Remember try-outs? Be it ballet, club volleyball, cheer leading, band, etc...the try-out process is filled with all types of emotions: Inadequacy, confidence, competitive drive, apathy (to name a few).
For the past few weeks, I feel like I've been trying out a new lifestyle while experiencing all the above emotions! Since Retro Rental has gotten as much of a makeover as it's able, our energy has been focused on learning to live healthily and as sufficient as possible on our newly limited resources.
This has been an interesting journey. In the past few years, when most of my nutritional knowledge has been expanded, our budget has allowed us to actually purchase the necessities that are needed in the kitchen (sprouted bread, raw milk, free-range/organic eggs, organic snacks with few ingredients)...not the case these days.
It's been frustrating to walk in the store and have to compromise with specific foods, simply because we couldn't afford the healthier version. Well, you know what? We can afford the healthier version, in fact, we can afford the healthiest version. And at what cost?
Time.
We can afford fresh produce because we take the time to pick it, visit farmer's market, grow it, and trade it.
(our first melon of the season)
(blackberries are harvesting all along our neighborhood streets, it's become a near-nightly routine to pick as a family)
We can afford the healthiest bread, English muffins, pancakes, and scones because we soak the flour, mix it, knead it, bake it, and perhaps barter it.
We can afford the healthiest yogurt because we make it, and the healthiest meat, because, well, Daddy Mock just happens to work at a fantastic turkey ranch.
I'll be honest, it's not my favorite thing to do, knead dough, scatter flour and numerous ingredients upon my kitchen counter tops, water the garden, culture milk, and stain my nails with berry juice, but the benefits well outweigh the effort, much like the process of painting a room or sewing a pillow cover.
And I know, indeed, that my family is eating pure and whole food, and that in itself is worth the time and effort.
(if you bug me enough I'll start trying to post some of these recipes on here, including the very yummy English muffins pictured above)
