Bribe picture: Brilyn playing DDR with Nicholas- helped a bit by Uncle Larry.

A few thoughts and random pieces of information:

1) Cooking venison- a) Do NOT overcook it. Do your family a favor and invest in a meat thermometer and avoid cooking "Mom meat" aka cardboard porkchops, plywood venison steaks, sawdust hamburgers, etc. Venison should not be cooked over 140 degrees F. b) Do NOT be afraid of spices. I personally recommend Montreal Steak Seasoning, onion powder, and garlic-any form. c) DO cook it in fat. Venison has no natural fat, so add some. I personally like to use olive oil, butter, or bacon grease*. d) Finally, do NOT bake it. Fry it, grill it, put it in a stew, but please, keep it out of the oven.

2) Saving money- a) Eat venison. b) Buy frozen vegetables. They are more nutritious than fresh anyway. This is because they are picked closer to being ripe since they won't have to survive the grocery store shelf. c) Get rid of unnecessary bills like car payments, cell phones, cable, etc. It is possible to live without them. d) If you have babies: use cloth diapers, make your own baby food, and breast feed for as long as possible. Also, avoid paying for childcare at all costs. e) I saved the best for last. TRUST GOD for the things you need. I hear a lot of stories about how people blow their budget and/or go into credit card debt for something they need. In my experience, God provides. (But, you have to wait sometimes. Patience is a virtue, really). You know the lilies of the valley? Even Paris Hilton doesn't dress that nice. (Not that I think she looks all that nice, its just that she blows hundreds of thousands of dollars on clothes. That's my point.) And, if God dresses flowers even better than Paris Hilton can afford, you can bet He'll keep clothes on your back. I will share just ONE of the ways God has provided for us this way, okay two ways, here goes. We needed a carseat for Brilyn. She had outgrown her carrier. So, we looked at carseats, they were out of our budget for that month. The next Sunday at church, our pastor asked us if we could use a like-new carseat. WOW! And, now for story number two. We needed clothes for Cade. I prayed. God sent WAY more than Cade could ever wear and I was able to share them with a friend. Talk about packed together, shaken down, and overflowing.

3) Simplifying life. Just one thought for the day. Don't watch TV. Try it for a week and see what happens. I'll tell you more about how this affects my life later. I have to go do laundry.

XOXO

~Joce

Here are my baby's diapers drying in the laundry room.

*After cooking your bacon, pour the grease into a heavy coffee mug and keep it in the fridge. Use it by the tablespoon when frying in place of butter or oil.