Wednesday, July 9, 2008

New Family Weekday "Traditions".......

"Waiting For Dinner".....can you see the cast iron pot cooking something tasty over the flame? I don't see a TV in the room either.
This could be "my house."

In light of the "food crisis"
that is happening all over the world and due to the high rising costs of food and gas. I felt the need to do something to RAISE "awareness" in my own family.

Thus we have begun "Meatless Mondays"...and "TV-LESS Tuesdays" at our house....not a huge drop in the "world bucket" but just our tiny, tiny, contribution. Plus it is beneficial to THIS family health wise and dollar wise.
I know the "no TV" thing on Tuesdays isn't any great help to the world...however it actually does keep it "calm" in our home and encourage us to do other things than just lay on the couch and have our minds entertained by a electrical powered box....with no effort on our parts. Well little to no effort.
I mean you DO have to press the remote from time to time.

We used to do this "no TV" thing two times a week a few years ago. We had what we called "No TV Nights" where the kids could "Do their home work, play a game, read, hang out and talk to Mom and Dad, or do most anything"....except watch TV.

At first they bawked a bit....but really at some point we really we all became used to this new habit.. But then something "slipped" and we fell back into kicking on the TV in the evening to watch the 5:30 World News and before you know it....the "squawk box" is on ALL NIGHT.....until we go to bed.
As far as the "meat" issue goes.....we don't eat alot of it and aren't against anyone who does eat it. We personally do not eat alot of red meat or pork.
We do like a little steak on occasion and I do mean "rare" occasion.
Yes, pun intended. :-)


So for about the past month.....we have been doing these two "event" nights. Except for the one Monday that I forgot it was "Meatless Monday" at our house and I had chicken, our main meat source...all thawed out and ready to cook when I realized it. But I skipped it and we did it the next night instead. HA!
IT was...."Meatless AND TV=less Tuesday" that week.

Now, I have always felt that "Great Minds think alike"....in fact it's one of my favorite sayings..."tongue in cheek" of course...usually.

So I read an article tonight on a website about Paul McCartney (another "Great Mind)asking his fellow Brits "to give up meat on Mondays" as well.
Here's a quote from the article... "Paul urged his countrymen to give up meat on Mondays, as a way to cut back on their carbon emissions."Interesting.
Then once I had read the Paul McCartney thing.....I did a little searching and I happened upon a website that is called "Meatless Monday" which is part of a "Campaign" by the "John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health." Another.....ummm....place full of "Great Minds."
To quote their website;
"Meatless Monday is a national health campaign to help Americans prevent heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer - four of the leading causes of death in America."

I think we are on "track" here as a family just in these two little areas.....and this may prove to be more beneficial than we realize in the long run.

If we hang in there.


Now if we could just do something more as a family about the gas situation.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice post, Joyce! Meaty...

I have been irritating my boys lately by restricting them from electronic devices. I keep challenging them to learn to entertain themselves with things that don't require electricity or batteries. You would think I was sentencing them to death!!!

I received your wonderful email. I will go back and respond. We are having our big July shows this weekend. Ah, we have reached the last of this season's performances! So, I am a tad busy. Plus, I am decorating for my friend's funeral tomorrow evening.

Happy Friday,
KJ

Ms.Daisy said...

Hi Joyce, As a single, I get to choose which nights are "Meatless" and it's usually when I'm in the mood for a salad! HA! :-) As for the TV-less Tuesdays...I dunno which is worse TV or my computer!
I do spend a lot of time on the computer...anyway thanks for a really good post!
Hugs,
~Jean

Ragged Roses said...

Hello and thanks for visiting my blog. What an interesting post, it's lovely in our home on the days the TV isn't on, it makes such a difference
Kimx

Valentine Hearts said...

Love the no telly idea, my prob is also the pc. I have been trying to turn it off as much as possible as I am aware it is on too much. We are hot on turning plugs off in the house.

It is hard in this day and age but we do the best we can to 'do our bit'.

Charlotte said...

Hi Joyce,
I'm trying to get caught up on my blog reading after taking a little time off for celebrating our anniv. I especially like the no TV night once a week. I can relate to your last post about Gabe's new car. I remember every car my children ever got and remember doing a lot of praying when I knew they were traveling some distance, especially in November and December when they would drive home from school in what was often blinding fog. They always made it fine. I know the praying helped.

Anonymous said...

When I grew up, it was a custom not to eat meat on Monday, presuming that Sunday was full of the best food... Then on Friday we would have our Catholic fasting day, which allowed only fish, the more faithful ones would do the same on Wednesdays.
We had only 2 TV channels, which had in the morning only school programs, and the afternoons till 11pm was half Communistic propaganda, the other half very good programs, mostly social, cultural, a lot of history, music, science. I would watch only about 30 minutes a day.

Right now our TV is only for video-DVD watching, and only 1 movie a day,it's in the basement, so there is not alot of other things to do there... computer 30-40 minutes per kid, fasting day on Tuesday, but I do about 2 days a week without any meat or poultry.

In some European cities, don't remember where, people who have the license plates ending with the odd number can use their cars every other day a week inside the city, the other days are for those with the even number license plates ending.
In Holland bicycles are extremely popular. Generally, bikes and scooters are ever-better then cars inside the cities. Some people are using the cars only on weekends, because of the high gas prices and traffic.

How about "no text messaging" day?

Denise said...

We do not eat much meat at all and red meat maybe once a year..... We are veggie people with rice and salmon......... Chicken white meat.... but we eat a lot of fish..... we also stopped the TV thing about 6 months ago...... Only the FOX news at 7 and sometimes 10...... too depressing also but I love to keep up....

a Pocket Angel said...

Joyce, I love Meatless Monday & TV less Tues..
My Daughter does this with my Grandchildren (different days) & I do the same when they are here at Grammy's cottage. My Daughter also does no fast food days.
Hope all is well with you sweet friend.
Hugs & much love ~Mary~

Mary Isabella and Kiley too! said...

This was a really good post!!! Have a great Tuesday!!!.....Mary

Alice said...

I could easily give up meat at least once a week but I'd have a difficult time convincing my husband to go along with that idea. No TV though is a snap for us. We're much happier sitting outside on the porch in the evenings.

Joyce said...

Giving up meat is SO hard for my son Luke who is still at home. He's a caveman actually and the biggest meat eater in our family.

He thinks we are "overboard" on the recycling and the meat thing and the NO TV thing....he calls me a "tree hugger".....
Alice:
I would LOVE to sit on the front porch and watch life happen all around me.