- no going out to eat. PERIOD. No after-church brunches, no Friday-night Tomaso pizza feasts, no Brewed Awakening coffee stops after Saturday morning basketball games
- no RedBox or Family video rentals, no early-show movie theatre trips
- no entertaining ourselves at Barnes & Noble with treats and a few books, or picking up the next chapter books for Willa and cooking mags for me at 1/2 Priced Books
- no lunches out or on the way back from the gym for Jamey
- no stops by Brewed for Monday Mocha (or Tuesday's latte or Wednesday's latte...) for me
We're in our third week and we've done pretty well. By far, it's had the most impact on Jamey and me. Jamey was typically eating out or picking up lunch 3-5 times a week prior to FreezeFest. A tray of sushi from the big HyVee or a Blimpie's sub on the way back from a noon workout were very common. Taco Tuesday at El Super Burrito was a standing date. For me, my theory of just one or maybe two coffees a week had lately turned into four-ish, or maybe five or six counting weekends. And by coffees, I mean the $4 cups consisting of a little coffee steamed up with lots of frothy milk, whip and syrups.
Willa has expressed her dislike of Freezefest on several occasions, mostly when we've had to remind her why we aren't going out for pancakes after church or coffee after basketball. What I hope we're instilling in her with this little exercise (and ourselves) is that going out is a special treat and privilege. We'd become reliant on ordering a pizza or picking up meals from China Express on a night that seemed too busy or too tired to come up with our own meal. Now we're excited to remind ourselves what a nice treat it is to head to Tomaso's for a Detroit Deep Dish Mombo Combo.
