Vegan Goodness:
Today we ate:
- Breakfast: Blueberry smoothies for Dad and LP and then Puffy Pillow Pancakes. I love pancakes on snow days! Heck, I love pancakes on any day!
- We snacked on leftover curried pakora puffs
- Lunch: Leftover lentils and rice and miso soup
- Dinner: Mushroom risotto
Money Matters:
Today we hunkered down inside- no money spent!
Why I didn’t go shopping before Snowmaggedon
On Wednesday we first started to hear about the snowstorm coming our way. By Thursday it was clear we were going to get at least a foot of snow, and possibly two, over the course of 48 hours. Everything thing was going to be shut down and we needed to be prepared. We heard this on the radio on Thursday morning while we were fixing breakfast, and I turned to the G-man and said “I guess we better get to the store today.”
Not a strange thing to say, right? A storm is coming. All the news programs were telling us to stock up. But as soon as I said that I was reminded of what I had said to the G-man less than 24 hours earlier. On Wednesday I issued a proclamation that I only wanted to buy fresh produce and soymilk between now and the end of the month. Our fridge and freezer were overflowing! Our pantry was bursting at the seams! Surely we could make it through the shortest month of the year without adding any more “staples.”
When I heard the news about Snowstorm Nemo (they have names now! Now I’m visualizing this storm as a clown fish) I immediately started making a grocery list in my head of all the things we needed to stock up on. Then I remembered my big plan to avoid shopping for anything non-fresh (i.e. not “storm-stocking-up-quality”) in the next few weeks. “Why the sudden about face?” I thought to myself. It became clear to me that shopping the day before the storm was a knee-jerk reaction, almost an instinct. Bad weather is coming? Get some food! Get some bottled water! Get some batteries!
And how many other events in our lives elicit the same reaction? Valentine’s Day is coming. Have you got your gift yet? Heck, I was sick this week and I was tempted to go wander the Whole Foods aisles and see what sounded good. Trust me, as someone who has done that too many times in her life, that is the worst shopping plan ever.
So, I questioned my initial instinct to run to the store and stock up. Stock up on what? I looked at our food stores. We have canned soup, extra boxed soymilk and loads and loads of crackers. We have frozen veggies, leftover sloppy joe’s and homemade bread. Nobody in this house is going to starve. We have a camp stove, flashlights, a hand crank radio, matches and candles. We have tons of blankets. We even have brandy. What more do you need to ride out a storm!
So, we didn’t go to the store yesterday. Instead the G-man took LP to the park and then to the library. We stocked up on Duck and Goose books instead of canned goods, and we will ride out the storm just fine. While I’m sure that any food we would have bought would not have gone bad, the thing I realized is that we didn’t need to. We have everything we need. Not just for the storm. For living. We have shelter in the form of a house and home we love. We have each other (corny but true). We have children with way too many toys, but who can also be totally entertained with some cardboard, some crayons and a dish towel.* So, we are going to not only ride out the storm, but we are going to ride it out in comfort. We’re going to snuggle up and read books, and maybe the G-man and I will even watch a movie and have popcorn after the kids go to bed. Or, if our power goes out we’ll read our books by candlelight and have an excuse to eat the frozen cookie dough that might just “melt.” And we’ll not only survive, but we will continue to thrive.
Speaking of cookies, we are low on chocolate chips, so I might have to get creative with my chocolate baking . . . snowstorm brownies anyone?
*Seriously. IP loves to chew dishtowels these days.
