Hi everyone, I’m the author of this
blog. My name is Vanessa, and I’m a 27 year old mother of 3 children under 4
years old. I am a moderately crunchy mama and wife; I love all things cloth
(diapers, wipes, and pads), cleaning mostly without store-bought ready-made
cleaners, occasionally co-sleeping, babywearing, working on my Library
Information Technology diploma, and eating healthy.
I use the phrase "moderately
crunchy" to describe myself because I don't really fit the exact mould of
what we would call a "crunchy" parent. The Urban Dictionary defines "crunchy" as:
"Persons who have adjusted or altered their lifestyle
for environmental reasons. Crunchy persons tend to be politically strongly
left-leaning and may be additionally but not exclusively categorized as
vegetarians, vegans, eco-tarians, conservationists, environmentalists,
neo-hippies, tree huggers, nature enthusiasts, etc."
For those of the older generations, I'm pretty sure that the
word used to be "granola."
Well, I'm not all of that. In fact, most of my crunchy
tendencies stem from needing to be frugal, rather than being eco-centric. The
rest of them stem from research. I don’t mean “I saw this on a mommy blog and
it makes sense.” I mean reading proper, peer-reviewed journals and scientific
literature. A significant part of Library Information Technology is information
literacy, a skill that many people lack and that many individuals and corporations
prey upon.
For the better part of 8 years, my husband and I lived
paycheck to paycheck, with the occasional support and help from family. In
November 2013, we welcomed our first son, Edgar, into our lives through the
care of a midwife. This ushered in a new challenge for me: to live frugally in
some areas of our lives so that we can afford to give our children the lives
they deserve.
It’s not perfect,
but it has paid off. We are paying down debt and no longer live paycheck to
paycheck. We eat healthy and live in a little townhouse that we own. The
children (all three of them!) won’t always have everything they want, but they
will always have everything they
need.
And even if we won
the lottery, I’d still keep on cloth diapering, cleaning without store-bought
cleaners, eating healthy, tandem nursing, room-sharing, and living this crazy
life with 3 children under the age of 4.
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