Making the big life choices
Lately, we have been making a bunch of changes. Ok, so longer than lately. Over a year ago we decided to try to live greener. My husband and I had talked about it and we decided that living like we were, with no thought to what was going to happen, what we were gonna spend and what we really needed was just a real drag. Basically, when you are dead it will go to Goodwill, E-bay or a garage sale, so what is the point? Now for those of you who are going to wail on me and tell me what you want out of our home, go take a jump. This is about the excess stuff, not the family heirlooms, FYI our son gets what we have.
Last night I was told that we were the ultimate recyclers, we drive along and find working TV;s on the street, we find stuff to sell and we find things that others might need to give away. It sounds whacked and maybe it is, but it is better to use it and not toss it if it still works. We recycle cans, and we clip coupons, we also work on re-using what could effect the environment. People pick our flowers in the front lawn, that is OK, they will grow back (although if they pick a prickly pear cactus flower I am not responsible for that stupidity). In my usual obtuse way; what I am getting at, is the little bit we are living green is helping. Maybe not a lot, but bringing our own bags to the store, using our stuff effectively, cleaning things only once instead of forgetting what was in the washer and having to re-wash it again.... for us, we are living green. Oddly enough, people don't pick our garbage. By the time it hits our curb it is really garbage. I find that strangely amusing; it must be all the Monty Python my brother and I watched when I was a kid. (See bro, you taught me to laugh, that is a good thing.)
As for our son, well, he is frustrated by some of the rules around here. Like, "No you can't throw that in the regular garbage take it out to the blue bin" or "No it isn't 30 degrees, and I know you are cold, go get another sweater." or his favorite, "Why would we let you play a computer game for $50.00 a month, have you lost the brains God gave you?" We are worse than my parents ever were.... most of his new clothes come from second hand stores or church sales, he needs to dress right so we dress him right and he looks good, it just isn't from the store on the label. He doesn't care about where the clothes come from as long as they are there when he needs them. When he is done with them, we sell them on E-bay and belive it or not, if it is the "right" designer, people will buy them.
Right now, his phone is one I used several years back, it is cracked on the screen and is not good on the battery charge. It is paid for, it works, and he went thru 4 phones in 2 monthes and I refused to buy him another one. He can use this until we are out of contract. Then he will learn how to look for another phone service, and we will move the phones next year when mine runs out. How is this important? It sounds really dumb. But it is a life lesson that he needs to do, it is something useful and practical and he needs to learn about stuff like this.
We will be doing something new this year. A local church has allowed people to use their "back yard" as a garden. We will be growing our own food in back of a church parking lot. I keep thinking about the song Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell, "They paved paradise and put up a parkin' lot, With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin' hot spot, Don't it always seem to go, That you don't know what you got till it's gone, They paved paradise and put up a parking lot, They took all the trees, and put em in a tree museum, And they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them". We started prepping the seeds today.
Talk about feeling crunchy....and like a city person, we have to go elsewhere to plant our garden because out yard is too damp. We are going further into our life of doing without and doing it the way we need to for our own comfort level.
Teaching our Aspie about these life lessons is weird. As I have said before, "It isn't for the faint of heart". Telling him to do things a certain way is just plain ole bizarre. We are trying to get him to be the way we want him to be and to be sure of what he thinks and how he is. To be like this he needs to self advocate. Sometimes he is able to self advocate, other times he asks me to help. Soon I will not be helping anymore (I can't, it won't be that I don't WANT to, it will be time for him to fly). He will be doing it on his own. It is all a life lesson and a might big change for everyone.
Most of the people we know are getting to where we are now. They are trying the "living cheap" methods. Or as our church would say, living within our means. I don't know what is right or what is wrong, but I do know I sleep better at night than I have in a while and I am living a healthier, happier life than my husband and I had in years. That is saying something isn't it?
Here you go friends, the blog on living cheap, and with an Aspie, what more can one ask for?
I totally love "The Club" and you all know who you are.
Last night I was told that we were the ultimate recyclers, we drive along and find working TV;s on the street, we find stuff to sell and we find things that others might need to give away. It sounds whacked and maybe it is, but it is better to use it and not toss it if it still works. We recycle cans, and we clip coupons, we also work on re-using what could effect the environment. People pick our flowers in the front lawn, that is OK, they will grow back (although if they pick a prickly pear cactus flower I am not responsible for that stupidity). In my usual obtuse way; what I am getting at, is the little bit we are living green is helping. Maybe not a lot, but bringing our own bags to the store, using our stuff effectively, cleaning things only once instead of forgetting what was in the washer and having to re-wash it again.... for us, we are living green. Oddly enough, people don't pick our garbage. By the time it hits our curb it is really garbage. I find that strangely amusing; it must be all the Monty Python my brother and I watched when I was a kid. (See bro, you taught me to laugh, that is a good thing.)
Right now, his phone is one I used several years back, it is cracked on the screen and is not good on the battery charge. It is paid for, it works, and he went thru 4 phones in 2 monthes and I refused to buy him another one. He can use this until we are out of contract. Then he will learn how to look for another phone service, and we will move the phones next year when mine runs out. How is this important? It sounds really dumb. But it is a life lesson that he needs to do, it is something useful and practical and he needs to learn about stuff like this.
We will be doing something new this year. A local church has allowed people to use their "back yard" as a garden. We will be growing our own food in back of a church parking lot. I keep thinking about the song Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell, "They paved paradise and put up a parkin' lot, With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin' hot spot, Don't it always seem to go, That you don't know what you got till it's gone, They paved paradise and put up a parking lot, They took all the trees, and put em in a tree museum, And they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them". We started prepping the seeds today.
Talk about feeling crunchy....and like a city person, we have to go elsewhere to plant our garden because out yard is too damp. We are going further into our life of doing without and doing it the way we need to for our own comfort level.
Teaching our Aspie about these life lessons is weird. As I have said before, "It isn't for the faint of heart". Telling him to do things a certain way is just plain ole bizarre. We are trying to get him to be the way we want him to be and to be sure of what he thinks and how he is. To be like this he needs to self advocate. Sometimes he is able to self advocate, other times he asks me to help. Soon I will not be helping anymore (I can't, it won't be that I don't WANT to, it will be time for him to fly). He will be doing it on his own. It is all a life lesson and a might big change for everyone.
Most of the people we know are getting to where we are now. They are trying the "living cheap" methods. Or as our church would say, living within our means. I don't know what is right or what is wrong, but I do know I sleep better at night than I have in a while and I am living a healthier, happier life than my husband and I had in years. That is saying something isn't it?
Here you go friends, the blog on living cheap, and with an Aspie, what more can one ask for?
I totally love "The Club" and you all know who you are.
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