Heavenly Homemakers

This afternoon Elias, Malachi, and I made a trip to the store. Once we got home and the boys had unloaded all of our food onto the kitchen counter, I thought it all looked so pretty that I just had to take a picture. Plus, I thought you might enjoy hearing some of what went through my head while I was shopping today.

Well, at least you might enjoy the food thinking part of what went through my head while I was shopping. You don’t want to know all the vast amount of other thoughts that whizzed through my noggin as I pass from bananas to eggs like:  “Shoot, I kind of need bandaids, but they are clear on the other side of the store and I don’t want to go all the way over there, so I don’t think I need bandaids that badly today.” Which quickly was replaced by, “Why must they have the lacy women’s undergarments displayed RIGHT BY THE FOOD???” And upon seeing said lacy apparel to my right, I said out loud, “Look over to the left, boys!! I think that’s Phineas and Ferb on those boxes of mac and cheese!” We then make it safely by the bras with my boys’ attention diverted because they are now focused on the idea of eating a cheesy Perry the Platypus. (Side note:  I kindly called the store manager about this issue once, and while they were very nice about it and listened to my thoughts on the matter, they are bound by coorporate policy to have the store set up as it is. At least I tried.)

Well, anyway. Back to the food.

I loaded our cart full of goodies today – and most of the items were not organic. I used to cringe at this. But here’s the deal:  It’s February. This is not the best time of year for me to obtain organic produce. After all, I live in Nebraska. It’s cold here.  I have an Azure Standard order coming next week, but in the meantime, we need fresh fruits and veggies at our house. So there you have it.

I typically at least try to avoid non-organic produce on the dirty dozen list, focusing on oranges and pineapple this time of year. But today? Well, today, I just wanted a bigger variety of fresh fruit for my family, and nothing organic was available. We wanted apples. There were no organic apples. So I got regular ol’ Galas. And then the boys saw a big display of strawberries. We all started drooling, even though really, non-organic strawberries in February aren’t much to drool over. Neither are blueberries. But I got them both. And we can’t wait to eat them with our breakfast tomorrow!

Also, I got some “Hormel Naturals” turkey for sandwiches for an upcoming out of town basketball trip. It’s better than the worst – and I bought it without guilt. And I got some Dole peach cups (100% juice) for the same trip. What a fun treat!

Here’s the deal:  We all should be striving for nourishment and good health. Not perfection. Not a guilt trip. Not fear. Not frustration.

We do the best we can. We compromise wisely when we have to. I didn’t compromise by putting poptarts and twinkies in my cart. I compromised by buying some fruits and veggies that were not organic, therefore “less than ideal”. I need not feel guilt. And even if the strawberries are completely flavorless because it is, after all, February – we are going to enjoy them as a special treat in the middle of winter and not worry one bit about it!

Those are my thoughts. Feel free to share your thoughts on this subject in the comments section. Feel free to suck down a strawberry every now and again that isn’t organic. Feel free to trust that God is bigger than pesticides.

Oh, and one more thing:  While we were picking out our pineapple, I told the boys, “You have to pick it up and smell its bottom to see if it is a good one or not.” Elias thought that was way too funny:  “smell its bottom…” Hahahaha.

Yeah, be thankful that most of this post shared what goes through my head – not what goes through the head of my eleven year old son. :)