Back to normal... maybe

Yesterday morning we celebrated the end of my week Living Below the Line with a trip to Dart's Farm for breakfast.  £6.95 including coffee.  Flippin' wonderful! 

When we'd finished I could have eaten more - my five days of discipline have left me with a kind of lingering feeling of not being quite full after I've eaten.  If I'm honest, I often eat until my sides are aching a bit.  I'm going to try not to do that in future.

I wonder if it lasts.

It's Friday... but Saturday's coming!

One more sleep and I'll be free to choose what I eat and drink :o)  On my way to work this morning I was pondering what I'd change another time, thinking about what I'd missed the most.  I had to stop before the thought of toast and marmalade drove me nuts!

This has been such an interesting week on so many levels.  I've read about it, seen the photos in the press, seen the TV coverage, heard about poverty first hand from people out there, working amongst the poorest of the poor, but taking this tiny step into someone else's shoes and sharing their experience in a small way, has given me a much better idea of what it must be like to live in poverty through circumstance rather than choice.  It's brought me face to face with my own plenty too.

I'm beginning to love foraged-mint tea!

At the beginning of the year I was particularly challenged by what Gerard Kelly calls Christ's 'Message of the Mountain', the beatitudes. He calls it the heartbeat of Christ. 

In my journal for 8th January I've written "Blessed are the poor, the hungry, the oppressed.  I am none of these by circumstance, but if this is the very heart of Christ's plan for humanity then he calls me to choose these things.  To stand side by side with those who are poor, hungry and oppressed.  I'm afraid to look too closely!" 

I hadn't linked that time with Living Below the Line until just now when I started writing this blog.  Now, looking back through the pages of my journal I can see how God has answered my prayers - like this one "Father, give me courage.  Thank you for the comfort of my life... give me a brave heart that is willing to be open and vulnerable.  Show me how you want to bless the world in and through me."  Amazing. 

Truly, spending £1 a day on food and drink for just five days is not much more than a drop in the ocean of poverty.  But it's changed me.  It's raised over £500 for others (thank you chums).  And from the messages I've had it seems it's changed you too.

Bring it on!

Day 3... on the home strait :o)

Perhaps when you have enough to eat, hunger is a more of a psychological thing.  I don't get twitchy about where people squeeze the toothpaste tube, but I do when I see oranges in the fruit bowl still in their net.  I released five oranges from bondage this morning just after breakfast and suddenly felt 'hungry'.  I wasn't hungry at all, I just wanted (want!) to eat some fruit!



Note the nibbled corner... I couldn't resist it last night!

I was at Exmouth Pavilions all day today at the Salvation Army's Home and Family Rally.  That usually means a couple of coffees from Posh Nosh and lunch with Louise and Helen at the cafe along the seafront.  Not this year, BUT my chick pea pasty was lush and the lovely people at Posh Nosh gave me a cup of boiling water for mint tea. 



Helen's living below the line this week too, she was waving a bread roll around at me over lunch - she bought six of them last night for a crazy knock down price.  It's amazing how excited you can get about cheap food ;o)

Helen and Louise backstage.  Helen budgeted for tea bags!



Another thing about my friend Helen is that she's met the lovely woman in the photo below.  In fact, she's been invited into her home.  Her name is Margaret Banda and she lives in Malawi.  Her life has been turned around by the same charity we're supporting in Live Below the Line.  Good innit?!

  

Margaret Banda

A Salvation Army Rally is hard to describe!  It's a concert-prayerful-sing-along-thinky-bit-get-together kind of event.  Today's was called 'Bargain Hunt' and the guest speaker spoke about real treasure, not the flashy kind that looks good but isn't really worth much, but genuine, lasting treasure.  Some of the guests were invited to bring something of value with them and share its story with us. 

One officer who worked for many years in India brought with her a tray cloth.  She had been given it by a woman who had seen her first three children die within four months of their birth.  Then the Salvation Army arrived in her village and brought the GOBI child health programme with them which encouraged and educated mothers in basic hygiene and nutrition for their families.  The woman brought her toddler with her, dressed in the colours of the Salvation Army (red yellow and blue) to say thank you.  She also brought the tray cloth as a gift which she had made from a piece of rice sack and embroidered with the 'Home League' logo - she had heard that English people like to serve their tea from a tray covered in a small cloth! 

Me, I like my tea made with loose tea in a tea pot and served before it gets too strong and not too milky.  Roll on Saturday - don't worry about the tray cloth!

Day 2... staying strong!

Splashed out on a drop of milk in my porridge this morning.  It's amazing what a difference it made - I guess that's what Live Below the Line is all about - it doesn't take a lot to make a difference.


Chapatis - just flour and water... why do we buy them?!



By lunch time today I was really hungry and my soup and chapatis didn't quite fill the hole.  During the afternoon I developed a 'tea' headache - you know the sort that only a cup of tea will fix?  When I got home I first tried lemon verbena and then nettle tea... very nice, but I still prefer Earl Grey. 



Dinner was good - it almost felt like cheating!  Pasta with chick pea curry and grated carrot, and then this evening I made some pastry (20p's worth) and knocked up an impressive looking pasty made with a bit more of the curry and carrots for tomorrow's lunch.  Being able to cook is a definite advantage in this business.

The rest of the family ate chilli and rice this evening.  I watched some of it go into the recycling bin with a kind of sadness.  Not because I was hungry, just because we do it all the time.  If we got creative with leftovers, or just cooked and ate what we needed, we could give the money we save to someone who could make a real difference with it.  More than just a splash of milk in the porridge.

Day 1... I'm stuffed!

I woke up this morning with the decision to be thankful.  If I choose to walk a mile in someone else's shoes then I reckon I should have a bash at doing it cheerfully. 

So... porridge made with water for breakfast (no sugar), vegetable and split pea soup and a home made chapati for lunch and a feast fit for a king for dinner - chick pea burgers, grated carrot and pasta.  The burgers looked great but were pretty dry and horrid but hey, I'm full! 

As you can see Mick was well up for trying a tasty morsel of my daily rations... he also enjoyed eating the one of the bananas I had to put back in the fruit bowl on Saturday as I was over budget.  Such a supportive man.

After a false start to the term with Sidmouth Gospel Choir  we had a good rehearsal this evening ready for our concert in Ivybridge on Friday 20th.  Our soloists were on top form - it's going to be a great concert!

Today's other lovely news is that Joe is home after seven months working in The Alps.  Celebrating with a glass of tap water in The Swan wasn't our usual kind of welcome but a hug with Joe puts everything into perspective... and Ju even let me have a couple of ice cubes (no lemon of course!).

Gird Yer Loins!

...and that's just thinking about all those chick peas!

(You might have to click on the photo to see the name of the boat.)

Disaster!

Following a helpful comment on my last post I took another look at the Live Below the Line rules and discovered I'd got it all wrong!  You can't use half a packet of 50p beans and say you've only spent 25p - you have to count the cost of the whole packet. 



So that casts a whole new light on the shopping list!  I've lost count of the number of revisions now, each one shorter than the last.  I've compared prices in different supermarkets, sadly had to cut out shopping locally, and come up with my final list:



One of the bananas and a pint of milk have to go!

500g chick peas

500g split peas

1 onion

500g carrots

1 banana

1 lemon

Spices

1 tin of tomatoes

500g pasta
500g porridge oats
500g flour
250g butter
1pt milk

Going round the supermarket this morning was one of those experiences that is so ridiculous you don't know whether to laugh or cry... I nearly did cry (really!) when I discovered they'd sold out of 9p pasta shapes :-(  I'll be back on Monday!

This has been a really thought-provoking week.  For 1.4 billion people this is a way of life.  While I whinge because I have to choose between rice and pasta, someone else is going to bed hungry because they have neither.  I feel like a spoilt child.  It really is sobering.

...and while I pray for God to feed the hungry, I have to wonder if I should be doing something more about it myself.

Thank you SO much to everyone who is sponsoring me.  It really is good to know we're making a difference somewhere in the world at least.

This is getting serious...

I didn't realise there'd be so much maths involved in this living below the line thing.  Every meal time is punctuated with remarks from Alice and me like "How much?!" and "What, 30p just for a lemon?!".  Meanwhile Mick eats quietly... and occasionally reminds me that I'm not supposed to enjoy the experience.  (He says this with a hint of a smile that reveals he is quite looking forward to watching the show.)

Yesterday I got cooking.  I made nut burgers for dinner and put a couple in the freezer.  After I'd done the maths and discovered they'd cost 45p each - nearly a whole day's budget just for two little burgers - I took them out of the freezer and decided to eat them today!  I'm going to try making them with cheaper ingredients for next week - brown rice, peanuts, onions, carrots, mushrooms and bread.



How much was this lot do you reckon?!



I had much better success with chick pea curry and aduki bean soup - 38p and 24p a portion (it's the spices and the lemon juice that push the price up).  Hooray!  I've decided that Indian food is the way to go and plan to knock up some chapatis later.  Good job I've got the week off work to prepare for this - I had no idea it would be so time consuming! 

The thing is, I have no idea how much I spend on food.  It really is incredible once you start totting things up just how much it all costs.  Here's a rough idea of yesterday's bill:

Porridge with fruit, seeds, honey and milk - 18p

Large cappuccino at Baraza's - £2.50

Buttered toast with cheese and chutney followed by a banana - 60p

Nutburgers, cauliflower cheese and banana chutney (are you following the theme?  I'm being honest here!) £1.60

Fresh coffee and homemade cake (banana of course, with walnut and a splash of bourbon) £no idea!

... and then there are all the cups of tea.  That's more than a fiver.  A whole week's budget wiped out in just one day - and apart from the cappuccino it was a pretty lean day with not even a scrap of meat in sight.

Counting Down

Me and my brothers... in age order of course!

Back home from a week on the Broads and the countdown to five days' living below the line has begun! 

I've started a list of ingredients that might be useful and worked out the cost for 10g of each.  I reckon I'll probably need to go veggie for the week but might manage a rasher or two of bacon with my beans if I'm careful!  There's a bowl of chick peas soaking - I plan to make Madhur Jaffrey's sour chick pea curry with them tomorrow - pricing spices and lemon juice is a bit complicated but I'll do my best.

...and then there's the TEA question!  Bags or leaves?  I think I'll use loose leaf tea and weigh out my rations for the week, then use a one-mug infuser thingy I bought ages ago from Whittards.  Alice reckons a little washing line over my desk for drying tea bags to re-use would be more entertaining - true, but I think I'll get more cups from leaves.

I've realised today how little idea I have about the price of food I eat all the time - I don't usually need to think about it.  What a privilege.

Just Five Days... home alone

It's a Bank Holiday for everyone today, but for me it's the first day of two whole weeks' holiday!  I love my job of course, but I'm ready for a break. 

Mick and Alice left at 5am yesterday and headed for Exeter airport and then to Lourdes in southern France with HCPT group 179.  They take a group of children with special needs every Easter.  The trip is life-changing... and not just for the children! 

Meanwhile, I'm enjoying a life-changing day home alone. 

I started with a 6am walk - Sidmouth is an amazingly beautiful place to live.  A glimpse of a big red sun as I turned down a previously unexplored footpath took my breath away.  A bit further on and the view over the cliffs and sea was even more beautiful.  I love this place.

 

On Friday I'm off to Norfolk for the annual Family Do, this year (our 17th) will be afloat on the Broads.  It's the first time I'll have been without Mick and I'm missing him already! 

Meanwhile, I'm beginning to prepare for my five days' Living Below the Line livebelowtheline.org.uk - I've weighed out my usual serving of porage oats and currants and am now contemplating if I can afford to add the fruit or whether I'll need to save the 4p for butter on my toast.  One of my sponsors has suggested I keep a blog so I'll do just that... watch this space!

Naughty by Nature

Mrs Goode started it, calling me Mrs Norty and telling the children in Reception that was my name.  Much later, long after my new name had stuck and even my husband was calling himself Mr Norty, I realised it's actually quite an appropriate name.  I am naughty, we all are.  That's our nature. 

I don't work at the infants school now, but now and again I still like to call myself Mrs Norty.  It reminds me of my natural naughtiness.  Reminds me that the God who created the universe and knows me inside out, the same God who put a towel around his waist and washed his disciples feet, is the same God who chose to die to save me from my sinful nature.

Norty by name, naughty by nature, forgiven by grace... humbling!