Sunday, March 13, 2016

This Is a Triumph



After a couple of really HARD weeks for the kids, we did it!  We ate ALL the cereal. Even the less than exciting fruit ring cereal!  The lower picture shows fruit rings with marshmallows, like rice crispy treats.  I guess they tasted good but they were also super messy. I am never buying fruit rings again so we won't have to go through THAT.

So yeah, interesting weeks in the food department.  As I said in a previous post, I've been trying to eat up what we have to lower our grocery bill this month, in the hopes of pumping up our savings a bit.  We bought that almost new car, which we are thoroughly enjoying.  It is 10 years newer than our big van, and there is all kinds of fun technology, like it connects to our cell phones using Blue Tooth and we can do hands free calls using voice recognition. Wow.

All this is practical, but honestly it has been something of a spiritual experience as well.  We have SO MUCH FOOD.  So much.

I am re-reading, for the second time, the Martian, the book on which the movie of the same name is based.  It is a fictional book about a guy accidentally abandoned on Mars and his struggle to survive in a barren wasteland.

Awesome book. Awesome. With, unfortunately, a lot of language, so I won't let the kids read it yet.  But it is totally geeky (for an engineer like myself) plus exciting plus the main character is tons of fun.

Anyway, I hope I'm not spoiling anything by saying that in this fictional book, food is an issue.  Stuck on Mars, a barren wasteland?  Not a great situation in the food department.

And then I think about people in 3rd world countries, and how they go day to day wondering if they'll have food.

We have friends who live in India who are in the middle of a water shortage and sometimes they don't have water in their bathroom (though so far the water in the kitchen is holding out, for some reason.)

They have poorer friends who line up public spigots for water.

And every stinking time I turn on the faucet here, water comes out. Every time.

I can even turn it to hot!

Queen Elizabeth the First (of 500 years ago fame) had a great deal of wealth, but she never lived as good as I've got in terms of plumbing.  In fact, I understand that wealthy people in that day would move from house to house because after a while, a house became disgusting due to the lack of sanitary arrangements.

So I am realizing how blessed we are, again.  And I am thankful.

At the other end of the spectrum, it is actually difficult to not buy casually.  I said in a previous post that I am not someone who "buys casually" and I don't think I generally do, but the decision to be super careful this month is pushing some buttons.

I remember as a graduate student that I thought long and hard about a casual $10 purchase.  I was poor back then.  Now, well, lifestyle creep has moved in somewhat.  I don't think a lot about a $10 purchase anymore.  But this month I am, and sometimes I feel a twinge when I make the decision to pass on a purchase.

It is even harder when I deny the CHILDREN something.  I like giving my children things, and I think that is fine in moderation.  But I'm surprised how often they ask for something totally reasonable and I buy it.  I mean, there is nothing wrong with reasonable (new art supplies, for example) BUT we actually have a lot of art supplies already and we should use them up.

So I'm in a "use it up" mode right now.

Within reason.  I'm still buying lots of necessary items.  I need to buy shoes for Rose (I think -- I need to look through our stash.)  And Lydia has one pair of jeans to her name so I need to get her some more.

But I'm trying to step back and think about things instead of just buying an item.  And as I said, it isn't just practical, it has its spiritual aspects.  Which is good.


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