A Year of Abundance

Mama Squirrel and Meredith clued me in to this great suggestion by Sallie at A Gracious Home. She wants to live by the following saying in the coming year, and has invited others to join her:

Use it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do,
Or do without.

Mr. Honey and I have decided to pull away from overindulgence this year (especially, ahem, in the food area) and I think blogging about it with a focus on appreciating what we do have is a wonderful, positive way to make good on our commitment. I'm sure it won't be easy-- I have already blown it and it's only the 5th of January. (I don't think Mr. Honey has blown it. That man makes up his mind and is the Immovable Object. I'm the Irresistable Force when I want to be. Scary thought, isn't it? It's a good thing we get along so well. But that's another story.) I intend to pick myself up and try again when I fail this year, and not let the failures be the end of the commitment, but just another step (albeit a backward one, perhaps!) on the road to the goal.

I wasn't really sure how to start blogging about it, but I know we do have an abundance, because sometimes when I open the school supply closet things fall out and land on me. This gave me the idea of beginning by figuring out what we do have.

I was scared to go to that particular closet first, so I looked in the pantry instead, and I want you to know we will not be starving any time soon. We have so much. Especially flour and pasta and rice and other grains. Oh, goodness. I didn't realize I was stockpiling it. I made a list of what we had, categorizing it by type of food, and the list of starches/breads was so long it went down the entire sheet of notebook paper.

Just for laughs, here is the (fiendish) starchy list:

Ramen
Spaghetti noodles
Egg noodles
Boxed instant potatoes
Whole wheat flour
Triscuits
White flour
Club crackers
Whole oats
Pasta shells
Cinnamon Toast Crunch
Pioneer baking mix
Semolina flour
Flour tortillas
Whole wheat bread
Wheat germ
Goldfish crackers
Buckwheat flour
Cornmeal
Frosted mini-wheats
Popcorn
Raisin Bran
Whole millet
Cheerios
Brown rice
Saltines
Breadcrumbs

We are a family that does better with less sugar and refined flours. We do better when we eat enough protein and fruits and vegetables and not a lot of dairy. But "best" has given way to "convenience" in the last few months, and we are all paying the (lethargic, moody, irritable) price. We are now attempting to bring our eating habits back into line with what is good for us rather than what is fastest.