sometimes you have to get your knees muddy to get the right shot

bacon & eggs decided to go for a little sail today.

they were rather surprised to see a couple of mermaids lurking in the shallows.

we've had a lot of rain of late, but we've never seen mermaids in a cornfield before!

lessons learned:

1.) sometimes you have to be willing to get a bit muddy if you want just the right angle.

2.) a grown woman crouching in a muddy cornfield, photographing lego is totally normal behavior.

despite what those people driving by may have thought.

and who cares what they thought.

that little lego canoe isn't particularly seaworthy.

luckily, i was able to find some shallow puddles.

getting muddy is fun.

the mud will wash right off.

and eggs looks like she had a fine time!

why can't people just be normal?

on facebook i've subscribed to a few blogs and pages that are focused on sustainable living and/or foraging. while this means that i learn a lot of new things and get a lot of new ideas, it also means that occasionally, i stumble across things that make me throw up a little bit in my mouth.

because what is up with the sustainable living people? i feel like there are two extremes - either those who homeschool for christ or snotty hipster urbanists. i feel a bit like those of us who are more or less normal end up squeezed out. not to mention that i find myself feeling hesitant to identify myself as someone who is attempting to live more sustainably by foraging and gardening and making my own stuff because i'm neither gaga for god, nor do i have a hipster bone in my body (unless you count the tiny tattoo on my left second toe).

i know that there are a lot of normal people out there who are trying to live more sustainably (and i share a blog or two with a number of them) - whether this means seeking alternative energy sources or consuming less or making pesto from backyard weeds or starting a CSA of your own or buying appliance repair parts and fixing it themselves instead of buying new appliances, or making gifts instead of buying them - but i would like to hear more from them.

i guess it's like politics - it seems like the lunatics are the most visible.

and because of that, we get lists of things people don't spend their money on that include newspapers - on the grounds that they don't have the time to use the coupons anyway. no mention of the news at all in the reason - as if newspapers are about coupons (which may explain the state of the newspaper industry in the US). and then there was the frightening commenter who mentioned that she didn't spend money on toilet paper because at her house they used the family cloth. (singular.)

the fact that people like this are homeschooling their children deeply frightens me.

(by the way, i am intentionally not linking to these blogs, as i don't want to be responsible for sending visitors their way, but if you email me, i'll be happy to tell you where to look.)

i think living more sustainably and consuming less is a process. and it's hard work. i go up and down and i still crave far too many things (shiny electronics and chanel nail polish come to mind). but i'm working on it. and i'd love to read about others who are working on it who aren't doing it for jesus or to be the next unabomber or to be a hipster snob. i think the planet needs all of us to be thinking more sustainably. but it's pretty off-putting if i have to share used toilet paper with my family...