In The Refiner's Fire

It's been a few weeks since I posted my weekly goals here.  I feel like I've gotten more efficient in my work during the day or maybe it's that I'm finally starting to get in some sort of rhythm and know how much I really can accomplish each day.  I do want to make sure that I'm available for my family in the evenings so that is definitely motivation too!  My list is rather long this week but many of the things are small things that take very little time - in fact, I already have 5 of these things completed and it's only Monday!  We'll see how the week goes but I'm cautiously optimistic! Here's the goals for the week: Work: Submit mid-term grades. Write, solve and edit a test. Lessons for the week. Post solutions from the last unit online. School: Turn in paperwork. Reading (in prep for meeting with my committee). Finish going through my data one last time. Jazzercise: Teach 2 classes. Learn 3 new routines. Update my iTunes. Famil...

Did I show you these yet? They're my attempt at Cranberry-Orange scones and, my, were they good! I went a little overboard with the glaze so I think a dusting of powdered sugar would be better next time.  Anyway, yum, yum, yum!!!  I used to think scones were a fancy, hard to make thing. Not so! Easy and yummy and even better as leftovers!    I'm feeling like were FINALLY getting back to a more restful pace around here - John isn't doing quite as much time on-call for work now and his preaching schedule is lightening up going into the Christmas holiday as well. We don't have any in-house company until right before Christmas either. I'm looking forward to a few weeks of our own crazy "normal" rather than trying to fit a lot of "extra" stuff on top of it all.     We're on revamp number umpteen of the grocery budget and it seems to be working okay.  I'm getting a little concerned about meat but we aren't anywhere near a dange...

It's been a very busy two weeks - company, school events, MEA weekend (with the children off school for two days), fall and Halloween events, our first really hard frost (which means we need to get the yard cleaned up big time), a fundraiser, mid-term or end-of-quarter for everyone at school, and all the usual craziness around here!  We went grocery shopping in two pieces yesterday between all sorts of other things that we had to do (whoever said weekends were for relaxing never lived at our house!) so I didn't get a photo of either time.  Sigh.  Hopefully back to regularly scheduled programming this week so I can actually get a photo! My parents were here last week and bought us groceries last weekend and I bought only light bulbs with our "grocery" money last week so we had an "extra" $12 to add to the grocery budget this week.  So we had a total of $42 to spend at the stores.  I spent $39.28 and here's what I got. Store #1: Fresh Express Salad ...

Okay, so maybe I should say "John saved more than he spent" since I sent him out to the store since my cousin Diane was visiting and I wanted to stay home and visit with her. :)  Love that man for doing things like that for me!   And I didn't get a picture either - since we had company we just put the groceries away rather than setting them out to take a picture. We spent $32 and change.  I "saved" $34 and change.  Of course, I put the receipt somewhere where I would remember where I put it and now I can't find it! :) Here's the deals I remember: 5lb All Purpose Flour $1.77 (sale) Westpac Mixed Veggies $0.77 - $0.35 - $0.35 = $0.07 (sale minus doubled coupon) Cheerios 3 boxes at 3/$6 - $1 - $1 - $0.50 - $0.50 = $3 (sale minus two doubled coupons) Quaker Oatmeal 2 @ $1.77 = $3.54  (sale) Skippy Peanut Butter 2/$3 = $3 (sale) 5lb Potatoes $0.99 (sale) 3lb Yellow Onions $0.99 (sale) 2lb Carrots $0.99 (sale) Yoplait Greek Yogurt 6oz 10/$10 - ...

  We've had a very weird fall - lots of people in and out visiting and staying with us, lots of schedule "stuff" all over the place, and getting ready for a huge life change in the spring with John leaving his current job and heading into Internship.  I feel like we've been caught in the whirlwind and there hasn't been much of a pause.   I've finally realized that no matter what there's always going to be something "weird' or "unusual" going on - and that's just the way life is right now.     We've been trying to work on being frugal in spite of the circumstances and trying to host more people for meals and fellowship time in our home.  That's been a challenge but it's been a good challenge!     In that vein, here are some things that we've done over the last few weeks to be frugal:     * Picked more veggies from our garden - green peppers and tomatoes.         * We received an "e...

With our unusual shopping and our free CSA "box" this week, we're still eating super well. I feel so very blessed to have such a wonderful bounty to eat from each week!    It's fall weather here and was rainy all weekend to boot - ick.  Feels like soup weather here right now. Here's what we're eating: Sunday, October 6:    Breakfast: Cereal and Milk    Lunch: Leftover Chili, Baked Potatoes, Fruit Salad    Snack: Apple Crisp with Ice Cream    Dinner: Eggplant Parmesan, Irish Soda Bread, Fruit Salad Monday, October 7:    Breakfast: Oatmeal Muffins, Bananas    Lunch: Leftovers or Hot Lunch at School    Snack: Yogurt    Dinner: Baked Salmon, Roasted Potatoes, Broccoli, Fruit Salad Tuesday, October 8:    Breakfast: Oatmeal with Craisins and Walnuts    Lunch: Leftovers or Hot Lunch at School    Snack: Yogurt    Dinner: Easy Black Be...

So this week was a very productive week in so many ways but the biggest surprise was getting an extra CSA box.  I had to return our last box - they had a harvest party at the farm last weekend complete with Hay rides and a bonfire and I totally forgot to bring them back - so I stopped by one day this week to do that.  The owner had been cleaning out the last bit of the garden produce before tilling the plants under for the winter and we were given two huge bags full of produce - including pears, which were not available during the year! SO EXCITING!  An no additional charge - just being in the right place at the right time!  Love that! Here's that produce: Clockwise from upper left: 2 watermelon, 9 eggplant, 2 types of cucumbers (English and burpless), 7 green peppers, tomatillos, grape tomatoes, 3 green chili, a cantaloupe, and 12 pears.  YUM!!!   And a totally unexpected blessing too!  So with all this and bananas, apples, peppers, cucum...