In The Refiner's Fire

What am I thankful for today?   So very much...   ...my husband... ...our children... ...all the rest of our family... ...having a nice, warm, safe place to call home... ...having plenty to eat and wear... ...having good health... ...careers with jobs and a pretty good income... ...having transportation available to us... ...all our many friends... ...sunshine... ...the grace of God Almighty... ...and all of you out there in cyberspace...   Happy Thanksgiving!   I hope you have a wonderful day!

Nacho chips with refried beans and salsa with mango slices.  From this summer. So we're trying to stay warm this week - we've been stuck in the low teens with wind chills dropping them down to low single digits.  Brrrr. As a gentleman at church responded this morning when I asked him how he was doing "I haven't frozen solid yet!"   We have Thanksgiving at a friend's house this week - John has to work both Friday and Sunday so traveling is out - and we're looking forward to time with friends - cuddling new babies, eating good food and visiting.  Here's what we're eating this week: Sunday, November 24:    Breakfast: Cereal and Milk    Lunch: Vegetable Pasty, Orange Wedges    Snack: Apple Oat Bars    Dinner: Chicken Flavored Rice, Carrots and Green Beans, Pineapple-Orange-Apple Salad Monday, November 25:    Breakfast: Cereal and Milk    Lunch: Apple Wheat Berry Salad for Adults, Hot Lu...

So our week didn't really turn out the way we'd hoped.  I was sick with some kind of virus/stomach bug Wednesday and Thursday.  I slept all day Wednesday and kind of limped along through what I had to do on Thursday. But Friday was the kicker. My Thankful List at the end of the day went something like this: Today's Blessings: * The ER * Aspirin * John not having a heart attack Yep - we spent Friday in the ER with John having chest pain, radiating down his arm no less.  Fortunately all of his tests came back negative so he did NOT have a heart attack, but he does have to follow up with a cardiologist on either Monday or Tuesday.  His heart rate and his blood pressure were terribly high - something that is extremely odd for him - and they definitely want to check him out and make sure everything is okay. I am so very grateful. Grateful for immediate care for my husband. Grateful for simple things like Aspirin that are easy preventive medicine. Gratef...

It was a week that had things happen that we really didn't want to have happen (I'll hopefully write more about that later) so I only went to one store this weekend for grocery shopping.   We had $20.75 this week to spend on groceries and we just squeaked under with 3 cents to spare! Whew!  It's weeks like this that I'm grateful for my stockpile and our freezer!   I have no idea what happened to the receipt but everything except the bananas, TP and cotton swabs were on sale.  The two expensive things were the cotton swabs (just under $3) and the TP (almost $4 - yep, totally ridiculous price for a 4-pack of TP but that was the best price I could find; everything cheaper was sold out).  The Dole pineapple was $0.89 per can and the Campbell's soup was $0.77 each.  The oranges were under $3 for 4lbs, the eggs were $1.98 for 18 and the milk was $2.50.  We're enjoying a Thanksgiving meal with friends - I'm bringing dessert so we d...

We're busy here with the semester winding up and heading into Advent.  We've been cleaning out like fiends and I'm loving the "empty" space!  We finally finished cleaning out our bedroom, which seems to be a catch-all for so many things since the children aren't allowed in, with the delivery of our new mattress this weekend. We took the opportunity to clean out everything in the room, sweep, mop, dust and wash the walls down. Since we had to move the whole bed anyway, it seemed like a good time to do it.   I'm loving having the space!  Up next - finishing up the last couple of problem spots in the living room!  We tend to have specific spots where clutter collects and usually the clutter is things that don't have a true "home".  So we've been working on having homes for everything and getting rid of the excess.  Loving that! Here's my goals for this week: Work: Grading Lessons for this week and next Finishing up some paperwor...

Wow - nothing like going AWOL for two whole weeks!  We've had colds, some kind of virus and a huge attack of my shingles, complete with locked up muscles.  Yuck.  John went shopping this week. Last week we all went as a family and we spent our $30 budget right on the nose - it made me laugh when the cashier had to look again to make sure we didn't owe any change!  This week we went over - which is okay, it just means we have $20.74 for next week since we do our budget in two week chunks.  We decided that it was okay to go over this week since there was a really good deal on steak at one of our local stores.  So, today, while I was teaching Jazzercise, John and the children ran to the store.  He didn't get a photo but here's what he bought: Store #1: Hunts' Tomato Sauce 2 @ $0.88 = $1.76 3.56lbs Beef Sirloin Steak @ $2.99/lb = $10.64 Crystal Farms Shredded Cheddar Cheese 2 @ $1.98 = $3.96 Crystal Farms Shredded Mozzarella Cheese...

It's Monday and that means it's time to review our goals again.  I had a pretty ambitious goals list for last week but I got several things done.  I didn't get everything done but I'm pretty pleased with what I did get done, so I'll just go with that. 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).   Did some of this but not as much as I would like. Finish going through my data one last time. Jazzercise: Teach 2 classes. Learn 3 new routines.  I learned two. Update my iTunes. Family: Visit the Apple Orchard (Family Night) Piano Lessons x2 Swimming Lessons Friends over on Friday Trick or Treating Home:  I got part of all of these done but only finished the two Christmas gifts. Ironing - I have four tablecloths that need to be pressed right now and it's weighing on me! ...

Okay, so I just had to share the krumkake photo again - they're so very yummy!   Cookies like this are part of what I love about this time of year - though I could definitely be persuaded to make these just about any time of the year! LOL We have a relatively "normal" week here for us this week and I'm going to try a new recipe or two, depending on how things actually work out this week.  I've been feeling pretty icky these last few days with a migraine-like headache, so hopefully I won't end up down and out for the count! The weather is beautiful so I'm hoping to be up and about outside this week - hopefully that will help! We had lots of apples left in the fridge after our trip to the Apple Orchard last week and we have a whole pineapple that we bought last week but wasn't ripe yet too.  I looked through the freezer and realized we had all the "stuff" to make jambalaya, so we're going to try making that this week - haven't do...

    Sorry for the poor quality photo!  You can cringe all you like - my camera completely bit the dust (Sigh) and my poor iPod was dropped and the glass cracked. It's still working (mostly) but taking photos is hit or miss - but it's the only "camera" I have right now!  Yep - exciting times at the Stormhammer household!   Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled grocery shopping this week.  We decided to not quite start our stocking up for Internship yet - we have extra and unexpected bills pop up with the van and our appliances that we want to take care of first, not to mention that don't want food products to expire before we need them or that the space to store paper products (mostly TP, dental floss, etc) isn't quite ready yet.  Either way, we have a number assigned to what we'd like to have in the house for Internship and we'll keep you posted as we go along - when we get to that point!   For r...

* I made krumkakke for a fundraiser (that's what's in the photo) using what I had on hand. I'm always amazed at how easy it is to make even if it is time consuming! * Downloaded several free books for my free Kindle for PC.  Also checked out several books and a couple of movies from the Library. * My Mom taught my daughter how to use the sewing machine - I'd previously been working on hand sewing with her - and she has been completely enthralled!  She's started making lots of pillows from my scrap bag - two for herself and a matching one for her best friend, then one for each Grandma for Christmas.  Now she's making burp clothes for my best friend for her new Grandbaby that's due in March.  I'm hoping to move on to simple clothes next! * Enjoyed two Halloween parties that included dinner!  Mom makes my children costumes (she loves to sew and is very good and very creative so this is something she really enjoys) and we use the nice homemade felt ...