32 x 4 x 12 = worth it!

I have made it one year without Coke, coffee or chocolate!!! And because 32 generous people stuck with me and gave 4 dollars a month for 12 months, $1536 has been raised for Compassion's Unsponsored Children fund. Thanks so much to everyone for your prayers and encouragement!

This "year without" gave me and my husband a way to pay for sponsoring Ucaya Vivian in Uganda. Learning about her and her family's life has given us a very different perspective on our own life here in the US. This year has also given me a chance to see that a break from caffeine is not always a bad thing! Will I eat chocolate again? Heck yeah - but now I can appreciate that a dessert without chocolate can taste good, too. Will I drink coffee? Now and then - but now I think I can actually switch to tea and enjoy it. And what about my old pal Coca-Cola??? It will be a treat if I'm at a restaurant, but if you see 12-packs piled in my kitchen, please take them away! Coke won't be allowed in the house unless it's a special occasion...No Jenny, folding a load of laundry is NOT a special occasion!

So, with the exception of today's celebration (Coke Slurpee for breakfast, chocolate party for lunch, vanilla Coke from Steak n Shake for dinner!) I actually WANT to keep the brown goodness in moderation.

Thanks for reading, and if you would like to make a donation of any size to Compassion on behalf of my year without Coke, please follow this link:

https://www.compassion.com/contribution/giving/unsponsoredchildren.htm?referer=101678

I can't think of a better way to end this blog than with the words of Paul to the Ephesians: "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."

Update

Hello everyone! Hope you had an enjoyable New Year's, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween...yes, it's been that long since I've written. Though I've just about given up the blogging part of this challenge, I have kept up with the important part: it's been 9 months without a drop of Coke, coffee or a taste of chocolate! And a special thank you to all the supporters who have kept on donating to Compassion these past months on behalf of me.

Hardly a day has passed where I don't miss the 3c's! But just taking a moment to look around at the world reminds me that it is a small sacrifice. The people of Haiti were struggling before the earthquake hit; what must it be like now? (You can donate to help Haiti via Compassion below). Ucaya, the little girl we're sponsoring in Uganda, lives in a nation where 85% of the people live on less than $1 per day. If you earn at least $3,256 a year ($271 a month), you are among the top 15% of the wealthiest people on the planet. This is a harsh world.

On a personal level, we have been working our tails off so hopefully one day more of our "top 15% of the world" income can go to helping people in need, and not so much to bills/debts/etc. Actually, Lee has been working two jobs, and pregnant me lounges around the house all day with our 4 and 1 year old (if you are a parent, or have even just seen children in action, you get my sarcasm!). Lord willing, baby will be here around the beginning of February, so I will have a legitimate reason to give up blogging for a good couple of months...but of course, not quite a legitimate reason to give up the One Year Without quest. So please keep me in your prayers as I weather a newborn and NO COFFEE!!! At the very least, I'll see you in April, when I hopefully announce that I made it an entire year!

God bless you all! - Jenny :)

Haiti Earthquate

The world is still hungry

This article was a good reminder to my pregnant, nauseous, sprained-ankle self (pathetic but true) - the U.S. may be out of its recession, but one-sixth of the world is still habitually hungry:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090916/wl_nm/us_food_wfp.

Life Keeps A-Rollin'

Sounds like a title to a Lynyrd Skynyrd song, right? But that's the only way to describe how I've been feeling about OYWO these past weeks! Before I began, I had thought through many of the ramifications of no coke, coffee or chocolate for a year: a summer without Slurpees, a fall without mochas, a Christmas without 7-layer or rum-ball cookies...
But for whatever reason, I hadn't thought of being pregnant. Yes, there is a baby in my belly now; and Lord willing, will be born around the beginning of February! This is not a complete surprise, we had planned on having more kids. But the surprise is how I COMPLETELY DID NOT CONSIDER being preggers without a little caffienated goodness to ease my queasy stomach. It just hadn't crossed my mind. That was probably for the best, though, since I admit there were more than a few times when I've thought "I'm pregnant - I can't possibly keep this up now!"
Now, if you've never been pregnant, or been around someone who's pregnant, or if you are a "pregnancy purist" who only eats organic carrots and homemade yogurt while with-child, you might not understand my panic. But if you are like most NORMAL pregnant women (or you've known one), you realize that growing another human being in your body warrants a piece of chocolate or sip of coffee every now and then! 200 mg (yes, now it's 100 mg) of caffeine a day is considered safe during pregnancy. FYI, 100 mg of caffeine = 2 and 1/5 cans of coke a day...
So, I'm not quitting and I'm just gonna roll with it. :) It is nice not having to count my milligrams, or worry if I've gone over the limit! I'm also hoping this caffeine-free baby will be one of those who just falls asleep in my arms as I hum, or on the rug while playing with blocks (wasn't that lucky with our first two). Just don't remind me about those first couple months of baby's life, where "a good night's sleep" doesn't exist - remember, this goes all the way until April!

On a more serious note...

...check out the recent post by Morgan, a young woman who visited a Compassion project in the Dominican Republic. The post describes her trip to a trash dump, and the people (kids included) who make their living there: http://morgan-givetolive.blogspot.com/2009/07/choice-is-ours.html.

Dear Blog,

I haven't forgotten you!!! It may seem like it, but I remember you each day. I have been wondering, though - will I forget the taste of Coke? Like Gollum, "forgetting the taste of bread", with the difference being my prrrrecious Coke becoming less consuming, instead of more?

Would I even want to forget the taste? Should I? I know you'll tell me I'm crazy, but the memories of Coke are all I have! Not to mention imagining black coffee with a pinch of sugar in the morning...just thinking about it helps settle my nauseous stomach! (more on that another day).

Well, I hope you're hanging in there, I know the blogosphere can be rough. Is Google being good to you? Has Blogger stopped messing around with your comment sign-in?? He'd better, or he won't know what hit him once I get to his IP address!

Take care, and I promise I'll be better at keeping in touch.

Friends Forever,

Jenny :)

Chocolate in the blood

While I've discovered that my first caffienated love is Coke, chocolate is a solid second. My son proved to me today that, yes, we both have a genetic predisposition towards chocolate ("my genes made me do it!"). He made sure that we dug to the bottom of the Munchkin box (leftovers from my husband's band kids' pre-parade-breakfast, we don't ever buy that junk ;) ) and retrieved for him "the black ones". That's right, my son chooses chocolate over powdered sugar and jelly-filled Munchkins - what kid does that??

This reminds me of the time my Aunt Lin took me, my sister and my cousin to see the Nutcracker when we were little girls. During intermission, like any normal kids, my sister and cousin picked out gummy bears for a snack. Did I want to miss with that fruit-flavored nonsense? Heck no. I, like my aunt, made the much more refined (well, actually weird for an eight-year-old) choice: Andes candies. Chocolate-mint goodness.

I'm telling you, it's not my fault, it's in my genes!!!