I’ve kind of hesitated to participate in the #givethanks challenge. Mostly because I hate doing whatever the crowd is doing, and I don’t want to be trite in my gratitude. I’ve been thinking about what I could share that’s not shallow.
In the early days of the pandemic and shut down, when the store shelves were really bare of everything, I was quite worried how to feed my family. With moving two years before, a broken foot, and then my husband and I both losing a parent in a short time period, I just had let our pantry and food storage get really low. Week after week there was no bread in our store and I was starting panic. With a food allergy kid anything that comes from a commercial bakery is going to be unsafe to eat. There are two kinds of commercially produced bread Kroger sells that my son can eat. I was also down to my very last bag of flour and half-jar of yeast, so even baking bread was going to be problematic.
We’d gone to visit my mother-in-law in Vernal where they have three grocery stores. Every day I’d leave for a few hours to go see if I could find flour, bread, or anything else our family needed. Even in Vernal things were sparse, and the one day Walmart had a few bags of flour someone came in a bought all of the bags at once, leaving everyone else without. We left Vernal at the end of that week with everything we needed except flour. I remember driving out of town with a prayer in my heart, “Heavenly Father, I need to find some flour for my family so I can make bread for my son. I need help. Please help us.”
That day we drove home thru Colorado and stopped for the night in Alamosa. We needed to get gas for the car, and stopped at a City Market with a gas station. I decided to go in and see if there was anything to be had at this store. I walked in and saw bare shelves at almost every turn. There were a few things and I placed those things in my basket. Then I stood a the head of the bakery isle, it was bare too. But I walked down anyway. There on the bottom shelf at the very back were three, five pound bags of flour. I grabbed two and had to hold back my tears. I left one for someone else and walked away very thankful that my needs had been met and my prayers had been answered.
As this pandemic has lengthened and we’ve begun to face the possibility of food shortages again and food insecurity in New Mexico, my panic levels have begun to rise again. But this time I’m better prepared having felt impressed many times over the last weeks and months as I’ve gone shopping to buy things, and being able to find things online as well.
I’m thankful for a God who hears my prayers and who provides for us. I’m thankful for the Gift of the Holy Ghost that comforts, guides and helps to focus my thoughts when they need some help. Miracles are real, and prayers get answered, sometime in a 5lb sack of flour.
Joyce, I’m keenly glad you chose to participate. As we both know, following prophets is never just going along, as long as one’s steer is sincere.
Today—on the Sabbath day, I received a scathing email from one of our church scholars. We have strongly disagreed in the past, but I felt winded for a moment because of the blatancy of the false accusations he spat at me. But I gave thanks to God in prayer that life isn’t too much bliss, because I forget important things too quickly—like how I need the Savior’s Atonement, how I must love enemies, and that I must forgive.
I have a problem forgetting. So I am really grateful for a bit of bitter today.
Joyce, Colorado saves the day! Utah and New Mexico failed, but Colorado came through!
But more seriously, I am amazed that more people are not concerned about what these ridiculous lockdowns are doing to global supply lines for delivering even the most basic food items. Actually, I am not that amazed because most people are economically illiterate and don’t understand that you can’t artificially disrupt huge portions of the marketplace and not expect it to have long-term consequences. We are definitely ramping up our food storage right now, as I hope most people are.
Geoff, we’re already planning that our one grocery store in town will be shut down due to covid. We will be driving 3 hours north, back to Alamosa to shop.
Hold on there, Visitor, friend of fiery inquiry! 😉
I hope it’s okay to float note, a thought wrought—to let fly with reply.
I think Joyce seeks to rejoice because a prayer said there resulted in a gift from God of needed flour in late hour, in unlikely place of bare shelf space. She felt burn of concern; with each look she undertook, a shelf bare made her stare. She sees God in things so her heart sings. There is a pointed point in our canon, (D&C 59:21) that says “And in nothing doth man offend God … save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments.” I think Joyce sees with beautiful eyes of faith, which results in her seeing things as they really are. Because “all things denote that there is a God.”
Thanks for the spanks, but plz consider other than vinegar. God will reveal to one who seeks to feel.
God bless you, fellow fond vagabond, wanderer and responder prone to ponder! Companion transient traveling tough terrain! Be blessed!
Joyce, I think Pagosa Springs might be slightly closer than Alamosa. I have never done the drive, so I could be wrong. In any case, I was just in Pagosa Springs, and the Wal Mart there is well stocked, no lines, etc. There are at least two large grocery stores that I know of in addition to the Wal Mart. Just FYI.
Never mind, just checked on Google maps, and it said 2:20 to Alamosa and 2:25 to Pagosa Springs. 🙂
It’s interesting how the Lord often hides miracles in plain sight under the heading of “coincidence” or “just a random event/act.”
Only the participants discern the hand of the Lord in the matter. To everyone else who might observe the events, it looks pretty normal, such that they are not obligated to believe.
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How to make dough out of wheat grains/berries without a grinder/mill:
Here’s how to make your store-bought white flour stretch farther.
Soak the berries for 10-12 hours. Run the soaked berries through a blender or food processor. Add just enough water to make a thick smooth paste. Then add just enough store-bought white flour (all-purpose or bread flour) to make dough.
If you measure by weight, weigh the berries before soaking, to match your recipe.
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http://Www.centralmilling.com/store still has some flour and raw berries. Shipping to intermountain West is not prohibitively expensive. Maybe do shares with neighbors/friends to split an order of flour that comes in 50 pound bags.