Update - day 17 (Confession)

So, as of yesterday we can officially see the front and sides of our pantry shelves!! This is really very exciting-and no worries-we have not resorted to the crackers and Ketchup yet!! Far from it! In our journey to clean out the pantry-we have stumbled onto some great recipes and we are finally using the " stash" of brownies and cake mixes!! So don't feel too bad for us!!!

Now on to the confession....we had some dear friends of ours Mr. and Mrs. R invite us out to lunch. The temptation of lunch was small, but the temptation to have adult conversation over a meal was great! And I caved in...at first we were going to a restaurant where I figured we could still do pretty good by ordering a la carte. Then plans got changed and we ended up at a buffet....I hate buffets.....again, my desire to catch up and have deep conversation was too great....so we ate at the buffet...I hate buffets. It just reminds me of how wasteful we are but you barely have time to notice that before the waitress comes to remove your last plate so you can just go get another, clean, hot fresh from the dish washer plate because they can hardly keep up with the demand from the patrons for more!!!! (I know, that was not even a sentence..) Anyway-before we left they mentioned they were going to go see the new Veggie Tales movie....again, the temptation was too great. At that point I should have just been satisfied with what conversation I had and time spent-but then I thought that I would treat the kids(ha) because they have been so great with everything and we NEVER go to the movies.....now I remember why....crying baby, fussing baby, then sleeping baby who wakes immediately upon the absence of the constant rocking movement that I so desperately provide to calm him and not get nasty looks from all around me....I hate the movies....

So, I left the theatre, sick to my stomach-and not because I consumed an enormous amount of freshly popped movie theatre popcorn (mmmm....popcorn.....) , but because I knew I had foolishly spent money that was now gone-buyers remorse had set in (it was either that or the chemical breakdown of that highly addictive, yet oh so good "butter" they squirt heavily on the popcorn, but I digress...). I was so angry at myself and am still quite miffed at the whole day. And all though I very thoroughly enjoyed the company, I went over and over in my mind how I could have better handled my choices today.....

All in all, here's where I landed

Buffet for 4 : 26.00

Movie with popcorn : 32.00

The sick feeling in my gut of knowing that the money
could have been much better spent : priceless

Update - Day 7, Our Journey Through the Pantry!

It is day 7 (week one) of our Journey Through the Pantry and I have to tell you its been awesome! We still have plenty of good food to eat! I was talking with a friend in AZ (Mrs.B) about our little experiment, and she too has taken on the challenge! After talking about it with her, we decided that there were ground rules that should be followed. Rule one is that although we may not go "shopping" for food, we may get fresh fruit and veggies. I want to see how long I can live out of my pantry-not nutritionally starve my kids! Second, you may also purchase milk. We don't drink a lot of that in our house, but at Mrs.B's they do, and with three "little" ones(she has seven altogether!), we couldn't see going months without that! I buy instant nonfat milk now anyway-so we always have milk on hand!

After talking about the "rules" of the game we added yet another side to it. In an attempt to keep our non-sense, impulse buys to a bare minimum. We are sending the oldest child into the store to retrieve said exceptions to the experiment. That way there is no aimless, wandering down numerous aisles of temptation!

Last night we had chicken, gravy and mashed potatoes, and veggies. Yesterday we ran out of store bought bread-but I have a cupboard full of all the ingredients to make bread! Ahhh...the bliss of "going without"!

Beauty for Ashes...

So today is my birthday. No big deal really, but it does cause one to reflect for a moment on ones life thus far. And as I reflected, (curled up on my couch in front of the fireplace with a nice hot cup of french vanilla coffee), I saw once again how blessed I am.....

I grew up on welfare and with no place to call home. With no father and a mom who worked two jobs to try and support us. We lived lived a life where I witnessed things that no child should see..... I don't want to get into the whole story-but it was a sad and hard childhood-we'll leave it at that....

Now flash forward to present day-I live in a home. A beautiful home(oh, thank you Lord...), with kids that I adore and will never feel the same pains and struggles that I felt growing up(oh praise your Holy Name....), and a husband who loves me deeply with a marriage that only God could have granted and has blessed with His own two hands(I fall at your feet, my God....) how?

I felt so unworthy.... there truly is nothing in me that deserves any of this." Weren't you there Lord, when I did that one thing...and then that other? I know you saw how bad I messed up when I did "that"? So by all accounts, You had every right to leave me no better then I came into this world!" But He didn't....oh Lord.....my God....my Father......how could I ever thank you for giving such Beauty for such burnt Ashes?

Later I read a post from my good friend Mrs.L. She talks about loving her new boys that they have recently adopted. How the boys had never heard words of love, so she reminds them several times a day by asking them a question. "How comes I love you so big?"(in polish, and I won't even try to type that!) to which they respond "because you do!". It is a touching story.

As I got up from my computer to go refill my coffee, I thought about her post. I thought about how blessed I feel, how I don't deserve any of it, how God has adopted me into his family, how he loves me and I can't for the life of me figure out why!

Then, it was as if I could hear my heavenly Father say...."Calandra, how comes I love you so big?"....and I just smiled and softly whispered back to Him......"because you do...."

New Year-New Look?

Yes, as you can see I did a little remodeling to the blog site. I really wish I knew how to make it more my style-but I only know how to use the templates provided...perhaps I will look into that in my spare time! For now-this was a fun makeover!

So here's what I have been thinking. Well, first, here's what happened.

I was making dinner last night and was missing an ingredient. So I dug deep into the "black hole" of a pantry that we have to see ,if by chance I had said ingredient canned somewhere back in the recesses of the cupboard. After digging and shoving and pushing things aside, out of frustration I decided to just empty every shelf out onto the counter. OH... my, my, my.....

side note:have you ever had gluttony just stare at you right in the face? Sorry, I am getting ahead of myself

I contemplated for about half of a second weather or not to brave the arctic chill of winter that was outside my door to go get this elusive ingredient. Did the recipe really call for it? I should look at it again...yup, that's what it needs....oh well - nitrate induced hot dogs it is then!
Anyway, that's when the epiphany hit me. The idea that is rocking the world of the precious little ones that live with me.

Just how long could we last only eating what we have hoarded in the pantry?

I took the idea to the kids and shockingly, it has become quite a challenge! We got really excited about how this is going to play out. We decided to write down our meals daily; to keep a log of how we eat. I predict that we will be just fine for a while-but I can't wait until we get down to crackers and ketchup! (By the way-I have had that for dinner growing up-that's a post for another day!)

So, here we go. On our little" journey". Day one-so far so good....soup and sandwiches for lunch;sloppy joes and fries for dinner;....no complaints yet, but I'll keep you posted!