Do what you can, then relax

Lately I have been feeling behind on a lot of things. I am barely doing the baking for our family, let alone enough to be sharing with others. I am barely managing to cook our meals (food is still not my friend at 23 weeks of pregnancy), let alone commit to taking a meal to another family. My house is basically clean, could be neater. My laundry is cleaned, but not all put away.

Then top that off with the desires to serve more nutritious meals, to buy and grow more organic, to do better at stretching our budgets, to follow the examples of my dear friend who is the pro at cooking nutritious, organic meals and running a "green" house.

Yet I don't see her on the days when she is overwhelmed.

There is always going to be someone doing a better job at what we want to be doing, but then there will be areas where they are struggling too.

We accept in our spiritual lives that it is a journey, we walk with the Lord, we follow Him, it is a process of sanctification.

We accept in our children's lives that they are learning and growing.

We even accept that doctors are "practicing."

But we hold ourselves to the impossible standard of excellence.

So my tip for today?

Do the best you can, do what you can, then relax. This is not an opportunity to be negligent or lax, but rather an opportunity to be more joyful!

If you want to make more nutritious meals commit to serving a vegetable or fruit with every meal for the next week - a doable goal! And easier for your family!

If you want to cut back on your meat buying plan one meatless supper this week, and another next week, then after a month or two work in a second one!

Focus on gradual changes, think of it like a journey, and then enjoy it. Take the pressure off yourself so that you can enjoy caring for your family!

When making changes think baby steps not a sprint race.

Also, understand what is reasonable in your corner of the world, in your family and for your family!

I live in California, I will not get the deals that MoneySavingMom does in Kansas, but I can get some good ones!

I do not have the option of buying a portion of organic fed cow or a share of a grain CSA as they are not available here. But I can pick up organic fruit when it is priced right and use my back flowerbeds to grow fruit and veggies organically.

When I started doing our own baking I started with the biggest problems of nut contamination and slowly worked my way into doing all the baking. It was not an instant thing! (Although with an allergy to manage I was pretty motivated to move pretty quickly!)

My husband is a meat and potatoes kind of guy, and a pasta lover. To feed him funky health food in an immediate change would freak both him and my daughter out, but I can slowly try different things and hang onto the things that work! (And doing my own baking helps!) Plus with the fruit trees in the back yard we would like to see if we can make our own juice!

We don't have a grain mill, but are slowly saving for one so we can mill our own grain and it be more nutritious, and while I will start with basic wheats I will slowly be able to try different grains! In the mean time, I do the best I can with what I have!

And yet, when so many are having a hard time with the rising cost of groceries, our grocery/household budget remains unchanged from a year ago as I have learned to maximize it. In fact, I am under budget from the start of the year by over $200!

And when I think back to where we were a year ago, and where we are now I can see the baby steps of changes adding up.

And lest you think I write this for you, know that I am writing these words to strengthen and encourage myself.

So do what you can, take a baby step in a direction of growth, and then relax and enjoy the blessings of your life.

That is my Kitchen Tip, and it also works for me!