In The Refiner's Fire

My beautiful hanging baskets! Wow!  I am having a hard time believing that May is almost over - it just went -zip- and now it's almost done. It has been so chilly here for the month of May. Typically we're into the 50's and 60's F for early morning temperatures.  Right now we're in the 40's F.  And rainy!  Wow, the amount of rain we have received lately.  What it does mean is that things are greening up nicely.  But we have had to cover plants at night a few times. We have had rhubarb in the garden as well as a little asparagus from our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share.  Other than that, the lettuce is almost in and the radishes are making a good start.  In about another month we'll start having a larger amount of garden produce.  In the meantime, we will enjoy the rhubarb! Here is what we are eating this week: Sunday, May 26, 2019:     Breakfast: Toast, Mango-Banana Smoothies     Lunch: At a Baptism Party     Dinner: Sausage, Aspa

Our daughter made English Toffee one evening.  It turned out delicious! May is always a busy time with getting the garden in and all the end-of-school-year activities, both for me and for the children.  We are looking forward to camping this summer and a few other "bucket list" items before the children start high school this fall.  I am a bit amazed that they are that old already (how did that happen?!).  I am so enjoying the people they are growing into! Here are the frugal things we have done the beginning of May: * Had preventative maintenance done on the air conditioning system before we needs it.  Discovered a major problem caused by rodents (ick!) and had it fixed. We have a maintenance plan so we only had to pay for parts out of pocket.  We pay a flat rate every month for our maintenance plan and it includes all visits, routine maintenance, filters, and a variety of other things.  We received a small discount on the parts because of this plan.  The preventati