The Anyway Project

The Anyway Project can be found at The Chatelaine's Keys, another post here. It is a more towards greater resilience.

Domestic Infrastructure - these are the realities of home life, including making your home work better with less, getting organized, dealing with domestic life, etc…

Dealing with domestic life. Hmm. I don't know if I dealt with it, or it dealt with me. The car incident, despite being really calm, I must have upset my husband. As I said, he felt the need to explain how the car brought about a huge bill. Thankfully half of it is paid for, which we kept for the bill, so not sure exactly why we are upset really once I said that just then.

Anyway the upshot is that I got upset. I usually haven't been sleeping, but it is crying or anything like that added to it that makes things hard. It brings upon things like not being able to cope with light, noise, stuff like that.

After reading Ember's post on love though I found myself nodding. It all helps calm down again doesn't it?

Household Economy: Financial goals, making ends meet, saving, barter etc…

Anyway that was Wednesday night. My husband was asleep, it was a thought I had that made me cry. Thursday was payday. By Friday I had paid the essential bills, had the shopping list done, menu done, etc. etc. but I got tough. Paid the car bill, and said to my daughter no excursions. Why? Our domestic life is very much affected by our work, and location, which is essentially the same thing. We have to life by the life standards of others as they affect what we have to do too. My money plan has been revised probably four times, I don't know, but in the end I got beaten accidently as my daughter needed a script filled. But it was nearly there. I ordered hampers at the start of the year not knowing why I needed them, but they are always handy this time of the year. I know on Monday I will have some frozen food in the freezer, and later on in the week, more. I have ordered one for next year, but need to work out which ones I have already started paying for and order another. By ordering it this week, I can tell this time next year what I want to see in my hamper going on what is happening around us now.

Resource Consumption : in which we use less of stuff, and strive to live in a way that has an actual future.

Well, during the budget rethink which is to make sure my bills are paid in the following month, clothes became an issue. I had already picked out some clothes that matched what my youngest had to order online to save going shopping again. Last time she was out of school and only came home with one pair of shoes. However, I have since tried on her togs, and really they still fit. Got one dress new from ebay for Christmas and that is it. Cringed when she came out of school with her sports clothes on, but really they were not so bad. This time of year is horrible for wanting new things isn't it? My older daughter has a new job, so she can buy the swimmers and shorts that she wanted.

I participated in a discussion about clothes here.

Cottage Industry and Subsistence:: The things we do that prevent us from needing to buy things, and the things we produce that go out into the world and provide for others. Not everyone will do both, but it is worth encouraging.

I think being realistic about the budget helps. I am not sure what finally made me snap. I think you have to get determined.

Family and Community: Pretty much what it sounds like. How do we enable those to take the place of collapsing infrastructure?

I expect this year we will be going to a gym awards night, and a Christmas concert, I mean this rest of the school year. Because of the difficulties with work this time of year, others take time off, work part time, go away early, which leaves the full time ones which are few very overburdened. My husband says he is given time for this so we work around it. However, it is not a time for me to feel overly outgoing. I don't feel like I need to wear sunglasses today though.

Outside Work: Finding a balance, doing good work, serving the larger community as much as we can, within our need to make a living.

Outside work we have discussed. My husband says that he is not prepared to talk to his boss about this. His workmate has been. So last night for example my husband was at work until midnight preparing work to cover for the fact he is going to a conference next week. Tomorrow he has to work to cover this too. I don't mind, it is coming from our painting day, but my daughter helped out today and they got the room finished.

Time and Happiness: Those things without which there’s really no point.

I have five more novels, rather six to read. I find this is comforting. I also am enjoying just going really slow. I will feel a lot happier once I have been to the dentist, yet again. I am avoiding crinkle cut chips atm, torture. Lots of money in driving there.

I found this about the project:

My friend Pat Meadows, a very, very smart woman, has a wonderful idea she calls “The Theory of Anyway.” What it entails is this – she argues that 95% of what is needed to resolve the coming crises in energy depletion, or climate change, or most other global crises are the same sort of efforts. When in doubt about how to change, we should change our lives to reflect what we should be doing “Anyway.” Living more simply, more frugally, using less, leaving reserves for others, reconnecting with our food and our community, these are things we should be doing because they are the right thing to do on many levels. That they also have the potential to save our lives is merely a side benefit (a big one, though).

This is, I think, a deeply powerful way of thinking because it is a deeply moral way of thinking – we would like to think of ourselves as moral people, but we tend to think of moral questions as the obvious ones “should I steal or pay?” “Should I hit or talk?” But the real and most essential moral questions of our lives are the questions we rarely ask of the things we do every day, “Should I eat this?” “Where should I live and how?” “What should I wear?” “How should I keep warm/cool?” We think of these questions as foregone conclusions – I should keep warm X way because that’s the kind of furnace I have, or I should eat this because that’s what’s in the grocery store. Pat’s Theory of Anyway turns this around, and points out that what we do, the way we live, must pass ethical muster first – we must always ask the question “Is this contributing to the repair of the world, or its destruction.”

I should probably refrain from commenting like I did about the book Radical Homemaker. I am reminded about the post Ember wrote called Plain Peace. I feel I have said too much about what is going on in my life, but you are probably wondering why I went quiet. Blogging seems such a therapeutic thing to do though, as long as I feel I am not upsetting my blogging friends.

BTW, my online friend shared a link to an intelligence test, which is for research so it is a proper test, you just need a password. I am wondering if you score well, if it makes you more able to sort out complex issues in life or not, like working out how to save money and juggle things. A lot of the test is process of elimination, or maybe that is just me. See what you think. It pays to read the instructions well.