Yes it's me 2 days in a row!!  Woohoo I'm currently sitting in our screen porch that hubs and I affectionately refer to as "the lanai". Do you remember on the Golden Girls, the home that the gals lived in-actually Blanche owed it. They'd have drinks on the lanai each night whether it be sweet tea or a scotch and water, the drink was made better by sipping it on the lanai.

I'm surrounded by swaying trees-the sound and smells are amazing! I'm not sure if the fragrance is the mint growing or the Lily that is smiling at me, I'm just THANKFUL..

So in my quest for the simple life many, SO many changes have come about. The first most radical would have to be my form of shopping. Let me go back 7 1\2 years ago when sweet daughter #1 was researching wholesome and economical ways of raising children the way of the hippy.  Yes, daughter #1 was born 30 some years late. She has been a tree hugging, bra burning environmental conscience child since .....well conception. I seriously can't think of a time she was not aware of her world and taking care of it. That child was reading the codes off of containers that I'd bring home from shopping to see which recycling container they belonged in wayyyyyy before she could read. And as I would bypass the individual recycling containers to throw the containers into the garbage can, she'd roll her eyes and most times shame me as she picked it back out, rinsed it and placed it into the appropriate box. So it goes to show just why when she was 6 months pregnant with our grandson we were stopping at every Good Will and Salvation Army, Craigslist and rummage sale for -cloth diapers. Yes the queen of Liz Claiborne shoes and Coach purses was searching for used and new cloth diapers because as you know.."the plastic ones fill up land fills at alarming rates" sd#1 would repeat. Not to mention how much healthier it is on the baby and his skin. She knew every chemical and how it leached onto skin from plastic diapers! Sd#1 was paying attention in those science classes we paid plenty for....who knew? By the time that baby graced our lives with his BEAUTIFUL presence, Nana had been schooled and integrated to a whole new way to live by sd#1 and to this day I'm grateful. 

I can't begin to tell you how I LOVE my work and how working with autistic children brings my heart joy, but what is going on? WHY is there the need and before I go spewing information and numbers regarding  the statistical studies....know this-before there were big food corporations, before canned foods that last 4-5 shelf years, before cows and chickens were forced to mature 25 weeks ahead of schedule-there was no autism to study. There were no plastic diapers leaching chemicals onto baby skin. And this is EXACTLY why I am glad our grands wore cloth diapers. Hippy Mom was way ahead of her mom's game, and that's why I changed my way of shopping. Here's to talking and thinking like a northerner.