Stocking the Pantry

     Well fall is is full swing here in Lancaster Co PA and winter is right around the corner I'm sure!!  I LOVE fall!  It is my most favorite time of year!  It's so crisp and fresh and the sun is so bright and warm while the breeze is cool.  I love it!
     Last winter was our first married winter and it was a hard one financially.  Turns out our house, which was built in 1882 doesn't hold heat... at all!!  Our oil bills were ferocious.  We are braced for it this year.  We'll be running space heaters more and we also may have someone blow insulation into the attic floor.  Just need to make sure we can afford it...it's like the question is "Money now or more money later?".
     I have the pantry really well stocked.  Including toiletries and cleaners and all those goodies.  I discount grocery shop so for about $150 I really was able to pack the place.  I love getting stuff for a steal, as long as it's still safe.  Boxes of quaker oatmeal for .50 cents because they're dented, cans of tomato products for a quarter.  Umm yes please!!  There's a brand called Fantastic World Foods which makes some great vegetarian dried products.  There's a sloppy joe mix and also taco filling, chili, refried beans, and hummus that all require just some water and cook time.  They were .50 cents this week!  At a normal health food store they are around $4.00  We win!!  Haha! We're not above that!  If you're in this area a few places I'd suggest are:

Ebeneezer's Groceries on 272 in Ephrata
Glenwood Foods on 322 out toward Hinkletown
BB's on 419 in Shaefferstown

Worth your time!!

If you have any advice on saving money for the winter I'd love to hear it!!

No Mind Has Imagined

God's timing is not our own.  That is something I have known for a long time, and got a refresher lesson in today.  I went to work at a new client's this morning only to find out that he wasn't going to school today.  They had called to tell me about 5 minutes before I got to the residential facility where he lives.  "No nurse if he doesn't go to school."  Unfortunately I didn't check my phone so I walked in to take care of my new client but had to turn around once I got there.  When I got back in the car I had the message from work and one from my husband.  His grandmother had emergency surgery last night and was not doing well.  I went and did some errands, like it was a day off.  When I got home I had a message updating us about my husband's grandmother, I called my husband and we decided we needed to be with his family at the hospital, about an hour away.  He left work and we headed out to be with them.  It was a blessing to see them and to see his grandmother perking up a little.  

When I walked out the door this morning I had an idea of what my whole day would be like and God had a completely different plan for me.  I always want to be flexible enough to follow Him

  

1 Corinthians 2:9

 “No eye has seen, no ear has heard,
      and no mind has imagined
   what God has prepared
      for those who love him.