Food and chastisement and change...

I am happy to report that I was quite pleased with portion no. 3 of Roasted Butternut Squash and Cheese Pasta.  I am happy because I froze portions no. 3 & 4.  I took the glass container Tuesday night and put it in the refrigerator.  Yesterday, I warmed it up in the microwave.  Were I less tired, I would have warmed it in a pan on the stove with a tad bit of milk or cream.  The bacon was certainly just as tasty as the night I cooked it.  

Monday and Tuesday, I had the first jar of my lentils.  Yesterday, I took out a jar of my stew.  I was so very, very, very excited about having the next two servings of that!  Needless to say, I was not disappointed.   So, my plan to have better use of the leftovers a single person accumulates seems to be working well thus far.  And I believe that I will most definitely be able to make it to the end of the month with my groceries on hand without having to eat copious amounts of oatmeal.

Someone was asking me 20 Questions about the whole real-foods-cooking-freezer-plan-to-save-money and asked about the variety of desserts in the freezer since I wanted at least four types of meals in there (stew vs lentils vs pasta ... etc.).  What do you think?  Would four different desserts really be enough??  I am thinking that you need even more variety in dessert than you need in meals, right???

Marie was telling me about one of her Christmas presents, the book Real Foods on a Budget.  Here is the Kindle version, which I am wondering if I could count the purchase thereof as a household expense (use that budgeted money).  Her tale of it sounding very interesting and I liked the beginning that I was able to preview online.  I will never be a canning person, but I thought I could learn some more things about how to better utilize groceries and freezer cooking.  I will note, for the record, that I will also never be so very utilitarian about grocery shopping as the author seems to be.  I am too much of a glutton and find tasty items to be too much of a comfort in trying times.  However, even though I have made some good changes in my grocery shopping and brand choices to better fit such a small income, I believe I could make more changes ... I believe that I have much more to learn in this area.

I am also excited to report that I found a recipe for homemade tomato paste.  Several recipes that I would like to try need tomato paste.  However, I struggle eating tomatoes or tomato-based things that have been in cans, just as I cannot eat with metal utensils now.  All I taste is the metal.  Plus, the recipes all seem to require 2 tablespoons, which is much less than what is in those small cans.  So, my next trip to the grocery store will include a bag of Roma tomatoes.  I want to make more of the "sun-dried" tomatoes and to make some tomato paste.

Yesterday, I had three different mortgage company employees tell me in very strong language that I did not payoff my mortgage the way that I was supposed to do so.  However, by taking the balance down to one penny on Friday after being unable to send a certified check, I ended up saving myself four days of interest.  So, all I actually owed was the one penny and the $12 filing fee!  After thrice being chastised rather aggressively, I was told that there did not seem to be a way to handle the negative balance in my account and I would have to wait for a call to see how to proceed, I logged on after midnight to discover that the mortgage account is marked PAID IN FULL!

I did call today about the escrow account, because it is still showing a pending payment for the house insurance.  I had put that on hold, but the hold somehow was taken off in whatever changes were made yesterday.  An escrow person put it back on hold and said that now that the account was pending as a disbursement after payoff, the house insurance should not be paid.

The worry wort here is not yet ready to breathe a sigh of relief, for I know that it is even more important to get the promissory note back and the title in my name than actually getting the escrow balance and negative funds returned to me.  One of the supervisors said the bank had four weeks to do the title work.  However, I am going to strive very diligently to set aside all thoughts of paperwork until the end of the month.  I am going to strive very diligently to keep reminding myself that I have until March to get the homestead exception refiled with the county and surely I shall have my new title by then.

But ... well ... I was rather worried it would take much longer to get that one penny paid with the funds I sent electronically.  It really only took one day after the funds were credited to the account and after I made the first phone call to request they be applied to the final part of the payoff for that change to occur.  What I have thought about all day is:  How does one take each day "one-day-at-a-time" in the face of so much uncertainty?  Especially ... especially if that person is a planner and comes from a long line of planners and spent her whole life succeeding because she is a planner?  How do you trust in God's provision if 1) you do not really understand what it means to trust and 2) do not really understand what trusting in His provision means?  How do you change in this area when you have been taking care of yourself since you were very young??


Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!