Wednesday, January 7, 2009

On Being Generous


It's a small tree, but it is generous.

I wish I had a cookie tree. It seems like the cookies disappear as soon as I buy them. Since the budget is tight, I decided to make oatmeal raisin cookies from scratch last night. They are my favorite cookie! I put the dough in the refrigerator as it was late. I'll bake them tomorrow night. When I got home from work the next day, lo and behold the smell of oatmeal was in the air. My oldest son had baked a tray, and shared them with his friend. That's fine, but he's baking another tray right now, and his friend is hovering. What should I expect with boys around?

Earlier this week, I decided to make a list of all the food we would need for one week. This would alleviate so many trips to the market and maybe I'd save some money. I had 6 meals planned and all the ingredients were in the cupboard! Wow...the pressure peeled off me. No worrying about "what are we going to have for dinner tonight?"

It all began well, with ground turkey and baked potatoes the first night. Then...the next day someone made salsa with my tomatoes and ate half the bag of tortilla chips that I was using for the tortilla soup.

The Monterey jack cheese for the tortilla soup was used by someone to make cheese bread. And I could tell you a story about the burritos disappearing...but I'll spare you. Because I really don't want to complain.

For one, I'm glad my son likes to bring his friends around. And even though our budget is tight, I figure God is an expert at multiplying food. So that is what I'm praying.

But I will have to plan a few more dinners.

I'm now putting signs on the food that is reserved for dinners.

UPDATE ON OUR POTENTIAL MOVE

We're slowing down in our search for houses, as Mozart is taking some time to explore some new directions for his career. So the house won't be going up for sale yet.

I'm glad...because if we move, I'll really miss the oranges. Now if I could just get those boys to eat oranges! (I caught them using those dangling orange balls as targets for the airsoft guns! I put a stop to that—they are now using soda cans!)

4 comments:

Willow said...

The 'reserved' signs on the food makes me laugh.

Have you looked at Saving Dinner? Leann Ely has a lot of free menus with shopping lists. You can find them in the archives of www.flylady.net

Dawn said...

That's too funny - and not funny! There is nothing more frustating than finding your ingredients gone when you go to make something. I have always menu planned and shopped, but I'm not as good at it as I used to be. I make way too many trips to the store these days.

The oranges look wonderful! I can't even imagine using them for target practice!

Susan Skitt said...

Oh my, I smiled all the way through this post!!!

I hear you about food "disappearing" around here! And the oranges look delicious - my oldest eats them all the time. That is too funny that they were using them as airsoft gun targets - oh my. Jared has an airsoft gun too. He loves to play with his friends in the woods and he sets up a big cardboard box as a target spot too :)

Oh and stop on by before Jan. 14th. I'm having a book give-away contest. Feel free to invite friends!

Susan said...

I can remember when we were raising 4 children I had to hide things like potato chips, cookies, things they really liked, or I wouldn't have them for their lunches that week. Now all I have to do is "hide" the candy and icecream from myself :o( I've always been amazed at the oranges growing on the trees when we have visited that part of the country. What a blessing!!!
Susan