Frustration

Here we are again.....RAIN. I know in the long run rain is good. But this is the first year that I have looked forward to doing something in my yard, like a garden, and I feel frustrated that the weather is not cooperating. It rained a flood last Sunday, then turned cold all week so I really couldn't do anything in the yard. Yesterday was nice, but I had lots of laundry, errands, cleaning to catch up on after working all week, and now today it is raining again and a possibility of 1 to 2 inches of snow tonight and tomorrow. I realize that in this part of the country you really can't plant much of anything until the end of April, beginning of May, but usually the temperature is about 25 degress warmer than what it has been. If we had normal temperatures I could at least get in the yard and get things ready but I'm just not prepared to work in the yard when it's 35 degrees, nope...nope...nope.

I've discussed my saving and reusing bread bags, plastic frozen food bags, etc. Now I have a large garbage bag full of them and I can't reuse them fast enough. I've been using them to pick up after my dog or to put some wet garbage in instead of throwing it in the house garbage can or even to use as extra freezer bags. But that's not enough, I'm still overrun with them.

I guess the only solution to that is to not buy so many products that come in plastic bags. That may be easier said than done. Of course one solution is to buy more fresh foods and to use my own cloth bags. You know, when I started this "quest" to live more sustainably I knew it wouldn't always be easy or convenient, but I didn't realize just how difficult and inconvenient it can sometimes be. It's so easy to fall back on old habits without even thinking. Just the other day I stopped at the store to get a couple of things and as I walked out of the store, I realized I had put two items in a plastic bag without even thinking about it. I had forgotten my reusable bag, but I could have put the two, small items in my coat pocket, but out of habit I threw them in a plastic bag and walked out.

You might not think of it as a struggle, but it is, to change the way you live your life when you've lived another way for so long. But I plan on staying the course because it is something that I believe in and the more I read and learn about being sustainable and self sufficient, the more I want to succeed. It's just not always going to be easy. But that's OK, I'm in it for the long haul.

Kathy