Help For Haiti

In the wake of the horrible earthquake in Haiti, our family wanted to do something to help. But I did not just want me to write a check and then tell the children that we had helped. I have stated before that one of our main goals is to teach our children to be charitable toward their fellow beings, so I really wanted them to be part of this giving process. We are loaded down with medical/therapy appointments right now, and the kids are too young to work for local organizations that are helping out. So what to do? I was standing in my kitchen thinking about what to do and realized that even though it was almost grocery shopping day, we were not down to crumbs like we often are. There were lots of varieties of flour, 4 pounds of carrots, a little bit of meat (about 1.5 pounds) and a bag of organic potatoes (please note, it is essential to eat only organic potatoes or those you grow yourself), several cans of beans, four gluten-free muffin mixes, two bags of rice cakes, 3 pounds of frozen fruit and a host of miscellaneous items. My children eat lots of fruit and LOVE vegetables, but fruit is especially expensive this time of year. My dh and I decided that we would try to get by on what we had and spend only $30 for groceries this week. We usually spend about $100 per week for our family of six. Our grocery shopping runs from Thursday to Thursday. We will send the remainder of our grocery money to Samaritan's Purse or Partners in Health. This is the best way I could think of to help the kids FEEL that they were giving. Yes, they will probably complain a little bit, but they are so blessed to have all that they have.  I am sure that we will have many teachable moments in the coming week. I expect that our week will have very few desserts; we will probably run out of fresh fruit by mid week; and there will be almost no meat with meals. Did you hear my husband and Timothy groan on that last one? Gasp -- ALMOST NO MEAT?!!

I am also going to use this opportunity to learn some of Clara's cooking techniques. Have you watched any of Depression Cooking with Clara on YouTube? I love her show.We had Peppers and Eggs for lunch today. Yummy!!!

This is what I bought today for $22 from our scratch and dent store. They carry organic produce and meat from local farmers as well as scratch and dent items.


My husband's only request was that we stick with our plan of eating 75% organically and mostly gluten free. Everything here is organic except the red pepper. The remaining $8 will be spent on organic peanut butter and yeast to make bread. We will only give a tiny bit of homemade bread to Tom Sawyer, who is the one we notice has the most trouble with gluten. He seems okay if he only has a little bit of gluten three times a week. I know groaning about this amount of food is really silly when you think of the Haitians who have been surviving on MUD cookies for the last couple years, but we are spoiled. I'll let you know how we did. 

Blessings, Dawn