9. Waste is an unfortunate American way of life. I took a note from my sis-in-law’s book one day and scraped all the DEE-SCKUSTING leftovers off of everyone’s plate. The resulting pile of food was appalling, as was the echo of my mother’s voice coming out of my mouth, questioning “Do you know there are starving children in Africa?” Watching portion sizes on kids plates (as well as your own) can help keep waste (and waists) under control.
8. People are generous and willing to share - I received a gift wrapped package of dishwasher tabs from my friend Liz. My sister and brother-in-law donated, shared and loaned more items than I can list here. I borrowed onions and was given tomatoes twice. Self-reliance does not work if you don’t also rely on God and others close to you when things get really tough. For example, I was able to call Donna for advice with the morning moo fiasco and an anonymous onion and some tomatoes showed up at my door , like manna from heaven, when I had nothing fresh to add to my Mexican meal of tortillas, meat and olives.
7. Going to the store without a clear plan is like going to college without a major; it takes you a lot longer and costs a lot more than it should. Believe me, I’ve done both.
6. Cold cereal is one of the ultimate fast food, but it works optimally when you have milk to go with it.
5. Hot chocolate is the best breakfast beverage - It’s filling, covers your dairy serving for the morning, betters any breakfast food, warms you from the inside out.
4. The best laid plans often go awry. For this blog, I hoped (as I know many of you did) to post daily meal plans, menus, recipes and other useful information. Ha, ha, ha. It was too much to keep with. So, instead you got a lot of irrational rambling that persists even now. In my defense, I’m still trying to get out from under my mountain of laundry generated on our three-day outdoor survival excursion. I’m nearly there, but we keep wearing clothes, so I never seem to see the bottom of the bins.
3. If you really want to learn to live off of your food storage, on a budget, or survive during tough times there are a lot more qualified people to help you do that. Here are their blogs/websites:
http://everydayfoodstorage.blogspot.com/
http://www.myfoodstoragedeals.blogspot.com/
http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/index1.htm
2. Buying groceries once, at the beginning of the month and never going back (except for my previously confessed cheats) saved me several hundred dollars. Money is a definite motivator in convincing me to repeat and improve upon our experiment.
1. There are bigger and better things to do with the time saved from running to the grocery store. I was able to:
- Begin my first work of fiction (writing, not reading, but, about that…)
- Read Dracula with the kids, and
- Get to page 90 of Les Mis, only 1370 pages to go
- Learn to make focaccia, tortillas, pear crisp, powdered milk, pumpkin pancakes and more
- Teach a Leadership Education class once or twice a week all month
- Head up National Student Mock Elections for our school
- Save a full tank of gas
- Build confidence in my self-reliance skills
- Locate the holes in my home storage system
- Cultivate relationships with local growers and producers
- Discover how many people are ready, willing and able to help me learn, do and become more than I ever could on my own
Peace and plenty to you all.
Love,
Mariah
1 comment:
You're awesome! Im so impressed with your month and how well behaved you were!!!!! Cant wait to hear whats up next......I'm off to sort out my home storage situation!
xx
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