My family doesn’t take meds, visit M.Ds, or vax.

Almost never.

I believe ALL babies should be cloth diapered at home.

It’s easy, cute, & saves the earth.

I think little ones need to be breastfed even though it’s hard hard hard.

Yes, Yes, Yes!

The other day I got criticized for my 1 Minute Scrambled Egg because I cook in a microwave.

I got in trouble for taking my family to the circus to see animals perform tricks.

I will chat about unhealthy chocolate every chance I get because I’m addicted.

This blog is not about a Perfectly Crunchy Mama…just little ole Me.

PS. I have friends who take daily meds, don’t cloth diaper or breastfeed, but eat a lot more healthy than I do. We all balance each other out, don’t you agree?

When I first started this crunchy mama series the first person I thought of to tell her story was Kelli! You will love hearing about her crunchiness, her unschooling (have you heard of that before?!), and how much cloth she uses in her home. Enjoy reading!

Kelli's TreeHuggin' Kids

Hi! My name is Kelli, and I came to be a Crunchy Mama by the route many mamas start on… cloth diapers. My MIL used cloth on her youngest who is 19 months older than my first child and even though I spent plenty of time watching her use cloth, wash cloth, fold cloth, etc, the idea of using cloth myself never occurred to me. When my daughter was around a year old my wonderful MIL gifted me part of her stash: lots of premium bleached cotton prefolds, several Bummi’s Super Whisper Wraps, and lots of Fuzzi Bunz pockets. I started tentatively, using one a day and very quickly discovered how EASY and AWESOME cloth was and went full time within a few weeks. Not having to buy disposable dipes was incredible! Shortly after this epiphany I had another… if cloth was good enough for my baby, why wasn’t I using it, too? So I dragged out my mom’s old sewing machine and using an old towel and some old flannel receiving blankets I made myself a stash of cloth pads. That was over 8 years ago and I’m still using the SAME pads now. I can’t even begin to imagine how much money and trash I’ve saved!

Things snowballed from there and have affected every aspect of my life. I was already pretty good at listening to my instincts as far as mutually-respectful weaning (DD at 2.5, DS at 3), sleep-sharing (DD in our bed until 4, in our room until 5, DS in our bed until 2.5, in our room still at 4), vaccinating (stopped with DD at 18 months, DS has never had any), circumcising (neither of my children are or will be unless by their own adult choice), We do as many home and natural remedies as possible. (DS has never been to a Dr after leaving the hospital when he was born and the rest of us haven’t been in for years and years.) Unschooling*, and just general gentle, responsible, present parenting.

The ‘cloth revolution’ brought many other instinctive aspects to my life: removing chemicals from my home, no store-bought cleaners (vinegar, baking soda, steam only),reducing disposable products, eating locally and organically, recycling, and pursuing natural remedies. There are still things I’m working on, but in general I’m very happy with how my family is living.

Some of our other cloth/reusable items include family cloth, cloth shower curtain, unpaper towels, kitchen cloth, cloth bowl covers, cloth sandwich wraps, cloth snack bags, glass/metal straws, stainless steel water bottles, cloth “Swiffer” dusters, cloth gift bags, cloth grocery bags, cloth produce bags, steam mop, silicone baking mats, wool dryer balls, and dryer sachets. My ‘Love of Cloth’ photos can be seen here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1279721231198.184746.1175042677&l=4c12cc096b

(It is AWESOME!! ~ CBM)

My passion for reusable products is what prompted me to begin making T/L/C’s. They are so versatile and handy and I love using them myself. I’ve been able to get rid of most all plastic containers, saving not only the health of my home but money and time as well! I love putting them together knowing that my small effort will keep at least a little plastic wrap or tinfoil out of landfills.
 

Don’t forget to enter Kelli’s Rebel T/L/C giveaway of 2 lids and a sandwich wrap HERE!
 

*the concept of unschooling was brand new to me so Kelli explained. Unschooling is helping a child to learn with no limits, guidelines, or restrictions. No formal lessons, no homework, no nothing… unless they choose to. As unschooling parents we strew our children’s paths with interesting things, ideas, and opportunities, helping them find resources to learn more of what they desire and leaving the things that hold no interest for them for when they mature into needing/wanting them. We learn from life every moment of every day.

How can you not love the way she operates?

I would not say that I am a total “crunchy” but I’m slowly getting there every day.  I was raised with this mentality in mind.  I would consider my mom to be on the crunchier side although I never realized it as a child.  She was super healthy, for example, I used to think that yogurt and wheat germ was a dessert.  I would sneak into the refrigerator and sneak a spoon full of wheat germ thinking I was being bad.  Also, when all my friends were able to buy the little individual containers of milk at school for lunch my mom refused to give me the .$25, saying all those little containers take up too much space in landfills and were a waste.  While all the other children’s moms were allowing them to eat ice cream for dessert and fill our landfills with little milk containers my mom was teaching me the importance of environmental stewardship.  To this day I try to remember these 2 little things and live a life my mom would be proud of.

For these reasons, as a mom, I decided that I was going to…

-          Give birth naturally with out drugs or medications.

-          Breast feed exclusively for at least the first 6 months before starting solid foods…then continuing as long as my little wanted too.  He weaned himself at 16 months, which made me kind of sad because I would have liked to have gone longer.

-          From the time little man  started solids I made all of his food from organic as much as possible.  It’s actually made my husband and I eat healthier and has really helped our family eat consciously.  Not only are organics better for our bodies they are better for our planet!

-          As far as vaxing goes, we DO vax, but he is on a VERY limited spread out schedule.  There is a part of me that just can’t seem to let him go totally unvaccinated.

-          I decided to cloth diaper little man before he was even born and have found it to be so easy and actually enjoyable (aka…addicting)  To help my addiction, I have taken it one step further and now I am a cloth diaper consultant for Everything Birth.  My goal at Lowcountry Diaper Parties is to spread the LOVE of cloth diapers to all parents.  I truly enjoy being able to help other families with their decision to lessen their baby’s footprint on this planet.  Oh! As well as limit their baby to harmful chemicals that can be found in disposables!

-          I clean our floors with only vinegar and water and use only earth friendly products for cleaning/washing other areas of the house.  Rockin Green for laundry and Charlie’s Soap for dishes and such.

This Spring, my husband and I plan on getting our own chickens for eggs.  I am also learning more about babywearing and plan on wearing #2 arriving in April which I am totally stoked about!  I know I still have a really long way to go to become totally crunchy but I am a work in progress.  Living a life as frugally as possible with our health and planet in mind is good for now.

Thank you Katherine! Gosh I love her mom. And can’t wait to steal some of those eggs