One Happy Camper

Well, Good Morning, Lovelies! I'm Jessie, and I've commandeered Ellie's blog for the time being. I'm concerned that Elorie will be unwilling to toot her own horn, and a couple of items have come to my attention today that I think are surely, well.... tootable.

Up first:
I awoke to find a new issue of my EcoMom Alliance Newsletter in my email this morning. And who do you think is the EcoMom of the month? You guessed it: Miss Ellie B.

Surely, Elorie would never reprint this article in it's entirety for you. But I have no such qualms, so here it is:

EcoMom of the Month

I was raised in the Pacific Northwest by a family of outdoor enthusiasts. Visits to national forests and backyard organic gardens blended seamlessly with piano lessons and slumber parties in my upbringing. Now I am the mother of two daughers, aged 5 and 7, in a midwestern suburb. In the years since my childhood, I have maintained the commitment to conservation that I was raised with, but also have experienced the "accumulation" that accompanies a growing family. Professional circumstances and growing girls necessitated several moves. When my husband Greg and I were engaged we had a two bedroom cottage. We sold that house and bought a 3 bedroom brick tudor. The next house we bought had 4 bedrooms: main floor master suite and 3 bedrooms upstairs. We sold Mr. 4 Bedroom and did some graduate school apartment hopping for awhile. Returning to home ownership, we acquired a 5 bedroom house, a vaulted ceiling type of home. Mr. 5 Bedroom was sold in a job relocation and we bought an all-brick 6-bedroom midcentury ranch.

In the spring of 2007 we paused to take inventory of our life. And though I recylced everything that the local recycling center would accept, and raised my herbs without chemicals, and turned the thermostat down one degree, and brought my own bags to the supermarket. . .we felt that the lifestyle we had grown into did not reflect our true feelings about conservation and sustainability. It was the house and stuff. There was so much to maintain, and the maintenance, we knew, comsumed so many resources. And so Mr. 6 Bedroom was sold at the beginning of last summer. It was full of stuff: furniture, accessories, rubbermaids stuffed with "I-might-use-this-next-Christmas", lawn edger and 6 rakes, Easy Bake Oven, extra placemats, fabric scraps, candlesticks, Princess scooters. We sold it all. Well, not all. We kept the family piano, the office furniture, my great-grandma's iron bed, two overstuffed red chairs and their ottomans, books, one TV, baby keepsakes, bicycles, and all the accoutrments of G and I's hobbies: baseball cards and sewing, respectively. We moved our remaining possessions to a 3 bedroom/1 bath cottage down the street from our daughters' elementary school. After living here about a month we realized that it is more 'cabin' than 'cottage', and so it became The Cabin.

This dramatic downsize is a wonderful adventure. Simply put, we are choosing less. The saying is that "less is more". I'm sure a guru out there somewhere has already patented the Less is More Lifestyle, and I'm not claiming to do that.We're simply starting to live that way. We only use enough water to clean one bathroom, not 3. We walk to and from school, not drive. We ride our bikes to the public library. We put the money that used to be spent fertilizing the lawn towards increasing the amount of organic and sustainably farmed produce that we buy. We don't accumulate. At The Cabin we heat and cool less than half the square footage we did before. We are creating the mental space to focus on activities that improve our quality of life: my running, Greg's core strengthening and reading, my older daughter rides horses, I sew with recycled and vintage materials, and more.

For years I have used a psuedonym EllieRichellie for my creative endeavors: At the beginning of February 2008, just before discovering the EcoMom Alliance and joining the Challenge, I began sharing our family's experiences in a blog: "EllieRichellie: Cabin Life". It is the diary of our downsize, and I enjoy telling the story of how our family is learning to choose less. I share the inspirations that brought us to, and move us forward in, our downsize. And of course there is life. The reality for us of our decision comes in the every day living. This is my favorite part of "Cabin Life", as these stories reveal the humor and the challenges in our downsize, and deepening commitment to a smaller footprint.

I am very excited about the EcoMom Alliance and the awareness being drawn to the power-of-the-mom in our consumption patterns. I am thrilled to be a member and to tell my story!


You can read more about the EcoMom alliance here.

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Okay, so after checking my email, I went to my trusty feed reader to catch up on any bloggy goodness that was posted overnight. And guess what I found over at the Sew, Mama, Sew blog?

Mmmmhhhhmmm.... they featured the lovely Dupioni Silk flower girl dress that Elorie created for a friend. My goodness, that's a beautiful dress!

I sure would be One Happy Camper if I received all this love in one day. I hope El is, too. And I hope she's not mad at me for taking over her blog....

xoxo
Jessie