Lazy and Gluttonous (a.k.a. No-Grocery November )

I've done it before and it is time to do it again.

Fact is, I've gotten lazy and gluttonous.  (As opposed to glutenous, though that would also apply)

This month I have challenged myself to not buy any food for the whole month.

November is a perfect month to challenge myself to a No-Grocery challenge.  The cupboards are full.  The freezers are full.  I still have lingering garden produce (though it is fast diminishing!).  I have bushels of apples and winter squash hanging out everywhere.  The cow is milking.  Time is needed to devote to h'learning-not running uptown for shopping.  The month is short.  And we need to eek all the extra cash we can from the hidden corners of the budget for the upcoming expenses of too-much-to-think-about.

  Our freezers are jam packed with food that just keeps being stored, month after month.  Cupboards have random, weird cans and boxes gathering dust because what do you do with expired mushroom broth and that lone can of pickled artichoke hearts?  Not exactly inspiring.  Food is cluttering my life!  I haven't been budgeting as well as I ought and so wind up splurging on foods that we don't need (and shouldn't eat anyway.)   I don't utilize the resources we have available to us as much as I ought.  We have a milk cow and I often buy dairy products like butter, for goodness' sake. I have even gotten lazy about doing cost-saving things I have always done; I don't wash and reuse Ziploc bags as fervently as I used to, for example.

I figure it's a good time to shake things up.  I am trying to get myself out of those same-old meal ruts that I get into, time to re-invigorate my cooking with creativity and time to use good old ingenuity and hard work to make things happen.  It's time to be a better steward of the riches we've been given.

Thanksgiving is a perfect time to reflect on the abundance that is all around us.  And frankly, it is a perfect time to reflect on the lack of certain provisions that will no doubt happen by the end of the month.  After all, the Pilgrims showed gratitude that first Thanksgiving even as many of them were struggling with sickness, hunger, exhaustion and still mourning the losses of those they loved.  That is just as important a lesson to learn.  Maybe even more important. 

The Lord provides. And all it, should be received in gratitude. So abundantly, in fact, that we have lost sight of the fact that mustard is a gift.  Cheese and bananas are totally unnecessary for our survival.  We are not promised cookies- and yet we often have them!

This month I am going to work hard to be grateful for both the abundance of provisions in our lives and, as it happens, even the lack of those things I am used to having.

Wish me luck!