Well we all kind of slept in, yes 7:30 am when you have children is considered sleeping in! 
My daughter would have probably slept longer as she was up watching Pride and Prejudice with me until 9 pm {I introduced her to Jane Austen on New Year’s Eve; what a momentous occasion!} but my son the barrel of energy, who jumped around saying “morning, morning, morning”, prevented that! 
We had a family meeting this morning and talked about what our month of nothing will look like and also talked about our weekly goals. Then we looked at the Guardian’s photographs of New Year celebrations around the world and talked about some of the facts we know about different countries. I think we finally have the concept of Russia being the largest geographical country, Canada being the second largest geographical country and China being the country with the most people, down packed! Hallelujah!
Next we chose our family chapter book to begin reading (A Little Princess) and my daughter chose her chapter book to read this week (Stanley’s Christmas Adventure). After a very large breakfast, we got kumon math out of the way, played outside and all sat down to read together. We read our new chapter book “A Little Princess” for a long time, then each child took turns reading their books for the week. We settled down to lunch {spinach and lentil soup, cheese, fruit and a muffin} and had a conversation about poverty in the western world and poverty in developing nations. We talked about what our plate would look like if we were truly poor here and what it might look like if we were in a famine. Everyone contributed and I was amazed at the types of questions they asked. For example, my son asked if people who delivered food in a famine brought fridges with them. This lead to a good conversation about disaster emergency relief (or more age appropriately, who helps the people in other countries when they have no money for food, or there is no food available) and we decided our extra money would go to the Red Cross. Sadly soon after a little boy showed he needed some time to calm down and think and while he did that my daughter worked on thank you cards and I got some things done on my to do list. Before long I was thinking about things we need want and realized one of the ways I save money (and live a greener life!) is by looking at second hand shops as we come across them, to increase the likelihood we will find needed items second hand, rather than needing to purchase them new. Right now I’m looking for white turtle necks and a humidifier. And the funny thing is I never ever feel a need to shop, but today that need want was strong. This is definitely an area to work on for myself, maybe if I am told I can’t do something I don’t like it ; ) ! Not sure, but something to watch. I’ve decided I’m going to make a list of things to look out for after January 31st!
We spent the rest of the afternoon reading and then the children played “hospital” which means my daughter gave my feet a massage and my son gave my hands a massage (with shea butter). As I have arthritis, they pretend this is giving me medical care. I do not complain ; ) ! Though I’m panicking about what we’ll do if we run out of the shea butter before the 31st – I think I need to remove that thought right from my head!
Then the children worked on a bead craft and I switched the planned tuna casserole to my homemade mac and cheese. As I was cooking it I was thinking about how last year was survival mode, but over the last 3 months I’ve been able to add more rhythms and rituals to our lives and that has included real cooking and the children having special dishes. Right now their three greatest loves are my homemade fish pie, my homemade macaroni and cheese and my cream of broccoli soup from the Moosewood Cookbook.
One of the things I’ve done since my son’s diagnosis is listen much more to his internal clock and despite the fact most children his age are not in bed until 8/8:30 or so, he begins to shut down by 6:30. So by 6:30 I try to have him upstairs for bedtime stories and prayers. Tonight we were a bit later (6:45) and while tonight I thought how nice it would be to spend extra time with him, I really see that his little mind needs that extra sleep to unwind and process his life experiences. A bonus I’m usually downstairs by 7 which means I get 1 to 1.5 hrs or so of 1:1 time with my daughter at night and as he wakes up earlier, I get about 30-45 minutes of 1:1 time with him in the am. I use that time to really connect with them and that makes me feel good.
And now my boy is asleep and my daughter and I are going to play a game together, trim the cats nails and then I’m going to plan our home schooling for January and have a look at the bills! All in all I would say day one brought out a few “I wants” from me, but some excellent conversations as a family. Not too bad!
How was everyone else’s first day of no spending?
I used to have a problem with my car. It could sit outside my house every day and not be thought about, but if it was in the shop all of a sudden I was lost without it and wanted to go somewhere, I think it’s the same with the “need” to shop, we want what we tell ourselves we can’t have.
I remember those days when one boy went to bed earlier and one got up earlier. I too enjoyed my time with them 1:1.
I’ve had a question on my mind for a while now reading your posts. You eat mostly whole foods, lentil soup etc, did you ever have problems getting the children to eat healthy after coming to you as older children? when I began to switch my children to whole foods I had quite the time adjusting them from the other foods they were used to.
I too am struggling with my inner demons right now. Making the promise to buy nothing not essential this month I am looking at my loveseat which broke over Christmas and is now propped on one corner with books and telling myself it’s a necessity to replace the legs on the loveseat.
Thanks for sharing about your car! as for the legs on the loveseat, maybe try saying “in 30 days I can get that need met” – I think just knowing it isn’t too far around the corner isn’t too hard. Or if that feels too far away, make yourself wait 1 week. Usually by then you are saying it is no problem to wait longer : )
Re: whole foods, good question. They both came with horrific diets, though my son far far worse. My daughter loved a couple of fruits and veggies, so she was ahead of him, basically I:
- Cooked what I cooked and served it, not having the type of things they were mostly used to in the house
- Had them involved from day one in preparing and cooking meals
- Took them to the grocery store (not something they were used to)
- Read books with them about fruits, veggies and healthy living
- Had a no-thank you bite rule – basically new things were given in small portions, when they finished it they could say “no thank you” to more (aka a typical portion)
- Taught them from day 1 that we need at least 3 fruits and at least 3 veggies every single day and we counted and recorded them
- Served fruit with breakfast, lunch and snack and served veggies with lunch and dinner and snack. It simply became normal.
- Told them that it takes the body 22x to get used to something new, so basically commiserated with them if they didn’t like something
- Had a small element of choice – for example: we have these four veggies and we need to choose three for dinner, could you make that choice for me (I would always make sure at least 2 options were green veggies so they got at least 1 green veg a day).
- I put veggies in stuff, for example my homemade mac and cheese has cauliflower and peas in it.
- Over time I got to know what they truly didn’t like vs. just not exposed enough and they don’t have to eat that. For example my daughter doesn’t have to eat olives (not that I serve them up much!).
- Lead by example
Maybe I should do a post about it. I was very worried about it and while each took a different amount of time to totally transition, I found it much easier than I thought it would be!
Wow, yes you should do a post about it. So many children are picky eaters and your tips would be so helpful.
Yes, I’m telling myself that books under the end isn’t the end of the world, but it’s not easy knowing I could afford them but choose not to right now. Somehow I think someone at my age shouldn’t live like a college student.
I’ve been watching P & P today. Never to early for that introduction!
I am also trying to go this month without buying anything but necessities. Actually, without buying anything but food to prepare at home. One day down…Oh, and gas…gotta get to work! It can be tricky if I am not thinking about it. I really want to get away from buying stuff. I am still trying to figure out where to put all the Christmas gifts. The exception may be that I received a few gifts for Christmas that don’t fit and I really need new black trousers for work, so I may exchange those items. It isn’t really buying anything, but it does put me in a store, which I would like to avoid.
We have made a lot of changes in the past six months in order to rectify our financial situation (like moving in with my inlaws and me going back to work full time…both thinks I really hate right now!) but if we need to start curbing our spending to make as much progress as possible on our financial goals. I have six months to really get things in line. I look forward to the encouragement I get reading your blog!!
It sounds as if you are off to a great start. Isn’t it funny how we can react to a change for the better by longing for the opposite? When I get the house all cleaned up, I just feel like dumping my clothes on a chair and leaving the dirty dishes for tomorrow. Human nature is a funny thing sometimes.
Your son’s comment about the refrigerator made me remember UNIMIX. This is a highly nutritious, easy to digest porridge that is used in feeding programs for children in famine areas. I got the recipe from World Vision when our youth group did their 30 Hour Famine to raise relief funds. We used it to break the fast at the end of the 30 hours. This might be a fun thing for your family to try for breakfast. It is surprisingly palatable, probably because it is so sweet. The recipe is 3 parts corn (maize) meal, 4 parts beans (cooked, mashed), 1 part vegetable oil, 1 part milk powder, 1 part sugar. I just cooked the cornmeal mush in the usual way, stirred in everything else and heated it through. It made a big impression on the teens, most of whom were fast food junkies.
We spent New Year’s Day in the hospital. Like you, we are often in a doctor’s waiting room, the ER, or a hospital room. This is why I’m not doing the month of buying no excess with you. I do pack a lunch or snacks if I know in advance that I’m going to be doing this, but if there is no warning, or not much, I wind up spending money in a vending machine or at a cafe. I have been concentrating on reducing the impulsive “comfort” buys (aka magazines) and have been doing pretty well most of the time. That is going to be my continuing goal in 2013. Here’s to success for all of us trying to tame the consumption demon!
I’m also joining you in buying only the essentials and day one posed an immediate stumbling block! I received a kindle for Christmas and came across a book that I really wanted but I stopped myself downloading it by examining the reasons why I wanted the book – it was a “how to” book and as I thought about it I realised that I could get info from other sources and work out my own methods even if it means making a mistake or to!!! In the end I had a no spend day
I admire your approach to healthy eating and you must be an inspiration to any parent who wants to improve their child’s diet. Glad day one was a success for you and good luck with day two, I’m looking forward to reading about it!!!
Quiet day here revising for exams ( joy ! ) and planning food for the next few weeks.i was re reading your frugal food section and thinking more about cooking less if that makes sense ? A non spend day here as we didnt go out or do anything , and although i had a little look online i didnt buy anything as we dont really NEED anything. I think we will also do a big sort out of stuff that no longer fits the kids and bag up for the charity shop. My food bill this week ( delivery as i dont have any decent local shops) has come in at £97 but with what i already have in my cupboards ( i have been shopping in them FT !! ) and my OH recons that we can easily get 2 weeks out of the food. It is my anxiety as i have a horror of no food in the house but am realising that is an issue of mine , and not related to the food ! I am lucky my kids eat anything at all and love fruit and so they wont mind this. I am making a decision to cut the amount of food i cook in half and see if anyone notices !
frugal learning curve – amazon kindle – look at the classics – anything out of copyright is free to download on there , or look on http://www.projectgutenberg.org which has all free out of copyright books on it. Really useful ( and doesnt cost ! ) xx
Hi Kellie, thanks for the link, I did in fact download a couple of classics to console myself! Pride and prejudice, being one of them and also a Philip Yancey book, enough to keep me going this week
I didn’t know about Project Gutenberg though so will take a look and chose some titles for next week. I too will be shopping in my own cupboards for this weeks meals! Best of luck for the exams xx
Oh and FT would you mind if I link to the Month of Nothing post on my blog ? Hope it’s going well
Yes, that’s absolutely fine! More replies to comments later – breakfast to make!
ps FT – you have inspired me to ‘shop” in all of my cupboards !! Have just cleared my bedroom and found i dont need to buy ANYTHING as i already have it – twice! ( and have found some stuff i can sell). such a fantastic way to focus. xx
lol it is my number one shopping destination ; ) !
FLC – they have changed the link – look on http://www.gutenberg.org. I use it for uni all the time x
Thank you Kellie and thanks FT x
ps 2 – here is an article you might like to read http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20836616
Is is about the uk obsession with food.
Thank you!!!
My month of nothing is starting a day late – I’d been traveling to see my family in Atlanta and just got home yesterday. My mother is 83 and NOT making these trips every 3 months isn’t an option.
Anyway, the trip went over budget by $200 – I usually plan so well but I just blew it this time! There were some things I felt I owed my family at the last minute and so I gave them – not gifts, but expenses covered because my sister takes a large portion of the burden most of the time. Forgiving myself for blowing the budget and moving on now, and beginning my month of nothing. Planning my meals for this first grocery shop, and planning free fun for an out-of-town visitor coming to see me. I am lucky to live in a city with lots of free museums, etc.! After initial cuts to all discretionary spending (there isn’t much), I’ve worked out that I need to save $11/week over the next three months to make up the shortfall.
So away we go!
My son has aspbergers and has always been developmentally delayed, although he is catching up to the point that most people don’t realize he has an issue. When he was younger he needed tons and tons of sleep and if we went anywhere different he would shut down and go to sleep the second we got in the car from sensory overload. He has grown out of that for the most part and maybe your son will too as he gets older and is better able to cope. You are doing great with them both.
Jennifer , that is so true – my daughter has add and when it is the holidays sleeps constantly – she really can’t unction at all when she is tired !
A Little Princess is one of my favourite books