On the heels of the recent

Most recent

Last week was a hard week for us in a number of ways, mostly financial (for those who don’t know, that’s SmockDaddy’s blog). Our grocery budget took a huge unexpected hit. You ask how that can happen? First, we had a small emergency which required the grocery budget to take on an extra week. I go to the store weekly, sometimes I go for a two week run, but when I do I still have to go back at some point for some things like more milk, eggs, and anything that needs to be fairly fresh (fruits and salad). There are a large number of items/brands my son can not eat because of his allergies. The store where we do most of our shopping has removed organic items (mostly the store brand organics) from its shelves. As well as removing those items from its shelves it has also begun carrying fewer brands of anything. There used to be five different brands of canned peas, plus the store brand and the store brand organic. Now there are three brands totals, including the store brand. As a result of fewer options leading to less competition among the brands, prices have gone up as well recently. I do buy a large quantity of organics, but not everything I buy is. I check labels. If it has preservatives, MSG, or HFCS on the label we do not buy it. Those products result in too many migraines or Epi-pen uses or ER runs. So we stay away from those.

This does not always mean the most expensive thing in the store is what we have to buy. Oddly enough many times the ’store brand’ (Food Club around here) is the better product to buy both for the money and for the label.

click to embiggen

• Kraft Singles PepperJack Cheese: PART-SKIM MILK, WHEY, MILK PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, JALAPENO PEPPERS, SALT, SODIUM CITRATE, MILKFAT, CALCIUM PHOSPHATE, SODIUM PHOSPHATE, VINEGAR, SORBIC ACID AS A PRESERVATIVE, DRIED GREEN BELL PEPPERS, DRIED RED BELL PEPPERS, NATURAL FLAVOR, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, ENZYMES, CHEESE CULTURE. CONTAINS: MILK.
• Food Club/TopCo Deli-Style Sliced Pepper Jack Cheese: Pasteurized Milk, Red and Green Jalapeno Peppers, Cheese Cultures, Salt and Enzymes. Contains: Milk.

Of course the store brand labels is the less expensive one and the better product for my son. I should, at least, say whether one would agree better or not for my son it is fine for him to eat. I guess the Kraft is more expensive because it has more stuff in it. So why pay more for something not necessarily necessary? (I’ll turn off the snarkiness for now.)

I didn’t mean to get off on that tangent, but it just grates at me so when a grocery run is not so simple to begin with and is then complicated by major changes creating more time in the store as it rearranges often, cuts out products I have become dependent on leaving me with little to no choice (except not to buy) and a need to return to the expensive health food store, and increases its prices. So all said and done a one week run for a menu that normally costs us around $230.00 ran upward of $340.00 (not good when we still had to add in the extra week).

Less recent

At the end of the HOTM Conference there was a drawing for the door prizes. Well, they weren’t door prizes since we didn’t actually walk through a door to attend. They were attendance giveaways. That’s better. There were gift certificates for various online home school stores, and around a hundred or so subscriptions to home school magazines; there were some slightly bigger prizes like some Product giveaways: LEGO sets, Science kits, and even a Rosetta Stone Set (by far the biggest giveaway of all, I think).

Since free is nice, I signed up to be put in the drawing for everything. Really. There wasn’t anything on the list I wouldn’t/couldn’t use. I was secretly hoping for the Rosetta Stone software. I have looked at that software for a few years now and really, really liked it and wanted to try it. But it’s expensive. Too expensive for our home school budget. Praying . . .

Also we’ve been suffering a bit in the budget for other reasons and all our school books have been able to be purchased. Heading into high school science with the oldest we are looking at a very high total on the science for Moggie as she needs a high level microscope and the dissection kit that comes with her science curriculum to the tune of about $400.00. There are other books missing from the shelves as well.

Least recent

I wrote about allowances last weekend and I have more to share on this very soon (tomorrow, I hope). But suffice it say, I think I have some fun new stuff to add even though we don’t have allowances in the budget right now. I think I have a way to extend continuation of the teaching of budgeting and respect of money to the children. I am excited to implement it very soon. And to share it.

To remain faithful to what God has given us

There are times when struggle becomes almost too hard to bear. There are also struggles and worries in my mind that are greater than my families immediate needs. There was more than one time last week I found myself reminding myself, then God, that He promised to take care of us and provide for us, remembering verses like Matthew 6:25-34 and Philippians 4:4-7, Isaiah 25 and some others as well. God is faithful to His children.

Friday and Saturday were particularly hard days to wake up and face. But God is faithful. I have seen the online world affect my family in a positive way more than one time in the form of e-mails, snail mail, prayers, kindness, gifts and love out-poured in many unexpected ways. I am always wonderfully amazed and equally saddened by the depth with which the online community has reached out to us more than the tangible life around us has. I will not go into too great a detail (Matthew 6:2-4) about all that has happened in the past 48 hours but I do want to share with you a few things:

1. Friday at the end of the HOTM conference I won a giveaway and this was on top of the winning ticket to attend the conference. Guess which one? Go on, guess! My heart raced as I heard my name be called for the Rosetta Stone Level One. ME! I won. Answered prayer about a school need/desire that all of the children can use.
2. Saturday night I opened my email to check through my junk folder (something I only do once a week or less often) to find an email that was not junk, but an answer to prayer. Someone wanted our book list needs so they can see if they have some we still need. Someone came to my blog via a link for my allowances post and stayed to look around.
3. Saturday night I opened another email that had some words of love and encouragement that I will not share here.

I fell asleep Saturday night to tears of release and relief for God’s faithfulness to His children. And now I must go to the grocery store (find those puzzle pieces and put them together). God is faithful. Things are still not where they need to be, but one day at a time. Today’s needs are met. God is faithful!