This is us in 2006 — Before kids!
Today is the day of love, and also the day of hubs and my first kiss 11 years ago! (Cheesy, I know, but what can you do?) So, in honor of that, we thought we’d share another She Said, He Said post with you!
I talked last month about how this journey that our family is on toward more natural and simple living is not one that my husband probably would have chosen for us. Although I’ve been more of the driving force behind the change, he’s always been a pretty good sport about it. And if you would have told me four years ago that this is what our life would look like today, I probably would have laughed at you, but now that we’re here, I can’t imagine living any other way, and I really love all of the green changes we have made.
Here’s just a few reasons why.
She Said — Why I Love the Green Changes We Have Made
It’s Fun!
I know it probably sounds weird, but I really think that learning more about green and natural living, and trying out new things until I find what works best for me and my family, is fun! I guess it’s mostly because that gives me something new to learn about, and I’ve always loved learning new things. I think life would be boring if I wasn’t always learning and discovering new things, what would I do with myself?
It Makes Me Less Materialistic
I’ve always been one of those people who wanted the next best thing. I used to try to follow trends (quite unsuccessfully!), get the next best beauty product, and generally try to keep up with the Joneses. Living a greener and simpler life has given me freedom from always comparing myself to other people around me (except for those who I think are greener than me!). In some ways I still chase the next best thing – because I’m always trying new green things, or trying to find ways to do things more naturally and simply – but it just looks so much different for me now, and my motivation for doing it is not because I’m trying to keep up with someone else.
It Saves Us Money
I know lots of people have the impression that going green will cost a lot of money, but I’m (obviously) such a firm believer that this does not necessarily have to be true. It really does depend on the choices you make, and I love that the changes we have made have truly saved us lots of money. Now I just wish that we had more of that money to show for it! (Things continue to be tight financially around here for us.) But, I really can’t imagine where we would be, or how we would have made it, without making these changes over the past few years.
When I think about the life that we live now, compared to the life that we were living just a few years ago, it really is amazing to me. And I am so glad, and so thankful, for this journey and all that we have learned along the way.
First Time Daddy - She is the one who started it all!
He Said
Happy valentines day, wife! 11 years ago I worked my mojo and the rest is history. Not sure if that is how it actually happened, but let’s go with it. Little did you know that just a little over a decade later I would have half as much hair, weigh that same amount if you added a toddler to the scale too, and still annoy you with my inability to maintain any sort of schedule. Love is blind to many things. Thankfully, you have hung in there and keep laughing at my stupid jokes, because I am in no shape, and have no desire, to do any of this without you.
So here is my take on your love list for green changes.
It’s Fun!
These changes and experiments you have led the family on make life interesting. Not sure I would always say it’s fun though. I certainly never thought I would need a cloth diaper degree to figure out how to attach all those different sorts of contraptions to the booty of a kid. And it is never a good thing to ask a dad to pin anything to cloth in the vicinity of a young child. It’s just not.
But all in all, being married to a living, breathing, and very sexy (his words!) scientist who likes to experiment with all different kinds of cooking, cleaning, and home based green/natural living projects has been fun and life changing for us all. If this was fourth grade you would get a blue ribbon. Since it is Valentines day I’ll just give you a kiss.
It Makes You Less Materialistic
This has been the coolest part of being on the journey for me. You and I have both been caught up in the ladder climbing envy challenge over the years. By making these changes for reasons you and I both believe in, and can get excited about, has really made the old versions of us look a lot different in retrospect. I guess that’s all part of the general growth in a marriage, or relationship, or life in general.
Being simple, or trying to keep things simple, and basic, and less cluttered has grown us both. I guess next you’ll want to have a baby at home in our room and change forever how I look at our bed…oh wait, that is the plan for this next one isn’t it? Wow, things have changed over the years!
It Saves us Money
I certainly know that the changes made have saved some serious money. But, like everything else there is a learning curve and initial investment required. We now have a library, both in print and digital format, of books and e-books, that could keep a speed reader busy for a few months. We also have some failed experiments that have paved the way to some simple changes made today. And at times you do have a tendency towards biting off a bit more than is humanly possible to chew.
I can specifically point to some knitting books, and “project” tools, hidden in closets that have been rather lonely since making an appearance in our house. We’ll count those as investments into the future. When the kids are in high school you can embarrass them with Christmas sweaters knit from the fur taken from the Alpacas you got us to raise in the yard or something. If you already knit them stuff now, it wouldn’t be as funny then.
Love you, wife!
Do you see why I love this man? I must say I’m a pretty lucky girl! Love you too, hubs!
Why do you love the green changes you’ve made in your home and family life? How does your spouse feel about them?
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Did your husband just let the cat out of the bag that you are having a home birth??? How exciting! I have zero desire to do that, but I can’t wait to hear how it goes for you.
Not completely, I actually mentioned it in this post – http://www.liverenewed.com/2012/02/whats-your-inspiration-month-february.html – but I guess I haven’t “officially” announced it yet – whatever that means. My mom actually found out from reading my other post! 🙂
The “less materialistic” is definitely my favorite part of going greener – although I did recently realize that I really need to spruce up my wardrobe because I don’t buy as much stuff anymore! I also agree that it’s (mostly) fun – especially the cooking greener part.
I don’t have a husband, but my cat seems thrilled!
I love the green changes that I”ve made, because I’m doing my part to remove toxins from my home. I know what’s going into my cleaning supplies and the food that I eat, since all meals are now made at home!!!! I also love making “green “changes because it’s also helped me to save money..and since I”m out of work right now, it’s crucial to helping me stretch the few dollars that I do have 🙂 🙂 I”m not married, but I do live with my aunt and father. They love the changes, too…because it helps keep us above water financially. They are also seeing the benefit of making “green” changes in terms of finances and overall health and well-being. Happy Valentine’s Day. Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather 🙂
I love all of my green changes. My husband? Not always so much. I literally got rid of our clothes dryer and he struggles with managing his wardrobe where he can’t instantaneously have clean dry clothes. He also feels as though our green cleaning (mostly vinegar and baking soda) are not really cleaning because he can not feel the chemicals burning his nostrils. He will sometimes sneak a bottle of Tilex or something into the house! He is really great about going paper towel-less though. He used to think it would be impossible and now we have been years and he is convinced our cloth options save money and resources. Overall, it is an ongoing process where we are trying and learning day by day.
We have been very much in agreement over the years as we’ve gotten more and more green. One of our few sticking points is that he still usually eats meat when in a restaurant–but it may really be true that he needs the protein and I don’t, since we have different digestive systems and physical needs as individuals, even aside from being different sexes.
We do sometimes run into trouble because none of us (this now includes our child) want to get rid of things that might possibly be useful, and we can take that too far! It can be a source of some argument when one of us wants to keep something the others think is junk, but it helps that we all understand the underlying feeling.
I love this post! My husband and I have had some points along the way to going green where we seriously butt heads, but it really HAS been fun to live simpler, more sustainable lives. I don’t know if we’ll always agree on everything, but usually after a lively debate, we come to some sort of agreement on what’s best for our family 😉
I LOVE this post! I feel like I am where you were 5 or 6 years ago. I am newly engaged, but we’ve been living together for 4 years now. I am at the start of my “green” journey and my fiance is reluctantly following along. But I love reading how to the two of you work together and especially getting to hear things from your husband’s point of view.