Fears and New Recipes

This weekend I have been trying to fight off the yearly sinus infection that is insistent on arriving at the worst time. Thankfully the girls have been kept busy by other family members and activities so that I can sit around and stress about all the changes in our lives. I am stressing about the idea that our home buyer might still pull out of the contract based on the home inspection and force us to back out of our new house (this even though I have no known reasons why our home inspection would come back so poorly). But on the other hand, and almost in the same breath, I am stressing about reworking our new family finances in a new home. The thing is that I stop and pray (when the stress gets so bad and I start feeling like I am hyperventilating) for God to take this from us and for me to stay out of the way - then I start to feel better and almost immediately my attention is taken up into more enjoyable pursuits. Then two or three hours later, back slowly creeps the fears and insecurities. It is like riding a teeter-totter.

Even though I am a female, I have just enough Mars (Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus) in me to look for solutions when I get stressed out. Stress and fear in the right amount are wonderful motivators for change, it is when I get locked into the stress and fears and become unable to do or enjoy anything that I have a problem. Anyway, I have been working on budgets and cost cutting ideas. I can't do anything about electricity, water, sewer, garbage and gas as they are locked into the community. But, I have managed to find some less expensive options for phone, internet, cell phones and television (must have for DH). I have also decided on the need to get back to more oversight on our grocery budget. These last four months have been killer for that - I have barely hit our warehouse store and we are doing way too much drop in grocery runs for 1, 2, 20 items.

This weekend I manged to get over to the library alone so that I could explore the nonfiction stacks without prying a climbing child off the shelves. I came home with six different cookbooks to review. So far I have managed to work myself two-thirds of the way through one - jotting down recipe ideas as I go. I have been pleasantly surprised by the number of recipes that I have found that I think we can save some money with, especially since this cookbook is not a budget cookbook, but an italian-american one. The biggest thing is the number of recipes I have found that require very little meat or none at all. The meat that is often used are cheaper cuts. Being that DH is little bit of a food snob, I think that I might have found some definite recipes to try that will satisfy him and our budget. I picked up a bread cookbook and am really excited to get back into some fresh bread making after the move. And the other cookbooks are mainly stew and crockpot ideas.

I am looking forward to cooking more in the new house. The kitchen there has just been so warm and welcoming every time I have been in the house. Here I dread the kitchen, and just don't want to spend my time in it. I am salivating at the space in the kitchen in the new house, the size of the sink and the area that the kids can be there helping without actually being near the stove or oven. From the kitchen I can see the family room, dining room (library-school room), sunroom (play room), and backyard play area. So much more motivation for me.

My mom is coming in today to spend the week. She is going to help me pack and entertain the girls while we do some other house stuff. I may or may not get on much, but I will try.

Peace,

Amy