Imagine your life…without cell phones, tv, computers, INTERNET (oh no…no facebook, pinterest?!), a car, a dishwasher, a microwave, a toaster oven, a hairdryer (girls!) and straightener, and anything with electricity. Most people reading this are thinking they couldn’t live without it (as I thought the same thing!) Some people are thinking that would be nice…except “I need my microwave!”
Our family just finished a class that was 2 weeks long called Simple Living, and please note the title of the blog…not so simple!! I said “our family just finished it” because it wasn’t just BJ and me that had to live this way, Olivia and Sophie had to suffer with us!! Yes, for 2 weeks, we had to plan and cook all meals from scratch, using only the oven and stove (because they are gas operated). We had to plan them, because we were not allowed to get in our car and go to the store. If we ran out of an ingredient, or didn’t plan for it, we had to make something else! We had to literally only eat stuff from scratch! Olivia eats a peanut butter and jelly sandwich everyday, so I go to make her one after school the first day, and woops…I haven’t made our bread that morning! I did learn how to make bread, however, without a bread machine or mixer (lots of kneading!) and our sandwiches were awesome! Of course, we didn’t have that yummy deli turkey…no, I had to buy a ham and cook it up! Hopefully some of you are laughing, because we definitely were!!!
The other part of our “mission” (I like to think of it as a game!) was to not use electronics and lights had to be out at 8pm (yes, we could use lights!) Some electronics that might come to mind is the computer! We use them for everything! I need a recipe, just look it up on the computer. I need to see what my high school friends are up to…check on facebook! I need to see what Pickyourplum.com is selling today…check it real quick to see if I need to buy it! You get the point. It was a set-back, but I found i hardly had time for this (which I will whine about in a minute!) Another electronic is the microwave. I didn’t realize how much I use it until it was taken away. We come home for lunch and want to eat leftovers and just about pop it in the microwave and wait…cant! So we warmed up manicotti on the stove! Not the same effect! Olivia wants some soup…have to warm up a tiny amount in a sauce pan! Another thing…the tv! No Oklahoma or Arkansas football games. No movies. This was hard! How about cell phones?! I felt so out of the loop not being able to talk to anyone, not even email them. Sorry for those of you who had a birthday (Kristina) and I couldn’t call you…and your card came 2 weeks late because I couldn’t look up your address on the computer! Whew!
The lights out part was pretty nice because it made us sit down in the same room and just relax by candle light, or lantern! The problem…we got bored and wanted to go to bed at 9:00!
People all the time say that they wish life were more simple. Well, what I want to say is “honey, if you would’ve lived back in the day, you wouldn’t have thought it was that simple!” I felt like I was doing chores all day long: making bread, doing the dishes, making breakfast, lunch and dinner, more dishes, no shortcuts, no phone calls-I had to walk to friends to tell them hey!, homemade snacks, more dishes, etc. Do you see what I mean?! I have taken for granted my dishwasher and microwave…and hopefully you will notice how much thanks your dishwasher needs! The good part I will say is that I didn’t waste a lot of time on the internet and BJ and I really did get a lot of quality time together!
All of this was such great training for us because we are realistically going to be dealing with this all the time in the tribe! This is just a taste of what it is going to be like! But also, lets add in not knowing the language, not having family/friends around, possibly getting sick, nasty bugs everywhere, people always watching you and coming to your door, homeschooling, and much more.
Please don’t give up on me! I am very excited to be doing all of this! If the Lord allows me to live like this, so that a people group can hear the Gospel and be in Heaven…it will all be worth it!!!
(stay tuned for part 2 of the simple living class…camping with 2 girls!)