In The Refiner's Fire

Wow! I really went AWOL there for a while didn't I?  I really didn't mean to. It's been busy - both last week and this week we have something every single day plus we were at my in-laws all weekend, which was lovely but it involved 8 hours total in the car, lots of time with a ton of people, and sleeping in a really wretched hotel bed for 3 nights.  I'm still trying to catch up on sleep! LOL!!  May is always hectic with the end of school for all of us, the children's dance recital, and usually a trip to my in-laws.  This year seems to be worse for some reason. Maybe because I feel like we've been running at full speed for so very long now and I'm ready to slow down. Anyway, it's been fun and wild and I'm very excited to look at June and see a whole lot of, well, nothing . Blank, empty squares and open space on that calendar page is something I'm really looking forward to!  We're still doing piano lessons, swimming lessons and church ...

We all think we're active - and many of us are to a certain extent.  But one of the most humbling things I ever did was strap on a pedometer. Yikes. Habit #5: Wear a Pedometer Honestly, I did this several years ago when I wasn't able to attend my beloved Jazzercise a whole lot and it was a shock.  Yes, a real, honest to goodness shock!  Experts recommend that we get approximately 10,000 steps per day. I was averaging somewhere around 1000.  No, I'm not missing a zero.   A mere 1/10 of what I should be getting. Not surprisingly, most of us are in that boat, especially if we have a job or a lifestyle where we sit quite a bit, at a desk or on the couch or behind a sewing machine or whatever.  I thought I was active:  I walked 6 blocks each way from the parking lot to my office, I pottered around in my garden, occasionally I walked to the grocery store.  I turns out I sat a lot more than I thought! Walking is without fail the easi...

Well, the semester is DONE for me at work, so now it's just prepping for fall - I'm revamping another course so it will be a lot of work to get ready for that - and my dissertation work.  Honestly, I'm excited to have the time to just get-'er-done, as they say around here.  Looking forward to graduating this year and not having that huge weight hanging over my head all the time. Here's my goals for this week: Work:    * Clean up my desk    * Finalize Grades for this semester and Books for fall classes School:     * Complete 3 things on my to-do list  (I have a separate, long list of individual things to do for this and for the most part pick and choose depending on my schedule and the time I have available.) Jazzercise:     * Teach 4 classes     * Attend one specialty class     * Learn 3 new routines Family:    * Piano Lessons x 2    * Swimming Lessons x 2    * Dan...

Baked Fish, Rice, Zucchini, and Fruit - Yum! Wow, I really didn't meant to drop off the radar like that.  Can I blame the flu, the end of the semester, company, and general busy-ness happening all at once?   Ugh.  It never rains but it pours, I guess, and at least I'm not my cousin, who has had 2 surgeries in her immediate family plus 3 others in her extended family in the last week alone.  Yikes! We're still eating well and working on cleaning out those freezers.   We only did a little shopping this past week - ketchup was on sale at Menard's of all places so we got two bottles for 88cents each and we went to Sam's Club to get toilet paper and bought mango salsa, strawberries, pears, salmon and mixed greens too.  That was about it for shopping this week! We have lots of fruit left from the last few weeks - apples, blueberries, and a pineapple; as well as half a gallon of milk, cheese, and a few random vegetables floating around the fridge. ...

A cake that Missy baked for her teacher's birthday!  She did a great job! (And it was all her idea too.) In our family, the week of the twins birthday is always hectic - maybe because we have two children and one birthday, maybe because we usually have company and maybe because the birthday is in May, when everything is wrapping up for the school year.  Who knows?  This year is no exception. We started out the week with Missy having an allergic reaction to something she ate - so Buddy, Missy and I stayed home from church on Sunday morning to take care of her and John went to preach by himself at a brand new to us church.  I felt so much like we were abandoning him, but we needed to take care of Missy and didn't want to have to leave in the middle of the service is something went south.  So we prayed and cared and it sounds like things went well (they asked him to come back!). We have company Monday through Wednesday this week and we need to bring ...

Our weekend has been super crazy - long story that I'll tell later - and I barely managed to get to the store this weekend!  It was necessary because we have company for part of this week, our children have their birthday and we have 3 different activities we're supposed to bring food to! Yikes. I ran to the store very late Saturday night - at almost 11 pm (which is when our grocery stores close around here). Fortunately, we didn't need a whole lot so I was able to get in and out quickly!  Then quickly put things away and off to bed I went.  My photo taking skills have been less than stellar lately and I still have to find the charger for the camera anyway, so maybe it's better that I didn't take a photo! We have plenty of meat in the freezers still and a few vegetables and fruits left over from last week so I was focusing on more fruit and a few staples to round out our menu. Here's what we got: Store #1: Butter Kernel Canned Corn 3 @ $0.49 = $1.47 Bu...