In The Refiner's Fire

  Joy to the World by Isaac Watts     Joy to the world, the Lord has come! Let earth receive it's King; Let ev'ry heart prepare Him room And heav'n and nature sing, And heav'n and nature sing, And heav'n and heav'n and nature sing.   Joy to the earth, the Savoir reigns! Let all their songs employ, While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains, Repeat the sounds joy, Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.   No more let sin and sorrow grow Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow Far as the course is found, Far as the curse is found, Far as, far as the curse is found.   He rules the world with truth and grace And makes the nations prove The glories of His righteousness And wonders of His love, And wonders of His love, And wonders, wonders of His love.     MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

    It's really hard for me to believe we're already here....     But I guess we are .....       The krumkaka has been made....     So is the lefse....     We put up the decorations....     Decorated the tree....   Put up the Nativity....      Now we wait....   And the waiting is nearly over...     Wishing you a Merry Christmas filled with joy and love and family.  ~ Lea 

The picture-less version of my menu this week!   I'm writing from my work computer while pretending to eat my lunch at a leisurely pace.  I'm so ready to be done with my grading so I can just stay home for a few days!  We do get a two-week holiday but I'd love to have an extra day or two because I am completely finished with all the grading.  My parents are here this week and will be here for a few weeks.  We did almost all of our grocery shopping ahead of time, though there are a few things my parents will buy us. We are so blessed that they are willing to do that when they come - when we asked about it, they said we give them a nice, comfortable place to stay for free so they can buy a few groceries.  We do have almost everything but there were a couple of things my parents will want to buy so they will.  Those things are for Christmas or treats that they like to have in the house and are things we wouldn't have in the house on a normal basis. ...

We're getting ready for company, trying to finish up the Christmas shopping and present making, and all of that is interspersed with pageant rehearsals, two funerals, final exams, numerous Christmas concerts and the Sunday school pageant, some really sick friends and head colds all around our house.  I'm officially ready for a break and almost able to take one!  Hurray! These last few weeks haven't felt very frugal - we've been fighting head colds and there's been more canned soup eaten than I would have liked but there are a few things that we did for frugality over the last week or two: * We finished making gifts and handmade ornaments for the teachers.  We will make cookies for other friends and colleagues as well (hopefully tomorrow). * I finally got all my information back from my dead computer so I don't have to refile all my paperwork!  I can't tell you how happy I am about that! * We were gifted quite a bit of food this week:  a congregation ...

We've been so busy here - getting ready for company, extra Worship services for Advent, wrapping up the semester here both at work and at school for all four of us, Christmas program rehearsals at both school and church for the children and all the other things that go into this time of year makes me feel like I'm chasing myself sometimes!  We did the grocery shopping this last week in between everything else and I promptly recycled the receipt! Opps.  And, sorry, I'm not digging through our giant orange recycle bin outside to retrieve it. We spent just under $25 of the $32 we had left - so now we have $7, enough for some bananas and milk next week. We're pretty well stocked for when my parents are visiting so we *should* be okay. I can't remember the exact prices but here's what we got at 2 stores: Smart Balance White Sugar (4lbs) Sweet Potatoes (5lbs) - these were on huge sale! Shrimp (2 bags/ $10) - the reason we spent so much money this week 10lbs G...

So it was a high temperature of +2F with a wind chill of  -23F.  I'm dreaming of summer and my flowers today! It's the 1st of December, and I'm already sick of winter. Is that bad?   I think it's because it went from being really nice to super cold just overnight - quite literally - and it was such a shock.  I guess it's a good thing we have so much soup in the freezer to eat up!  I'm also grateful for hot coffee and oatmeal first thing in the morning.  Aren't we blessed to have such good, warm food and a warm house as well?  I sure do think so!  I listen to my parents telling of having to get up and light the stove to warm the house in temperatures colder than this and I am so grateful that I don't have to do that! After topping off our stockpile this weekend, we are still eating well.  I have $32 for the rest of the month and I am pretty sure we can do it.  We're already low on fruit for the week but we have fruit in the fr...