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_Julie  Taboh_ (http://www.voanews.com/author/5407.html)
August 24, 2012  

An increasing number of  Americans are growing their own food, making their
own clothes and generally  embracing the domestic lifestyle of their
grandparents' generation. Although  there are no statistics yet, some experts say
this do-it-yourself movement has  been gaining momentum among the under-40
population.

Shannon Kline and  her daughter Alice are picking the last of the summer
harvest from the family's  vegetable garden while her husband Geoff Delanoy
prepares the soil for their  fall crops.

Life for this Baltimore-based family is all about living  close to nature.

“We like to grow our own food because we want to know  what goes into it.
We want to know what we’re feeding our family,” said Shannon  Kline.

Older ways

Kline also makes clothes for  her two young daughters.

“The organic cotton is really soft and it is not  going to hurt my young
children’s skin. They like that I made it. My older  daughter tells me that she
’s very proud that I make her clothes,” she  said.

Kline also makes and sells children's clothing online and at craft  shows.

Having a home-based business allows her to spend time with her  daughters.
Today, she’s using some of that time to make skin lotion with  Alice.

“What we do here is a lot of work. It’s worth it because I’m doing  it
side by side with my family, and this is the time that we’re never going to  
get back, and this is what my daughter’s going to remember when she’s older,”
 she said.

Family time at home

Kline is one of a  growing number of young Americans embracing the
home-centered lifestyle of their  grandparents’ generation.

Culture writer Emily Matchar said in an  interview via Skype that she's
writing a book about the movement, which she  calls “New Domesticity.”

"People spend a lot of time at their computers  and there’s just something
very lovely and very appealing about doing something  with your hands and
maybe doing something that seems old-fashioned or seems to  connect you with
previous generations," said Matchar.

Sociologist Betsy  Greer said that connection is the key to this growing
movement.

“It’s  this dual thing where it connects us to ourselves, because we have
time to think  while we’re doing it, and it connects us to others,” she
said.

Shannon  Kline agrees. “I’ve met a lot of women who have really taken up
sewing and  canning and gardening, and have really been loving it.”

It's a feeling  that many Americans apparently believe has been lost in
today's fast-paced  world.