don’t buy juice this month.

We have those weeks at our house.

Like everyone else I assume.

Weeks where the grocery budget has been spent and we end up eating tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches (at an estimated cost of less than 80 cents per family member) or tuna casserole (a throwback from the quick, easy, low cost dishes of my childhood).

I cut coupons and am currently trying my hand at the whole CVS game.

And I’m not doing it because I like spending several hours huddled over newspaper ads or searching websites for great deals.

I’m cutting coupons and planning low cost meals for the same reason everyone else is doing it.

Because providing food and clothing and other essential and non-essential items for a family is expensive.

Budgeting makes me a lot more aware of the items I toss into my grocery cart these days.  Fewer prepackaged foods weasel their way into our home.

And I am finding that another item I have started leaving off the grocery list is juice.  The kids don’t really need it.  It can get expensive – particularly at our home when serving up one glass per kid empties an entire container at one meal.  Juice has become a treat here.  Our kids generally have two primary options to quench their thirsts.  Milk or water.

The little gang of them were outside playing the other day and Mosely announced, “I’m going to go in and get myself a big glass of cold water.”

Which made all of them suddenly realize their own desperate desire to have water as well.

They rushed in, clamored around the sink, sloshing water in their cups, down their shirts and on their faces.

London told me, “You don’t mind us getting water whenever we want.  We don’t even have to ask.  Because it’s free.”

(Maybe I have been talking too much about grocery budgets all around or something.)

Anyway.

She said all this.

The kids downed their water.  Spilled their water.  Had seconds.  Soaked up the spilled water on the floor with a towel.  And then rushed back out to ride bikes.  Or climb mountains.  Or save the world.  Or whatever.

Water.

It’s free – right?

We just turn on the faucet and fill up our cups.

We even have a handy-dandy water filter attached to a spigot on our sink.

It’s nice.

I use it maybe twenty times a day.  Probably more.

Uh.  Sometimes I leave it running, pouring clean water down the drain of an empty sink while I step over to the fridge for something.

And I never even think about it.

Until right now.

And so, yeah – I want you to think about it too.

Our family’s friend, affectionately known here as Uncle Tyler (although we cannot claim genuine genetic proof of this familial relationship), invited Kevin and I and 28 other bloggers to participate in a challenge to raise $30,000 in 30 days through a project called charity: water.

For 30 days – that’s the month of September, you know – I will be encouraging you to learn more about charity:water and to donate some of your grocery money to the cause.

You could just stop buying juice for this month, which might equal $20 or more if you have a passel of kids slurping down the Juicy Juice every day.

Because $20 – your juice money – can provide one person with clean water for the next 20 years!

All of the money raised this month goes to build wells to provide clean water for the people living in the Central African Republic.

Most citizens of this area are walking to unsanitary water sources miles every day to carry dirty water back to their homes.

And guess who does most of the heavy lifting there – trekking back and forth to water spots with cans on their backs or their heads?

Women and children.

The you and me of their culture.

And guess who most frequently dies because of the lack of clean water?

Kids under five.

That’s half of my family!

Please.

Explore the website.

Watch the videos.

Go ahead – picture your kids in that environment.

That’s what I did.

My water-drinking, water-wasting, juice-loving, blessedly healthy young children.

That kind of helped make things a little clearer for me.

Let me know what you think.