About Fresh Air and Porridge
At our house, fresh air is consumed in large quantities, no matter the season. There’s nothing like it to clear your head, fill your lungs, and change your outlook. And we do love a hearty, steaming bowl of oatmeal – the kind with butter and real maple syrup…mmmm…
My name is Rebecca Dawson. I am a wife, mother, and blogging latecomer from coastal Massachusetts (read more about my journey here (link to “About Rebecca”). Fresh Air and Porridge came to life after ten years spent searching for simple, effective ways to provide my family with truly nourishing food, radiant well-being, and meaningful connections.
Generations ago, these were fixtures of everyday life, but contemporary culture has moved us farther and farther away from their sources. Today, much of our food is processed in some way – even the organic options. Our children spend more time in structured activities than imaginative play. And we have left behind many of the rich traditions from the social fabric of times gone by.
I’d like to share with you – in pictures, words, and video – how a modern, mainstream family can reap the many tangible benefits of a lifestyle that some would consider outdated, unconventional, or just plain weird. We’ve found ways to cultivate a vibrant, balanced life that honors both traditional wisdom and new discoveries. I hope that our experiences might inspire you to adopt some of these methods for your own family.
Read More…
- Tiny Nibbles or Big Helpings
- Building Your Community
- Just as important…
- Fresh Air and What?
- Let’s Be Honest Here…
- About Rebecca
Tiny Nibbles or Big Helpings
Think of Fresh Air and Porridge as menu of choices and options. When it comes to the techniques offered here, you can either jump in with both feet or take baby steps. Whatever you decide works best for you and the ones you love, the main courses include:
Where, why, and how to find and prepare truly nourishing foods (Link to Nourishing Food section) that are delicious and family-friendly.
Strategies, parenting techniques, and resources for cultivating radiant wellness (Link to Radiant Wellness section) and balance for everyone – babies, children in various stages of life, and yes, adults too!
Ways to establish meaningful connections (Link to Meaningful Connections section) to what really matters in life – your true self, nature, family, community, history, home, where you live, and more
It takes a certain amount of conviction and commitment to integrate these choices into your life. But, in my experience, the ends absolutely justify the means. I believe that you, and those around you, will notice positive changes when you implement the ideas shared here.
Building Your Community
Over the years, I have found that being part of a community of people who encourage and support each other is an essential element for success and satisfaction. In an effort to bring this experience to you, I’ve created the Fresh Air and Porridge Online Community. It’s a place to express yourself through writing, photos and video; to ask questions and give advice; and to feel connected to what others are doing as you move through each day. I hope you’ll also share your thoughts via comments on my blog posts. I can’t wait to hear about your adventures and ideas!
Just as important…
I also want Fresh Air and Porridge to be a place to celebrate the simple beauty, the quiet miracles, and the intrinsic value of the everyday experiences that often get lost in the crush of schedules, commitments, and to-do lists. An amazing sunset, a child’s sense of wonder, the striking grace of even the smallest creature – these moments are the wonders that make life worth living.
Fresh Air and What?
The phrase “Fresh Air and Porridge” comes from the public television series All Creatures Great and Small. Based on the books of James Herriot, these heartwarming stories chronicle his experiences as a veterinary surgeon in 1930’s rural England. I have seen every episode and love the way they celebrate the wisdom of traditional ways of life while acknowledging the value of modern innovations.
(P.S. If you’re a Netflix subscriber, or feel like signing up for their free 2-week trial, then you can watch the entire series online. It’s the English countryside and its inhabitants – human and otherwise – at their absolute best!)
Halfway into the series, a new veterinary surgeon arrives on the scene from Scotland, amazing everyone with his quick-mindedness, stamina, and joie de vivre. He and his girlfriend practically run circles around everyone else at every turn, and when they are asked about the secret behind such vitality, their matter-of-fact reply is, “Fresh air and porridge.”
Though this common sense answer, springing from their rural Scottish roots, seemed quaint and old-fashioned even for the 1930’s, something about it struck a chord with me. Among the many “silver bullet” solutions that are so readily available in today’s post-modern, widely industrialized society, it hearkens back to a way of life in which everyday things provided tremendous value to one’s health and well-being.
When it came time to name my blog, the phrase swam up from the recesses of my mind. It captures the essence of what I am offering: simple yet profoundly helpful ideas, methods, and discoveries that help our family thrive.
Let’s Be Honest Here…
Is the porridge sometimes cold and lumpy? Definitely. Do my children ever get sick? Of course. The goal is not to paint a picture of utter perfection or make things look rosier than they are. Part of the fun is being able to learn from the failures, revel in the detours, and laugh at yourself.
The topics I’ve chosen to discuss and the methods I want to share with you sometimes involve stepping outside the mainstream way of life. Your friends might think it’s strange that you’re suddenly on the hunt for grass-fed beef (provide link to post). Your mother-in-law might be concerned to know that you’ve started swaddling your baby like a tortilla at naptime (provide link to post). You might even find yourself getting funny looks when you insist on 100% beeswax candles (provide link to post).
I am here to tell you that each of these choices – and countless others – have made a big difference in the quality of our lives. With Fresh Air and Porridge, I hope to help you explore why and discover how to adopt them for yourself and your family.
Thank you for joining me on this ongoing journey towards a vibrant life built upon a balanced foundation of traditional wisdom and new discoveries. I look forward to sharing this adventure and all the treasures it holds!
The Twitter version: Stay-at-home mother of 3 from coastal Massachusetts finally embraces her calling even though it isn’t related to her college degree… (Follow Me on Twitter (link)…or Facebook (link)
The Expanded version:
Little did I know, when I arrived in Harvard Yard as a freshman in 1989 (a Massachusetts native but feeling like I had just landed on another planet), that:
The most meaningful experiences of my college years would revolve around recycling, cooking, and photography, even though my major was History and Literature of America.
The most life-changing degree I would receive there was my “Mrs.” degree, since I met and married my husband right there on campus. I’m still living that one down with my friends who went to all-girl colleges…
Nothing I would do after college – a master’s degree, several jobs, a home business, motherhood, and now a blog – would have anything to do with what I studied in college.
My eldest daughter’s need for surgery and medications at birth would inspire me to seek out natural, safe and wholesome experiences to compensate for the trauma she’d been through.
This mission would lead me to shift my focus entirely onto parenting, homekeeping, photography, and building a rather enormous children’s book collection.
Ten years and two more children later, I would sit at a self-help seminar (link to Peak Potentials website) coming to terms with the sense of failure I felt over the fact that I had not leveraged my Harvard education into a profitable business venture, a day job, or a bestselling book.
Right then and there, I decided to embrace the things I enjoy most: cooking, photography, caring for the earth, and – most importantly – raising my children.
Wouldn’t you know it – embracing the things that had seemed like incidental hobbies would lead to my discovery of the “blogosphere,” where I could finally express the ideas and share the resources I had started collecting right out of college.
I would happily join the ranks of bloggers everywhere in the autumn of 2009, with my husband, 10 year-old, 8 year-old, and 9 month-old in tow.
As it turns out, all of this writing and planning is actually quite related to my degree after all!
I’m so glad to be here with you! Thank you for giving me a chance to share with you as I strive to finish what I start and get out of my own way. Thank you for being interested in what I’ve discovered. Thank you for giving me reasons to actually read all the parenting, nutrition, and self-help books I own and to finally organize all those shoeboxes full of photos (there are dozens!) into scrapbooks.
There’s so much I’ve learned, so many connections I’ve made, and so many great resources I’ve discovered. I’m excited to have a place to show you what’s worked for me, and also to find out about your journey.
Welcome!
