Flyer bomb

Well, some realities set in today. I was fishing on the weekend (I don't get out a whole lot) but I was on the Bow river in Calgary trying it out. First few casts my brother caught a nice rainbow trout. We thought we were in for a good day. 4 hours later nothing else. As we were starting to pack up some other guys came down to the river where we were fishing. They were fly fishing, and they caught about 7 fish in 10 minutes. My brother, dad and I all looked at eachother and said we need to learn to fly fish.

Where is this story going... I can't get a fly fishing rod for a year at least. That is the first problem, 2nd problem is that since then my mail box has been bombarded with Bass Pro flyers, which I never read, but have had a strange desire to take a good long week. I even found myself searching online to see what I would like. Anyway, I guess I will have to learn to catch trout without a fly rod, but the fish was delicious. Until next time.

Robot Creation

I feel like these days I have much more time on my hands. I have found that I ask myself "hey should I be stopping somewhere?" hoping that I might have a reason, but I don't and I found that I like it! Instead I am coming home and it is good. I have more time to do the things I really want to do and need to do. I haven't been so behindin the day to day chores of life and I feel like I have much more time to spend with my family doing new activities instead of shopping at the mall.

Like Jason said we had a birthday party for a little friend of Dane's, so I decided to make him a Robot. I was happy to find that I had everything I needed in my sewing box. It was fun to create.

Bad blogger

Well, I am realizing one thing through all of this... I am a bad blogger. Anyway, here we are and it is October 12th. We are 12 days into this adventure and its been fun. I had my first eye opener... I had to go get some groceries, while wandering through the store I found myself thinking, ooh that's nice, I should get it. Or, Dane could use a new little t-shirt, I like that one. Suddenly it hit me how well I am trained to shop. It was a shocking yet good realization.

Today is the big grocery shop for the week, Carissa is out braving the store with 2 little boys, We will see if she returns triumphant. I am supposed to be off to a meeting, but there has been a mix up with keys and I am stuck at home waiting until she returns.

We also had our first experience of going to a birthday and having had to have planned a head, since we couldn't stop on the way and grab a gift, gift bag and card. I'll let Carissa post the gift idea and the result. I thought it turned out great! It was for one of Dane's little friends. I think he liked it. Anyway, back to being productive.

4 days in

Well, either you all thought we failed to begin or we died when Oct 1st happened. Neither are true. In fact, things are going well. We are underway... Carissa is upstairs in the kitchen blending all our tomato bounty from the garden into delicious soup for the next while.

We are excited right now, and the urge to spend has not reared its ugly head yet, though a few days before it was definitely tempting to go out and get a couple things, which we did not. However, we spent the weekend in Chilliwack, BC with family and I brought home some fresh salmon from the river. That was some fun fishing! It wasn't my catch though. Anyways, we are excited about this next year, there is no turning back now. We are all in.

Reality setting in...

Well, here we are 4 days away from the launch date. We have finished all the birthday festivities for our 2 year old (as of today) and we are starting to think, uh oh... no more new stuff... do we need anything? We have 4 days left how many stores can we hit before we can't anymore. Well actually we found ourselves in the mall a couple of days ago and I said, "I am not going to miss this place"... Well at least that's what I said then. We'll see a month from now, or even a couple days in. We want what we can't have. Hopefully I will be able to break that habit. Carissa's cake turned out great despite the upset stomach, here's a peak:

Dane and the kids loved it. The parents weren't sold on us giving it to their kids... It was a great day. Excited about what is creeping closer and closer. Oct 1 is coming quick, the adventure is imminent.

Cake Shananigans!

The countdown is on but I feel like we have already begun. I went to the grocery store tonight to pick up a few items to make a cake for Dane's birthday. I stood and stared at the cashier after she told me my total was $77 something.... WHAT? I felt like I might throw up. I didn't know what to do so I sheepishly handed over the old MC and headed out the door with my cake mix and candy. How often has this happened to me, where I walk out of the grocery store with a bag full of junk. Don't get me wrong... I love the junk and my little boy is worth every penny and more but could I show him in a different more meaningful way? I know I can. I need to.

- Carissa

Carissa walked through the door after grocery shopping, and I thought she was going to fall over or something. She looked absolutely stunned... I asked her what was up to which she replied, "I spent $70 on a birthday cake, I feel sick to my stomach" As we searched the bag we realized there was a little more to it than that. Eggs, vitamins, milk, yogourt, and some baby needs, wipes etc... So it wasn't all cake, but either way it definitely showed us how quickly wants add up. Quite an eye opener. Looks like we will have a lot to learn.

-Jason

9 days...

Lately we have been challenged to think of what life could look like if it were simpler. Books, conversations, and the desire for a more meaningful life have brought us to these questions. What would we do with ourselves if we weren't frequenting the malls, or taste testing the newest Boston Pizza menu? Could we cut out shopping, and live Simply? What would THAT look like? We don't know but we have decided that this year we will find out.

A couple years ago we read an article about a family of 6 who lived on $35,000/year, you can read the article here. This inspired us, but not enough to launch us into action. Perhaps we were not ready or more likely not willing to make the necessary changes to live simpler.

This year a new friend of mine told me about a year long journey she took with her family of living a "compact life". They took a compact to take a year off of shopping. You can read about their experience here. Their experiment trigger more interest and inspiration in our lives but still not enough to push us out of our comfort zone.

I then read the book "Eat, Pray, Love" and was challenged to live a more disciplined life. Thinking of discipline, I picked up a book that I have read before "Celebration of Discipline" by Richard J. Foster and began to seriously consider a simpler life.

My husband was also on his own journey. Mounting external stresses and the realities of having a job relying on fundraising to get paid had begun to take its tole. He began to talk about the need to buckle down on spending and simplify life for the sake of our family. He was given the book "Freedom of Simplicity" to read. Funny, it is also by Richard J. Foster. We began to talk about what this Disciplined Simple Life might look like.

This is what our next year will look like:

Disciplined and Simple. We have decided to take a year off of shopping.

To take a year to separate needs from wants.

To learn to be creative and resourceful.

To make our relationships more meaningful.

To be generous with what we have been given.

To save money.

To be good stewards.

To grow in our faith.

It is our hope that as we tune out our desire to consume we will tune in our desire to be consumed by Christ. We hope that this experiment will remove distractions in our lives and allow us to live a more centered, meaningful, simpler life.

Feel free to follow us in our 365 day journey. We will begin in 9 days, October 1st.