I'm a snicker bar (top 10 crunchy things about me)

how about you?

All this crunchy momma and crunchy family stuff.  Love the terms, much better than hippie momma that they called it when I was young.  By definition I am crunchy.  Always have been to some degree or another.  I was raised on sugarless cereals, casserole dishes and gardens with our own chickens and raw milk many times, but we also had soda pop and Hersey bars in the house.  Most importantly when I was a kid we were reading the OLD time Mother Earth News....  the OLD ones, you know before glossy paper and pages of advertisements?  Yeah, I am that old.  I even have a few of the old issues somewhere if they didn't get damaged by water.  So my momma was a crunchy momma but was not a hippie momma, cause we ate meat, hersey bars, and and we drove old gas hogs.

Curtsey of motherearthnews.com

Heck, I come from a long, generational, line of crunchy mommas.  My own momma (Bear's G'ma), canned every year.  She made things from scratch (that's what they use to call homemade), she crafted and sewed, she worked in her yard and in an era where a woman was only considered fulfilled if she worked outside the home, she was a rarity; a stay at home mom and wife.  She worked hard to make the house a home and was crunchy doing so. 

My Grandma Audrey was a canner and baker.  She also made her own clothes until my own momma started sewing them for her.  I remember seeing jars of jam, relish, and beets in her pantry from a very young age.  This was back in the early 70's.  She used cast iron for her cookware and thought sitting on the porch was a great pastime and something everyone should do.  It helps one to slow down I now recognize as I get older.  Sitting on a porch swing, glider or chair in your front yard slows the world down.  More people ought to practice it.  It also makes the world a little smaller as you see who your neighbors are.  Porches that are functional and used really should make a comeback. 

My Grandma Nada was a sewer.  She made her own patterns and was amazing with a needle and thread.  Knitting and crochet as well.  I have proudly inherited one of her own machines, but sadly not her talent, though I work at it.  I admit though, my Grandpa Bob was more crunchy in this family.  He believed hard work was good for the body and he would recycle everything, including old nails.  I'm not sure his children were fond of his crunchy ways though.  *Grin*  Maybe in light of today's fashion his recycling methods would be viewed as revolutionary? 

My Great Grandma Charlotte.  She raised her children during the depression and you want to talk about crunchy....  well canning in everything glass that you could find (reuse was the term before recycle become popular) and not having the money to buy things in a store will make anyone crunchy.  She spent time living in a covered wagon as a young girl and she even raised her children for a time in a cave when times were really tough.  Homemade shampoo, homemade soap, washing soap was boiled soap, hand made clothing, fixing what you have instead of buying new, and more.  Gardening, oh yes, much of their family food came from their own hard labors.  Yes, she was a crunchy momma as well.  I have much to aspire too. 

Well, looking back, I would say all my family has been at varying degrees of "crunchy" but they didn't call it that.  They called it living. 

So what kind of crunchy things do I do? 
Well let's see.  Here are some top 10 crunchy things I do...

1. I homeschool--yeah that's pretty crunchy especially since I do child led homeschooling...
2. I make my own bread and even grind my own flour  (Well, most of it anyway.  *grin*  I admit I have bags of store bought as well)
3. I "put up" food for the winter, and stock a pantry with our needs
4. I have a kombucha growing in my kitchen
5. I juice fairly often, with my champion juicer
6. I garden (Hubs calls it our victory garden)
7. I make my own laundry soap
8. I use vinegar a lot for cleaning
9. I believe in walking in the grass, barefoot, and sitting in the front yard swing
10. and I recycle and reuse (i.e., re-purpose as my momma called it)

I also try to sew, not everything, but a lot of things...., make our ice cream most of the time, and I do some alternative medicine for me and the family....So I guess I am on the crunchy side. *grin*

Curtesy of Today I Found Out

I am raising the next generation of crunchy garden tenders and pulling my hubs along with us, he's becoming crunchy too.  I see myself right now as a snicker bar.  Crunchy and chocolate covered.  Not granola like, but not a Hersey bar either.  Somewhere in the middle.  I don't fall for fads.  These crunchy ways have been in my family for generations and the knowledge base  is ingrained in me.  While some are new to our home, they were not new to the home of my youth or my grandparents lives.  I am beginning to use cast iron, and have just recently, this past month, made my own laundry soap, but much I have done long before this new craze started.  For me fads don't work, its just a natural progression of my life and trying to be more simple and living closer to God.  Would you believe I haven't ate margarine  since 1992?  Yeah, that was before the "crunchy" fad.  So to all your crunchy mommas out there, make it a life style.  Do the things you know you will keep doing, and those will be the things your own children will do and pass on to their children.  Who knows, maybe in 40 years your grandchild will be writing about her crunchy ancestors too. 

So, I am a snicker bar.... how about you?

Linking up with the Top Ten Tuesday!

Tend the gardens well my gentle friends.