Bountiful food day!

Oh man. Blogger just changed it's layout for creating and monitoring posts. I miss the old style they had. Hopefully it won't get to much more weird haha.

So in today's post i'm going to get frugal and giddy. I sometimes participate in a food salvage program we have in my town. You pay $10 for 60lbs of produce/goods. Sometimes this is bountiful and amazing and sometimes it's a bust if the produce is on it's last leg or stuff we just don't eat. This round was bountiful! I decided to go this this round because they posted a photo of this weeks variety on their FB page and it seemed like a hit full of stuff that are common staples in our house. 

I was so glad I went this round, am so appreciative and grateful this program exists here. I think what made this weeks bounty so amazing was that some companies have donated goods to them recently vs when they just salvage. So this weeks goodies wound up being enough goods that I will not have to go grocery shopping for the month of August, aside from perhaps some staples like eggs. Remember all this was just for $10!! 

They started bright and early this morning @6:30 so we got up early and headed over right on the dot. They changed their normal walk through to prepackaged drive through style due to Covid. So you have to form a line via cars. I wasn't expecting it to be so busy! We arrived right on the dot and we were already a block ro 2 away in line. I've never seen it so busy before. When we've gone in the past there wasn't to much of a wait. But i'm sure because a lot of people are still out of work and on unemployment they are making this work. My work has been slow and my income depends on the number of massage clients I get. Next paycheck may be small so I decided to go this round to help stretch the grocery bill. I would also like to use the Foodbank again but they decreased their hours to only 2 days a week from their 4-5 days a week and they too changed to drive through style. Unfortunately the days they are operating from are days i'm at work. They usually have staples like pasta, pasta sauce, rice, cereal, canned beans/veggies and so on. 

On to the goodies of this trip:

This box had a bag of organic apples, bag of oranges, 2 baby carrots, one head of celery, 3 ears of corn, one bag of white onions, a 5lb bag of potato, 3 zucchinis and 2 bags of salad. 

There was a box of a gallon cows milk, 2 processed packs of cheese slices, half and half, sour cream, cottage cheese and a pound of butter. Normally we don't drink cow's milk but sometimes Mannix if we get take out and they have milk as a drink option. He will drink most of that over the month. The processed cheese slices I don't normally buy but I will make grilled cheese with them. 

We also got 6 honey dew melons, a big bushel mushrooms and 2 packs of grapes. In the end I only kept 1 melon for us as my so doesn't really eat these kinds of melons. I gave away 3 and 2 were just to over ripe so they got tossed. 

A bag of burger buns, a bag of chips, An organic head of celery, gallon of cranbery juice, handful of radishes, more white onions and a head of romaine. There was also a poweraid but my son took that right away lol. 

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I chopped up the Romaine lettuce and added it to the salad lettuce packs. The rest of my morning was spent cleaning the produce and freezing some of it for later cooking. 

The mushrooms needed a good cleaning. After that I chopped them up and cooked them (some vegetables need to be blanched or cooked for them to freeze well, mushrooms are one of those). After cooking I laid them out on a baking sheet and flash froze them then put them in a freezer bag. Doing it this way helps keep them from freezing into one big block of mushrooms. Overtime they may eventually blob together as the freezer opens and closes but as long as I cook with them all month that shouldn't be an issue. 

I diced and flash froze a chunk of the onions and celery, these don't need to be blanched/cooked to freeze. I already had onions before this trip and on top of the amount I got in this run I had way to many onions. So some I left for fresh use and the rest I chopped and froze. I saved a few stalks of celery for my son to immediately munch on but I know we won't eat them this way normally so I diced the majority and froze them as well. 

I had to keep my kiddo occupied with all the kitchen time. I made him a fort with our loft bed. During some of my chopping he put on music and had a personal dance party. 

Today was loaded for me. I'm not used to such a productive day off. This just made my heart happy. These are the kinds of days I thrive on and feel most gratitude for. I am also so thrilled with the abundance of quality food we got this round and with some meal prepping based on things we already have in stock I will be able to save majority of this months grocery budget. We have a bunch of chicken in the freezer that needs to be used up and plenty of legume and beans in the pantry. We could easily get through the month with just this $10 bounty. 

There is a you-tuber/blogger that I recently found on you tube. She talks on Frugal living and homesteading. Of course the week I came across her was the week she officially announced she was retiring her YouTube channel. Such a bummer! But she will keep it up as there are 3 years worth of frugal/homestead living vlogs. She will, however, keep going with her blog. I share a similar view on her spiritual perspective, which she doesn't talk to much about on YouTube but she does have a few video's and from what i've heard her speak is that we are pretty similar there and this makes me happy. If only she was my neighbor lol 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCocnOOOqmDAk1qBGn5AZd-g

https://katesinghsite.com/

All muh Blankets!!! and shifting arising in my spiritual journey

One of my favorite hobbies is crocheting. Even when times are the craziest and when I may be on a hiatus there is always a blanket on my hook. Here are a few that i've done in the past year or 2 as gifts for family, friends and acquaintances.

I made this one for someone I knew that owned his own Chinese Medicine practice. The intention going into this was to be the blanket on his work table but in the end due to the fibers it was to rough for his skin to perform his bodywork on so he was unable to work with it. I believe it became another blanket in his home. I forgot to get a picture of it completed with the edging so this is just the body of the blanket but the edging was golden and red. I wanted the shell stitch because it looked like Chinese fans to me and the colors fit the actual fans he had in his office at the time. 

This one I made for my brother. This one took me years. But only because it was larger than an I anticipated and I had a young kiddo at the time of starting it so my time was limited. Then I went through a divorce and life change so it was tucked away for years until I was determined to give it as a gift to my brother for last christmas. Challenge accomplished! He loves it!

This one I made for a former boss's wedding gift. It took longer than I anticipated (as all my blankets due thanks to life happening) so they got it as a 1 yr anniversary gift instead. She sent me a photo of it placed nicely on her bed to keep her warm through the winter. I did have a little mess up near the middle top where I forgot a row of a color. But that just makes it more loved haha

This one I made for an acquaintance I follow on Youtube. I had asked her a like 2 yrs ago what her favorite colors were with intention of drawing/painting her Mandala. Then one day I decided I would make her a blanket instead. She sent me a photo of it in her resting/meditation room. It matches awesome! She received it on her way to a surgical appointment. She was so happy to have been surprised by the gift/gesture just before her surgery. 

I have another blanket on the hook but this one I can't share in case the recipient finds their way to this blog as it's a surprise gift. I'm hoping to have it done in time for the date i'm aiming for. 

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In my spiritual world I feel some shifting coming on. I've been feeling pretty heavily to box up and store away my tarot cards and to disconnect from tarot. I followed a few YouTubers but I that I am craving direct connection with God/Source/Universe at this time. 

I had just signed up for Kyle Gray's year long course on Angel Tarot and studying Archangels but this week it's hitting me strongly that while I LOVE all things angels that i'm actually craving direct connection with God instead of directing my stuff to Angels and Guides. My theory on all this at this current juncture is that Angels and Guides work for God. What is making me avoiding going directly to God for my talk/questions/answers etc. Our Angels and Guides will always be there still doing what they were put in our spiritual path to assist us with. But I feel that putting our full prayers and so on to just them still leaves a hole in my spiritual growth. So The past few days i've been focusing on just God and it's energy. And the next few weeks i'll be focusing on this and see what different experiences/shifting it brings about in my inner world (perhaps external too). 

I do not buy into the religious banter of not praying to other diety's/gods. I feel if people find that this is exactly what they need to thrive in their prayers and spiritualism, happiness and wholeness then more power to all that works for their unique journeys. But I have been feeling as if something is missing by simply focusing on Angels and Guides only. God/Spirit is the ultimate and where we all (even angels and guides) originated from and where all things in our lives derive from. It would only make sense to me to direct my energy purely to God at this time because this is what makes things feel whole at this time. I will still have my morning one-way conversations with my guides in the mornings and talk out to them when I feel they put a funny or challenging circumstance on my path. But i'm craving a deeper connection and feel I need to stop bypassing or feeling unworthy enough to speak to God directly by diverting to my Angels/Guides. Angels and Guides are his messengers and assistants in our lives. 

And here we are again.

2020. I really have no words for this year. Life altering. Shake up. Reset of purpose and priorities. Reminding humans we really are all the same and all one at the end of the day. And 2020 is just the beginning. Many of the things arising were already rolling bubbles just before the boiling over.

I have no intentions of talking politics or about all the things talked about in the news. It's exhausting just reading about it and dealing with my own thoughts, feelings, emotions of everything as it comes up. I don't feel like exhausting myself more talking about it. Unless i'm having a day and truly just need to air my personal closet on it. I will try my best to keep the blog to basics. 

I am an HSP (highly sensitive person) and Empathic so the state of the world and all the astrological things have really been doing a doozy on me. I've been trying my best to find new ways of navigating in life. One big factor that has had to go for me is Coffee. I've been trying hard to accept this in life but it's one of those addictions i keep coming back to. My nervous system and psychic side really go haywire due to the coffee bean alone (decaf or regular doesn't matter). So for now i've been making the adjustment to only drinking it on the weekends to still get that craving taking care of. The next thing to go is social media. Since my awakening that one has always been a doozy for me. It's exhausting keeping up with my own life let alone getting addicted to watching everyone else's life, thoughts, news, etc. It's hard to stick to your own lane these days if you find it hard to disconnect from social media. 

I've come back to blogging because blogging is where I started way back in 2007 before Facebook converted beyond just college students. Once It did convert  and I joined it was a slow slippery slope. The slope got more slippery when we moved back to the US from Germany in 2012 and finally caved into the Smart Phone world. I've been debating cutting my dependency on smart phones and converting back to a flip phone but that will take some time haha! Do they even make/sell flip phones?? 

So i'm slowing down. Way down. At least continually attempting to restart the slow down. I have always preferred the slower paced life but once we moved back to America from Germany life just seemed to get faster and faster and filled with more useless time wasters. And I haven't fully been able to get back to the pace of life prior to all that. I will keep striving for that balance. 

I've realized in these crazy uncertain times that it's imperative for me to stick to a Gratitude journal. There is so much fear, uncertainty and chaos that it's easy to slip into fear/lack mode. Being able to remind oneself of all the things that ARE ok and that we DO have to be grateful for in our life is so important. My friend gifted me this little bullet journal and I turned it into my Gratitude Journal. I do fall off the bandwagon and forget to log in it sometimes or I get sucked into the the fears of life and have a hard time pulling it out and even attempting to find the good things but I always come back to it eventually and feel so much better and see my external world shifting when I do find Gratitude and writing about it each day. 

In the world of my career I have picked back up in my levels of certification in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy. I've completed 3/5 so far and after the final class I begin the full certification process. This modality of work feels at home to me. I just need to get the confidence to begin really pursuing this path of bodywork more openly. I recently started reading this book recommended by our teacher. It's a great book so far. 

Another big step in my journey is to get the confidence in taking the MBLEx exam so I can become certified in other states. I am looking to migrate home next summer and Wisconsin requires the MBLEx to become licensed there. This isn't a deep study guide but it gives you the key pointers of what needs to be studied, what not to worry about and then a practice exam. I also just purchased a subscription to ABMP's MBLEx Exam Coach which is study material to prepare for this test. I'm going to make this work and Rock that test! 

That's it for tonight. I do not have a set schedule I intend to stick to for the blog posts. They will be purely on a whim and when I have thoughts that need to come out. 

Take care for tonight. And Remember, Find Gratitude but for even one thing in your day today.