Awakened.

yogurt cups
string cheese
applesauce cups
applesauce squeezies
fruit cups
cookie packs
granola bars
single-serving chips
capri sun pouches
juice boxes
plastic baggies

read: packaging, packaging, packaging

That is the norm of a packed lunch box. We think we're doing better by sending kids with healthy foods, but the truth is it's all processed packaged foods that's killing our world to make and still has junk in it with ingredients we can't pronounce.

I finished reading the book 7:an experimental mutiny against excess and my soul has been awakened. To the realities of our life and the world around us, the social norms, the thoughtless habits we do on a daily basis.  It's disgusting, it's careless, and I want to change. In 7 major areas:

FOOD

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 CLOTHES

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 POSESSIONS

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 MEDIA

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WASTE

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.

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SPENDING

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STRESS

I'm lending out the book right now to friends who are sort of starting a book club with me, so this won't be a full book review including all my favorite quotes I underlined.  But just some thoughts of ways I'm going to try to change...

* This school year I want to stop buying single-serving anything and find a small tackle box sort of thing for serving up lunch food into one container. If I can't find that then we'll try several small bowls and sandwich boxes but no more packaged foods and baggies.

* I hate recycling here but I'm going to try again. With everything. And maybe even read about composting.

* I want to switch to cloth napkins for family use.

* I want to start eating clean and not processed things, that even means cereal. 

* I'm trying the Pinterest trick and turned our clothes hangers backward in the closet so I can tell what things get worn and what things have stayed put for months. We will then purge the extras.

* I want to fast from spending and start living by this rule: If you think you want something, wait a month. One of three things will happen if you follow this sage advice. One: you will forget. Two: you will no longer need it. or Three: you will need it more. Most often numbers one and two will happen.

"Just because I can have it doesn't mean I should." This applies to more than just spending, it applies to food too. As Americans we are impulsive and do things without thought because we live in such bounty. 

"There are a limited number of resources in this world, and when we take more than we need, we are stealing from others."

* I want to search for ways to directly serve the poor. It's sooo not as easy here in small-town Nebraska as it may be in Austin, TX in the heart of a huge city. But "...the great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor." It's so much easier to dump off our things at Goodwill and let them sort it all out and leave feeling good about ourselves only so we can go home and buy more things to fill the space.  Surely, there are ways we can still GIVE and actually SERVE, to bridge the gap between us and "them".  The church is so busy holding Bible studies, women's groups, family events, etc etc etc,  and blessing the blessed what do we do to actually live the gospel by serving the least of us?

* I want to, especially on Sabbath, observe the calls to prayer 7 times a day. Such sweet time with the Lord, "an oasis to remember the sacredness of life, who we are, how to offer God the incredible gift of our lives, and learning to be in the midst of so much doing."

Ahhh so much going on inside of me. I am awakened.