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.