In The Refiner's Fire

My brand new coffee pot! I spent the weekend grading - mid-term grades were due and all that - and processing some very mentally draining things that happened this last week.  My brain is pretty much mush at this point.  In the middle of all that, my coffee pot decided to spring a leak and hot water went everywhere!  Couple that with no coffee and a trip to the store suddenly moved up to high priority on the list!   I came home with the black beauty in the photo above.  Ah, bliss.  Hot coffee - on a timer no less! - and no water all over the place.  Win-win in my book! After two weeks of my parents buying groceries for us (Yep - totally spoiled!) and another of eating mostly leftovers and it was definitely time for a run to the store this weekend.  We spent just over $50 on lots of fruit (apples, bananas, grapes, a pomegranate), carrots, celery, a cucumber, yogurt, a gallon of milk, a roll of sausage, and three cans of ou...

Red for the Holy Spirit!  Plates, Cups and Napkins from the brunch for 35 we hosted at our home Saturday morning. Now that we're through Ordination, we can settle once again into  routine.  I've definitely decided that there is never a week without something happening (John is at a church function 4 nights this week!) but that we can get into a routine and a rhythm.  This will change with the church seasons and the school year but I'm hoping to establish an ebb and flow that we can maintain for a while. This week is mid-terms here where I'm at and basketball season is slowly ramping up.  We're eating up the leftovers in the fridge and planning for Advent - both at church and at home.  We have one more big day coming up - Installation at John's church - but that celebration is taken care of by the parish and we simply have to show up and enjoy ourselves. We should receive our photos from the ordination later this week and I'm totally excited about t...

  Caprice Skewers - a cherry tomato, a basil leaf and a cube of mozzarella on a toothpick.  Yum! I'm really having a hard time believing that we're heading into the last full week in October! Things have been crazy busy around here and we're finally through Ordination (it was wonderful!) and settling into a new routine around here.  My parents have been here for almost 3 weeks and will be heading back to their home on Wednesday.  They will return mid-December to celebrate Christmas with us. This is the week of leftovers from the Ordination - we had a ton of food leftover.  We still have a ton of veggies leftover from the garden and we're still picking tomatoes and strawberries - the two plants that shouldn't be doing well after the frost!   I'm not complaining, mind you.  Just a wee bit puzzled. Anyway, here's what we're eating this week: Sunday, October 23:    Breakfast: Leftover Coffee Cake and Fruit    Lu...

i Our corsages and boutonnieres from the Ordination We're through Ordination and into daily ministry.  Whew!   What a wonderful, wonderful day and such a blessed time! Here are 20 things I learned at my husband's ordination, some totally tongue-in-cheek and some quite serious. 1.  No one wants to sit next to the Bishop at dinner. 2. People have no idea what to give as gifts for an Ordination. 3. You can't find Ordination cards at Target.  Go figure.  4. The greeting card holder on our kitchen wall holds 26 cards before they start falling out of the holder.  5. If you're wearing and alb (clerical robe), no one really cares what you're wearing underneath. 6. Photographers know how to pin on corsages and boutonnieres. 7.  All sorts of people have been praying for us - some we had NO idea! 8. Ordering food for an unknown number of people is difficult. 9.  Finding out what to do with leftover tossed let...

My husband and son hiking this summer. We're heading toward Ordination and Installation this week - whee!  What a busy time this is!   My parents are here and I'm so grateful.  There are all sorts of things that they can help with and leave us free to do more pressing things.  It's also just lovely to have them here!  These visits are so precious. Some frugal things from the last week: * Made meatloaf, cornbread, vegetable-barley soup, and cookies at home this week. * Mom did a bunch of yardwork for us - thanks Mom! * Scrubbed the kitchen within an inch of it's life this week.  It looks great!  Now we just need to finish painting. * Lowered the hem on two pairs of pants for my son this week.  Sewed a button back on my spring/fall jacket.  Sewed the last of my son's Cub Scout patches on his vest.  We'll hang that in his room with his Arrow of Light as a decoration.  * Ordered my son a new winter jacket...

I'm missing my zinnias already!  The frost got them all as well as our pumpkins, the tomatoes and the peppers.  I guess that means it's officially fall!  I still have a few zinnias on our table and the piano and I will enjoy them while I can.  We'll get all those dead plants pulled out sometime this week. We are in full swing with everything and my parents are coming for a visit for John's Ordination and will be with us for about 3 weeks.  They arrive tomorrow.  Other family will be coming in as well to stay for varying amounts of time.  We're certainly busy with preparations and all the other regular happenings! Sunday, October 9, 2016:      Breakfast:  Peanut Butter Toast or Fruit and Yogurt Smoothies      Lunch: Cinnamon Biscuit Twists, Banana-Strawberry-Apple Salad      Snacks: Fruit      Dinner: Macaroni and Cheese with Broccoli  (the children...

  This was John's first full week in his new Call.  I'm feeling a bit like I've been tossed in the air an haven't landed yet - we're figuring out schedules and new responsibilities and all that jazz.  It's been good and crazy and I'm so happy we're here!   I figure by the time the new church year starts in late November, we'll be settled into a routine again.  That I'm looking forward to.   This week we picked a lot of produce.  We had our frost this week - it was supposed to be  a hard freeze but turned out to just be a frost.  We had picked all the produce possible just in case, so now we have green tomatoes all over the kitchen!        We still have green pumpkins on this monster - yep that's a single pumpkin plant and that's not even all of it - it extends in both directions both right and left as well!   We have harvested 9 and there are 4 more that the voles have...

I can't believe October is here already!   Where did September go?  We dug out some of the fall decorations this week and dug out some of the dead veggies in the garden.  The nights are getting cooler and the leaves are starting to turn.    I guess that means it's officially fall.    We've had rain, rain and more rain lately.  I went to pick the Rose Hips and most were moldy or rotten so I scrapped that plan.  May be next year.  I'm starting to feel like we need a boat or something with all the rain we've been having.  The perk?  Beautiful skies like this one:     The down side?  Hail!  We've had hail twice now.  This is a photo from the first round, about a week and a half ago.  Sigh.    All that said, the weather we had this weekend was beautiful!   Couldn't ask for better weather.  Middle temperatures, nice light breeze, plenty of sunsh...