INSIDE OUT

Before getting married and having kids, I never would have guessed I would become the woman I am today. The depth of love I have for those within my house has melted any layers of entitlement I ever felt I owned.

Ignorance is not bliss. I've realized this after having children. The desire to not want to research or know or throw my hands in the air, feeling that "we're all gonna die some day anyway" mentality has lost its flavor with me a long time ago.

With the fragile life of three children and the health of my husband in my own hands, I no longer wait until I'm told to add or eliminate the many toxins our passive government allows in our grocery stores and big box items. So, with the realization of a few more toxins in our household, "away went the couch"!

In one day, I had decided I no longer wanted our couch and love seat in our home and I sold it on Kijiji the very same night. We no longer have a couch to sit on. Shortly beforehand, I did the same thing with my daughter's off-gassing, foam mattress.

If I were rich, this whole house and everything in it would go through a major overhaul. But, I'm not. So, slowly but surely, we are removing many toxins from our house. We've been trying to think of creative ways to replace our couch. It's so nice to have one. But, why do we feel like we "need" one?

A recent article made me think quite a bit about whether one day, we will be able to snuggle on the same piece of furniture again while watching a movie.

Here's the article:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/08/there_are_no_ec.php

A few ideas from the article:
1. refurbishing an old, already much off-gassed couch.
2. Buying some cushions and going the "Zen" way (we've been thinking of this one for awhile now).
3. Buying/Making a wooden bench, attaching it to the wall and adding organic cushions.

Another thought was to move our movie screen into our bedroom and snuggle there with our family (we watch movies on our computer).

At any rate, we now only own chairs. They are by no means, non toxic. But, now that I'm enjoying sewing so much, I'm planning on covering over all of them with eco friendly material that will keep the toxins at bay! Especially the one I'm presently sitting on, er sinking in, with a hole torn out of the foam. *sigh*