Shopping

Homemade wheat bread and soups
 

I am not a shopper.  I make a list and stick to it.  Some of you might even laugh at me if I showed you my shopping list for the grocery.  There is a 2-sided grocery list stored on my computer so that I can print off multiple copies to keep in my pantry.  On one side, I keep the menus for the week, marked with notes if it is simple enough for hubby to make on my busy days so he can just pick something.  The other side is divided into the sections of my store in the order that I walk the aisles so that I don't waste time running back and forth in the store.  Of course this makes it doubly aggravating when the store rearranges their shelves, since not only do I have to re-learn where everything is, I have to re-write my template.  (Let the laughing commence.)

I realize that the mention of Shopping at this time of the year refers to gifts, but I don't always enjoy that either.  Not that you haven't heard it before, or is it any less true or important to mention, but this time of the year has become WAY too commercial.  I don't like the pressure of feeling like I HAVE to buy something for everyone.  I don't even want to make something for everyone.  Am I a Scrooge if I don't want to buy something for my neighbors?  Am I a Grinch if I don't want one more party or dinner for each child per club they are in? 

MomII said that she really enjoys Russion Orthodox Christmas.  It is celebrated much later on January 7.  It focuses on Christ's birth and since it is held later, the commercialism has died down.  Here is a link to learn more about this holiday.  I think that I see a Russian Orthodox Christmas unit in our school's near future! 

Since I don't want to go shopping just to take a picture for today's blog, I thought that I'd post what I didn't shop for that I am giving today.  I made bread yesterday and the soup I thawed from leftovers. This is what I gave my family for lunch. (Yummy Zuppa Tuscana and Tomato Spinach Orzo) At any rate, maybe I should have titled this post, "Anti-Shopping".

(Disclaimer:  I have purchased and handmade several gifts this year.  I am not against gift giving or shopping.  I just do not like the HAVE TO mentality nor the guilt that is pushed upon me for not doing so.  This gift is not mine to give, but I can share:  Jesus came into this world to give you the gift of eternal life.  All you have to do is accept it.)