Self Care during Frugal February, Day 6

This is the first Monday of February. Which means it’s the first February Monday that Emma and I will not be going to our yoga class.

Each blustery Monday Emma and I have gotten up and paid a membership fee to attend the yoga class by an amazing instructor in a community center just around the corner from our home, tucked into a renovated church with high cathedral ceilings, and leaded glass windows. We would slowly start our day with the sun streaming in and quiet, spa, like music playing around us.

I have to admit it’s very hard to not go to yoga class. I met a lot of friends and knew people from our new town there, and really felt a camaraderie of spirit that I had been yearning for. For a moment, I pondered and wondered if possibly I could continue paying for the yoga classes for us… after all they were exercise, they were helpful in my flexibility, and they were nourishing to my soul.

Oh, Isn’t that what this frugal February is about? Trying to figure out what is needed and what is just wanted.

If I’m completely honest with myself, there is a part of the camaraderie and friendship, community within our new community that is a need. But the bottom line of the situation is that yoga I am paying for is a want. If I need to, I can look up a yoga video on YouTube or online. I know several of the core yoga positions and could do a routine on my own to practice and continue exercising my flexibility.

And while I didn’t think the fees for yoga were outrageous, they are in fact, fees, which we are taking a good hard look at in this frugal February.

I do feel that yoga is a form of self-care and some thing that shouldn’t be forgotten. Now, I should enter into the conversation, the fact that I am not a self-care junkie. I do not believe in the mantra that you have to take care of yourself before you can take care of others. I think that God made mothers able and capable and more than willing to be able to take care of others in whatever shape of life they are in. While it is in fact nice, it is not necessary. I think of my great-grandmother as an example of this. The woman was a single woman who worked full-time at a factory, making half as much as the men working on either side of her. She took two weeks of “vacation” a year…the first year was in the spring to clean her house, the second week was to attend campmeeting with our church which she volunteered at and worked.

What do I think about self-care? I do think that self-care can be some thing of a needed break when we do feel tired. Perhaps it’s not something that we need to do before taking care of others, but it is a nice little break and treat after a long day of taking care of family members and looking after the needs of others. I also am not a person who adopts the idea that self-care must come in fees, spa days, pedicures and hair treatments. I think self-care is taking care of nourishing the need for beauty in your life , whether that’s a succulent from Trader Joe’s, lighting a candle, and putting on some classical music while you make dinner, running a hot bath after a long day to ease the tension from all of that stinking vacuum on the three sets of stairs that you did today, or just sitting back and watching a classic movie on prime for a little alone time. All of those things are self-care. All of those things are taking time of yourself for a small treat to reward yourself at the end of the day.

And while I miss my yoga today, especially, I am aware that I can find self-care in other places, and other ways, and in other avenues of my life. For that, I am grateful. I am grateful for eeking out the reasons that I went to yoga work for social as well as physical. And I am grateful for the time I have to be able to think through these things to be able to figure out why I was going to be able to figure out why I want to continue to go.

After we didn’t go to yoga, we continued to wake up and get moving on our day. Emma is still squelched from ballet and school so Calvin was my main concern after getting Nick out the door for his flight to Massachusetts.

It is so hard to have him go. It was also hard to have him go after not getting a lot of sleep. All of us were awoken in the night by a huge ghastly crash. It shook the whole house. Nick searched from the attic all the way through the garage and basement for what could have happened. Having found nothing we went back to bed but it was enough to make it hard to get back to sleep. Needless to say it’s been a multiple cups of coffee kind of day.

I have started to get myself off of drinking creamer in my coffee. I now put about 2 tbsp of whipped cream on my morning coffee as a little treat. It is very delightful and makes me feel like a little kid. There are some small things in life that give me the greatest amount of pleasure. I am happy to continue doing these things.

I also have found that when I am home for a length of time, it gives me great peace to light candles around the house. It gives such an inviting feeling and makes me feel so inspired for home tending efforts.

Tonight is leftover night. Which reminds me! I need to share with you our weekly meal plan! Before I do though I thought I would share with you the silliest thing I do sometimes…I make a menu for leftover night. I go into canva, take about 2 minutes to type out all of the leftovers available and then print it off so each family member has their own copy to “order” off of. It’s something silly and quirky that also makes leftovers feel a bit more jazzed up. And yes I may be the most extra person in the world. Or I may be a genius. lol All I know is that if anything makes my teenagers giggle and order from me “a glass of your finest chocolate milk” with their leftover lemon salmon with couscous, then that is something I’m keeping around. :)

Back to the meal planning…I usually do all of my meal planning at the beginning of the month and then go over the upcoming week each Sunday to make sure everything is still feasible. Meaning, if I need to go to the store I plan to do that and I make sure that Nick and the children haven’t devoured all of the ingredients for any particular dish I was planning on making.

I always have a leftover night to make room in the fridge and to be able to start fresh tomorrow with more room in the fridge. If I do have marketing to do I try to do it Monday nights after we eat the leftovers. It happens this was a weird week and I have already gone.

Here are my meals for this week:

Here is how I did today with our budget. The only thing I purchased today was on Amazon and it was beef jerky for Calvin. One of his habits is chewing on his finger nails. One of his therapists suggested gum and beef jerky to try to keep his mouth busy and away from his fingernails. We’ve already tried gum and he’s willing to try the jerky so I ordered like the wind!

• Gas

  $533.16 remaining

• Groceries

  $499.70

  -20.02

  =$479.68 remaining

I told the kids after leftovers that there bill was $85 but we had a special opportunity going on…dinner is on the house if you wash the dishes. Emma told me she left her wallet in the car ;) so they’d have to opt to be dish washers.

And with that I have a clean kitchen, candles burning, and a claw-foot tub that is calling my name after a long day of work. I wish it was going over here like it sounded in that last sentence…all heart and sunshine and puppy dogs. When in reality the truth is that as I finish this I have come down with food poisoning. Funny thing is? I am the only one in the family who did not have leftovers but decided instead on a salad. Oh, the irony. Guess I should have stuck to the meal plan and ate the darn leftovers with the kids.

What do you do to relax after a hard day? Comment below with what pleasure you treat yourself to. I’d love new ideas!

Or! If you have any wisdom about food poisoning to share? Ever had it? How long did your case last? Ugh!

Loves!