Announcement!

There are a few things in life that scare me. Frogs terrify me. If I see a frog you better believe I will be high-kneeing it until I feel I am at a safe distance away. The dark is still scary to me, and my quirkiest, once all-consuming, fear is of my teeth falling out. Strange, I know.

There is one other thing that I should mention that scares me: commitment. My fear of commitment points to my wrestle with selfishness. I struggle with thinking that I may not have the time, energy, resources, and patience to serve and give freely. The second (and third) reasons I fear committing to things is that I don't want to fail and I don't want to let people down. So now that I have exposed a bit of my inward workings, I have good news. I am committing!

Starting Tuesday, November 1st I will be posting my weekly menus on Tuesday nights. The menu will have a link to all of the recipes that I will be making that week. If you live in the Dallas area, this will be great for you because you will be able to use my menu and list as a plan. You will also be able to shop the sales at Sprouts on "Double Ad Wednesdays" (this week and last weeks sale prices are good on Wednesdays). Even if you aren't in the Dallas Metroplex you should still be able to find equivalent deals, because most produce goes on sale when it is in season. Better news, for many of you, is that I will be posting how much money I spent each week and where I shopped. Hopefully this will be an encouraging step towards health.

Our budget is $600 month for food and household items such as garbage bags, toilet paper, laundry and cleaning supplies. If we eat out, it comes out of this $600. If we think we need a coffee on the way to church, it comes out of the food envelope. We do a cash system, and twice a month I get $300 for food. We have found that it works better for us to do two weeks at a time, because one week I may spend $90 and the next $150. Sales, using up what I have stock-piled, and household supplies can tip my budget one week but not usually for two weeks in a row. So, I will be spending, on average, around $135/week on food for a family of 5 (husband, myself, two school-aged boys, and a toddler girl).

I hope my budget is a good reflection of my readers, or gives them a goal to aim for, but if your family is on an even tighter budget please leave me a comment. Two-years-ago, we were a family of 5, but I was still nursing my daughter, and I was feeding our family a whole foods diet (little-no processed foods) for $75 week. We weren't eating as many organic foods as we eat now, but it was still much healthier than eating sugar and preservative laden food. I was able to spend a lot more time in the kitchen, because we had not started homeschooling yet. So while it was more time consuming, I quickly learned that where there is a will there is a way.

This should be fun! Thank you for the feedback I have been receiving about what you guys would like to read and learn about. My hope is that this is a place where we can learn how to nourish ourselves and our families together!