Pasta was on sale at Shoprite the other day. .88 cents a box. I picked up a few boxes, and when I mentioned the price to David, he went back and bought 8 more. My cabinets are crammed with vermicelli, and rigatoni. My mudroom has about a bushel and a half worth of tomatos that I canned into sauce over the summer, from all the tomatoes we got from Josie Porter Farm. I have gallons of the stuff.
I have some flour, and a dozen eggs. Sugar, and rice. Coffee was on sale too, so I have two cans of that. Rice, and beans, onions, scallions. A few bags of potatoes, and a ton of green beans. Oatmeal and Cheerios, and I think there is a package of frozen bagels somewhere in the freezer, next to the chicken, and pork chops. I also have ground turkey, and sausage.
There are radishes and leeks in the fridge as well, and some corn on the cob. I only have one banana left, and a lonely apple. There is a half gallon of orange juice, and a little under half a gallon of milk.
We are on one of the last few rolls of toilet paper...something we go through at lightning speed in this house, so I am making sure when it is quiet in the house,I need to check on Molly immediately. She can normally be found unspooling it in the bathroom. Normally I rip off what she has unraveled all over the floor, and throw out, but yesterday, I wound it back up. We need every last sheet.
It is Wednesday. I have half a tank of gas, and I will have to make that last until Friday. Next Friday, that is. And the above grocery inventory is it until then as well. School lunches and snacks will get tricky next week, but I have peanut butter. The bread could pose a problem. And my kids will not be happy if I send them to school with radishes. Sure, they like them, but a lunch of them just wouldn't cut it, so I will have to get really creative. I am also out of plastic wrap, and snack bags. Actually, I am out of snacks so it doesn't matter that I have no bags to place them in.
I hate when we run out of stuff before we run out of week. It makes me stressed beyond belief. I hate that I won't be able to give the girls a piece of fruit with their breakfast, but I suppose our problems could be way worse. There will be complaints over the lack of things the kids like and want. They will have to just accept not having choices for the next week or so. I know they will. They have no other option.
Things don't usually get this stretched. We are just having a rougher than normal month. But we have enough, and for that, I am grateful. Reading about people, right here in our own community though, living under a bridge makes me shudder. No one should be living under a bridge. No one should be sleeping outside, and worrying about the weather getting colder. The line at the Wesleyan Church every week for the food pantry wraps around the building. Charlotte got excited last week when she saw it, and said "what is going on the church?" thinking people were lined up for something spectacular.
My heart sunk as I looked. And a feeling of selfishness came over me. I have pork chops, and a package of chicken, I thought. Yeah, my girls will not be happy with pasta and sauce for a few nights in a row. And there is only so much you can do with celery. But we have it. And we have heat and blankets, and soap and warm water. We have a home. And everyone will be fed...albeit one bizarre meal after another, concocted solely from ingredients on hand...but we will eat.
Those people shouldn't be living under a bridge. The cold weather is here. What can we do, as a community for them? You might not think you have enough...but I bet if you took an inventory of all the things you do have, not just in your kitchen, you would see you have more than you need.
We can do better than this.
I have some flour, and a dozen eggs. Sugar, and rice. Coffee was on sale too, so I have two cans of that. Rice, and beans, onions, scallions. A few bags of potatoes, and a ton of green beans. Oatmeal and Cheerios, and I think there is a package of frozen bagels somewhere in the freezer, next to the chicken, and pork chops. I also have ground turkey, and sausage.
There are radishes and leeks in the fridge as well, and some corn on the cob. I only have one banana left, and a lonely apple. There is a half gallon of orange juice, and a little under half a gallon of milk.
We are on one of the last few rolls of toilet paper...something we go through at lightning speed in this house, so I am making sure when it is quiet in the house,I need to check on Molly immediately. She can normally be found unspooling it in the bathroom. Normally I rip off what she has unraveled all over the floor, and throw out, but yesterday, I wound it back up. We need every last sheet.
It is Wednesday. I have half a tank of gas, and I will have to make that last until Friday. Next Friday, that is. And the above grocery inventory is it until then as well. School lunches and snacks will get tricky next week, but I have peanut butter. The bread could pose a problem. And my kids will not be happy if I send them to school with radishes. Sure, they like them, but a lunch of them just wouldn't cut it, so I will have to get really creative. I am also out of plastic wrap, and snack bags. Actually, I am out of snacks so it doesn't matter that I have no bags to place them in.
I hate when we run out of stuff before we run out of week. It makes me stressed beyond belief. I hate that I won't be able to give the girls a piece of fruit with their breakfast, but I suppose our problems could be way worse. There will be complaints over the lack of things the kids like and want. They will have to just accept not having choices for the next week or so. I know they will. They have no other option.
Things don't usually get this stretched. We are just having a rougher than normal month. But we have enough, and for that, I am grateful. Reading about people, right here in our own community though, living under a bridge makes me shudder. No one should be living under a bridge. No one should be sleeping outside, and worrying about the weather getting colder. The line at the Wesleyan Church every week for the food pantry wraps around the building. Charlotte got excited last week when she saw it, and said "what is going on the church?" thinking people were lined up for something spectacular.
My heart sunk as I looked. And a feeling of selfishness came over me. I have pork chops, and a package of chicken, I thought. Yeah, my girls will not be happy with pasta and sauce for a few nights in a row. And there is only so much you can do with celery. But we have it. And we have heat and blankets, and soap and warm water. We have a home. And everyone will be fed...albeit one bizarre meal after another, concocted solely from ingredients on hand...but we will eat.
Those people shouldn't be living under a bridge. The cold weather is here. What can we do, as a community for them? You might not think you have enough...but I bet if you took an inventory of all the things you do have, not just in your kitchen, you would see you have more than you need.
We can do better than this.
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