A Girl Has The Right To Change Her Mind

So it seems I have changed my mind on several topics. 

First, I started blogging here at the first of the year.  However, I have decided to move on over to Blogger!  So if you'd like to read my story up to this point, feel free to check out my tumblr.

So here's my story thus far, in a nut shell.  I'm a 32 year old stay at home mom to two kids.  Sydney (almost 6) and Garrett (2).  I've been married to Allen for almost 9 years.  We dated for 4.  And we became friends 18 years ago.  Yikes!  That makes me feel old!  I love being home with my kids, I love cooking, I love music and I love a glass of wine from time to time!

Maybe it's my age or maybe it's the experience of seeing my Dad (my hero) die in my arms 3 years ago that has awakend a part of me that had been sleeping.  I have completely changed my life in a very short time.  It's amazing when you realize that certain things you always believed are no longer your truths. 

I have detoxed my life one baby step at a time.  It began with giving up all soda 1 1/2 years ago.  I haven't had a drop since and will never drink it again.  I gave it up because I didn't want my kids to drink it.  It's best to lead by example, so it was time to be a grown up and start kicking my bad habits!  Next, I went off birth control pills once I realized they were messing with my head and my body!  After having Garrett, my body reacted differently to birth control and it wasn't pretty.  I actually worried I was entering menopause at an extremely young age!  Once I stopped taking the pills, the fog in my head lifted, the irritability ended, and I felt like myself for the first time in a long time.  I will never take them again!  In fact, I hope to never take any pills, except for the occasional Tylenol or Antibiotic.  But only when absolutely necessary. 

So once I made the connection that what we put in our bodies directly effects how we feel, think, sleep, treat others, etc.  I began educating myself on organic & local eating.  Now we eat REAL food, mostly organic and mostly local.  My pantry used to be full of boxes of "food".  Now the pantry is filled with beans, pasta, flour, sugar, etc.  I make REAL food for my family to eat.  You won't find a frozen chicken nugget in this house!  And now I have moved to the bathroom cabinets and thrown out all products with toxic chemicals.  All it takes is a little education to change the way you perceive the world around you. 

So I have gone from an overweight, worn down, tired unhealthy girl to what I am today...which is still a work in progress! :)  And although I still have some more weight to knock off, I feel, eat, sleep and think better than I have in a decade.  I eat well, I exercise, I get plenty of sleep and I try not to sweat the small stuff now.

My motto for life now is a quote by George Eliot - "It's never too late to be what you might have been".  And I am going to be everything I ever wanted to be in this life! 

So, on the topic of changing my mind.  I tried out making my own laundry soap for a while and I have now decided that I HATE doing it & it doesn't get our clothes clean enough.  So I'm a Tide girl at the moment and it's pathetic how happy it makes me to sniff and feel our freshly washed clothes.  I'm telling ya, the whites really are whiter & and everything is softer!  No more clouds of borax & washing soda dust drifting in the air of my kitchen as I mix it all in my food processor!  I'm so over it!  Not to mention, I don't think it was great to be sniffing those powdery fumes.  Now in my journey of non-toxic products, I'm sure I'll end up using Seventh Generation.  But honestly, I had never bought Tide because it was so expensive and I just wanted to know what it was like!  It's pretty awesome.  And it's pretty pathetic that I have so much to say about laundry soap! :)

Lastly, I stated in the past that I didn't believe in organized religion.  Well, just to clarify, I didn't really believe in it for about a decade.  But recently I was feeling pulled in that direction.  I made the leap and went to church and have been going ever since.  It feels good, it feels right and I'm glad my kids are going to grow up with it.  I have been realizing that part of what is wrong with our society today is the lack of church and God in people's lives.  Believe me, I never would have been saying something like this a year ago.  But remember, a girl always has a right to change her mind!