Well, my family has reached that lovely stage of the pre-PCS season. We're pretty sure we're moving, maybe this summer, maybe sooner. Of course have no idea where, that is not relevant. But as soon as I realize that we're probably moving, I start mentally clearing out the house. Old linens to the animal shelter, old clothes to the thrift shop, and no more grocery shopping unless it is absolutely essential.
Of course, if you're not moving for five or six months, the definition of "absolutely essential" grocery shopping is a little broad. And complicated.
Take today, for example. We are low on minced ginger, and our honey has gone impossibly hard and the container has become deformed from so much reheating, and my children are sure that "there's nothing good to eat." I suppose we could go the next four or five months without ginger or honey or anything good to eat, but that does not make a whole lot of sense. As I try to mentally calculate how much honey we will use before we could potentially move, there are all sorts of factors. What if we make something with lots of honey? How long does it take to get to the thickened-to-the-point of frustration stage? Is it worse to throw out half a jar of honey, or have to go buy another one two weeks before moving because this purchase was too small a jar?
Can you tell that I like to overthink things?
Maybe it is the memory of PCSes where we literally gave away car trunks full of groceries, or maybe it is my new year's mission to curb our food budget, or maybe it is just sanity. But I swear, from now until whenever-it-is that we move, there won't be a single item put in my grocery cart that hasn't been subjected to the scrutiny of the is-this-absolutely-essential test. Of course, I won't be totally successful. There will be far too many days when I reach for an ingredient only to find that it is empty, and there will still be food distributed to friends after we pack out.
But gosh darn it, it isn't going to be for a lack of trying.
