A Great Awakening and Great Encouragement

This week was a week of good news.  All results on the biopsy were benign thankfully.  Only scar tissue which I cannot explain except to say that I was a breastfeeding mom on and off for 14 years...could explain things a little!

Back to regular life which is great.  The waiting for the results was the hardest part.  Glad that is over...

Now we are looking forward to Friday.  The whole family is...I feel like I'm in the times of the Great Awakening over here.  There is an actual "Revival" being planned for this weekend, again, in our small little town at a worship center nearby.  My daughter is in the band, my other daughter is inviting everyone she can think of, including our whole family, and it is supposed to be a night to remember!

I still find myself wondering how this has all come about, but I'm not going to question it.  I'm just going to thank God for the awakening going on and I'll keep praying that it spreads to everyone who comes.  That is a kind of epidemic we shouldn't be afraid about while the whole world is watching the other one that is going on that is causing fear.

Meanwhile, I had a funny boost of encouragement this week unknowingly by a mom of 2.  My 2 boys are playing basketball each Thursday night at a local church.  I always enjoy anything that gets me meeting new moms and especially non-Christian moms as it can be a fantastic opportunity to make friendships and share our faith.  For a while now, none of them knew I had 8 kids.  I'm not trying to stand out so I was keeping quiet about that at first, but week after week when you come and chat, it slips out.  Last week I was inundated with questions, "What kind of vehicle do you drive?"  "What are their ages?"  "You homeschool?"  But the question they really wanted to know was, "What is your grocery budget?"  When I told them what I spend approximately per week, I said it somewhat sheepishly.  To me, it seemed so high.  Then the mom of 2 said, "What?!  That's what I spend in a week!"  I was shocked!  I didn't realize that over time maybe I have improved, maybe I have become more frugal, maybe I have actually learned a thing or two to keep our budget down.  It felt so good to know that I am getting better at feeding our large family on the same budget as a small family. I told my husband and he instantly said, "Oh, I know it."  He talks to people at work and knows they spend a lot of money either on eating out or packaged foods.  I rarely buy the packaged foods and we eat out still, but not like the average family, I guess.  I think a lot of moms are doing what I'm doing, but maybe not.  Today will be our third meal with a pork roast that I cooked on Sunday.  It went from the roast to a giant stew to more stew today.  I will get the occasional eye roll when they see it for the 3rd time, but who cares.  I've also learned to buy almost all my meat at less than $2/lb and I've stopped looking for the meat on the regular sale price and I now look for the meat that says, "Special today" which means it is reduced and then reduced again, making it feel almost free.  Those are my favourite grocery shopping days.

We had our best garden a few years ago and since then we have had very little luck with gardening.  This summer we hope to move the garden to a place that the cows used to use meaning it is well-fertilized.  I have the younger kids on board, so I'm hoping to save some money this summer by having a great garden. 

We're sticking at it with the next-to-no-money-clothing budget and literally only going to the thrift store down the street on the $1 days which are my kids favourite days!  I'll admit it, sometimes I would like to just go and spend on a bunch of new things.  We have a lot of success at thrift stores, but new is nice sometimes! 

We were given the gift of free bunk beds which we will use for our girls.  We'll spend a bit on repainting and making their room look a little more fresh with a coat of paint on the walls, but it shouldn't cost too much.  Just a lot of time and effort. 

When I look around our house, we still have the same furnishings from 17-25 years ago.  We have crates for shelves, given-to-us couches, chairs from kijiji, lamps from the thrift store, all renovations done by my husband....that is how we've made things work and I actually don't mind a bit.  I feel happy that we've been forced to be more creative and think outside the box. 

All of this to say, I felt encouraged this week by these moms without them even knowing it.  Whenever I think the things I do isn't making a difference, I'll get that little reminder that no, it is making a difference.  Somehow, after all these years, we are still surviving on one income.  I don't take that for granted one second.