So...... I never knew how much money we had.... until we don't now have it. hahaaaa
But seriously.... we're in Canada, at missionary training, and we will receive our first paycheck at the beginning of October. This month, we're living off of our savings, and cash the Lord provided for us at our GoingAway party at the end of August.
Although we have more money to work with this month (also more expenses), we aren't going nuts with spending it. We've been, I'd say..... very conservative with spending. We made an excel budget like normal, got our dollars exchanged into Canadian $, and put the cash into our labeled envelope/organizer. So, after the first couple of days, we haven't used our card at all to pay for anything. Just using that cash.
So.... you're thinking.... "uhm, Trace, I thought this was going to be a recipe blog... not a personal finance discloser blog". hahaa well..... I just had to say that bit about the money as a foundation for this blog on recipes... because $ really affects whats happening in the kitchen.
For a year or so, whenever I've thought about this missionary training experience... I worried about money. And specifically, if we'd be hungry.
And when I say "we", I just mean the kids. Because I know Cec and I can eat much less than we do and still be fine, but I had been concerned that we wouldn't have enough money for groceries.
And as you can guess... the first really day of missionary training dealt with money.
Matthew 6:24-
"No man can serve two masters: for either he
will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and
despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."
Mammon is the name for an ancient-day idol whose present-day demonic influence is still tempting people today. He's so sneeky.
He represents infatuation with money.
I had to make a list of all the things I thought were true about money for me.
Example: If we have money in the bank, we'll be okay. If I have money, my babies won't be hungry. If we have money, we can have fun. If we have money, we can have tasty food.
Then very quickly I realized that I had taken out the word "God"(the one TRUE God), and put "money" in His place. Example: If we have God, we'll be okay. If I have God, my babies won't be hungry. If we have God, we can have fun. If we have God, we can have tasty food.
wow. What a sad look into my own heart. I had put (and still struggle with) money in the place of the one true God on the throne of my heart. I had trusted money to provide instead of God.
How grieved I've been.
But I've been SOOOOOO used to trusting money rather than God..... I'm not even sure HOW to trust God with providing food for my family. I know He's worthy. I just don't know HOW to do it.
But I'm learning. And the process has already started.
We've spent $680 Canadian Dollars at the grocery store this month. Isn't THAT amazing?? I don't think we've ever spend that much money in 16 days before at the store.
When I went to the store on Friday to pick up some groceries, we had $20 more in the envelope. Just $20 left afterward.
Although I have to admit I DID feel a bit stressed. I ALSO felt... free somehow. God knows my heart. He knows I'm ready to trust Him. And I've seen Him do sooooooo much lately.... I AM begining to truely trust Him.
Seems like He IS taking care of us. I mean.... I know He always DOES.... but maybe I couldn't see it before because my focus was off.
When I got home, I told Cecil about the $20 left... and he hugged me and reminded me that God is taking care of us. Then I opened the mail and got $100 cash in a card from a friend in Bakersfield.
GOD CARES. HE IS GRACIOUS TO US.
So... I wanted to start this blog as a place where I can share my food/cooking/reliance on God/recipes with anyone who wants to know whats going on in my average day here in Canada.
Like I mentioned in an earlier blog, we've been here 15 days and I've cooked all but 5 meals. I can honestly say, it's the most consecutive cooking I've done in my entire life. And in Bakersfield, we'd normally eat out like.... 4ish times a week, and just throw some odds and ends together the rest of the time. I'd cook an actual meal like...... once every 3 weeks or so.
Now, every day we have eggs for breakfast (eggs cost about $3/dozen here, and we eat about a dozen a day). And I've been trying to break up the monotony by adding sausage, or pancakes to the eggs.
Lunch, we have a hot chicken dish, and another hot chicken/beef dish for dinner.
If its a long day at missionary training, I pack lunches for the family... so thats usually salads for me and Cec, and chicken for the kids.
I've been looking for pancake mix that you only have to add water to (so I can save our eggs) and neither can I find some sort of "bisquick" mix. Well, at least walmart here doesn't have it. I like to use it to make donuts and bread and breakfasty pastries.
A gallon of milk here, is anywhere from $4 to $6. Isn't that amazing!!?? And we bought 2lbs of cheese for $8. Bell peppers are nearly $3/lb, and I bought 30 eggs for almost $8.
The first time I went to the grocery store... I hardly bought anything because I was so scared to spend any money. Hahahahaa .... but now I just buy what we need and tally it up, and try not to think about the price difference.
Okay.... I have so much more to say, but have REALLY got to go now. Cecil put Solas down for the night and Judah has been asleep for a couple of hours already, and now its time for us to head down too. We have class tomorrow from 9-noon.
hugs, Tracy
ps... we've bought about 8 gallons of milk since we've been here. At $5/gallon...... you do the math. And we're only half way through the month.....
