I am in the 11^th month of my shopping fast.  It has been such a positive experience for me. That’s not to say there haven’t been things I’ve missed buying!  There certainly have been, and I have chronicled those things here in this this blog.  Socks, right now I am wishing for new socks!   Also my elastic supply is getting a little low and I am nervous.  It’s down to a few standard black and browns, but then I am left with the colorful and bedazzled ones from when my girls were a bit younger – you may see me sporting one of these if I can’t keep track of the others for the next 4 or 5 weeks!

The habit of learning I have enough has spilled over in to a lot of other areas of my life beyond just things. We host my family for Thanksgiving every year.  4 sisters, 4 nieces, 3 nephews, 2 parents one brother-in-law and us makes 18.  Somehow no matter how many we add to that number we always end up with way too much food.  This year I felt like I wanted to do better – waste less.  Make enough food as opposed to too much. So, when I went to plan the menu I resisted the urge to make an extra appetizer.  I didn’t google delicious veggie sides or unique Thanksgiving desserts to add to those my family would be bringing because I knew theirs would be enough.  Honestly it was hard, somehow it feels like I should have more than I need on Thanksgiving, like that’s the goal, but I tried to plan for enough instead of too much. It turns out I am bad at it and we still ended up with way too much and I am still eating the leftover pie I made (which is quite good).  The choice to try for sufficiency over extravagance was important for me though especially as we head into the Christmas season.  I hope to maintain that mindset as I plan other gatherings, consider what gifts to buy and fill (or try not to fill) my schedule with holiday activities – more is not always better.