The Curse of the Blog

Okay, I’m killing myself trying to keep up with this blog. I want so many things for it it’s becoming like another pet, which I never said I’d have because it’s all I can do to keep four little bi-pedal creatures going in a day. Why would I ever take on the four-legged kind that may be house trained but certainly don’t flush. Yet, I do have two cats who live in the garage. No one pays them much mind until I tell the kids it’s time for our pets to find a more loving home. Then there are tears and demonstrations of genuine concern, that lasts about a day until we all find something else to concern ourselves with. Anyway, I am trying to play catch up. Ever since our crazy campout, life has been much altered. We discovered some key ingredients are missing from our preparation plans and I’ve been trying to fill in those holes. Anyway, sorry to neglect the blog. I really do have such great plans for it.

Maybe I need a blog consultant to advise me on how to move forward. I learned several helpful skills while preparing for and experiencing our three days in the wilderness, look for these in posts to come:

Season the Dutch Oven
Make a cardboard box oven
Make tortillas from scratch
Make banana bread without using electricity

On the other hand, you are really all here, not because you want to hear about us roughing it in the wilderness, but because you want to know how to get by without going to the grocery store, so, maybe I’ll stick to the topic at hand and that is the best advise of all. Maybe what I should do is address all these fascinating topics in future blogs when I’m back to grocery shopping, but moving on to avoiding some other necessary addictions, like electricity.

Oh, this is good. You are such a great listener. Let’s keep going with this. So here’s my idea. I’ll stick to mostly no more grocery shopping content this month. If I get a chance to write some little snippets about other things I’m learning along the way I’ll reference them in the blog and you can always access them on the sidebar under topics like “Tips and Tricks”, “Cool Tools,” etc. That way, people coming for menus, recipes and day-to-day ideas that are on topic will not be disappointed. But, here’s my plan for the blog after November 4.

November 4 -December 25 will be “No More Holiday Shopping” days. Rules and guidelines for this idea will be posted on November 4. The blog’s official url will remain “no more grocery shopping,” but the title page will read, “No More Holiday Shopping.”

January will be “No More Eating Out,” month. After the hefty holiday meals and usual expenditures (though this year is bound to be leaner due to the “no more holiday shopping,” experiment,) I’d like to have a month long fast food/restaurant food fast and get back to some simple, soulful home cookin’. Maybe you don't eat out much, we don't either. But, I do rely on a quick pizza pick-up and a date-night out occasionally. This experiment will be good for my bank book and my recipe repertoire.

February is going to be “No More Electricity,” month. I’m not sure exactly what this is going to look like, but I will be selecting a block of hours in the day where we will live nearly off the grid. Stay tuned for more info.

Wow, I appreciate all of the good advice and ideas. Thanks for helping me through that. I’ll quit trying to play catch up and get out of the glory days of the campout, come back to the day-to-day life outside of the grocery store and see if I can’t make my way successfully through
the rest of this experiment. Thanks for sticking it out with me.