Stuff We've Done Instead of Shopping

It's been about 3 weeks since my venture into not buying "stuff," and it has gone surprisingly smoothly. I have made one small slip-up, and that is buying two pairs of bicycle shorts for Q to wear under her dresses so that she can run and play and all those kid-like things without having to worry about showing her underwear. There's a black pair and a white pair, so it was a pretty unexciting purchase. Here she is holding the evidence (and clearly condoning our misdeed):

And while we're on the subject, a lack of appropriate-length shorts for girls is one of my pet peeves. If I put my 2-year-old in thigh-high shorts (which is the style) and she happens to sit cross-legged, her underwear is showing. This problem is easily solved by knee-length shorts, which are both practical and comfortable, but they are really dang hard to find in the girls' section. That is stupid. The shorts she's wearing in the above picture were actually rolled up and stitched with thread so that they were the "shorter" style. I just love that... they are making appropriate-length girl shorts AND THEN SEWING THEM UP. The Children's Place actually makes nice, knee-length shorts for girls if you're willing to pony up the money, so good on them!

All right, back to your regularly scheduled blog.

We haven't truly come across any instances where I was greatly inconvenienced by not being able to buy something. I have a slight yearning for a tomato plant enclosure so that my plant doesn't sprawl all over the garden box, but I am attempting to remedy this with sticks and string. I thought about purchasing some thick wooden dowels to construct a play teepee, but so far, good old-fashioned gardening implements are doing the trick (but fie the day I ever need my rake!).

For Father's Day, we gave Steven a survey filled out by Q (transcribed by me, of course), a card, and a chocolate bar we scored at church. And ya know what? Not buying stuff really takes some pressure off, just in general. You know that stress of when you really want to buy something and are trying to justify spending the money? I don't have to deal with that right now! I'm not bothering to look through the racks of cute toddler clothes or the home decor aisles. I don't feel such a compulsion to "keep up with the Joneses." We have what we have, and it is sufficient.


So what have we been up to with all our free time?

Baking Lembas bread (an elf staple, for those of you who aren't familiar with LotR),

Experimenting with different hairstyles,

Trying out new dishes (this is pancake-batter chicken bites),

And trains...

Trains...

Trains.