the long cut

It wasn't until we got the final coat of 'lemon meringue' onto the accent wall of the formal dining room that it dawned on me: When we moved in, the walls were yellow.  We painted three coats of white over the 'dated' yellow and now we have painted yellow over the white.

placenta encapsulation

I've long been fascinated by hippy culture.  I may have gone too far trying to prove it.  Woo, look at me, Mother Earth incarnate.  The pregnancy was my chance to be as bohemian as possible.

An opportunity to take pre-natal yoga.  A chance to have an unmedicated home birth and show them all how tough I am.  The time to employ a swarm of holistic practitioners with their smoking needles and expensive vitamins.

I think that as I become a conservative housewife, I must be trying to prove how wild and crazy I really am.  Is that the reason I had my placenta encapsulated?  It was only meant as a joke!  I just wanted to freak out my friends!

Almost all mammals consume their placenta after birth.  Even some humans.  In Traditional Chinese Medicine it's something of a tradition.  Eating placenta is meant to have benefits like increased milk supply, vitamins and iron, and lower rates of postpartum depression.  The Naturopath and Midwives support the practice (although they will be the first to admit that there is no scientific proof of its benefits).

Also, you can get your placenta dehydrated and put into capsules.  You don't have to dig in with a knife and fork.  The doulas offer it as a service here.

Here I am $275 poorer with a jar full of pills staring at me in the face. Gross! Who ordered these? It was supposed to be a joke.
"You paid for them, you're eating them!"
Now I have to eat them.

free baby

I couldn't believe the abundance.  This baby was going to be free.  I looked in the drawers and thought that the baby already had twice as many outfits as I did.  Everyone kept giving us stuff.  I took it all hungrily.  Hey, free stuff.

I considered that maybe I needed to minimize a little bit, donate some extras.  How many sleepers does a newborn need?

Before I had a chance to cull some outfits I heard Kitson come home from work.  He had some boxes of baby clothes that had been handed down to us.  Some of the clothes were big enough for when the baby would be two years old.

How many sleepers does a newborn baby need?  Certainly not fifty!  Or maybe I could dispose of one every day to cut back on laundry?

I always feel less guilty consuming when I'm fishing from the waste stream.  Where does it all go once the thrift stores can't sell it?  If you buy anything new please buy good quality because it will live so many more lives before it ends up in the dump.

where did this stuff come from?

Today I was able to pass on some too-tight boots that I don't wear much to a friend.  Who buys shoes online?  Someone came for the shelves which we found in the garage and someone came for the extra shutters.  I feel cleansed but I know I'll feel even better when the old cupboards are out of the carport.

It turns out I don't use the juicer and I won't need a wipes warmer.  Thank goodness they were purchased/given second hand.  There is also a plastic cover for the bathtub faucet which is meant to keep kids from bumping their heads (hard).  Those can go in the donation box. When we decide what to get rid of, plastic items seem to place high on the list.

If I ruled the world there would be design laws.  Things would have to be beautiful and/or useful.



Sometimes I'm afraid that once I've gotten rid of everything I'll just buy all new stuff.

minimizing fixtures

Yesterday we started ripping the garage apart where all our junk is stored.  We've been renovating our house but we haven't added anything (except some blinds).  We've mostly been removing things like shutters, unstable shelves, excessive hooks and a kitchen cabinet.

Most of these used building supplies have been jammed in the garage where they have been out of sight, out of mind.  I've listed some of the items on a free-cycle page and already have people interested in the shelves and shutters.  Am I becoming an enabler for others to hoard?

I remember a time ten years ago.  We had a free pile outside and one neighbour took everything.  We had to prevent him from taking our plants which weren't included in the free pile.  He was later arrested after shouting from his rooftop, "I'm going to kill this entire neighbourhood!"  Hoarding leads to harder crimes.

services not products

As a result of the pregnancy I've given employment to a midwife, naturopath, chiropractor, RMT, esthetician, and a yoga teacher.  It seems excessive, especially now that I'm done work and housewifery is my main task.  The money may be spent but at least there isn't a bunch of stuff laying around.

When?

People tell me that I'll need it someday.  I'll need this thing, whatever it is.  I never seem to need it now, but one day in the future I will most certainly need it.  In the meantime I have to dust it and reach around it to get at my other things.  I think we have storage capacity for up to one year.  Anything that I'll need further in the future, I might have to rent.