They don't get Giving (up).

Another Wednesday, another Lenten observation.



Last Saturday it became abundantly clear to me that we were watching too much t.v. in the house. When I say watching t.v what I mean is watching videos and DVDs on our t.v and watching Internet shows on Hulu and other outlets and watching d.v.ds on the computer. We have not had the ability to watch broadcast t.v. since 2005. I also need to back up the truck and say that for the past month or so our television has not worked so when I said watching too much t.v. I meant watching too much computer. Whatever you call it we were all watching too much of it. On Saturday Puppy was going absolutely crazy as I was setting up a show for her. The girl had addict written all over her. She wasn't the only one. It seemed like all we did was have shows on. It became clear to me that something had to give



On our way out the door to a myriad of activities on Saturday I mentioned to Amy that starting immediately there would be no t.v. watching (or whatever it is we do.) until Friday night which is usually a family movie night for us. I had a speech already to give to kids. Amy in her wisdom, said don't tell the kids that there's no t.v. for the week. She thought that the kids would feel like they were being punished and in reality we were not taking privileges away due to bad behavior. She and I decided that of the kids asked to watch something we would just say no and suggest a different activity perhaps one that was less entertainment oriented.



This week Puppy has asked to watch a show about every 12 minutes, which is a little down for her. We just say no and move on.



The other kids have seemingly forgot about t.v. for the week. They both can earn a 1/2 hour a day with electronic media (either the computer or the d.s.) during the school day. Besides that 1/2 hour, the rest of their free time has been unplugged and they have really enjoyed each other. All 3 kids have been busy with puppet shows, playing with toys that have been long neglected and playing games like monopoly and mastermind. ALL this on a week that so far has not been fit for much if any outside free time.



Spider Droid did ask to watch a show tonight. But besides that neither one of them seems to notice they are giving up t.v. for the week. Like I said in the title, they don't get that they are giving up.



My title has a bit of a double if not triple meaning. I don't think that most people in my country get giving up. Think about it there are two times a year that we associate with giving up. One is New Years with it's new years resolutions and the other is Lent.

There are also two other reasons in our culture for doing without, conservation and the economy. But the truth is we don't need a calendar or a reason to practice giving up. We can do so at any time.



Our family likes to turn the t.v. off for the summer. It is a time with lessons over for the Summer and the family home for the summer that we can enjoy each other and the activities that a Midwest summer affords. A different time we ate only rice for a week to get an idea of how 1/2 the world lives.
.



Your family might have other ideas for giving things up. It might be that you cut out all extra spending so you can throw a party. Whatever you do it can help bring your family closer together and to learn something in the process.



Another way that some people don't get giving up is in not understanding the reason for giving things up.

Hosea 6:6 says:
For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice,
And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. NASB

This reminds me of an anecdote from 11 or 12 years ago. Someone was telling me about how proud he was that His son and His son's girlfriend had given up on ice cream for lent. I found this particularly odd because at the time the couple was living together outside of marriage.

I tell that story not to seem judgemental but to punctuate that God wants our obedience more than our sacrifice. Giving things up doesn't make up for obvious flaws in our moral character.

Lent is an excellent time to give something up so we can start get a grasp on how much Christ gave up for us. I am just saying it should not be the only time.

P.S. watching our t.v. intake will get a little harder starting tomorrow, as my Dad fixed our t.v. and will bring it back in the morning.

Frugal Fragmental Fridays

It has been a long long long time since I posted at Frugal Fridays. There are many reasons for this. The main one being, I haven't had anything especially frugal to share. But since this is not only Frugal Friday at Life As Mom it is also Friday Fragments at Half Past Kissing Time. I thought I could get my lead fragment to be frugal. Let's see how I do.

Fragment 1: Is Groupon for the truly Frugal?

About a year ago I joined Groupon. I remember it was mid April we were visiting Amy's brothers in Madison and Spider Droid had just come back from a hike listening to the spring peepers. Spring Peepers are frogs before I start getting angry comments. I borrowed my BIL's computer and I signed up for group-on.

Since then I have been receiving regular e-mail from them about various deals. It wasn't until today that I actually used one of them. Either the deals are not something Aim (I sometimes call my wife Aim, deal with it.) and I are interested in like a wine tasting or they are not really good deals or and this is generally it we'd have to spend money we normally wouldn't to save money.

The deal I got today is a good case in point. I got an e-mail to get a ticket to a movie called The Lincoln Lawyer which opens tomorrow for $6.00. They said the ticket was a $13.00 value and yes there are movie theatres near us that have tickets in the double digits. But thanks to our local theatre having $6.50 tickets for general admission and going to the early bird shows when we do go to a different theatre we have seldom had to pay so much. The truth is that The Lincoln Lawyer is showing at our theatre this weekend and we can get early bird tickets for $4.50. Even better we have been incrementally increasing the amount of time we have been letting our oldest watch the other 2 and we should be able to go sometime during the day and give her her first 2 hour babysitting gig.

So why did I buy tickets for $6.00 for a show I can see for $4.50? Good question. The answer is I didn't. I had a $5.00 off coupon so I bought 1 ticket for $1.00. Our total movie experience will be probably less than $20.00. A dollar for the movie for me, $4.50 for Aims ticket. Another $4.50 for a kids combo (you don't have to be a kid to get it) which is popcorn and a drink with 3 refills. That puts the total at 10. We will probably give Puppy $5 for the baby sitting so the whole thing will run 15.

This brings up my point: Is groupon worth it for the frugal? Does it help you do things you would normally not do? Or does it tempt you to spend money that you normally would not? Leave a comment and let me know.

All of you visiting from Frugal Friday can go home to Mom now. Unless you want to stay for further fragment. Actually now that I think about it. Fragment 2 has a financial application as well. SO STICK AROUND!

Fragment #2: Giving it up for Lent

This is the second of my Lenten Observations segments. Have you ever lent somebody something and not gotten it back? Have you ever lent somebody something and forgot who you gave it to? Have you ever not gotten something returned and have had difficulty getting over it? I hope so, I would hate to think it was just me.

I have learned very few things wholly by other's examples or advice. Many times I have had to learn through my own experience or mistakes. When I was a teenager a friend of mine lent a friend of his (an acquaintance of mine) a sizable amount of money. He then watched week after week his friend spend money on non essentials while she kept the debt to Him unpaid. This was very frustrating for my friend. He learned an important principle any money he lent out he would consider gone for good. In fact he would not even call it lending he would just give it away if he could. I have followed his principle for almost 30 years now. I have given co-workers money and weeks later (generally when I needed it most) they would pay be back. To me it was found money.

I have found the lesson a lot harder to emulate with things. I gladly give away anything to any one who wants it. Especially my books music or movies. However if it is not returned. I don't forget about it as I do with money. Money comes and goes. But things have a kind of permanency to them. If I front $10.00 to another home school parent for a field trip, I can use a different $10.00 if the need comes up. If the parent forgets to pay me back, I can easily make do without it. I mean I can literally forget about it. But if I lend a DVD about dinosaurs to someone and then forget who. The next time I want to watch it, I can't because I no longer have it. For whatever reason I have a habit of lending things to people that are no longer readily available for purchase or now out of my price range.


Over the past few years I have been convicted to try to let go of this feeling of loss when it comes to unreturned possessions. Strangely enough I know some people who are exactly the opposite of me. They can give away possessions without any problems whatsoever but have a real hard time with unpaid debt. I have decided that this Lenten Season I would "give up" any thing I have not ever received back as lent. Yes it's a bad pun, but a good philosophy. It is more of an internal task to stop trying to remember who I gave things to and just be content with what I have. I have a few things out to people right now. Hopefully with God's help I will not think of these things as my possessions again until when and if I again possess them.

Fragment #3 Am I the only one out there who loves Detroit 1-8-7?

One of my favorite television related websites is the cancel/renew index. Each week it goes through t.v. shows by network and prognosticates what will stay and what will go. generally the shows I like the most are the ones without the staying power. When Detroit 1-8-7 came out this Fall, I thought I found a show that would be around for a long long time. A smart, funny, well filmed procedural with some excellent acting and storytelling. Yet every week, I see at the cancel/renew index that it has little to no chance of a second season. I love watching it on Hulu each week and wondered if there was anyone else who liked it.

Well those are my fragments frugal and otherwise for this Friday. For more Fragments click here.

Selection Sunday

Sunday's Cool
A Link Up and a Look Ahead

A link up: Crazy Uncle Dave's Sport-O-Rama is my sports blog. I don't update it nearly as often as I'd like to. That may explain why today's link-up about our NCAA Brackets is over 11 months old. It is timely though as the field of 68 was just announced and the tournament starts on Tuesday. Last year Amy and I kind of split our contest. I picked Duke to win it all and they did. Amy picked Butler to win it all and they made it to the championship game. She ended up scoring more overall points than I did. Amy and I will make our picks tomorrow and I will try to post them at Sport-O-Rama prior to Tuesday's tip off.

A Look Ahead: I will try to continue with the Lenten observations I began last week. I also have a few promised posts that might come up this week. Puppy will probably say or do something crazy. So you never know what you will get. One thing I can tell you is that sometime in the next fortnight I will explain what I mean by countdown to 500 which has appeared in the upper left hand corner of this blog for the past few weeks.

Good luck making up for that lost hour and have a great week!

Fitness Center Alpha (Hopefully not Omega)

This may be my first blog post that contains the word treadmill. This is probably because today was one of the first times in the 2+ year history of this blog that I have been on one. Amy and I both joined a fitness center yesterday. It was a pretty cool deal actually. $19.95 a month for me and $15.00 for Amy (plus 1 month free for me for referring her). The best thing is that there were no contracts or cancellation fees. So this morning I woke up at about 6 a.m. drove to the center and spent 35 minutes on the treadmill and watched live t.v.! I hadn't watched live t.v. since the Oscars. The workout went pretty well, I went a little more than 2 miles. Next time I may try some of the other machines. Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Amy and I grew up in the Catholic faith and since embracing an Evangelical Protestant Christianity we have not really observed Lent in the same way. This reminds me of a joke I told in the early early eighties. I gave up Catholicism for Lent, and once it was over, I wasn't Catholic anymore so I didn't have to take it back. (My jokes were much more cerebral back then.) Actually many protestants observe Lent. So each Wednesday during this Lenten Season I will share some observations and activities. This morning I will kick off school with this fun lesson I found about the pretzel and its Lenten origins. Well the nice thing about exercising in the blessed a.m. is being awake and alert to get a post out before the school day commences. But it's that time again to get with it. Have a good day I should be back today or tomorrow with a SB136 epilogue.