In The Refiner's Fire

How about a super dark photo of our dinner the other night?   Pulled pork and pan fried butternut squash with spinach.  It was delicious, even if the photo is really dark! I can't believe December starts this week!  I am so totally not ready for Christmas to come but Advent is here so I guess I better get ready quickly.  We have a busy month and guests will be arriving in 2 weeks again to stay through New Years.  I have a lot of gifts I'd like to sew or make and then all the holiday baking, which is truly a favorite part of my holiday.  In the meantime, we have something happening every single night this week except Friday! Here's what we're eating: Sunday, November 27, 2016     Breakfast: Toast and Strawberry-Bananas Smoothies     Lunch: Pizza Twists, Tossed Salad     Dinner: At a friend's house Monday, November 28, 2016     Breakfast: Eggs and Toast     Lunch...

Sorry, no photo today - it was a rush in, rush out, hurry home, put it away and sit down for supper kind of day! Buddy and I ran out and grabbed groceries while Missy and John were ringing bells for the Salvation Army Red Kettles.  We had dinner in the crockpot and planned to eat right when we got home because John had one more thing on the agenda today.  We succeeded, and now the children are washing up and getting their things ready for tomorrow, I have one more load of laundry in the clothes washer and Buddy and I will wash up the dishes here as soon as we're all done with showers.  We have dinner tomorrow night with friends, so I get to stay up tonight and grade all the things that were turned in before the holiday and the children plan to snuggle up with some books for a bit before heading to bed.  Lovely evening! Here's what Buddy and I bought at the store - with commentary: 2 56oz bottles of cranberry juice @ $1.99ea = $3.98 (one for now, one for ov...

I I was going through our photos from this summer to order some prints and was reminded all over again how much I love the early, quiet mornings at the cabin we rent!   Here is the field across from the cabin all foggy in the morning sun.  Just beautiful!  The photo doesn't even begin to do it justice but I'll take the reminder. We've had such crazy week and it really didn't feel very frugal.  In some ways it was - we didn't spend a ton of money and all that we did spend was planned.  Still, I felt like all I did this week was run places and spend money.  Here's what we did this week: * I made calzones, spaghetti sauce, coffee cake, cornbread and vegetable soup at home this week. * I attended a meeting that had a dinner with it and I received a free meal another day at work. * John attended a 3 day workshop with our church and was treated to three meals a day while he was there.  Our congregation also paid for his hotel r...

This week is the week of the Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S. and we have so much to be thankful for!   We are not hosting the meal or family this week and we have SO MUCH food in our freezer and cupboards, that we didn't do much shopping today. My daughter and I went to two stores and bought what you see above: Store #1: 52oz Vegetable Oil $2.19 1 dozen Eggs $0.79 Total from Store #1: $2.98 Store #2: 2 Carnation Evaporated Milk $1ea = $2 2 Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup $0.99ea = $1.98 15oz kidney beans  $0.89 15oz chili beans $0.89 2 15oz tomato sauce $0.89ea = $1.78 2lbs Low Sodium Bacon 2lbs/$6 = $6 3lbs Pink Lady Apples $4.99 1.94lbs Yellow Bananas $0.59/lb = $1.14 3.02lbs Red Delicious Apples $0.99/lb = $2.99 Total Store #2: $22.66 Total Spent Today: $25.64 We're spending Thanksgiving with friends this year since John has to lead Worship on both Wednesday and Sunday.  We will be bringing krumkaka (cookies) to add to the meal - m...

I don't have a photo for you today.  I guess that's okay once in a while, right?   And I guess it's not quite mid-November - that comes early next week.  I still can't believe it's November .  We're really, really enjoying the weather that we usually have in early October and we broke the record for latest frost here by 116 years!  Last time we had a frost this late?  1900.  Go figure. I'm still harvesting strawberries.  No complaints there! Here's the frugal happenings for the last two weeks: * Made soup, bread, cornbread, and several other foods at home. * I had my best friend over for breakfast rather than going out to breakfast.  We had a great time and no one cared if we talked for hours!  * My Mom made the children their Halloween costumes this year (she's done that every year but one since they were born) and I went as Rosie the Riveter.  I used jeans and a bandana I already owned and borrowed a blue button d...

I may have posted that photo before (I can't remember and I'm way to lazy too look!) but these flowers are *still* blooming - on November 7th!   We usually have snow by now - at least a dusting - so I'm feeling terribly spoiled.  I picked snapdragons, roses, and a few of these for our kitchen table yesterday.    I'm pretty sure winter will come in with a roar sometime very soon, but for now I'm enjoying weather is shirtsleeves and fresh flowers from the garden.  We bought no groceries this week.  We decided we had plenty in the fridge, freezer and cupboards and decided to see what we could do with what we have.   Sometimes it's a challenge but it gets us out of a rut and uses things up. We were blessed this week with a 1/4 sheet cake and an almond cake from members of the congregation and we have lots of fresh fish also from a member of the congregation.    We definitely don't lack for sweets with the congregation w...