September Experiment

Mary at Owlhaven did an experiment 2 years ago called 30 Days of Nothing. She is planning on doing it again this year in September. It was very interesting to see how her family did those 30 days when they ran out of luxuries. This year I want to do this. It will be different for every family since each families "needs" and "luxuries" are different. The idea is to be aware of what you consume and give up "luxuries".

When I started thinking about doing this I realized how amazingly blessed we are. I cannot even begin to imagine what it would feel like to not be able to feed my children or get them medical attention. The thought of that makes me feel sick. There are people all over the world who suffer from lack of food, water, housing,etc. But now I am realizing that even if we had less than half of the things we have we would still be incredibly blessed.

I have a habit of buying so much stuff that we don't need like magazines that get thrown away eventually and dishes that we don't need but that I like the pattern on. That money adds up so quickly. We should be saving more or giving to others in need. I am hoping that September will make me more aware of the world around us and our own finances and decisions. The truth is that we have spent so much money on ordering food in the past 2 months that it would have been another rent payment had we saved it. That is just sad.

I have already found several recipes I am going to try in September to make our $ stretch. I will probably make another blog to track my progress during this experiment. No children will go hungry or lose weight though. I can guarantee that. A lot of this will be my own struggles to resist shopping or eating out.

Tonight my kids wanted to camp out on their bedroom floor. I decided to let them and I grabbed several more blankets for them to make a little spot to sleep together. It hit me tonight that even that is a blessing. Our children have the luxury of asking to sleep on the floor instead of their beds. Our kids have beds. Our kids have tons of blankets and pillows to lay on. Our kids know they are perfectly safe and warm( or in this weather cool).How many children in the world do not have those things? 30 days will not be easy but it might just change our lives and the way we look at things.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the project. Remember that every family that does this will make different choices. Even if you can't see yourself not ordering pizza for a month there might still be a few areas you want to work on. I am really looking forward to this.