Conserving for Our Kids

1,001 Days Mission

2008-11-30T00:01:00.005-05:00

I am not a to-do list kind of person, so just trying Day Zero is going to be a challenge since I do not even try listing New Year's resolutions! The mission I have chosen to accept is to complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days, starting on November 30, 2008, the first day of a new year, according to most church calendars. I put my goals in an Excel Spreadsheet, but I will track them here, updating every time I accomplish an item. I have completed all items in red; yellow ones are in progress; green ones are the ones I still need to get going. I put mine into categories to have a balanced approach (not everything about ME). I made a chart to help the geek in me visualize progress!

Body
Do a Woman of Moderation.
Fast one day a week. 0/143
Find an aerobic exercise I enjoy and do 180 minutes a week for half a year. 0/26
Fit into a size 12 and stay there!
Fit into a size 14.
Fit into a size 16.
Get into the habit of exams.
Run a 10-K road race.
Run a 5-K road race.
Work out for 180 minutes per week on torture machine. 0/143

Career
Complete advanced steps.
Complete beginner and intermediate steps.
Complete certification prerequisites.
Complete steps under supervision.
Learn to use Java.

Charity
Do meals on wheels once a month. 0/33
Donate hair for cancer wigs.
Go on one overseas mission trip.
Make one needlework project per month for charity. 0/33
Provide a shoebox every November. 1/3
Provide an angel tree gift every December. 1/3
Provide an elder basket every November 30. 1/3
Put $3 in charity donation envelope for each task completed. 3.57/303
Volunteer at the local food pantry for 101 hours. 0/101
Write a lonely person once a week. 0/143

Children
Celebrate every Sunday of advent. 0/12
Have Sweet Pea finish Third Unit.
Have Sweet Pea get through Level 4 books. 0/10
Have Sweet Pea get through Level 5 books. 0/10
Have Sweet Pea get through Level 6 books. 0/10
Help Goliath get and keep part-time job for six months. 0/6
Help Goliath get his driver's license.
Help Goliath pass the SAT.
Help Sweet Pea advance to Stage 3.
Help Sweet Pea advance to Stage 4.
Launch Goliath to college.
Make an afghan for Goliath before he goes to college.
Make an afghan for Sweet Pea.
Talk Sweet Pea into nixing the cable.

Environment
Build a solar cooker.
Get yard certified as a Backyard Wildlife Habitat.
Insulate the 100 year old house.
Learn to use said solar cooker.
Plant a vegetable garden.
Post once a week on conservative living blog. 1/143
Put a insulator blanket on the hot water heater.
Put a timer on the hot water heater.
Recycle every week for a year. 0/52
Start a compost pile.

Finance
Find a way for Sweet Pea to earn $300 a month.
Save $12,000 in an emergency fund.
Save $6,000 in an emergency fund.
Wipe out all credit card debt.
Wipe out equity loan.
Wipe out loan for speedster.
Wipe out loan for SUV.

Hobby
Attend one college homecoming.
Crochet a baby blanket for any newborn grand nieces and nephews.
Find all high school classmates. 2/4
Finish friend's baby dress.
Knit a pair of wool socks.
Knit a sweater for Slug Dog.
Perform in a singing Christmas tree once.
Record a CD of my singing.
Sing one Messiah solo.
Watch an opera live.

God
Set aside for leading of the Holy Spirit.
Set aside for leading of the Holy Spirit.
Set aside for leading of the Holy Spirit.
Set aside for leading of the Holy Spirit.
Set aside for leading of the Holy Spirit.
Set aside for leading of the Holy Spirit.
Set aside for leading of the Holy Spirit.
Set aside for leading of the Holy Spirit.
Set aside for leading of the Holy Spirit.
Set aside for leading of the Holy Spirit.

Husband
Do bimonthly cooking to store in the freezer no later than March 2009. 0/124
Do one impromptu nice thing a day for Marathon Man. 0/1001
Finish Marathon Man's afghan.
Get a short haircut.
Have a professional family portrait.
Host neighborhood party.
Remember each anniversary (yes, we both forgot it this year). 0/2
Save $1001 toward a baby grand piano. 5/1001
Send out Christmas letters one year.
Transfer all videos to DVD.

Mind
Complete all four books in Cambridge Latin Course. 0/4
Donate 10,001 grains of rice. 0/10,001
Read 10 biographies of great people. 0/10
Read 10 books by Elizabeth Goudge. 0/10
Read 10 books by G. K. Chesterton. 0/10
Read 10 short stories by George MacDonald. 0/10
Read Bleak House by Charles Dickens.
Read Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis.
Start a weekly family game night no later than January 2009. 0/135
Write a 100,001-word novel. 0/100001

Soul
Do another Beth Moore Bible study.
Find a church where the Holy Spirit can use me.
Finish reading the entire Bible for the first time ever.
Knowingly lead on person to Christ.
Study 1,001 verses in the Bible. 0/1001

Being Broke Does Not Excuse You for Being a Grinch!

2008-11-25T08:40:00.001-05:00

When I was a kid, my parents went bankrupt. We actually had a Christmas with nothing store-bought! My mom, a very smart cookie, recycled clothes that could no longer be handed down into handmade toys. She crocheted slippers for all of us with that rainbow variegated yarn that was chic in the 70s.

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas that year . . . SERIOUSLY.

If you are low on cash, there is still time to build family traditions that your family will cherish, even in years in which the presents are skimpy. Why not research your family's religious and ethnic heritage to find out how your ancestors celebrated Christmas? Why not read together every night something fun like Tolkien's Letters from Father Christmas or Dicken's A Christmas Carol. Online you can find a wealth of wonderful and cheap ways to avoid being a Grinch this Christmas simply because you are short on cash and can't afford this year's Tickle Me Elmo.

Here's what my mom did:

Advent - This year, the four Sundays of advent begins on November 30. Mom would send us out hunting for evergreens of any sort. She tied them all together and bought advent candles to make a simple, but beautiful wreath. Every Sunday evening, we would like the wreath (one candle on the first Sunday, two on the second, and so on). Then, we would sing Christmas carols, each one of us taking turns picking our favorite secular or religious songs. After about an hour, we blew out the candles (and boy was it a big deal who got to blow them out)! Even if you are not Christian, celebrating the meaning of each candle would help your family be mindful about making the world a better place: hope (the first Sunday), peace (the second Sunday), love (the third Sunday), and joy (the fourth Sunday).

Advent Calendar - Starting on December 1, we began to open one door every day on our countdown calendar. Even if you are completely broke and cannot afford one, there are all kinds of creative ways to make your own (even recycling Halloween candy) or find an interactive one online. Again, even if you are not a Christian, you can find or make advent calendars suited to your beliefs.

Saint Nicholas' Day - On December 6, we left out a shoe for Santa Claus to fill in honor of Saint Nicholas' feast (no, we are not Catholic). The next morning we found some small toys and fruit. Nobody ever got a lump of coal, but one of my sisters got half a stick with her goodies as a little warning. A wonderful chapter book about what real family struggles are like, read The Winged Watchman with your kids. Not only will they learn about how the people of Holland celebrate this holiday and Christmas, they will see the children of all ages have struggled when money was tight. [Interlibrary loans, Paperbackswap, and Best Web Buys are great if you are really strapped for cash.]

Wrapping Paper - Because we were so broke, we usually wrapped our presents in newspaper. Whenever we received a gift with real Christmas wrapping paper, we carefully opened the present to recycle the ribbons and paper for the next year. We could always tell a gift from Santa because he was rich enough to wrap his gifts with Sunday comics paper!

Decorating the Tree - My mother always waited until Christmas Eve to decorate the artificial tree (we could not afford a fresh tree every year). Why? If you put of the tree the weekend of Thanksgiving, on Christmas, you look at it and say, "That old thing?" On top of that, she barricaded the room with the tree because "the elves" (some say "angels") came and decorated the tree. If we were very quiet, we could hear a slight sound of fairies that almost sounded like someone ringing a bell. We knew the elves were there because every time we sent in some cookies, the plate came back covered in crumbs. We waited to glimpse the beautifully decorated tree until after sunset.

Christmas Eve - Our family has a whole Christmas program planned to mask the limited number of gifts. We dressed up in our best outfits. Mom and Dad turned on the Christmas lights with seasonal music playing in the background, and our eyes popped out of our heads as we saw the tree for the first time. Mom lit all four candles on the advent wreath and the program begin. We alternated between Dad solemnly reading appropriate passages from the Bible, singing Christmas carols, and hanging an ornament on the tree. Each one of us children had a special ornament we hung every year. We had to learn a poem, song, verse, etc. or do something special as our gift to the Christ child. Then we placed our ornament on the tree.

By the time, we opened our gifts, our hearts were very full. Because there were so few gifts, one person played Santa and handed out each gift, one by one. To heighten the anticipation, we all watched that person open their gift before moving onto the next one. My grandmother sent us Christmas chocolate and other edible luxuries for our Christmas Eve celebration. My mother supplemented that with nuts, fruit, and baked goods. We headed to church for the midnight service to top off the evening.

Christmas Secrets - When we headed off to school, there was no way we could brag about our gifts when our friends brought up their haul. However, by the time we finished sharing about the elves, the advent wreath and calendar, and the Christmas Eve celebration, we knew we would cherish those memories more than a toy that would end up in the closet in a few weeks.

A Measly Empty Cereal Box

2008-11-20T12:48:00.007-05:00

When things get tight, a little ingenuity can go far. George Washington Carver, who dedicated his life to helping poor farmers prosper, found all kinds of ways to take hold of what he saw and make something out of it: from peanuts to sweet potatoes to clay. What he wrote concerning the Great Depression seems prophetic in our post September 15, 2008 world.

In Proverbs the thirteenth chapter and twenty-third verse, we have this statement: "Much food is in the tillage of the poor; but there is that which is destroyed for want of judgment." I doubt if this verse has ever had a greater significance than at the present time. We have become 99 percent money mad. The method of living at home modestly and within our income, laying a little by systematically for the proverbial rainy day which is sure to come, can almost be listed among the lost arts.

What does George Washington Carver have to do with an empty cereal box?

The proverbial lost arts.

The other day I was preparing to sew a label on a baby blanket I had crocheted for my first grand niece. My mother suggested ironing the back of it with wax paper so that the label would be secure while I wrote with permanent marker. I did not have any wax paper on hand, but I remember reading a tip from Tight Wad about recycling the liners of cereal boxes for wax paper. That little tip just saved me two whole dollars, or a whole bag of brown rice to feed my family for several meals.

I know we are coming up on a season of the year you might be dreading, especially since the funds for this year's Tickle Me Elmo are nonexistent.

NEWSFLASH!

Even thought they may not admit it, your family would rather have more of you and your time than more stuff. Why not recycle some cereal liners? Go on a walk to find the most gorgeous leaves and press them. Take those old useless crayon stubbies and shave them to make beautiful stained glass art.

Your family will thank you for it some day!

Why I Conserve

2008-11-11T22:26:00.005-05:00

I believe we live in the greatest country on the planet, but I am concerned because we are passing too much debt onto the next generation through our own reckless spending and wasteful choices. Our kids do not need more stuff or a bigger and better house or car. They need us. They need our time. My goal is to inspire and encourage people to live simpler lives and pare down debt from our own personal debt right up to what mind-boggling spending is happening in Washington, D. C.

I know how hard it can get. When I was a teen, my parents went bankrupt and we seemed to have less than anyone around us. Fortunately, my mother who spent her childhood in wartorn Europe, practically starving and escaping bombs, taught us how to make the best of the worst. To all of you struggling to make ends meet, let me reassure you. While they may not admit it, our kids really don't want more stuff if they can have more of you and your time. They look to you for leadership and will accept simpler lives if you set a tone of optimism!

Like everyone, my family of four is tightening its belt. Last spring, my teenaged son (fifteen-year-old Goliath) and I attended Acquire the Fire. After a moving presentation on the plight of children in the poorest of poor countries, we decided to give up one fast food meal a week for a savings of $10. In one year, that equals $520, or $43 a month. What did he want to do with that money? We sponsored a child through Compassion International. We recently started volunteering for Meals on Wheels, delivering hot meals to seniors in our area and, during our second foray, Goliath asked, "Do you think I can do this in college?"

I made a video to inspire the YouTube and MySpace crowd on how a simple sacrifice can do so much!

I know many of you out there are drowning in debt. I am not proud of the size of my credit card debt either. Think about this: the average mortgage payment is about $1687. Fasting two fast food meals a week for a whole year saves enough money to cover almost 1/3 of a mortgage payment.

Your waistline will thank you!