Homesteading: Really????

On our little adventure here in the Sierra Nevada's, I often refer to us as "homesteading". Which people look like they understand exactly what I mean, but nod with a confusing look on their face. Don't ask me to try to explain what I mean. I think it just sounds cool and trendy.

I won't deny, I am one to turn lemons into lemonade. We moved back to California from Central Virginia, because my partner is no longer receiving funding to finish his dissertation, and we couldn't afford to live in the city of Charlottesville on only one salary. So we moved back to the family homestead. Also known as, moving back in with the parents. Ack! That sounds too bad, never mind, let's just keep it as "we're homesteading". that sounds so much better.

Since I'm not to clear on what exactly "homesteading" means, I looked it up.

Merriam-Webster: the home and adjoining land occupied by a family.

Wiki: Broadly defined, homesteading is a lifestyle of simple self-sufficiency.

Urban Dictionary: One of your best friends, so close that whenever you need a place to stay you can sleep on this person's couch and/ or bed.
"Yo dog! You my homestead!"

I'm partial to the Urban Dictionary's definition, however, a combination of M-W & Wiki is most applicable. Reducing our consumption, and living a more simple life. Here is what has been happening over the six months. We reduced our grocery shopping bill quite a bit by eating as whole and local as possible. We are eating bulk grains, garden winter greens, root vegetables, squashes from a neighbor, goat milk from another neighbor, making breads, etc. Our daughters eat what we put in front of them, albeit, the garlicky humus. But tone down the garlic and they are all over it.

At first, I went through fits of withdrawal from online purchases from the bigbox department stores...but the more I learned about how "stuff" is made, shipped, and how the cost is made so low for Americans, I became ashamed. It became easier for me to just delete those emails. Now we are only purchasing clothes from thrift stores, not washing/drying those clothes as often (reducing our electricity), and no more shopping for shoes just to get "new shoes".

Its been a challenge. However, my daughters are at such an impressionable age, that making adjustments in our lives, no matter how hard it is, pail in comparison to the amazing transformation our daughters have undergone. They are starting to get a grasp on what it means to live in a society where the poor are rich in comparison to other country's poor. To see them devour a fresh kale, carrot, beet salad like it was the best food they've ever eaten, makes my heart sing.

Now, if only I can get the social etiquette message to the 4-year-old that you can't tell strangers "McDonalds will kill you", I might actually begin to feel like we are making a difference in the world, one cup of lemonade at a time.