Productivity

I told myself that I was going to have a super productive day today, but my two-year-old accidentally poked my eye this morning...hard. If you've ever experienced this, IT HURTS!!! All you want to do is keep your eye closed and go back to bed. But alas, four kids need my attention and direction so we can't do that. So...onward we plunge...off to have a super productive day...with one eye :/ To God be the glory!

Food Expenses

Lawanda has a paragraph towards the bottom of her blog highlighting a Time Magazine photo article on "What the World Eats". (Thanks for sharing, Lawanda!)The pictures are taken from the book, "Hungry Planet." I'd seen something similar to this before, but decided it might be enlightening to do a bit of number crunching. Here is what I discovered:

Country	Family Size	Weekly Expenditure	Weekly cost/person	Cost/ person/ meal
Chad	6	$ 1.23	$ 0.21	$ 0.01
Bhutan	12	$ 5.03	$ 0.42	$ 0.02
Ecuador	9	$ 31.55	$ 3.51	$ 0.17
Egypt	12	$ 68.23	$ 5.69	$ 0.27
Mongolia	4	$ 40.02	$ 10.01	$ 0.48
Our Family	6	$ 75.00	$ 12.50	$ 0.60
Kuwait	8	$ 221.45	$ 27.68	$ 1.32
Poland	5	$ 151.27	$ 30.25	$ 1.44
Mexico	5	$ 189.09	$ 37.82	$ 1.80
China	4	$ 155.06	$ 38.77	$ 1.85
United States	4	$ 159.18	$ 39.80	$ 1.90
Italy	5	$ 260.11	$ 52.02	$ 2.48
Great Britain	4	$ 253.15	$ 63.29	$ 3.01
Japan	4	$ 317.25	$ 79.31	$ 3.78
United States	4	$ 341.98	$ 85.50	$ 4.07
Germany	4	$ 507.00	$ 126.75	$ 6.04

I thought the breakdown was very interesting. There are several things to keep in mind, some of which are:

1) Prices vary by region,

2) Each family depicted may or may not accurately represent their region (you can see this by doing a quick comparison of your family with your country),

3) Some governments subsidize food, offer free food, etc. (We even see food subsidizing in the U.S. even though we still spend a good deal more on food than other countries that do this. Ironically, most of the food that is subsidized in the U.S. is food that is used in processed foods which is why it is often cheaper to buy them than it is to buy "real" food.)

I think it is interesting that the larger families spend less money on food. I wonder if that would hold true within each of the "developed" countries.

When looking at the pictures and the cost breakdown simultaneously, I can see that our family, has room to grow. We fell in between Mongolia and Kuwait at $75 per week for a family of 6...just $12.50 a week per person and $0.60 for each meal. It doesn't break down quite like that for our meals or our food as much of our grocery budget is dedicated to diapers, paper products (including toilet paper, paper towels, etc.), and toiletries which the TIME photos didn't seem to include. Maybe our family is doing ever better (I think spending less would be better ;), but when I see the differences in food, I still see much room for improvement.

How about you? Do you see room for changes in what you eat? Do you set goals for growth in this area? How has your family cut costs in this area?

Kid Questionaire

Here's something interesting that I saw on a blog the other day...thought I'd do it too, just out of curiosity. Let me know if you decide to do it too; I'd love to read yours :D

1. What is something Mom always says to you?

A: Smiles.
Me: Hum…I don’t think she’s ready for this yet…
G: Banging (Which is actually what she is doing right now ;)
M: I don’t know.
K: To read good books. I mean, to read the Bible every day.

2. What makes Mom happy?

G: God
M: Not to get into things.
K: Keeping the house clean.

3. What makes Mom sad?

G: Jeff
M: Getting into things.
K: When we disobey.

4. How does your Mom make you laugh?

G: Jeff (are we seeing a pattern here???) I think I’ve got another one that is too little for this one.
M: By tickling.
K: By tickling us.

5. What was your Mom like as a child?

M: Playing in the bathtub.
K: A little kid.

6. How old is your Mom?

M: 5
K: 26

7. How tall is your Mom?

M: *Stretches his arm up very tall and says, “This tall.”
K: 26

8. What is her favorite thing to do?

M: Playing in the bathbub.
K: Ummmmm…snuggle with your baby.

9. What does your Mom do when you're not around?

M: Get into trouble.
K: Get into junk.

10. If your Mom becomes famous, what will it be for?

M: Junk. (Inspired by his sister.)
K: Junk.

11. What is your Mom really good at?

M: Taking the baby away from the scissors.
K: Junk.

12. What is your Mom not very good at?

M: I don’t know.
K:Junk.
Me: Laughing, okay, it’s time to start answering again.
K: I know! You’re not very good at…um…watching your kids…
Me: A disappointed look on my face…
K: (seeing my face, continued to offer an explanation ;) …because they keep on getting into stuff.
Me: Let’s go back to the last one.
K: You’re very good at doing school with me.

13. What does your Mom do for a job?

M: Cutting things.
K: You clean the kitchen and do dishes and watch the kids and do school with me and stuff like that.

14.What is your Mom's favorite food?

M: Um…like…jelly beans.
K: Carrot casserole.

15.What makes you proud of your Mom?

M: Jelly beans.
K: When you read to me.

16. If your Mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?

M: Jelly Beans.
Me: No, think of something else.
M: A helicopter.
K: Mommy.

17. What do you and your Mom do together?

M: I don’t know.
K: Cook together and stuff like that.

18. How are you and your Mom the same?

M: I don’t know.
K: Because we’re both girls.

19. How are you and your Mom different?

M: I don’t know. I don’t know about this stuff.
K: Because Mommy is big and I am little.

20. How do you know your Mom loves you?

M: Um…by um…by getting into junk one day.
K: Um…by you kissing me and hugging me.

21. What does your Mom like most about your dad?

M: By watching movies.
K: Ummmmm…you like kissing him and snuggling him and hugging him.

22. Where is your Mom's favorite place to go?

M: To care group.
K: Ummmmm…to the library. No, I mean, to the church.