Where is everyone from?

Erica - posted on 09/12/2012

I'm originally from Michigan but living in Eastern NC. We're sorta cruncy. There's a large natural community in Raleigh but we're about an hour away. I wish I could find more like minded people around.

Michelle - posted on 05/31/2011

My husband, my son and I are currently living in Leominster MA!!! I hate to say it but I have been in MA my whole life! Don't love it, Don't hate it but we have so much family around that we just can't leave!
We have chosen not to vaccinate at all and we live a pretty healthy crunchy life! We eat all natural or organic, we have healthy products in our home with no harsh chemicals, we did cloth diaper our son and we try to educate others on the importance of healthy living as well! I unfortunately do not have a whole lot of support in that aspect for my family!!! :(
Glad to find a group where I can let it all out! :)

Michal - posted on 02/27/2010

Hello Mammas!

I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Michal, I'm 36 years old and I'm what some may call a crunchy granola type mamma. lol

I'm a work at home mom of 2 beautiful and amazing boys (ages 5.5 and 4). Obviously being granola mom and all I homebirthed unhindered and breastfed well beyond the recommended 6 months. :)

A few of my passions are caring for my kids, home cooking (especially Italian and mediterrenian style), baking, researching/studying traditional medicine and working on our family business (http://www.mammamichal.com).
:)

If there's anyone here from Phoenix, Arizona, I'd love to hear about any extra curricular activities for preschoolers and kindergarten age children here. I'm always looking for those to broaden my children's horizons. I'm especially looking for arts, sports and science classes right now. But if you know of anything else, please let me know!


I'm looking forward to getting to know y'all and make new friends!

Michal

Group owner of Natural Cures on cafe mom

Maggie - posted on 11/19/2009

I have been in love with the same man for 12 years and we have 3 children. We also live in a town of about 500. We have always tried to live a simple fullfilling life and teach our children to be productive community members. My oldest has spearheaded many community projects and she is only 10! I am considered a hippy as well my love has always been a closet hippy! He has conservative views yet believes the best way to feed our kids is organic and would love to live off the grid! Maybe we'll have that life in the future!

Andrea - posted on 08/29/2009

Hello everyone! My name is Andrea and I'm down here in SW Florida. I'm 25, been married to my husband, Kevin, for 5 years now, and we have a beautiful 2 1/2 year old daughter, Aiyana, plus 1 on the way in about 7 months! I was born and raised down here, but Kevin was born in Charleston, SC and lived some of his childhood in SW Indiana, near Bloomington. I've been 'crunchy' since my teenage years, although if you ask my mom I was always like this! I work full-time, but since it's for my family's business I'm able to bring my daughter to work everyday (she's been there since she was 2 weeks old). My husband just started a new job that he loves (thank goodness) and he's also going to school online full time to get his business degree. We have a few friends in the area that think like us, so that's good, but it's definitely not a good area to live in if you want a 'simple life' like I do!

Tina - posted on 08/20/2009

Hey there you lovely mamas!! My name is Tina. I'm 27 and have two little ones. My daughter will be 2 Saturday and my son is almost 8 months! They definitely keep me on my toes! We live in Uniontown, Ohio. My hubby works full time, goes to Grad school full time and is a TA in Justice Studies. I'm a stay at home mommy and do work from home part time, helping the hubs supplement our income. Since January, we have changed our whole home over to be toxin free and using only natural products! This has been extremely important to us! Number one we needed to have natural products b/c my husband (since going to Iraq, being exposed to toxins and having 2 strokes at age 24) goes into anaphylactic shock using grocery store brand cleaners. Also, we wanted a safer home for our children knowing that the average household contains 62 toxic chemicals just from house hold cleaners! (if you are interested in hearing how to make your home healthier & safer and not spending an arm and a leg at the health food store, please contact me!) tinakeller@mac.com I look forward to getting on here more often and getting some support, I haven't been on in awhile! Happy day to you all!

Nikki - posted on 05/12/2009

Hey Angela! Thanks for replying. Sorry it took me a while to check this. I have been to Happybottoms and it is a neat store, just so expensive. Do you know of any play groups or anything that sort of guide a new mom into these sort of things?

Rabaab - posted on 05/07/2009

Hi,, well i grew up in UK, and then moved to Switzerland when i got married. Mohammad my husband works in a company here.. I have two children. My eldest is 5 year old girl and my youngest is a 2 year old boy...

Lori - posted on 04/05/2009

Okay i've read a few blogs here and i see co-sleeping a lot  does that mean when the kid piles in with mom and dad because I've been doing that with my kids until they are at least four, I did not know that was a crunchy thing, I just thought it was the best way to have uninterrupted sleep and not have to deal with boogieman issues. MY third son had a thermodysregulation problem and alway got hypothermic at night thats how it started. I breast fed so it was way more convenient.  I have five kids and we live in rural wisconsin so gardening and composting and field run livestock is pretty well accepted I will not do vegan. I like the smell of roasting meat tooo much sorry. I shop at thrift stores, health food stores and the local menonite farmers market. I also did not think of that as crunchy, Just cheap. I rarely wander down the paper products Isle and  cloth diapered for my first two kids but then got the compostable ones when i got a job. Once upon a time a long time ago I was diagnosed with multiple chemical sensitivity disorder but I found you can Live green and avoid most allergens. my immune system has rebooted and i can walk down the cleaning products isle but I don't anymore cause I like my vinegar and baking soda and essential oils better. By the way all yuou people out there with a sulfa drug allergy most cleaning products are full of sodium lauryl sulfate and most grocerystore fruit is gassed with sulferdioxide to prevent mold. KNowing this has allowed me to clear up a lot of rashes and respiratory symptoms. sulfur is after all sulfur duh. I finally had a kind Dr enlighten me so I'm passing it on.

Lori - posted on 04/05/2009

Hi I'm from wisconsin. born crunchy and raised crunchy by a very ahead of her time mommy. she grew  up during the depression and couldn't stand to throw anything away everything got turned into rugs and quilts and compost. she was an organic gardener and lots of other stuff like that I remember when I was 10 or so hearing her rant about flouridation didn't trust flouride recommended by the ADA you know those guys bread is buttered by drilling and filling teeth you know. I think she might have been right because I only ever had one cavity and i got that in the first two year of my marriage when I succumbed to my husbands crest toothpaste I'm 43 and almost old enough to be a hippie first generation. now I hear all the new greenies complaining about flouridation and I laugh.

Dawn - posted on 03/28/2009

I am from Michigan, some "tree huggers" around but not too many in my area. I have a 14 year old son, 6 and 2 year old daughter and a 8 month old son. Most of my friends have a little crunch to them but not full fledge granola nut like me.

Dawn - posted on 03/28/2009

I am from Michigan, some "tree huggers" around but not too many in my area. I have a 14 year old son, 6 and 2 year old daughter and a 8 month old son. Most of my friends have a little crunch to them but not full fledge granola nut like me.

Johnny - posted on 03/26/2009

Hello everyone! I'm Carol, married to Steve and we're just starting out in parenthood raising our 7 month old daughter Michaela. We live in Vancouver, Canada, and even though it's a pretty crunchy place out here, I still find I'm looking for other crunchy moms to relate to. My hubby comes from a super-crunchy background, but it takes a bit to figure it out here in the city. It's hard to raise chickens in a townhouse :) But we're learning to adapt our lifestyle to be more friendly to the environment, and we're committed cloth diapering, elimination communicating, organic/local food eating, extended breastfeeding, babywearing, co-sleeping, and APing parents. We do vax mostly to schedule, DH's family was anti-vax and that didn't work out so well in the long run :( So we've made the decision that the risks are worth taking. Otherwise, we're very into the whole crunchy thing, glad to meet you all!

Melissa - posted on 03/23/2009

hi ya'll. we're in austin. there's a balance here between way crunchy and sooo way not. festivals bring the friendlies out of the woodwork here, at least. it's good to see that there are so many of you mamaz out there!

Emily - posted on 03/23/2009

I'm from coastal North Carolina. I am not completely crunchy but I am close. My girls are 6 and 2 (this is an old picture!)

Candace - posted on 03/14/2009

Hello! My name is Candace, I am married to a wonderful man named Dylan, we have three children.  We live in a small little town just outside of Ottawa Ontario Canada!

Jane - posted on 03/14/2009

hi, my name is jane - i am scottish, my husband is joao - he is portugese, our daughter is ileyna and she is both but born in portugal. we live in England now so i hope you dont mind me joining in, you all seem to be from somewhere in diffrent parts of the USA. i dont think of ourselves as "crunchy" but we do try to do our best for the planet when possible especially when i think of our little princess having to grow up in it. i just hope we can teach her right from wrong - about as much as possible, whether it is the world, enviroment or people. i am hopeing i can learn even more from all of you that will make this a better world for our young hopefuls. talk soon xxx

Adriane - posted on 03/11/2009

Hey all,

I'm a mama of one 3 year old, Finnegan, and we (my partner too) live on an organic farm in Southern NH. We have a few cows (only one for milking) and chicken and more animals to come this year! Our area is mostly rural, though we live close enough to a "big" town, We grow as much food as we can (I just used up that last of our storage onions) and try to eat as locally as possible. So nice to find this group full of wonderful ideas and interesting mamas!

Carlee - posted on 02/24/2009

i'm a crunchy, tree hugging, co-op shopping, whole food eating, integrative/alternative medicine advocate from central montana :)

Kat - posted on 02/14/2009

Quoting Samantha:

Hi..I'm Sam from Vero Beach, FL.

Hey fellow Floridian! I'm right down in Melbourne!

Angela - posted on 02/05/2009

Hey Nikki! We're so close to you...my hubby and 6 1/2 month old son live in Brookside, in Kansas City. We co-sleep, baby wear ( I love my Ergo and Moby!), cloth diaper, breastfeed, and attachment parent, and I'm always interested in learning more about living an eco-friendly life. There's a great green baby store in downtown Lee's Summit you should check out called Happybottomus. It opened last summer, and the owner Brooke and her husband have lots of great natural parenting info to share. On the store's website, they're lots of great articles too!

Nikki - posted on 01/31/2009

I am from Raymore, MO (near KC).  I am just starting to learn more about natural living, organics, and herbal remmidies.  I am sort of lost as to what to do next to change my lifestyle.  If anyone can help that would be nuch appreciated.

Jenny - posted on 01/27/2009

Hi!  My name is Jenny and I just recently moved to the Des Moines, IA area.  I had been previously been living in Madison, WI which is a fairly crunchy and eco-friendly community.  I am the mother to 3 kids--12yo girl, 11yo son and a 2yo girl.  We co-sleep, baby wear, select/delay vax, cloth diaper, breastfeed and attachment parent.   I've joined a local holistic and an AP parent group here and am always looking for new ways to get our family back to basics.  I'm looking forward to starting our garden, compost pile, etc. in our new house and even considering getting a couple of chickens (if city ordinace allows it).  Luckily my husband is ok with it as his parents are very crunchy (they don't quite realize it) so he was raised that way.

Rachel - posted on 01/13/2009

My husband and I are originally from upstate NY (syracuse area) and now we live in central CT (hartford area). I am probably tthe crunchiest mom of all our friends because we cloth diaper, breastfeed, babywear, etc. Luckily, we have some good stores (trader joe's, whole foods, a holistic parenting store) that support our efforts.

Ellie - posted on 01/03/2009

Hey I'm Ellie. I have two boys 4 months and almost 3. We are in Alberta Canada!

Jennifer - posted on 01/03/2009

Hello everyone, I am Jen..35..I live in Upstate NY (near Troy,NY) I am originally from Essex/Union County, NJ. I am the mother of 2 boys 11 and 9 who are extremely involved in travel sports. They live with my ex husband and mother. I do not know anyone around here and am hoping to meet new people in my area..

User - posted on 01/02/2009

Hi! I'm Nancy, mom to Henry (4) and Ruth (15 months). We live in western Oregon, where some level of "crunchiness" is pretty much the norm, thank goodness.



About the vaccinations - we stopped vaccinating our son after he had a reaction to dTap and/or Hib at 4 months. He was paralyzed from the neck down for 25 hours. It was the most terrifying experience of my life. The only VPD I worry about is tetanus (while rare, it is usually fatal), so I do plan to have the kids vaccinated for that when they are old enough to have the separate shot, I think that's around 6 years old. The whole issue makes my head spin sometimes... It's hard to know what is the right thing to do.

Sue - posted on 12/23/2008

hi all! My name is Sue and I am also from Canada. I live on the Sunshine Coast just outside of Vancouver BC.I am a crunchy mama to 3 crunchy kiddos. I am lucky to be pretty surrounded by other like minded people but support is great in all forms.

Stasia - posted on 12/11/2008

I guess I am the only canadian so far. I do not live in an igloo because there isn't snow here, but I do like to live naturally and I am on Vancouver Island off the west coast of canada. There are a LOT of "crunchy" people here which is nice it makes it easier to shop eat and live this way

Samantha - posted on 12/10/2008

Hi..I'm Sam from Vero Beach, FL. I moved here 10 years ago from Seattle. I definitely miss the great NW. Florida has it's perks too. I have 1 awesome 22 month DS named Enzo. WE cosleep, BF, CD, eat well, and delay vax. Iteach school. Good to meet all of you!!

User - posted on 11/24/2008

Hi, I a Emilee and I am from NW Florida, home of some of the most beautiful beaches in the world! And do you know, I really can't stand the beach! HAHAHA!

I only recently became aware of being environmentally conscious after having my first child. And I am just slowly working it into our lifestyle so that we have time to adjust and learn to evolve and change. I wish I could just turn everything upside down and start all over but that's just not so easy for us. I'm really really trying to get things in order so that I can start an environmentally friendly/all natural, family store, soon. But I am having a hard time getting my life organized and ready for it. And now we are expecting baby #2. So I am either going to have to buckle down and get busy to have this ready to go before baby 2, or It's going to be a while.

But also like many of you, I think it's hard to find like minded people in my area, but it's getting better and there are alot of people moving here from other areas that are much more "crunchy" than many of the lifelong residents of this area. It's sometimes a real snobby town, but other times very laid back and friendly. just depends on when and where you are. anyway, it's great to find other like minded mamas, no matter the location! I look forward to getting and giving lots of great advice/information and making new friends.

Emily - posted on 11/24/2008

I agree with the vaccine stuff. My FIL is anti-vax and I remember the first time he mentioned that. I have a lot of respect for my FIL and had no idea respectable people would be opposed to vaccines. When DD#1 was born, DH and I hadn't completely agreed on the vax issue, so we agreed not to give her any shots until we knew for sure. She's now 3 1/2 and still hasn't had any. Shortly after DD#3 was born, I finally got around to researching vaccines and ironically "The Vaccine Book" by Dr. Bob Sears, led me to feel confident in not vaccinating our children. Instead, I'm insisting on breastfeeding at least 2 years to boost their immune systems, and not sending them to day-care (I'm a SAHM anyway, so that wasn't really a big deal). We're also planning to homeschool until the girls are at least 8, so that should help with the majority of the childhood diseases. We may consider MMR (one at a time), Varicella and similar vaccines when our girls start puberty, after checking their titers.

We determined that our children were at a lower than average risk of getting most of the diseases, and at an even lower risk of complications from those diseases. So the risk of complications from the vaccine itself is higher than the risk of complications from disease. Plus, even if our girls do get sick and end up with complications, I'd rather know it was something I might have prevented, rather than something I may have caused. Also, if they do get a disease and end up with complications, there's still no guarantee that the vaccine would have prevented that.

Rebekah - posted on 11/24/2008

Hi Keriann. I can relate to your frustrations about small town living. We live in rural Illinois. Although there are many who share like minded opinions in our town and we are friends with many of them..they are young and single and childless. Or they share many of the same ideas but there is a break when it comes to parenting. We are homeschoolers/unschoolers, not very religious...well really not religious at all, vegetarians, cosleepers, breastfeeders, organic gardeners and grassroots recyclers. I believe in attachment parenting and NVC. We too struggle with the "hippie" comments at time and i find that the term is not always applied lovingly.



About the vacs..my oldest was completely vaccinated at the recommended schedule and we delayed the MMR until he was 2 and seriously a month after we were experiencing subtle problems that just kept getting more pronounced..now he is seeing an OT and speech pathologist and in the process of being diagnosed...possibly SPD or PDD..on the "spectrum". We were vaccinating our baby on a delayed schedule and refusing some..polio and rotavirus and hep for instance when the problems with my oldest was intensifying. The OT practically begged me to stop vac-ing my youngest..so we are not going for anymore. It is a hard choice but if anyone here can really get their mind around the concept, i would suggest not vaccinating your children any further. Theres no way to insure that they won't have the problems that my son and hundreds just like him have. I honestly believe that his issues would be very worse if he was not exclusively breastfed. Glad to "meet" you Keriann and others who have responded to this thread. My boys are 5 and 16 months.

Emily - posted on 11/21/2008

Hey all! I'm Emily, married to Dave for 5 1/2 years, momma to three girls... 3 1/2 down to 11 months. I'm from Oregon (Portland area) and DH is from Iowa (quad cities area), but we're currently living in Utah while DH finishes grad school... then we're hoping to get back to Oregon.

I actually have a ton of "crunchy" friends in the area. When I was about 8 months pregnant with #2, I happened to mention to a girl at the park that I wanted to nurse my first again... since our first two are only 12 months apart. I mentioned it to her because I knew she was nursing her then 16 month old. She directed me to La Leche League where I met several like minded moms, and became one of my best friends for a while and helped me when I started into cloth diapering. We've since drifted a bit because of our differing political beliefs, but she's still a great support for cloth diapering, extended breastfeeding (that 16 month old is now almost 4 and still nursing. :) ), co-sleeping and babywearing.

I think it's important to be comfortable with our "crunchy" decisions... especially since most of us are practicing them in spite of what others have said, because of our own research. I've found that I've gained a lot of respect from other non-crunchy moms because I'm confident in my decisions but not overbearing about theirs. Several moms have asked for more information on babywearing for example, because they see how comfortable my kids look while I'm wearing them, and how easily I manage three toddlers at once.

I still do get a lot of criticism and many moms (usually first time moms) just tell me that what I'm doing is great but would never work for them because they don't have enough time for it (did I mention I have THREE... the oldest and youngest of which are only 31 months apart!?).

Anyway, it's nice to have communities like this to remind us that we're not the only ones. :)

Mary - posted on 11/20/2008

Hello, My name is Mary and myself, my husband, and our 3.5 year old son Brody live in Asheville, NC. We moved here about one year ago form Burlington, VT. I am originally from the Albany area of NY, and Chris (the hubby) is from Holyoke, Mass. I've also lived in Colorado and California. I love checking out new places, I guess! Glad to find some like minded mama's here! Looking forward to chatting with you all!

Keri - posted on 11/16/2008

We live in southern Maine, there are other like- minded mom's here, but I am having a hard time finding them. Amanda, where in NY do you live? My husband grew up in Saranac Lake, is that near you?

Amanda - posted on 11/15/2008

Hi everybody! We live in a little town in northern NY state (closer to Canada than anywhere else). We are toying with a move to the Twin Cities area though. Keriann, how far are you from St Paul?

Melissa - posted on 11/15/2008

Hi Keriann,

We live in Burrillville, but I worked at Brown (providence) and went to Bryant (Smithfield). My husband and I met in Watertown, MA where Iived for nearly 10 years. I love RI, too...the hippy/crunchy mamas are more in the providence area, whereas we are in the sticks...its nice to have groups like this to connect with!!

Keriann - posted on 11/15/2008

Hi Melissa! Where in Rhode Island are you? I grew up in Mass and spent alot of time in Providence because my cousin lived there. I absolutely love that city. I find it to be a very progressive, artsy community which is something I'm totally missing here in MN. In fact, my husband's company has an office in Newport and we've been hoping a position opens up for him there so we can move back to the east coast.

Keriann - posted on 11/15/2008

Bethany...our radio buddy is Jim Brown. I know he's the program director for AM 1350 KRNT but I'm not sure if he's actually on air anymore. My husband was just in Des Moines a couple weeks ago visiting him and his wife (who also works in sales for the same radio group) and mentioned that he wants to bring me to Des Moines for a visit someday soon. I'll have to check in with you when we do that to get an idea of some fun "crunchy" things to do.

Melissa - posted on 11/14/2008

Hi there

we are from Rhode Island....glad to join this group!

Bethany - posted on 11/14/2008

Oh yeah, Keriann, what's the name of this radio guy you know?

Bethany - posted on 11/14/2008

I don't have many tree-huggers around me, but I do feel well supported. My mom and I are pretty close and she has recently become more environmentally "aware" so that helps a ton. There are also several other women in my church who are very naturally minded and use homeopathic remedies, shop organic, etc. One of my friends who I would definitely consider a "tree-hugger" (in every sense of the word!) moved to Costa Rica to start a ranch for troubled horses and at-risk youth, so that contact has diminished as of late. We still chat over facebook and email occasionally, but I kind of miss the steady stream of knowledge. Well, not entirely but a little. :) I love her dearly, but she is very VERY strong-willed and sometimes hard to deal with. God bless her though! Anywho, I love Des Moines and am pretty pleased with the changes I've been seeing lately on the more positive side!

Bethany - posted on 11/14/2008

Hey there Kathy. We also have a 4-month old and are using the selective vaccination schedule provided by Dr. Robert Sears (The Vaccine Book). We are only allowing 2 vaccines a month for the first 15 months (Rotavirus & DTaP one month and Pc & HIB the next until she has received the full administration). She doesn't seem to react poorly to the Pc or HIB, but DOES have a hard time with the Rotavirus/DTaP. We're not sure which one is causing the problem or if it's a combination of both but she will be getting her last round of these next month so we won't be able to narrow it down. Oh well, I guess. Anyway, she gets really sleepy at first and usually takes a good 2 hour nap (long for her) after those, but then she's wide awake and unusually cranky/fussy the rest of the day. Rarely does she nap for the rest of the day. Also, she tends to maintain the increased level of fussiness/crankiness for up to 10 days after. The first time was the absolute worst (I think that had to do with leg soreness to from the Tetanus too), and the rough period shortened slightly the second time by a couple days. Basically, all you can do is give her extra comfort during that time! I tend to keep her with me in close personal contact (Moby wrap, skin to skin, etc.) more while she's dealing with all that. Don't know what else to do! Good luck!

Kathy - posted on 11/14/2008

Hey everyone! Kathy here in Southwest Va. a VERY rural area - and yes, we are the crazy liberals in town! QUESTION: I just went ahead and had my 4-month-old vax'd and he's been fussy and not sleeping well for 48 hours. Should i be concerned? Anyone doing the "alternative vax schedule" or have some book recommendations?

Keriann - posted on 11/12/2008

Hi Bethany. I live in Southern Minnesota but my husband travels to Des Moines alot for work. We also have some really great friends that live there....one of them is actually a radio personality in Des Moines but I'm not sure what station he's on. I wouldn't consider our friends "crunchy" at all...do you have a decent community of tree-hugging friends near you? I've heard Des Moines is a pretty chill city.

Bethany - posted on 11/12/2008

Hey! I'm in Des Moines, IA and excited to learn more! Can't say my fam is 100% "crunchy" but we're making an effort! Anyone else from this area? I saw a couple of you are also from the Midwest...

Michelle - posted on 11/09/2008

I'm in South Eastern Wisconsin!

Stephanie - posted on 11/06/2008

Hi! I have 5 children and have been on the natural, simple lifestyle for a while now. I recently moved home to ft. worth, Texas after living in Vermont and then Seattle. Talk about culture shock. I cloth diaper, co'sleep, do not vaccinate, eat whole foods, and sometimes you need a lot of support. So, I'm thankful to find this group. Look forward to sharing ideas.....

Keriann - posted on 11/02/2008

I have a friend who lives in Seattle who is always telling me how wonderful the community is there. Very open and accepting to all types of lifestyles. That is definitely not the case around here...but we're making it work. I like to think I'm educating my more narrow minded friends in the ways of earth friendly living. But it's tough sometimes when you're doing it by yourself. Glad to have found the crunchy mamas. :o)