Feingold, again

 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.   1 Corinthians 10:31

Our family is going back to the all natural, "Feingold diet" to help one of my kiddos again. We- well, I - bagged up all the left over cereal, granola bars, and chocolate syrup and tossed it. I put all white flour and sugar on a top shelf that needs a ladder to reach it. I am determined to do this, and help my child without medication if it's at all possible.

We were already basically on this diet because of how I have been eating. What's changed is that I won't be buying anything AT ALL with corn syrup and artificial coloring's and preservatives anymore, once again.
So the kids were lamenting this (no more candy, no more ice cream, we are going to die of a boring diet) - especially the one who has caused this change - while we drove to the bank, where, of COURSE, they gave them a large bag of chocolate for Halloween, which we take no part in, anyway! The kids were delighted. This is your last hurrah, I told them. Eat it and be done.
We went to the Family Nutrition Store to buy supplements. While standing in one place in the isle, I saw no less than THREE friends. I hardly knew who to talk to, but I saw friend Rebecca first, so I talked to her. Then I went to friend Sarah, who was in the isle I wanted, the children's supplements. As we caught up, she suddenly said, "You have lost a LOT of weight!"
Oh, yeah! I had forgotten how I must have changed since the last time I saw her. 20% of my body weight gone IS a lot...
I am grateful that I have been able to maintain this new weight. I have been carefully adding back a few things. Tonight, I was COLD and tired, and since I had hardly had any carbs all day, I ate a small bowl of oatmeal with blueberries for dinner, and a cup of hot ginger lemon tea. I haven't had oatmeal in over six months, and it tasted wonderful!
I put on my warm PJ's early ( no visitors tonight, please), and I plan to crochet and read the night away, while other people are out celebrating Halloween. I am thankful to live at the end of a long country road, far away from all that activity.

Maybe I will have more ginger lemon tea! With Xylitol, instead of sugar!

• God is light, and there is no darkness in Him. 1 John 1:5

Feeding my family

Today will probably be grocery shopping day for me.  It's the one job of caring for my large family that I just don't like much.  I think one reason is because I am so torn...
I want to be frugal.  I joined The Grocery Game to help me organize coupons and save money (check this site out, and if you join, remember to tell them that Carla Raley sent you!!).  I try very hard to get a Sunday paper each week just for the coupons.  I shop several stores to save money.  I feel like getting the best deals is part of my job as a stay at home mom - making the most of the money my husband works hard for.

But sometimes I get discouraged.  After getting yet another bad watermelon at the local farmers market, in fact, getting TWO bad watermelons, I found myself at Central Market yet again last week while I was in Fort Worth.  I could live on watermelon during the summer.  It's so hot, and watermelon is the perfect food, I think.  I know when I get a watermelon at Central Market, it's going to be good.  So I went, and with spending just a bit more than I did at the farmers market, I brought home a wonderful, sweet watermelon.

So I sometimes struggle between being frugal, and getting what I know will probably be more pricey, and yet be something my family will enjoy eating, rather than just eating.

And yes, I have tried and failed many times with a garden in my yard.  I did plant watermelons in my herb garden this year, and I have a few actually growing out there.  If they work, I'll try it again next summer with watermelons that will ripen earlier.  It's just that I've never been able to get more than a few, and I want watermelon EVERY DAY!!

I am pretty good at not buying processed food, and have learned that once you have weaned yourself off it, it doesn't even taste good anymore.  We make things from scratch in our house, which saves a bundle!

It's not hard for me to be both frugal and "green".  I don't like chemicals, they scare me a bit, so it's easy to use baking soda and vinegar and soap nuts and essential oils to keep my house clean.  I know that this also helps Tommy, and all of us for that matter.

It's easy for me to be frugal in the clothes department.  I have found so many places to be frugal there.  Thrift store shopping, online sales: I just got two dresses for my little girl at an online store I recently found: The Dashing Bee,  I was very pleased with what I received.

  I want to be frugal, but the kids want blizzards when we go out.  I want to be not only frugal, but stick to Tommy's diet, but the snow cone stand makes memories.  I want to be frugal, but I want to be fun, too.

Food is so important to happiness, don't you think?  So I struggle.  Town Talk, or Central Market?  Thankfully, these two stores, which are at opposite ends of the spectrum, are both an hour away from me, so I don't have to make that choice often.  Within decent driving distance is Aldi's and HEB, and those are my main stores.  So this afternoon, I will sit for a while checking sales and gathering coupons, and trudge off again.  Saving money is all a part of it, but a happy family is important too.

I would love to hear how any of you handle this!!

Beautiful children

We went to a funeral this week.  It was a very sweet funeral of a much loved lady who was nearing her 90th year.  She was the mother of Bill's brother in law.  I didn't know her well, but I wish I had - the people who spoke and sang at the funeral obviously loved her much. My son Max remembered that she always made coconut cream pies for him when she knew he was coming.  I heard a lady behind me whisper to her friend, "She never missed a service.  She was there Sunday morning, Sunday evening and Wednesday night."  I felt a bit convicted...
The preacher agreed in his eulogy.  He said that after this lady was diagnosed with cancer, sometime other parishioners would call and tell him they weren't going to be at services because they had a headache.  "I'll ask Miss Liz to pray for you,"  he said he would tell them, because Miss Liz would be sure to be there, even with the pain of her cancer.  That was usually enough and the person on the other end of the phone would be at services, he said, laughing.  It was obvious he loved her very much.

After the funeral, we were all invited back to church for a meal.  Our family went, Bill and I and our five youngest children.  Bill's extended family doesn't have a lot of children in it.  I'm not sure why that is, because it is certain that they love children.  But regardless, when this family gets together, my children are usually the only ones there, and they get much attention.  This day was no exception.
One thing I heard throughout the day, both by family and people I had never met before, was how beautiful my children are.  I have to admit, I agree!  Beau was especially fussed over, because he has grown into a man now:

And no, I'm not ready to marry him off, so don't email me pictures of your daughters!!  :o)

But then, they are ALL beautiful, pretty Celeste is the only one missing from the first picture:

Someone asked me how I managed to have ten children, and all of them beautiful!  I jokingly replied it was because Bill and I are so beautiful, ourselves.
Then last night, I was reading a new book after all the kiddos went to bed.  In it, the main character was talking about a family who lived in the hills.  She said there were many children in the family, and they were all ugly.  At least, she thought so until she got to know one of the sisters.  The more she knew her, the more beautiful she became, until this person thought, "Why, she isn't ugly at all!"

I thought about that...

What is beautiful?  Here is a dictionary definition:

adjective

1.

having beauty;  having qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, think about, etc.; delighting the senses or mind: a beautiful dress; a beautiful speech.

So it doesn't have to just be a perfect face, it is something that "gives great pleasure.. to see" I thought of three things that are beautiful to see in a child:  Good health, nicely dressed, and happy.

As mom's, we are responsible for our children's health.  Healthy children are a joy to look at, and usually, a joy to be around.  If you are pregnant, are you taking your vitamins and eating healthy, well balanced meals?  This is the very start.  Once baby is here, are you breastfeeding?  Again, as a mommy, it is the very best you can do for your child.

Now that they are older, are you being careful to provide healthy meals?  Or are you throwing a box of sugar laden, food colored cereal on the table?  Processed lunch meat on white bread?  Come on, mom, you can do better for your children...

That food is okay once in a while, but it should be the exception rather than the rule.

How about how your dress your child?  Do their clothes fit?  I remember going to a foster care meeting one day and I could almost tell which of the foster children were welcomed into the family by how they were dressed.  Some were wearing ill fitting, worn out looking clothes that obviously came from charity, others were dressed like well care for children.  I'm not saying thrift store clothes are wrong.  We went to Goodwill ourselves yesterday.  Mary Susannah found name brand Aeropostale clothes mixed in with everything else there.  They cost the same amount as the worn out looking shirts.  She found a trendy skirt.  She is turning into the queen of thrift store clothes.  I, on the other hand, don't often have the patience to dig through the tremendous amount of clothes that she does.  I was looking for shirts for Luke and didn't find anything I thought was nice enough for him to wear.  I've sort of learned that to find clothes for Luke, I need to go to the Burleson Goodwill.  I don't know what the difference is, but it's there.  This Cleburne Goodwill, however, is great in the book department!!

And lastly, is your child happy?  A happy, clear countenance is priceless.  A well loved older man who has passed on to glory, Richard Mummau, told me once that a Christian always has a clear countenance.  I could write a whole other blog about that, maybe I will someday.

Do your children have a clear countenance?   What do you feed their minds on?  Are they innocent?

One lady at the funeral told me that Luke was the cutest little boy she had ever seen.  I know what she means.  While Luke may have funny ears and a skinny body and he doesn't talk much in public,  he was born smiling and hasn't stopped since.  He doesn't need to talk, his face is very expressive and  says it all.  He looks like a child who has never seen a bad day.  Yeah, he can be naughty, when he is, it's hard for me to discipline him (although I do, honestly) because I don't like to do anything to make him cry or be sad.  When the church we were attending made it a rule of membership that the children HAD to attend the church school, I knew I would never be a member.  Trying to explain it to them, I told one lady, "I can't imagine that I would have to go all day and not see Luke's smile!"  Her reply?  "Oh, you will get used to it."

Used to it?  I don't WANT to get used to it, I told her.  She looked at me like she could not comprehend that...

So momma's, take stock: are your children beautiful?  

I think I can hear a lot of "yes's" out there!!

Groceries

I can still remember the first time I realized we were in trouble.  I was sitting at the dinner table with my four fast growing boys and one little daughter, watching as they completely finished off a two liter bottle of coke.  I could not believe they drank the whole thing.  I just didn't think they were that big. 
I should have seen it coming.  Beau was only two years old when he decided McDonald's happy meals were not enough food, and began asking for Quarter Pounders.  I had grown up in a house of four daughters and a mother who barely hit 100 pounds when she was nine months pregnant.  I could not fathom this kind of appetite!
Then the days came when my husband Bill would look in the fridge on Sunday night and say, "Where's that half gallon of ice cream I brought home Friday?"  Oh, please...he didn't really believe there would be any left after two days, did he?

As my family grew, I got more and more frugal, but one thing that would come close to inciting a rebellion at our house was if I scrimped on groceries.  My oldest son stood before me in his early teen years and told me "I am always hungry, Mom!  Forget this girl food, I need MEAT!"  I choked back a smile and gave him what he wanted.

But feeding four growing sons - one who would soon be more than six feet tall - was a challenge budgetwise.  I tried lots of things over the years.  I even became a "coupon queen" for quite a while; joining an online group called "the grocery game" that helped me know what to buy when with which coupons.  I saved so much that the checkers were floored when my receipt was long enough to trail on the floor, yet I had saved around $80 to $100.

Then, Tommy came to live with us, and before long we were on the Feingold diet.  My coupons were useless now because most of them were for processed food, which Tommy cannot have.  Either I had to buy foods labeled "organic" or "natural", or I had to make it from scratch.  A look at the price tags on those organic foods and I soon opted for cooking from scratch.  We also began to have very simple meals: homemade bread from freshly ground wheat with melted cheese and some natural spaghetti sauce was a favorite lunch.  We ate fruits and salads.  We began to shop at Central Market a lot.  Our problem was that Central Market is almost an hour away and very pricey.  But wow, the produce was amazingly good.  Walmart just couldn't compare.

Still, certain things just didn't fit in our budget very often.  Tommy can't drink regular soft drinks.  We discovered Izze's, which he loved, but at nearly $1 a bottle, times lots of us, we just couldn't buy them very often.

So imagine my delight when my daughter discovered Town Talk, Fort Worth's salvage grocery store.  I used to shop there, but several years ago, they had a terrible scare when LOTS of people got sick on chili they bought at Town Talk.  My husband forbade me to shop there.  I did finally get him to say I could buy foods in cans, but I was not supposed to buy any meat or frozen goods from them.  It didn't seem worth it to drive an hour, so I soon quit going.
Then my daughter, Rachael, called to tell me that they had Izze's there for 50 cents each.  She said they also had lots of organic things that she thought Tommy could eat.  I should go there before we left for Virginia, she said, and get snacks for the car ride.
So I did.  And I was so amazed to find that they did indeed have lots of natural and organic things that I couldn't afford to buy often before.  I stacked my cart to overflowing with snacks for eight people, for the 20-hours-one-way-trip-we-would-make-twice-in-one-week.  And I only paid $80 for a car load of stuff.

Before we left, I let the fridge go almost completely bare. Which meant that I also came home to an empty fridge.  Not only that, but I came home to an empty fridge, and my car went immediately to the shop because the air conditioner went out.  So I had an empty fridge and no car.  Finally, today, three days since we got  home, I borrowed son Spencer's car and took off for my now two favorite stores: Town Talk and Central Market.

Being a salvage grocery store, Town Talk is pretty much at the bottom price wise.  You have to be VERY careful what you buy, because many things can be as much as two or three years past their expiration date.  I have one son, Beau, who, when he was a young boy, was terrified his lax mother was going to kill him by giving him food past it's expiration date to the point that we now call those the "die by" dates, as in, if you eat them after this date, you will die.
So we checked and shopped carefully, and for $141.10, I got twelve sacks of groceries, one 12 pack of Sierra Mist, and two 24 packs of Juicy Juice.  All things Tommy can eat.  All things that will not kill Beau.  All the 'fun foods' that just make life nice.  I was most happy!!

And amazingly, this twelve sacks of groceries and large amounts of Sierra Mists and Juicy Juices fit perfectly into the trunk of Spencer's small car.  He actually has more room than I do in my Tahoe, which I always said was just too small...

From Town Talk, the discount grocery store, we headed over to Central Market, which is an upper end grocery.  But wow, do they have amazingly good produce and a whole store full of natural foods that Tommy can have.  So at Central Market, we got Gelato to keep the kids happy, and shopped for the good for you stuff:

I was pleased that I only spent just over $200 there, and had maybe another eight bags.  We did pretty well!
We came home and quickly put up the enormous amount of groceries we bought, then feasted on slices of  toasted French Baguette bread with real butter and feta cheese, and chunks of watermelon.  We drank peach Izze's and had Central Market natural cupcakes for dessert.  It was girl food, yes, but my big sons were not home, and Luke and Tommy still love this kind of stuff.

I still need to make one more shopping trip, and I'll have groceries for a month.  I am getting tomatoes and peppers from my garden, and yesterday, I dug up two patches of garlic:

My chickens have given me 34 eggs so far today:

Most of these eggs are destined for the incubator, but soon, I'm going to have to find a market for them.  One place has already offered to buy some, so I'll be calling her in a couple of days.

So my trip to Virginia is over, and now my house is once again filled with food.  My watermelon plants are growing in the garden - I planted 15 watermelon plants, because I could pretty much live on that alone in the summer.  Have you ever had frozen watermelon and Sierra Mist 'smoothie'?  Try it someday!!  It can quench even the biggest boy's thirst!