You know what they say about everything old...

I'm calling it the new old fashioned, and really, what other phrase could you come up with to explain the delicate balance with which women (and even men,) in my age bracket are embracing today's technology while basking in the simple joys of our great grandmothers?

You know who I'm talking about. You might even be one of them. Stay at home mothers blogging about their vintage Pyrex collections from their shimmering ice-white Apple computers, regaling the mommy masses with their low-downs and recaps of flea-market crawling, library hunting and farmer's market finds. No, no WalMart, Barnes & Noble or megalomaniacal grocery chains for these women. They're doing it grandma style.

I won't bore you with photos of my Mason jar collection, ripe for next year's canning spree, but I will admit to being among them. Yeah, that's me with my great grandmother's rose-printed tablecloth employed as a curtain, and I won't lie about the glee her soup tureen gives me, the bread I learned to bake and the fact that I don't smother the ground under the tree with presents for my kid. So what is it about this back-to-basics approach that seems to be grabbing the 20-something moms crowd by their thrift store scored shirtcollars and leading them down the path of the been there, done that?

Is it our newfound appreciation of all things green? Our sudden and intense drive to become eco-savvy, eco-friendly and, frankly, eco-overindulged? Are we embracing our generation's economic depression? Or is it something simpler than that? If you were to ask me, I'd tell you that I'm pretty sure it has everything to do with the fact that we're just too damn technologically advanced for the comfort of our own psyche. That our experience as byproducts of this system have warned us away from the always plugged in, always on the run familial lifestyle the 80's, 90's and even the past ten years awarded us.

All of the sudden we're joining cooperative preschools and buying homeschooling course materials, we're laying down the (Newton's) law on our living room floors instead of in public schools. We're joining community garden plots and communing with our food and grinning ear-to-ear when we dig up potatoes because we've realized they grow in the ground! And at the same time we're really glad we have the internet and our Kitchen Aid stand mixers, aren't we...

(Okay, I don't have a Kitchen Aid stand mixer... ::fist shake:: I had to make that bread by hand! Why, when I was your age... !! ...Hold on.)

We've caught on, America! We're turning our backs on the mainstream, inventing our own veritable potpourri where we're able to strike a happy balance between the iPods, Kindles and Canon EOS Rebels, and our packets of jam pectin, embroidered tea-towel aprons, and hand-knit diaper soakers. We're living the dream, we've got the best of both worlds, and who's to tell us we can't?

Oh, it's not me. I say let's go.

(Potatoes, you guys!)