood by the common people. Rather than take the wealth of information available to us for granted, we should embrace it fully! Once you are done with formal schooling to whatever level is best for your life, pursue topics that you find interesting at your own pace. Psychology, mechanics, politics, anthropology, astronomy, history. If you have an interest in absolutely anything you can find someone who is dispensing it in a manner that makes the most sense for you. If you are a visual, auditory, tactile/kinesthetic, reading, or any combination of the four learning styles you can tailor your learning to your pace and your preferences. Like any muscle our minds need constant work and puzzles in order to stay plastic (flexible) and help us to problem solve faster and more efficiently.
I have below a list of my personal favorite ways that I continue to learn. Some are completely free, others have costs associated with them, but they are relatively low in cost. By making what I learn what I enjoy learning about in ways that I enjoy and find useful, I have continued to learn a great deal since I graduated with my bachelors degree in May 2018. Everyone loves to learn, it’s just a manner of finding what you like!
That’s my list of favorite my ways of continuing education past traditional schooling. I like taking in information from as many different mediums as I can because people will say or frame things differently and may make a concept suddenly click, or a topic or field suddenly more intriguing. Plus, the more you know the more you can shout the answers when watching Jeopardy. 😉 Do you have a favorite method of learning? Were any of these something you hadn’t thought of or tried before? Let me know in the comments below! This is my last post before Christmas, it’s actually live on Christmas Eve. So, have a wonderful Christmas or holiday this year! Maybe find some time to partake in some learning, and pursue something interesting to you. Much Love, Jess Like any celebration, event or routine, the holidays can be stressful or laid-back, memorable or forgotten, positive or negative, eco-friendly or not so eco-friendly. While we live in a culture, society, and system that is big on single use, throw away, and ever-changing items that we might feel we need to ‘keep up’ with everyone else, we don’t have to succumb to every one of those ideals. It is extremely difficult, expensive, and time-consuming to make every area of your life low-impact. For many it is completely unattainable due to any number of lack of resources such as time, money, availability of low-impact alternatives, or knowledge of what is actually good for the environment or not. While many low-impact influencers are doing an exceptional job of showing how they have made huge, radical changes in their life that allow them to live such low-impact lives, it is honorable and a positive influence, but it can also make the average person feel like they aren’t doing enough. That because we aren’t doing everything that they are we aren’t making a positive impact, which can make us feel like ‘what’s the point?’. I want to put all of that aside. Wanting to make a difference is 100% the first step, wanting to do anything shows you care, and in time that will show up in the choices you make. Every small choice we make adds up. Not everyone has to live a perfectly low-impact lifestyle, but every choice you make is voting with your dollar, is making a statement to those around you that this is important to me, and does in fact matter. How does this translate to the holiday season? I have some fun ideas for how to make your holidays less wasteful, more eco-friendly, more cost-effective, and a little more guilt free!
Gifts
Wrapping
Have a wonderful holiday season this last December of the decade! Much love, Jess |
AuthorJessica Marie Cunningham - Intentional lifestyle blogger, aspiring author, and podcast host. All things Slow Living, Books, Writing, Art, creativity, Christianity, and personal stories. Archives
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