Will Work for Food

I took some family photos for my sister and brother-in-law a few weeks ago. It was a Sunday morning, the only time slot we could coordinate with her job, his classes, my stuff, kid stuff... and nice light. We took the pictures in the kitchen... a first for me, and so perfectly appropriate. These guys make my job so easy.

Doesn't this say so much more than your church directory photo?

Anyhow, I do not allow family members to pay me for snapping pictures while we talk. {This is what I have been doing since high school.} However, when she picked up her CD, Laura dropped off something even better. Derek was not expecting my GLEE upon opening the envelope to find gift certificates to the natural food store just down the street.

Grocery shopping is not something I loathe in and of itself. Sure, the meal-planning and list-making and sale-shopping is an undertaking, and Meijer (AKA The Sweatpant Palace) represents my personal hell under the right circumstances; namely, with two crankety children on a Saturday afternoon. I avoid this scenario at all costs. But my biggest struggle with grocery shopping is the conflict I encounter without fail: being a good steward of my grocery budget versus feeding my family healthful, natural, not-clogged-with-chemicals food.

It's sad how often I feel I have to make a choice between the two.

You may remember this post, in which I explored some of my struggles with the way I select the food I eat and the connections we have with it. I do not mean to go into all that now, but suffice it to say that, yeah... free money at Nature's Market was a pretty rad gift. My fruit bowl runneth over!

{Did you know that organic pineapple was actually cheaper at the crunchy hippie store than at the Sweatpant Palace? Who knew.}


When I say that Nature's Market is down the street from my house, I mean it's down the street. I was in the door with the kids in the jogger not ten minutes after leaving my driveway. (And, it bears noting, not 3 hours after opening the envelope. ) I let Eden pick out some choice fruit specimens before we found this, and that smart little cookie READ her own name on the label.



To Laura: thank you so much!

To you: want to barter? I might be down. :)




And of course, some gratuitous Judah exposure: