About Me
An American food and travel writer, a reformed shopper, now living a rural, "slow" non-consumerism life in the south of France with her French husband and daughter. Poorer than dirt, but living like kings from the riches of the earth.

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What is A Slow Year?
August 2007-August 2008 we did not purchase anything. Only food and that was severely limited to the farmers markets and the organic co-op store. This year, we are doing an all-out No Shopping School Year: September 1st thru June 15th, we will not buy anything, not even food. We will use what abundance we have: what we preserved this summer, our garden, foraging, bartering, trading, living off what mother nature gives us.

Why am I doing this?
I embarked on this slow life after seeing the waste from two peoples lives cut short. My husband's family halved in one month and we were left to sort through their closets, sell the car, and shake our heads at the material “stuff” that lived on longer than his grandmother’s precious words and his father's new lease on life as a first time grandfather.

I realized further that we needed to do some soul searching and rid ourselves of material obligations. In fact, now after a successful year of not shopping, we will probably make it part of our lives instead of just a stunt year. This year we will cut out food shopping as well and rely on foraging, what organic food we have in the freezer, fishing, our CSA basket and what we can grow in containers on our small patio.

I am having fun with it, discovering so much about myself and our planet along the way and hopefully inspiring my close circle of friends and readers to do the same. We are happier, more content with what we have and cherish each other and what nature give us without the constraints of money in our lives.

Also, I feel more grounded and in touch with "mamie" who lived through some tough times and I am discovering her world and past generations traditions along the way. I feel very blessed to have stumbled upon this through the slow year.


Photos
www.flickr.com
These Days in French Life's photos More of These Days in French Life's photos

A Slow Year Posts
40 ways to start a Slow Life
A Slow Year Flickr
My Non-Consummation Proclamation
Cat Food
Grocery List
What I Can Do
Re-Valuation sans Money
Saturday Links
Wind Power
On The Road
Time of the Month
No Toilet Paper!
Tute: Baby Legwarmers
Tute: Baby Slippers
Tute: Baby Cloth Diapers
Where to Start a Slow Year
Is that really Organic?
Laundry Soap
Homemade Toothpaste
No Poo (hair washing)
Why Am I Doing A Slow Year?
Why does everything break?
For our Health
We dont use toilet paper

Kiva - loans that change lives

Saturday, July 15, 2006
wow, its weekend cat blogging already...
For the most part my days seem to move in slow motion... its stifling hot, africa hot and we lay around in front of fans and plan our futures, talk about the baby, baby room, and what furniture Benji is going to build for that (yes, he is going to make the changing table/dressor with an attached tower for poopy diapers next to it), drawing up plans and tossing the notebook to the side of the bed. The lap top now lives under our bed and I cover the shining green power light at night with a rug --its hard enough to sleep in this heat and my bloated gassy state--let alone a shining beacon under the bed.

Lucky has taken to sleeping under the guest bed on the cool white ceramic tiles for most of the day, we cant get him to join us at the beach where we go at 5pm everyday for our dip in the sea. Igor loves it! (ps that is what I have named my feotus since he is incharge of getting the brain and putting together Frankenstein) Anyway, my body loves floating in the sea, the embryonic fluids all around me, mother earth supporting me while I support a miracle inside of me in the same way.

Lucky would rather just be in a box. Oblivious to his future, no plans for him, no carpentry and no dips in the sea. meeeow! give me a steak tartar sandwich he says.

PS For the round up see ChefSarahjane and the rest of the cat around the globe!

  posted at Saturday, July 15, 2006
  5 comments



5 Comments:
At July 15, 2006 1:54 PM, Blogger Lisa said...

Lucky is too cute! Love the other photo, too, of him with you on the bed. He's lovey.

 
At July 15, 2006 3:30 PM, Blogger misschrisc said...

Jeez this carpenter-type husband of yours makes me jealous. Heck when Baby S was born I had to dig out my own changing table AND assemble it all by myself. Is he available for hire because I'm going to start looking for my own personal handyman.

I hope your rest is going well!

 
At July 16, 2006 8:45 PM, Blogger SweetSarahJ said...

I love Lucky's patch of white fur, He/she looks so cute peeking out from under the bed. Check out my round-up at http://chefsarahjane.blogspot.com/

 
At July 16, 2006 11:29 PM, Blogger Roger said...

Sounds claustrophobic! Bring on the Mistral. Found you on Linda's site. Well done.

My weblog is on www.go-provence.com

 
At July 16, 2006 11:38 PM, Blogger Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Lucky is a gorgeous black kitty with wonderful bat-like ears! Very cute...

 

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