That one where Abigail gives away the fridge...

[Mama Mia]

I didn't read the whole thread -- has anyone else wondered why on earth she doesn't just buy her $300 ish apartment size refrigerator on-line from any major retailer ?????

Seriously, there must be a Walmart or Sears or Kmart near enough to drive for pick up right ? Virtually all of them offer free delivery to the store, and you don't have to order something that is normally carried in-store in your area.

It took me about 30 seconds to find an apratment size fridge with a real freezer that will hold gallons of milk and has a vegetable bin for $389 at Sears.com , if she looked around I'm sure she could find lower, or the extra $89 would be saved within a month with the cost difference in buying half-gallons vs gallons of milk.

How the hell hard is that to figure out ?

[Wolfie]

I didn't read the whole thread -- has anyone else wondered why on earth she doesn't just buy her $300 ish apartment size refrigerator on-line from any major retailer ?????

Seriously, there must be a Walmart or Sears or Kmart near enough to drive for pick up right ? Virtually all of them offer free delivery to the store, and you don't have to order something that is normally carried in-store in your area.

It took me about 30 seconds to find an apratment size fridge with a real freezer that will hold gallons of milk and has a vegetable bin for $389 at Sears.com , if she looked around I'm sure she could find lower, or the extra $89 would be saved within a month with the cost difference in buying half-gallons vs gallons of milk.

How the hell hard is that to figure out ?

It's Abigail we're talking about. Most of us are wondering why being able to eat in her kitchen is so important that she gave away a fridge. (and we know it's not energy efficiency, as they disconnected the central heat and air and put wall mounted electric heaters in the bedrooms.)

But I have wondered why she didn't spend $150 on a small chest freezer for the garage or someplace other than the kitchen.

[patsymae]

It's Abigail we're talking about.

"nuff said.

[alba]

(My 'friend who eats anything' is 5'5" tall and is pretty sure that his childhood diet had some effect on his height.)

Probably. In either the First or Second World War the military had to reduce height requirements in Glasgow because the city's population was so impoverished the men simply weren't tall enough to join the army.

Monastic poverty vows do not apply to families, any more than monastic celibacy vows apply to married couples. Abigail doesn't have a fucking clue.

Hey, maybe Abigail should take a monastic celibacy vow. It'd at least stop her trying to spread insufficient resources even more thinly between children who deserve better.

[ladyaudley]

Probably. In either the First or Second World War the military had to reduce height requirements in Glasgow because the city's population was so impoverished the men simply weren't tall enough to join the army.

It's still a city full of pretty short people. Bad nutrition, little sunlight and still-rampant poverty make for a lot of short folk. I feel right at home with my 5'2".

Has anyone ever tried to explain the Catholic idea of poverty as not having more than you need to her on her blog before she closed the comments? I don't think it would get anywhere, but at least she'd have to look at it.. I wonder what she thinks of Pope Francis. Probably adores him already.

[burntnorton]

I didn't read the whole thread -- has anyone else wondered why on earth she doesn't just buy her $300 ish apartment size refrigerator on-line from any major retailer ?????

Seriously, there must be a Walmart or Sears or Kmart near enough to drive for pick up right ? Virtually all of them offer free delivery to the store, and you don't have to order something that is normally carried in-store in your area.

It took me about 30 seconds to find an apratment size fridge with a real freezer that will hold gallons of milk and has a vegetable bin for $389 at Sears.com , if she looked around I'm sure she could find lower, or the extra $89 would be saved within a month with the cost difference in buying half-gallons vs gallons of milk.

How the hell hard is that to figure out ?

But is it the extra small extra special ine constructed by Anchorite nuns that runs on holy water and prayers? This woman has sime serious personality and/or psychiatric disorders. It's the only explanation that makes sense. This lady thinks three years between live births qualifies as secondary infertility. And what IS going on with the electric heater thing?

[patsymae]

"Has anyone ever tried to explain the Catholic idea of poverty as not having more than you need to her on her blog before she closed the comments"

Or that it's actually okay to have more than you need (I mean, who really needs more than 1 set of underwear?), and it's even OK to enjoy things. The sin would be in attachment, avarice, envy, or harming others to acquire material things--not in enjoying them and certainly not in assuring the material well-being of your family.

[ladyaudley]

"Has anyone ever tried to explain the Catholic idea of poverty as not having more than you need to her on her blog before she closed the comments"

Or that it's actually okay to have more than you need (I mean, who really needs more than 1 set of underwear?), and it's even OK to enjoy things. The sin would be in attachment, avarice, envy, or harming others to acquire material things--not in enjoying them and certainly not in assuring the material well-being of your family.

should have specified "if she wants to go down the voluntary poverty route". I agree with you.

[Mudball]

I was telling my husband about Abigail and he told me that his Aunt Mary is also a discalced Carmelite, which I did not know. I did know that she is modest, kind, quiet and religious. I can't imagine her ever, ever crowing about how she lives in poverty or telling the world she is a discalced Carmelite on a blog! I've known her for 25 years and I didn't know. It seems to be a personal thing that she takes very seriously. Now that I know I can see how she does follow the "rules" of the order - she lives very modestly, she's very quiet and contemplative. She prays a lot and attends daily Mass without telling everyone about it.

[GeoBQn]

The title of her latest entry, Poverty as Jesus' Special Kiss, makes me want to vomit in anger.

Great. I start to write some cheerful posts about how Poverty is great for my Spiritual Life and Jesus is like "Yeah! Now you are talking! Lets go even deeper."

I sweetly respond: "No! Noooooo!"

Well, that doesn't sound sexual at all.

The summer "food challenge" is on. This morning, I'm in the game instead of whimpering in a corner.

To comfortably pay all the bills that we'd like to pay this summer, I need to drop 1/3 of my grocery budget for the next 3 months. My husband is totally calm and thinks this is possible. As the main cook in our family, and the anxious one in our marriage, I'm thinking "Um, I don't know how we go lower than Oatmeal and Ramen." So that is my mission over the next four days until my husband's next pay period. "How do I make a healthy and edible meal plan on an even smaller budget?"

Jesus, I trust in you!

She could save money by not buying 1/2 gallons of organic milk several times a week, but that would require a larger fridge.

abigails-alcove.blogspot.ca/2013/04/poverty-as-jesus-special-kiss.html

[Confused_by_religion]

Confession time: I was totally having this thought, totally not ironically, earlier today. Thank you for the reality check. :lol:

I guess the older you get the more humble you get and the less important you think you are - at least that's what has happened to my insufferably fanatic post-teenage self. Thank Gods!!!

[burntnorton]

In all seriousness, the woman needs a psych consult STAT. She isnt making the connection beyween her profligate grocery buying behavior and the need to cut her grocery budget. She talks about how difficult it would be to go cheaper than oatmeal and ramen while missing the half gallon organic milk shaped elephant in the room.

[Mudball]

Sweet kisses and going deeper? :shock: Aunt Mary would DEFINITELY never say that. :lol:

Healthy food on 1/3 less money? Somehow I doubt healthy food is a priority, considering she said they have a diet of oatmeal and RAMEN. Good grief.

[Sobeknofret]

This woman needs a course in money management in the worst way. I freely admit I'm bad with money, and have made some boneheaded financial decisions, but I'm trying to learn from my mistakes, not glorifying them! I have a chest freezer and a good refrigerator, and both are essential to our food budget; stocking up on good sales is impossible without a way to keep the food safely. And half-gallons of milk are a waste of money, even if they're organic.

I have to say, if this is the way that her parish priest and her Carmelite spiritual advisors are advising her to behave, then I have serious doubts about her parish's orthodoxy.

[Nothing2CHere]

Hmm, how to go lower than oatmeal and ramen ... grow a garden and drop the cello lessons? Oh, and don't give away your full-sized fridge, so that you can buy full-sized gallons of milk and stock up on stuff when it's on sale??? :roll:

Interestingly enough, last night I told my husband that we need to spend our tax return money on a new fridge, because our current fridge has started thinking it's a freezer.

Edited for riffles

[singsingsing]

I doubt Abigail and her family are actually subsisting on oatmeal and ramen. This is the woman who blithely throws out comments that she might be in the hospital throwing up from chemo, or that she was a Ukrainian orphan. She loves to exaggerate for effect.

I absolutely LOVE how she's bragging about having to cut her grocery budget by a 3rd, but nary a mention of her fucking cello. Lady, get rid of that and FEED YOUR CHILDREN. I'm pretty sure THAT'S the kind of sacrifice Jesus wants you to make.

Edit: I just read the actual post. Tell me she didn't actually hallucinate about having an inhaler? Because the way it reads, she spends at least a good few minutes desperately wondering where her inhaler is... before she realizes that she doesn't have one. As I was reading it, I thought it was strange, because I get the exact same anxiety-induced breathing issue that she describes, and there's no way you'd ever use an inhaler to treat it. But she doesn't use an inhaler. She's just delusional, or completely full of it. Or both. :?

[Koala]

"Um, I don't know how we go lower than Oatmeal and Ramen." So that is my mission over the next four days until my husband's next pay period. "How do I make a healthy and edible meal plan on an even smaller budget?"

Start with the cello Abigail. Start with the cello. Also, stop remodeling shit.

**side note** This is why she needed to save the frozen pork chops and "hoard" of extra food instead of throwing

them (and the fridge out) like they were a roadblock between her and the kiss of Jesus *gag* :cray-cray:

[Conuly]

And half-gallons of milk are a waste of money, even if they're organic.

If you have a large family or drink a lot of milk, yes. But don't get lured into a false economy! If you go through no more than half a gallon before it goes bad, anything else would be the waste.

And yes, keeping her own private cello lessons is both a violation of her vow of poverty (I mean, it has to be, right?) and, more importantly, neglectful of her own children. Their need for nutritious meals and food security trumps her hobbies. You want a hobby? Take up vegetable gardening.

[GeoBQn]

Edit: I just read the actual post. Tell me she didn't actually hallucinate about having an inhaler? Because the way it reads, she spends at least a good few minutes desperately wondering where her inhaler is... before she realizes that she doesn't have one. As I was reading it, I thought it was strange, because I get the exact same anxiety-induced breathing issue that she describes, and there's no way you'd ever use an inhaler to treat it. But she doesn't use an inhaler. She's just delusional, or completely full of it. Or both. :?

That confused me as well. I don't have asthma and never have. When I have that anxiety-induced quick breathing, my first thought isn't "I need an inhaler!" because I've never needed, used, or owned one.

[Koala]

That confused me as well. I don't have asthma and never have. When I have that anxiety-induced quick breathing, my first thought isn't "I need an inhaler!" because I've never needed, used, or owned one.

She's either drama queening it (as usual) or she's completely looney toons. Probably both.

[Confused_by_religion]

Okay...according to Abigail, a sign of being poor "the wrong way" is "eating highly processed food...Ramen, anyone? :angry-banghead:

What I really, seriously don't get is the "...and Jesus said to me..." thing.

I mean no disrespect to any Christian, but I can't imagine sitting somewhere and waiting for the Voice of Jesus to pop up in my head, asking me to go deeper (or whatever). Do I have to imagine this as a conversation in which I supply both sides - mine and Jesus's? Is it like talking to an imaginary best friend? Or do I get a feeling, which I believe is "sent" to me by God, and translate it into words in my head?

In any of the cases, how do I know whether it's ME or GOD that supplies the ideas?

[GeoBQn]

I find it interesting that Abigail never posts links to her blog entries on her FB page, nor does she have a link to her blog in her "About" section. Do her friends and family know about her blog? Except for the uber-Catholic posts, she comes off as more of a normal person on her FB page.

[countressrascal]

Someone with her educational background-I am pissed that she went to Smith, that was my dream college and did not get in so I had to settle on Bryn Mawr. That she can't develop a food budget that would provide her family healthy foods, it is not that hard. It does take some work and planning. :angry-banghead:

What to know how she spent their tax refund, with that many kids I am sure they recieved some EITC. So why not go out and buy a fridge with the money.

[Bellatrix]

I don't get why there has to be an eating nook in the kitchen. That dining room set is just fine for everyday meals.

But hey, whatever allows Abigail to play with the money purse she allegedly doesn't have, right? Because those five (brand new looking) Ikea Nordmyra chairs at US$ 69 a pop and plain white table don't suffice. For fudge's sake, THAT IS NOT MAHOGANY!

Eat on it, it's cool.

I guess her reformed kitchen lifestyle will allow her to update her Blogger profile, though:

"A Third Order Carmelite in transition. An adult convert. A new writer. A new cello player. An urban homesteader. A cheerful wife. A mother of five. A kitchen eater. A mini fridge chef."

[GeoBQn]

How long before Abigail writes about how she is going to increase her purchases of organic products from Eden foods because busting her budget is worth it to support companies that have been "martyred" by the healthcare mandate?