Now I know why families of old lived together for generations, grandmas and grandpas, moms and dads, and kids all working to make everything good for the Lord. I really wish I lived in a time and place where that is still happening b/c let me tell you the way that I must do it is HARD and takes all of my strength!

Today I am making fluffy dinner rolls from scratch with ww flour, honey, raw butter, and farm fresh pastured eggs; my mouth is watering (even though my stomach is a bit queezie right now). Behind me my 11 month old is eating the dog's food (I can hear her), I could save a lot of money with this child.

Not sure what we're going to have for dinner WITH the rolls, just knew I've been wanting to try out this recipe for an age and today I would have a minute to do so b/c of the weather. Maybe chicken pot pie or 3 cheese garlic chicken pasta with broccoli (not sure I HAVE 3 cheeses, might be a ONE cheese pasta!)

I'm about 8-9 weeks along with baby #3 and starting to feel a bit nauseous throughout the day, but nothing horrible (yet). I'm researching natural remedies to "morning" sickness online.

Mary will be 11 months on the 1st, she's standing independently more and more now, especially when she doesn't know she's let go of something ^_^. She is an extremely happy child and her little bright countenance makes everyone happy that sees her. She is still waking up every 3 hours during the night, not sure if that's her or if the 3+ teeth she is currently pushing out (6 total that are not fully out) have anything to do with it (please let it be teething and let it end soon). I prayed for strength and rest even if I didn't GET any rest and the Lord gave it to me last night, thank you!

Lucy is 3 and BOY IS SHE THREE, with mood swings to go with it, 3 is the pre-school teen year IMO! She is usually a very pleasant child to be around, being the oldest and also given her personality she is very observant, intuitive, and quick. But the whining is either going to break me or I'm going to break her OF it. Praying for strength, gentleness, and perseverance.

There is an obseen amount of sickness going around right now. A nasty URI that lands you on your back with a fever for weeks (Lucy had it and mom has it), strep, chicken pox (ok only Heather's kids b/c she doesn't vaccinate), and a seriously bad nasty horrible dangerous to small kids, elderly, and pregnant women flu. We're hibernating I've decided until march, I cannot go to the hospital either as a patient or as a worried mama.

This month I fasted from facebook b/c I literally was using it like some use cigarette breaks, "I'll just go out back for 5 minutes." 1 HOUR later...the dishes never got done and the laundry languished. and the kids whom I'm supposed to be interacting with were lonely and upset. BAD MAMA. So when FCF announced they were doing a fast for revival I jumped on it as far as FB, one day I'll do an actual food fast when I'm not pregnant and or nursing, like at 50 :).

I feel SO GOOD since leaving it, I've decided that unless God wants me to go back I'm NOT GONNA. Bu-bye drama central, time sucker! I will miss all of one person that I only interact with on FB, but honestly not sure she'll miss me so *shrug* catch me on email.

As far as the PANTRY CHALLENGE OF FEBUARY is going, I'm getting last minute stuff on Sat and then we'll be off, if I can make it just 3 weeks we will save a few hundred dollars and I'll be happily on my way to paying off some debts we have right now. I'm not sure how it will go, if we can just stick with the new improved modified cut in half budget then I will be more than happy. Mary's bday is the 1st (celebrating that Sat) so I'm not sure how that's all going to go honestly, we'll see!!!!!!!!!

Febuary Pantry Challenge!

So I decided to get off of Facebook for GOOD, given how horrible it makes me feel and the amount of time I was allowing it to suck from me. So now I'm going to try and actually keep this blog up to date for friends and family. I'm not sure I'm going to put up pictures or videos honestly b/c a fellow blogger just let everyone know that someone had been using pictures of her daughter (who has cancer) to solicit money and basically to gain sympathy for a fake life.


Sooooo, what's going on in the Garcia household?

#1 we  I went over the grocery budget (again) this month (january), so I am taking drastic measures to ensure that I rein it in next month. The PANTRY CHALLENGE! I stole the idea from another blog and of course I am not going to JUST live out of my pantry for a month, I cannot live without my raw milk people, esp while expecting, or my pastured eggs, raw milk cheese..... I have a big problem what can I say. What I CAN do is cut off spending on everything that I have stocked up on already, ie black beans, rice, pasta, sauces, etc. I'm still making the rules up as to what counts or doesn't count. But suffice it to say I have a PROBLEM not buying wholesome food at fantastic prices when I find it...it's like some women's shoe fetish. I love to cook and I love everthing there is to cooking, utensils, appliances (ok the ones that make sense and don't make me mad), whole food ingredients are my favorite. You want a twinky? I can totally make you one that will taste MUCH better than the nasty stuff the gross-ery store peddles all from scratch. I make 90% of our food this way and hope to achieve 99.99999% (b/c we are also eating out junkies *sigh*) next year with my garden and local food resources I cultivated last year.

#2 Our house and business are still for sale with little interest. We don't have to buy, but boy would it make our life extremely easy if we did! We've implemented a plan with refinancing in our future. We have a renter so at least we're making some (read: extremely little) money off the property. We just realized that God wants us to stay home with our children for this season in our lives. It would be different if Sonny was called to be at home through real estate or ministry, but he isn't, so we're looking to sell 2 out of 3 properties at this point in time. It will make things much easier, reduce our running around the state to 1x/year, and quite honestly possibly take us down a tax bracket, which with what is going on in this country is a huge blessing.

I find it fascinating that according to my research on our budget our tithe amount will not go down, something I was worried about b/c we give to numerous Jesus outreaches and sponsor 3 kids, which I was so not wanting to let go! God is in the details :)

#3 Sonny received word of a promotion but has yet to get it...it's complicated but it involves a kid that refuses/does not know how to work hard and trying to find Sonny's replacement. Sonny needs lots of prayer to not kill this slacker child boy and keep his witness intact. He's decided to act like the drill sarg on full metal jacket towards this kid in the meantime, seems to be working SMH.

#4 I'm due in September! (and if you are reading this and thinking of coming to hurt us I have lots of guns and police training on how to shoot them, plus a 100# lab that doesn't like strangers). We're excited and I'm having fun telling people and watching their shocked reaction, LOL. Mary is 10 1/2 months now, so she and the new baby will be 18 month apart? check my math I don't have time.

In other news it's 10 degrees out today with beautiful sunshine and a beyond brisk breeze, I really wish we could go out in it for at least 2.4 seconds but Lu had a fever when she woke up and is now normal but we are not pushing it. It's been a crazy sick season! We've been sick 6+ weeks total since September, so we're really aiming to skip the flu and the strep that is going around church these days, especially with Gma S in a rehab facility and my own mom so sick we missed our make up Christmas day with her (she went to visit my sister for Christmas Day). We have Christmas presents still in the dinning room!

Prayer for the day:

Please Lord give me endurance, sweetness, and patience for the rest of the day and night ahead. Please allow me to be rested no matter what actual amount of sleep I get tonight. I pray that Lu is not sick and we'll be able to visit Gma and Ducky this weekend like planned. I also pray for Sonny as he comes home from work, my mom that is recovering from a really bad virus, and my sister that is dealing with some things relating to her own child. I also pray for little Cole in the NICU and the rest of the prayer requests I recieved in email last week. Thank you Lord, we love you. In Jesus' name, Amen.