Compromise doesn't always mean 'giving in'

I guess this also relates to my post about perfectionism, because it's about finding a way forward that doesn't involve doing things 'perfectly'.

I would love to be the perfect housewife, the perfect mother, to only buy organic, to make all our food from scratch, to grown our own fruit and vegetable, to reduce my carbon footprint... you get the idea.

But to want, and try, to achieve all of that at once, is just impossible, and asking for massive disappointment and guilt.

So I'm learning to compromise on my lofty ideals and accept that sometimes compromise is better than not trying at all. For instance: one day I might make my own cleaning products from scratch, but for now I buy green products and use a lot of baking soda and vinegar.

One day we hope to grow at least some of our fruit and veges, but right now I accept that we don't have a place to do that, and enjoy that we have our own free range eggs.

I would love to buy only organic, but sometimes the budget doesn't stretch that far. So I have some rules - I only ever buy free range chicken (and if I had to buy eggs, I would only ever buy free range), and I only buy free range pork. Beef and lamb aren't such an issue here - yet - as they're still allowed to live on farm land rather than in feed lots.

My son wears disposable nappies, but we have a septic tank (that kind of balances out in my mind). We also are not connected to mains water and only have a very small water tank, so sometimes having enough water to wash nappies could be a real problem...

So, I'm trying to accept that I am making some small, gradual improvements in our lives, and realising that it is better to take one or two small steps than it is to just stand still.