Well we had a gentle introduction to the day, after being up vomiting between 3 and 5 (because of coughing), the fact it was 8 am before anyone opened their eyes was quite lovely. I was up 20 minutes before and was able to check work emails and plan the little bit of work I need to do today (I’m technically off). I did chuckle to myself remembering being told my son slept 4-5 hrs a night (12 midnight to 5 am, and up at least 1-2x during that) when he came to me and now he sleeps at least 12 hrs per night! It is amazing what good nutrition, a reliable schedule, consistency and love can do!

Everyone got their morning chores done while I made Scottish porridge; today it was served with a banana, 1/2 an apple and almond butter drizzled on it. They were in heaven, and it should at least get them through to lunchtime ; ) ! We had a nice discussion about what our family’s special food/meals that I make are, according to my two they are: Scottish porridge, fish pie, mac and cheese, lasagna, roasts, pumpkin chocolate chip bread & muffins, mince tarts and banana bread. It was really nice to hear them say that. My parents sacrificed a great deal for me growing up which I am so thankful for, but we never really had many rituals or family rhythms, and it was something I really noticed with other people’s families, a bit like being outside and looking in, so I’m pleased despite the up and down’s of year one as a family, now we are 16 and 15 months in, I can see clearly we have some special family memories/rituals already! As a mother who works full time (as my own mother did), I’m relieved as I was so worried it would be hard to be as connective a parent as I hoped and dreamed I would be.

After breakfast was done we read another two chapters in our current family book “A Little Princess”. Partly to induce a bit of calm as everyone was a tad riled up.  Reading worked and led to a fabulous discussion about poverty and children needing to work, because in the story the school featured has a little girl who is a scullery maid. I was impressed both were able to link that child’s work life to current day practices and why we buy fairtrade products. They remembed that fairtrade means children don’t work, people are paid enough money and are given food and medication. I then left each reading to each other for 20 minutes. I often use this tactic to remind them to connect with each other, encourage each other and appreciate each other. They needed quite a bit of encouragement from me to work together as they tend to annoy one another initially, and then needed some encouragement to stay on task, but they settled into a nice groove : ) ! As they were reading I got some work done and childcare arranged.  And as I looked at a lovely large photo frame from a colleague, I was planning which photos of the children I want to blow up to frame {not something I’ve done much of yet!}. I found myself thinking “I’ll drop off the camera card today when we go to the library” before remembering that camera card won’t be dropped off until at least January 31st! Ahem! The gimme’s didn’t stay away for long when I realized our family Bible was missing in the move and the panic of being without, especially with our goal set in. Then I remembered a conversation with a friend {about her relationship with her partner} I’d had a few months ago about the 5 love languages we have in relationships. As I will be seeing her soon, I wanted to get her the book. Before I knew what I was doing, I had phoned our local second hand book shop, thankfully they didn’t have it in. The whole experience made me realize that while I do stick to a meager budget, I’m able to get a lot of things second hand without waiting more than a week or so, so am used to somewhat semi-instant gratification. Something to put in check!

Next we headed off to the library and picked up our books for home educating in January. We will be studying Terry Fox, Canada’s provinces and capital cities and symbols, as well as some flags of the world. They had everything we needed and we picked up some chapter books, as well as the Bible! : )

Then we went grocery shopping and with some careful planning were able to get: milk, cream, potatoes, fairtrade bananas, clementines, scottish oatmeal, butter, grapes (only enough for 1 snack each!), cabbage, crackers, onions, spinach and carrots for $39.06. We worked out we have just shy of $11 left for the week, but we are going to try to save it if we can. I’m also very aware how I make our normal budget stretch is to stock up, with $50 a week that simply won’t be possible.

At home we enjoyed lunch – cheese and spinach sandwiches, 14 grapes each (a portion) and carrot sticks with water and OJ (left over from Christmas!), while I read a book we got from the library called “Why War Is Never A Good Idea” by Alice Walker and another chapter of “The Little Princess”, as well as a bit from the book of Matthew.  Next we got our chores done, my daughter began her book report and we made a meal for a friend in need as well as fish pie for supper. Next we headed off for a walk, then went to kumon where my son passed his 2A test and my daughter her A test! They both worked so hard and I’m so proud of them! And of course that means they’ve already met one of their yearly goals – they put me to shame!

We came home and had a baking day making pumpkin bread for the week, then ate supper (fish pie with veggies) followed by clementines and settled into games night. We played scrabble, go fish, memory and x’s and o’s before delivering fish pie and pumpkin bread to someone in need! Soon we’ll enjoy some stories and then everyone will head to bed at their bedtimes. And I will tackle the mountain load of dishes, balance the checkbook and try to get some work done. I’m very tired this week so haven’t been able to get up 90 minutes before my son is up, I’m finding that lack of peace and time to get things done in the morning is making me less productive in terms of getting my own stuff done and I’m really feeling it. I’m hoping I can get to bed early enough tonight that I can be up for 5:30 or 6 tomorrow morning. We’ll see.

My thoughts on day 2 of nothing – I feel more peace (despite having a small case of the gimme’s) about not buying. I feel some sort of odd contentment this evening thinking about what we can accomplish on so little and the lovely life we do have.  It also made me see that I need to work on putting some time between discovering a need or want and actually meeting it. Delayed gratification is such an important value and something I need to ensure I’m living both to help our family succeed financially on my one income and to help model it with my children {it has long been linked in studies to good academic success – not that that is the most important thing!}.

How is everyone else doing?