....as I am now off to Christianity Explored and will have to avoid eating Pizza for tea. Other than that, I am really looking forward to week 2 with our amazing group of 7 delegates and 5 team members.
Actually am full up on the Egg Fried Rice, which I shared with Tom, which was really delicious.
Elyse had 2 slices of white bread pizza - plastic cheese and tomato and chilli puree ( special offer)
DRAMA for Tom and I as our budget wholemeal bread is showing signs of mould!!
So we chopped off the crusts and sorted through to find the slices that had not succombed. It was a worry for a while.
It is now in the freezer.
Not much to report really on LBTL conversations other than with work friends who are either on it or are planning to be on it.
However, I did say hello to our new neighbour across the road who is living in a bit of a building site at the moment. I empathised - we have lived like that twice in this house.
Anyway, she invited me in to see how it is all going. Thinking about making her a cake at the weekend as she was at a funeral today too.
It's going to be amazing when its finished though and I really didn't think she was in the mood to hear about MY week long challenge when she's going to be living in a bit of a mess for some time.
Wednesday, 30 April 2014
The REAL Day Two - Tuesday ( Craving a Cuppa)
No headaches today!
Tom decided he would take rice and veg to school instead of 'just bread' - 'it was nice' apparently.
Elyse's thermos let her down and so she is now off beans for life - ' that smell'.
My lunch was pasta , sauce and the ubiquitous frozen mixed veg. I got bored about 2/3rds through.
Messy Church this evening, so we arrived after eating at home and had to run the gauntlett of delicious cooking smells at church AND a riot of cake and cookies for dessert - the kids found that REALLY tough.
Messy Church was about Noah and the God's Promises - he always keep them. I found myself promising MYSELF a whole POT of tea on Friday!
Tom and I did share a teabag when I got in from work - it was that or a couple of biscuits. Honestly,one day without tea and I was making noises like I was eating a gourmet meal!! Weird.
Anyway, good conversations with people at Messy Church about why we are doing this. Although the money we are raising will go to Reducing Poverty Projects overseas, there is much talk about the needs in UK. People seem to be able to equate with that more that thinking about what happens in Africa for example. I talked about the irony of the fact that the food we were relying so heavily on this week - rice - is the same food that those people overseas would be eating, and growing and often finding themselves exploited over. It's a complex issue
Tom decided he would take rice and veg to school instead of 'just bread' - 'it was nice' apparently.
Elyse's thermos let her down and so she is now off beans for life - ' that smell'.
My lunch was pasta , sauce and the ubiquitous frozen mixed veg. I got bored about 2/3rds through.
Messy Church this evening, so we arrived after eating at home and had to run the gauntlett of delicious cooking smells at church AND a riot of cake and cookies for dessert - the kids found that REALLY tough.
Messy Church was about Noah and the God's Promises - he always keep them. I found myself promising MYSELF a whole POT of tea on Friday!
Tom and I did share a teabag when I got in from work - it was that or a couple of biscuits. Honestly,one day without tea and I was making noises like I was eating a gourmet meal!! Weird.
Anyway, good conversations with people at Messy Church about why we are doing this. Although the money we are raising will go to Reducing Poverty Projects overseas, there is much talk about the needs in UK. People seem to be able to equate with that more that thinking about what happens in Africa for example. I talked about the irony of the fact that the food we were relying so heavily on this week - rice - is the same food that those people overseas would be eating, and growing and often finding themselves exploited over. It's a complex issue
Monday, 28 April 2014
Day Two
Uneventful I suppose and a little bit excited - looking forward to Egg Fried Rice tomorrow.
Elyse was very organised today, taking a flask of saucy pasta. Tom - suffering with hayfever this morning - not so, just taking 2 slices of bread into school which was clearly not enough. However, he held to the Line and his snack, when he got in, was a bowl of rice rather than 2x Granary bread smothered in Nutella - yeah no chocolatey knife left 'on the side'
I have had a headache all day, but I think it's a bit early to be suffering withdrawal from tea and coffee, so possibly I am just tired ( and possibly not related to LBTL just yet). Many apologies to a work colleague who suffered my yawns while we were having a chat this afternoon.
My overriding feeling is currently horror at the huge reliance we have placed on carbs - our protein coming from eggs and kidney beans.
Chats on FB about accepting a cup of tea from someone else - if it's not in our allowance we can't have it. Sad Face!!
You do become aware of how may places there are to buy food, how many people just walk along the street willy nilly eating something with no thought, not savouring every mouthful...mind you, savouring thin pasta sauce?
Still I am blessed that we do not need to eat porridge - eggs and toast again tomorrow and NO BISCUITS OR TEA AT SMALL GROUP..........Sad Face!! ( again)
Elyse was very organised today, taking a flask of saucy pasta. Tom - suffering with hayfever this morning - not so, just taking 2 slices of bread into school which was clearly not enough. However, he held to the Line and his snack, when he got in, was a bowl of rice rather than 2x Granary bread smothered in Nutella - yeah no chocolatey knife left 'on the side'
I have had a headache all day, but I think it's a bit early to be suffering withdrawal from tea and coffee, so possibly I am just tired ( and possibly not related to LBTL just yet). Many apologies to a work colleague who suffered my yawns while we were having a chat this afternoon.
My overriding feeling is currently horror at the huge reliance we have placed on carbs - our protein coming from eggs and kidney beans.
Chats on FB about accepting a cup of tea from someone else - if it's not in our allowance we can't have it. Sad Face!!
You do become aware of how may places there are to buy food, how many people just walk along the street willy nilly eating something with no thought, not savouring every mouthful...mind you, savouring thin pasta sauce?
Still I am blessed that we do not need to eat porridge - eggs and toast again tomorrow and NO BISCUITS OR TEA AT SMALL GROUP..........Sad Face!! ( again)
Sunday, 27 April 2014
Living Below the Line 2014
So, here we are again, preparing to live on £1 a day for 5 days in order to support The Salvation Army raise funds to educate and empower people in our partner territories out of poverty.
No - what we are doing is not comparable to how those people live. I still have my car, my house, my tv, all my 'mod cons'.
I also still have to function as a human being and in my job - last time I did this we were on a week long holiday, so although I recall the tiredness and detox pains and pangs, I didn't have to drive to, for example Basildon or Hatfield Peverel and I didn't have to operate a laptop, be mildly coherent most of the time and could have a little snooze if the feeling overwhelmed me.
What this is doing is raising awareness once again, that people overseas and actually in the UK have to live below the line every single day of the week. Handouts are relatively cheap compared to the long haul need for education and belief that it takes to change a paradigm in some cases
This afternoon, with my personal £5 budget x 3,Elyse Tom and I hit the supermarket and were astonished once again and how expensive everything is, yes even the Budget Brands, which is where we spent our allowance.
Sunday lunch is nicely digesting away and I have a nice hot cuppa on the table which I will enjoy - in fact I will have a few more before turning in later this evening and looking forward to a challenging week - Small Group tomorrow evening, just water please. Messy Church on Tuesday - we'll arrive after tea probably.....and it goes on.
£5 - 5 days.
Sponsor us here https://www.livebelowtheline.com/team/hall-family
No - what we are doing is not comparable to how those people live. I still have my car, my house, my tv, all my 'mod cons'.
I also still have to function as a human being and in my job - last time I did this we were on a week long holiday, so although I recall the tiredness and detox pains and pangs, I didn't have to drive to, for example Basildon or Hatfield Peverel and I didn't have to operate a laptop, be mildly coherent most of the time and could have a little snooze if the feeling overwhelmed me.
What this is doing is raising awareness once again, that people overseas and actually in the UK have to live below the line every single day of the week. Handouts are relatively cheap compared to the long haul need for education and belief that it takes to change a paradigm in some cases
This afternoon, with my personal £5 budget x 3,Elyse Tom and I hit the supermarket and were astonished once again and how expensive everything is, yes even the Budget Brands, which is where we spent our allowance.
Sunday lunch is nicely digesting away and I have a nice hot cuppa on the table which I will enjoy - in fact I will have a few more before turning in later this evening and looking forward to a challenging week - Small Group tomorrow evening, just water please. Messy Church on Tuesday - we'll arrive after tea probably.....and it goes on.
£5 - 5 days.
Sponsor us here https://www.livebelowtheline.com/team/hall-family
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