The First Seven

Since I already wrote a lengthy introduction to this series, I'm going to, without further ado, dive into the first of the seven areas highlighted in Jen Hatmaker's book.

Food

Let me briefly say that, to get a sense of how much excess there was in the area of food in her life, Jen decided to only eat seven foods for a month.  And I don't mean foods like lasagna, tacos, and yellow curry over rice.  I mean seven single-ingredient foods.  Eggs, for example.  Sweet potatoes.  Spinach.  Things like that.  Wow.

Pause for a confession: it wasn't rare for me, as I was reading probably all of the seven areas Jen writes about, to have the thought flutter through my mind, "Well, at least I'm not THAT bad.  At least my family doesn't do THAT."  For example, in the chapter on food, Jen describes a time when her children threw away the fish she had prepared for them (her kids were not eating only 7 foods that month)--because they didn't have ketchup.  It tore Jen up that, while millions of people around the world are literally starving (a word my own kids, by the way, toss around when they're hungry, but have ZERO comprehension of what it really would be like to starve), her kids threw away food, simply because they didn't have their favorite condiment to put on it.

I can see why she was upset.

As I read the chapter, I automatically asked myself two questions, "Is this something I should do--to experience a month of only eating 7 foods?" and "If not, what COULD and SHOULD I do to honor God more in this area, shed excess, and free myself up to be a light for Him?"

This is what I concluded.

I don't feel the need to limit myself to 7 foods; as a matter of fact, we ourselves grow many more than just 7 foods, so it would be silly not to eat them!  But my decision to not follow Jen's example of only eating 7 doesn't mean we don't have pretty strong convictions about food.  We do.

For example...
~ We don't waste food.  At home or in a restaurant, we don't take a bite of something, then throw the rest away.
~ We teach our kids to eat what is set before them and eat everything on their plates.  (LONG-time readers of my blog(s) might remember this post about The Clean Plate Club.)
~ We enjoy leftovers and don't throw them away simply because we're tired of them.
~ Jeff and I are not picky and are training our children to not be picky.
~ We really are trying to grow as much of our food as we can; and I am CERTAIN that if not for our (read: Jeff's) efforts in this area, our grocery bill would have doubled or tripled, based on how much more food our kids consume now than they did four or five years ago.  Folks weren't kidding when they said a tribe of growing boys would make food disappear quicker than you could blink!  :)  It used to be, for example, that one pint-sized box of peas from the freezer would be sufficient for our family, if I wanted to serve peas as a side dish.  Nowadays, I always grab two pints; and recently when we've had peas, some of the boys have been "fighting" over the last peas in the bowl.  I suppose it's time to start preparing three pints at a time--which sure empties the freezer of our garden produce faster than it used to!  :)

But even with those good habits (many of which were instilled in both Jeff and I by our parents long ago), still I ask myself, "Is there more we could/should be doing in this area?"

I answered myself with these 7 ideas.

1. Eat the same breakfast every day for 7 days; then do the same for lunch for a different 7 days.
2. Choose 7 meals for supper that we will eat for a month (and really, that only means eating each food about four times during a month, which doesn't even sound that difficult).
3. Maybe once in a while, have a meal like the poor in another country would be doing--just rice, for example--to raise awareness for ourselves and for our kids about the reality of life for many people in the world.
4. Be even more vigilant about using up food and not letting anything spoil (the last little bit of lettuce in the bottom of the frig, for example--but many times, even if it goes bad for us, we feed it to the chickens so it's not entirely worthless).
5. Make a chart for grocery shopping so I can do a better job of comparing prices at various stores; plus, I'd like to keep track of how much we spend on food each month, then work to reduce that.  Maybe the amount that I spend less in a certain month than I did the month before, we could donate to a relief organization.
6. Look for more recipes for cheaper meals--cheaper either because they use things we already have or because the ingredients are just cheaper (dry beans, for example, rather than chicken breasts).
7. Volunteer (with Josiah and David) at a local food pantry, so that we can put a face on the problem of hunger and stop relegating it to some far-off tribes in Africa.  Hunger exists here, in our own community; let's do something about that.

Let me repeat that these are ideas.  I'm not really sure how they'll translate into practical action.  One thing that I didn't want to do was simply push myself to sacrifice for a short time (like eating the same thing for lunch for a week), but not do anything that actually helps someone else.  I realize that sometimes making those sacrifices to become more aware is what it takes to start the engine to make changes, so I'm not denying the value of that.  But if it simply becomes an exercise in "can Davene eat granola and milk for breakfast for 7 days in a row without going crazy?", I'm missing the point entirely.  But speaking of granola...  :)

This past week, I had decided that I would indeed begin to focus on over-consumption of food by eating granola every morning for breakfast.  Granola isn't my favorite thing in the whole wide world to eat for breakfast, but I don't mind it; and it didn't seem like the challenge would really be that big of a deal.  Until...

The second day.

Jeff decided, spur of the moment, to go to work later that day so he could spend some extra time here at home with the family.  He fried bacon and made some delicious BLT wraps for our breakfast.  How do I know they were delicious?  Because I ate one.  Ate it without a single thought that I was already "breaking the rule" for my emphasis on food.

It literally wasn't until I had started eating the second one Jeff made for me that I realized what I was doing.  But did I immediately stop eating it?

Nope.

"I've already blown it since I ate that first one; why not be grateful for the yummy result of Jeff's labor of love [I was grateful, let me tell you!] and just finish this one, too?  Then tomorrow I'll get back on track with my granola plan!"

So I did.

Do I feel bad about it?  Well, yes and no.  Could I have stopped eating that second one?  Sure.  But is the goal of this whole exercise to see how much self-restraint I have when faced with temptation?  Is it really to guard my mouth with Pharisaical legalism so that nothing unauthorized passes my lips?  Does legalism help me in this area at all?

Honestly, no.

I want my heart to change.  I want my eyes to be opened anew to the bountiful blessings God has given us in the area of food.  I want my mind to consider new ways that I can share that abundance with others.

Can those goals be accomplished even though I ate that second BLT wrap?

I certainly hope so!  :)

As I look back over my own list of 7 for the topic of food, I cannot help but think that out of all of those, the last one is the most important by far.  Volunteering in a food pantry is something that I have wanted to do for a very long time; but like with most grand intentions, that desire got buried under an avalanche of "real life" mixed with procrastination--a deadly combination, if I ever saw one!  But like I mentioned in the introductory post, this is the perfect window of time for me to make some changes; and serving in a food pantry is the first major change I'm making.  Or trying to.

As a matter of fact, on May 16 I made the first phone call to inquire about helping in a local food pantry--a big first step for me.  Right now it's a matter of working the scheduling out, and that reminds me: I need to call Tom back to see if he can use Josiah, David, and I on the days we have available.  Mental note: do that bright and early Monday morning.

To conclude, when I think about the area of food, it's easy to think about all the things we're already doing right.  But it's transformative to think about what we're not.

I'm pretty sure that's a theme that will repeat itself in each of the other 6 areas.

I've got some changing to do!

(This series of posts continues here and concludes here.)

A New Hobby for David

For a couple of years, David has been watching his big brother do counted cross-stitch (you can see Josiah doing that in this long post, if you scroll down far enough).  Josiah isn't quite finished with his first project, so obviously he's taken extended breaks since his start in 2012; but every once in a while, he'll pick it up again and work on it some more.  I'm pretty sure he'll finish it this summer.

For a couple of days, David has been pestering persistently asking me ;-) if he can do counted cross-stitch, too.  I said yes, of course, but didn't have the time to immediately help him when he asked me; but finally last night, the process began.  First, we looked online for a pattern, but then after I pulled out a book of patterns I have from many moons ago, he chose one from that book rather than any of the online patterns he had seen.  It was late enough in the evening that we didn't get any further with our project, but this morning we made more progress.  I pulled out my box with lots of thread in it, and David chose the colors he wanted to use; then I got a piece of cloth, a hoop, a needle, and so forth out of my cedar chest.  We were ready.

And so we began!  David was a quick learner, and has spent quite a bit of time working on this already today.  I'm really proud of him!  :)

 When I think back to my own childhood, one of the things I appreciate is how my brother David and I had such a close relationship and loved being together so much that we got to do all the "boy stuff" and all the "girl stuff," too.  We'd play football together, then come into the house and sit on the couch and crochet.  I was glad to be active and outdoorsy with him, and he was glad to do cooking and needlework and so forth with me.  There was no reluctance to participate in something because "only girls do that," for example.  I LOVED that.

I also love the fact that my son David, who does flips on the trampoline like nobody's business, who chases his brothers around the yard yelling battle cries as he goes, who jumps at the opportunity to tell his jokes to someone new, who rolls his eyes when I get teary-eyed while reading Miracles on Maple Hill aloud, who wears his roller blades to zoom around the barber shop and sweep up hair on Friday afternoons, who is all-boy...  This same boy was thrilled to learn how to use a needle, some thread, and a piece of cloth to create something of beauty.  The fact that he chose a pattern with a Scripture verse was icing on the cake.

Did I mention I'm proud of him??  :)

Moriah's Big Accomplishment

When the weather began to get warm this spring, I helped Moriah get on the trampoline, thinking that she was going to LOVE it and was going to enjoy SO many hours of jumping on it and wasn't it going to be GREAT?  The first few times on it, she did NOT love it and didn't think it was great AT ALL--and forget about HOURS on it, she didn't even want to spend a couple MINUTES there!

But then...

I suppose you could say she got used to it.  The rolling, unsteady-on-her-feet motion didn't feel so strange, and she even began to--gasp!--enjoy it!  :)

She still needed help to get on and off the trampoline, and I didn't mind so much, but it definitely limited me in what I could do while outside if I needed to be right there at the trampoline with Moriah.

But then...

She learned how to conquer that without my help.

Yesterday morning, while the kids and I savored homemade pineapple popsicles outside on the patio, we watched Moriah perfect the art of getting on and off the trampoline by herself.  A sliding board attached to a trampoline is a wonderful thing, and a little girl who conquers her fear of going down it without holding to someone's hand is, too.    :)

It's one more small step towards independence!  :)

My Parents Today

My mother picking up sticks, one of probably her two favorite activities these days (the other is playing the piano)...

My dad, posing for a picture that will be hung on the volunteer wall of a local thrift store where he helps out as a cashier one or two times a week...

Have I mentioned recently how grateful I am to be the daughter of this incredible couple??  :)

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday {First Strawberry from Our Patch}

I cut it into five little pieces, and each child got a taste.

It was perfect.

.Now we're even more eager for the next ones to ripen!  :)

My Thoughts about Jen Hatmaker's 7

I wasn't planning to read this book.

After all, except for a post or two someone linked to on Facebook, I've never read Jen Hatmaker's blog; and really, all I remembered from what I did read was that she's a master at self-deprecating humor.  I didn't even remember what she looked like or where she lived (I thought Florida, turns out it's Texas).

Besides, there's something in me that pushes back with quite a big shove when I hear about the Latest and Greatest book to come down the Christian publishing pipe.  When I start to hear the buzz and see an abundance of blog and Facebook posts about a new book that's SO GOOD and EVERYONE SHOULD READ IT and it will REVOLUTIONIZE your life, that's a pretty big clue for me to make a mental note that I don't want to read that one.  I'm not exactly sure why that is.  I guess I have a little bit of a rebel in me.  ;-)

But as I was saying, I had no intentions whatsoever to read a book called 7: An Experimental Mutiny against Excess.  It sounded a little weird...and extreme...and, well, entirely too popular for me to be interested.

I'm really not sure what changed my mind.  I wish I could remember because that would be an interesting part of my story, but alas, I do not.  What I do know is that one night a vague little thought, "Maybe I would like to read that book," entered my mind; then I thought, "Well, I definitely don't want to BUY it. I'll just look online and see if our library has it."

It did.

"Well, I guess I'll go ahead and reserve it."

I did.

It took a while for the library to contact me that it was ready to be picked up; I suppose someone else had it checked out for several weeks.  (That's what happens when you try to read POPULAR books.)  ;-)  But eventually I got the email that it was at the library, I went by and got it, and then I started to read.

It didn't take long for me to realize that I had grossly underestimated the book.  Now that I've read it once and am reading it again, I think it's safe to say that I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be one of the most influential--if not, THE most influential--book I read all year.

Two things worked together to heighten the impact on my heart.  First of all, the timing was perfect.  May is a fairly open month, schedule-wise, for me; and each year when May rolls around, I find myself automatically shifting into a lower gear than I was running at during the school year, which leads to wonderful times of re-evaluation--of my home and the way I keep it, of our homeschool and the way I teach it, of my children and the way I mother them, and, in general, my life and the way I live it.  If I had read 7 back in October or in March, at the heights of busy-ness in each semester, I would have likely felt overwhelmed and wouldn't have seen my way clear to making many changes.  Even if I had read it in January, I don't think I would have taken it to heart as much as I have now, because the rush of good intentions that come at the beginning of the year tend to die out as soon as the regular school-year schedule picks up again after Christmas break.  I wonder if God delayed the return of that book to the library so that I would end up receiving it at a time when I was most receptive.  :)

Second, I love books that challenge me.  I crave that.  I don't want to read books that just tell me how much God loves me (I know He does, and I'm eternally grateful for that) or how beautiful I am (I know that, too--not at all that I'm beautiful in a this-is-the-next-Mrs.-America way but in the God-made-me-and-that-makes-me-beautiful way) or what a great purpose God has for my life (thank you, that's great, but I already know that, too).  Please understand: I'm not putting down those messages.  They are vitally important, and for the place that some people are at on their spiritual journey, they are the most important lessons to be learned.  But I've been walking with God long enough that it's easy for me to be complacent, so when a book (or a sermon or conversation or whatever) comes along that opens my eyes to my sin and gives me a kick in the pants to do something about it, I actually LOVE that.  Why?  Because I'm crazy about growth.  I don't want to stay the same as I am now.  I want to continue to be transformed into the likeness of Jesus; and by God's grace, that is what is happening.

And so, I began to read 7.  For the sake of this post making sense to more people than just me, let me summarize the book in this way.  While hosting people displaced by a hurricane, Jen had a wake-up call that her family was actually quite wealthy compared to most of the people in the world.  She began a process of re-evaluation in seven specific areas: food, clothing, possessions, media, waste, spending, and stress.  She spent a month on each of those areas, making radical changes in how she and her family live life--not with the goal of simplifying for the sake of simplicity, but always with the goal of how to better follow Jesus.

From the beginning of the book, I admired Jen's courage to bite off such an ambitious project, but I was still pushing back some against the idea that I needed to do the same.  For example, I thought...

"Is it necessary, when we see someone do something like this and be so moved and changed by it, for us to replicate the experiment?  Is it the call of God for us as well?  Or can we simply say, 'That's great that they are hearing God's voice in that way and being faithful to obey, but that's not what God is asking of me?'  Or is that just making an excuse because we don't want to do that hard thing?"

...and also...

"Similarly, is it enough to read about her experiences and come to the same conclusions as she does (that our lives are filled with excess and need to be reduced so Christ can be more)?  Or would the impact on my own heart be much more deep and lasting if I were actually to do what she did?  Can I get the convictions second-hand, or do I have to learn by doing?"

Can you tell that I wasn't immediately fired up to make the sacrifices that Jen had made?  :)

I'll jump ahead far enough in the story to tell you that I haven't taken the same actions Jen did, but I have made some changes, and in the days to come I hope to write about those things.  I think in the future, I'll enjoy looking back on these posts and reading what I was feeling challenged by and how I was changing here in the late spring of 2014.  And who knows?  Maybe I'll be able to look back and see how the course of my life changed--maybe ever so slightly, but still a difference--because I read Jen Hatmaker's 7.

Let me end with an excerpt from the Introduction.  Jen writes...

How can I be socially responsible if unaware that I reside in the top percentage of wealth in the world? (You probably do too: Make $35,000 a year? Top 4 percent. $50,000? Top 1 percent.) Excess has impaired perspective in America; we are the richest people on earth, praying to get richer.  We're tangled in unmanageable debt while feeding the machine, because we feel entitled to more.  What does it communicate when half the global population lives on less than $2 a day, and we can't manage a fulfilling life on twenty-five thousand times that amount? Fifty thousand times that amount? 

It says we have too much, and it is ruining us. 

It was certainly ruining me.  The day I am unaware of my privileges and unmoved by my greed is the day something has to change...

(This series of posts continues here with the First Seven and here with the Second Seven and concludes here with The Rest of the Sevens.)

Making a Day of It {Air & Space Museum}

This morning we headed north for a church service in the DC area; but rather than returning home directly after it, we took a little detour and made a stop that we've been talking about doing for a really long time.

Here.  (You just gotta love free museums!)  :)

It was fun to announce to the boys, while we were riding along munching on sandwiches and pretzels and applesauce in the van, that we would be going to this museum--they had no idea--but what was REALLY fun was seeing their faces, especially Tobin's, when we got inside the museum.  I wish I could have a videorecording of his expression after we walked in.  He was looking to the left, at all the items in the gift shop, and was exclaiming about the model airplanes and other things displayed in the windows.  Then Jeff told him to look the other way; and when he saw the expanse of the museum FILLED with real airplanes, his jaw literally dropped.  He had the most surprised, delighted expression you could ever imagine.  That moment made it all worthwhile, even if the rest of our time there had been worthless.  Which it wasn't, of course...  :)

 There were SO MANY airplanes there.  A true aviation enthusiast would have wanted to spend all day there, reading all the informative signs and so forth; but we kept strolling along, with occasional pauses when something interesting caught our eye.  What I appreciated most about it, from an educational standpoint, was how the things we were seeing connected with the things we've been reading about: i.e. seeing swastikas on planes from WWII (which we're currently studying in history), seeing the plane of a man who tried to fly it just a few days before the Wright brothers successfully flew theirs (earlier this year, Josiah and David read a book about Wilbur and Orville, and we've also been to Kitty Hawk to see where their first flights happened), etc.  To tell you the truth, I'm not really hard core about getting the most information possible out of a field trip.  I don't prepare a checklist ahead of time.  I don't give a quiz afterwards.  We just go, have fun, see what we happen to see...and then the best part?  The dots get connected between knowledge we've acquired at other times and in other ways and new knowledge that we're gaining on that field trip.  The fun of seeing those connections "just happen" is a powerful motivator for me to keep homeschooling.  :)

 At one pause, I asked Tobin and Shav if I could take their picture, and they said they wanted to do a silly picture...

 ...then a serious one...

 ...then a scary one.  (Admit it: you're terrified.)  ;-)

 While I was trailing the family and watching all of them walk ahead of me, I suddenly realized how tall Josiah looks compared to Jeff.  It's a highly-anticipated rite of passage when a boy surpasses his mom and his dad in height.  I have a feeling that day will be here before we know it!  :)

 One neat thing about the museum was the walkways on various levels, so you could end up seeing each aircraft from different angles--sometimes even directly above it and directly below it.  As we made our way through the museum, we circled back around and saw some of the same exhibits, but in a new way...which explains why there is a picture of a space shuttle here, and you'll see more of that in a little bit because each time we went by it on a different level, I took more pictures.

When we were walking along this top walkway, I was literally getting dizzy and had to hold onto the hand railing as I went along.  The combination of being up pretty high in the building with that huge space below plus reading about various planes and gliders and how high each one went and world records for ascents and things like that--well, it made my head start spinning and my stomach start feeling topsy-turvy.  I'm such a wimp when it comes to heights!  :)

Shav made me laugh when he looked over at this display (below) and said, "That looks like a roll of toilet paper!"  :)  (It sorta does!)

 The last thing we did before we left was to go up to the observation tower that has a wonderful view of Dulles Airport; but by this time, Moriah had HAD it and was being generally uncooperative and feisty (I had assumed she would nap in the car between the church service and the museum, but she very decidedly DID NOT).  Jeff kindly stayed below and entertained her while the boys and I went up the tower.

 It was so much fun to watch planes come in to land.

 I think I probably got more excited about it than the boys did (although they enjoyed it, too).  ;-)

 You could not have ordered a more perfect day weather-wise for this little field trip.  The sky was gorgeous, visibility was perfect, and...oh wait! here comes another airplane!  :)

I finally tore myself away, and we went back down the elevator to meet Jeff and Moriah for the trip home.

We got home later than we usually do, of course, but it was so worth it to make a day of it and include this destination.  I'm already thinking of other places we can visit when we once again travel north on a Sunday.  :)