It all started with a bar of real soap.
Several years ago when our health came to a tipping point I panicked. I realized that we had been traveling down the same road with everyone else. It was like we were going the same direction but did anyone in the front even know where they were going or why?
I did not know that the soap we were putting on our skin was not real soap. It was called soap but it was synthetic soap. What goes on our skin goes into our body. My husband had developed psoriasis. He never had it before, why did he have it now. So we got off the road everyone else was on.
It took a lot of searching and research to find real soap and once I did and smelled something familiar I knew what I had to do.
My husband and I decided it was time to make a big change and we literally started reversing what we were doing. We decided it was time to live a more vintage life. We started ridding our home of things we considered unsuitable gadgets and using our older things we should have stuck with in the first place.
We started our journey to the past several years ago and we have learned quite a bit during this time. Keep in mind we were always a bit old fashioned.
For us, when we figured it out that living more basic and more like the past was what we needed to do and it was like coming home after a long day and removing clothing that has been uncomfortable. It is like slipping into your favorite pair of pajamas and you just say ahhhhh…… It just feels right.
We don't pretend to live old fashioned, we simply live the way that people lived many years ago. For us it was living our memories. It is a normal thing for us to do.
Normal to us now is making homemade bread, pasta, cooking from scratch. We are being more careful to bring only non toxic things into our home and I wish we had started long before now.
I cannot put into words how living vintage makes me feel other than it just feels right.
We, like many people have electronics. We had more than one television and all kinds of gadgets but that has changed. It has taken quite some time ridding ourselves of many of these things. I have said this quite a few times but the process continues. We have finally gone to another level and it is like when you know you have finally made a certain mile marker and if you keep going you will be there soon.
We still have one television but it is mostly unplugged. We watch it for an occasional movie night or we watch the news if something is going on. We never leave it on.
There are no televisions in any bedrooms now. No electronics at all other than a clock.
Now that most things have a place, I am going back over things such as drawers, cabinets, closets, trunks and continuously thinning out. This is what is working for me. It is amazing how much stuff we collect during a lifetime.
The house is more quiet in a good way, it has become a wonderful thing to me. There is peace in the home. It allows me to hear the birds outside or things that sound different that make me look out the window and take notice at what is going on around me. I hear things like a branch falling from the tree, the coffee perking in the morning, something simmering on the stove or the cute little snores from the dogs sleeping.
I would like to mention that the pets enjoy the quiet of the house too. We did not know that noise was bothering them until there was no more noise. In the past the television was on quite a bit of time and not until that bad habit ended did I notice a change in our pets.
They are more calm now unless we have a guest and that is when they get super excited.
Pictured above a mama mockingbird looking for food for her baby that is on the other side of this garden cage.
I feel more connected to where we live and feel we can give and take nourishment from this small lot that we live on. Growing even a small amount of vegetables is very rewarding. Peppers, beans, cucumbers and tomatoes are very easy to grow.
A garden is a very vintage thing to have and a very healthy activity.
We recently finally "got it" that to have the good soil that we need, we have to add compost over and over to feed our soil. We must build our soil and nourish it so it can nourish us. In other words keep adding soil on top of soil.
We cannot keep taking and wasting and not give back. It is time to give back because we are depleting the good that has been provided. Putting our kitchen scraps and lawn clippings into a compost will make new dirt. The compost does need care too, it needs air, water and oxygen. That means we let it get rain, we toss it every so often. Do not use meat scraps or oil scraps.
We do not use anything toxic on our vegetables and we try to be as organic as possible because the birds eat bugs to feed their babies and if those bugs are toxic they and their babies can die. It is all a cycle that we need to improve.
We all need happiness in our lives and if you do not feel happy then look at how you are living and see if you can adjust things to fit your personality and what excites you and makes you smile or have that feeling that this is what I am suppose to be doing.
We should not be worrying about what everyone else is doing. This seems to be something that is quite a problem today. I think that social media has created a lot of strife, not for all but for many. If only we would just start doing, really rolling up our sleeves and getting involved in our own homes and family. There is an inner change in us when we know that the work we do in our homes is the right thing for our family.
Be a bit old fashioned and invite a friend over for a lovely homemade meal or a simple piece of homemade cake or pie.
If you have that feeling that something is missing in your life. Something feels out of place. Look around you and take notice if your actions reflect what you see. Are you taking care of what you have? Are you living a life that is respectable, kind and caring?
I feel strong that living a vintage life is important for the future of our young people. In the past people would greet one another in a respectful way. Adults and children used yes ma'am and yes sir, please and thank you. Children need to see kindness, respect and effort from their parents so they can lean what it is to be kind, respectful and how it does take effort to do things right.
An old fashioned life would be considerably less cluttered because many of the things we have today in our homes were not even invented which proves we can live without it and probably quite comfortably.
It is very rewarding to learn new things that will have a good effect on our family. It is good when we age to continue to learn new things.
I will continue to move forward while I am living more like the past and I hope something I have shared will be something that will encourage you today. Grandma Donna
