Plastic in the House and other Ramblings...

Despite a conscious effort on my part for the past 3years we still have a lot of plastic/commercial toys in the house.  Some of the toys have been with us for almost 20years Lego for instance, others are new to RV and then passed down to Fonzy {and then added to} Disney Cars is one.  Others are completely new to the house...Playmobil

I have never in my entire life bought a Barbie doll for the girls {Im sure I haven't!} or a Bratz doll and have an aversion to them.  I packed the last of these dolls away last year to the loft in the hope to boot sale them this year...but Loopy has been asking about them recently.

We have a large collection of toy cars, some from their papa, a few new ones but 90% are 2nd hand - which in my messed up way makes them greener therefore ok!

We also have a large collection of dolls, baby dolls in plastic.  All are loved and some belonged to Abba, dressed {once again 2nd hand}in baby things.

We've reduced the number of plastic storage boxes to a minimum...room to improve still but it grates on me to get rid of decent storage just because it's plastic and it doesn't seem green to do so, just pointless.  {I'll boot sale a few more storage boxes this year send them onto new homes not landfill}

It is hard to expect my whole family to embrace what is in fact my ideal, not theirs.  Old habits die hard, what I found acceptable for the older children is less so for the younger ones, but how do I explain that to the older ones?  {at the moment I reason that I've learnt better/different ways}

I think in the world I live in, the home we live in, we will always have to compromise.  The house is small, oh so small for 8 of us to live in.  We will have the need for Ikea storage for some time yet, we will never be off grid or self sufficient, that's my dream not my families.

But I am now happy this way, happy in my skin. 

I've looked at many inspirational blogs, ooohed at the photo's, marveled at their creativity, been green with envy at their ability to grow their own food and marveled again at the happy home schooled children sitting politely around the table eating their home made goodness!!

My family will never be that family and do you know what?...that's just fine with me...that works for them and I LOVE to read it and see it on their blog but it's just not us.

Once again I ramble but the idea of this little blog is to be a record of where we are, to chart the family growth, both physically and emotionally.  Where I am as a mama and in years to come to look back on and chuckle at how much I worried about trying to store the groceries in glass jars not plastic pots!