In The Refiner's Fire

Red Velvet Cake Brownies with extra chocolate chips.  Our daughter made these for the bake sale at church this past weekend.  They were delicious! We are hunkered down and waiting for the super cold to arrive - our high temperature on Wednesday is projected to be -10F (-23C).  Thankfully, we typically only have two weeks of this type of weather each year.  This week will be the second one.  I am fervently hoping we are done after this week! Warm food is on the menu for certain this week! I am grateful for all the good things we have in our home and the ability to work from home if necessary! Here is what we are eating this cold, cold week: Sunday, January 27:    Breakfast: Toast with Jam    Lunch: Pot-Luck at Church (we brought Crock-Pot Chili)    Snack: Popcorn    Dinner: Meatball Soup, Homemade Bread Monday, January 28:     Breakfast: Eggs and Toast     Lunch: Leftover ...

Four loaves of French Bread.  Yum! We are cold, cold, cold here and we are expected to get colder.  Our projected low temperature on Wednesday is in the -30's F (-35-ish C).  I am so grateful for a warm house, warm clothes and vehicles with heating that works.  Today (Saturday Jan 26) it is -3F (-20C) and snowing lightly outside.  It looks very pretty out there.  I will enjoy it through the window of my kitchen while working on a few things this morning. Here are the frugal things we have done this past week: * Baked four loaves of French bread, two types of soup, and homemade pizza this week. * The children made two types of cookies and an Angel Food Cake this week for a bake sale fundraiser at church. * The children participated in a separate fundraiser for their class trip this spring.  They will have another fundraiser each of the next two weeks. * I did our ironing this week - most people I know hire this out.  I refuse to pay ...

A blurry photo of Perfect Potato Soup.  It is soup weather here for sure! It is definitely winter here, even with minimal snow on the ground.  It was -4F (-20C) Sunday morning when we left the house to attend worship.  Brrrr…  It was a day for wool clothing, warm drinks and a hot lunch and dinner.  We spent another $40 on groceries this week. We bought mostly produce and dairy but there were a couple of really good meat deals, so we picked those up too.  Here is what we are eating this week: Sunday, January 20:    Breakfast: Toast and Smoothies    Lunch: Cinnamon Biscuits and Eggs    Snack: Yogurt, Lemon Cookies    Dinner: Sausage and Cabbage with Noodles Monday, January 21, Martin Luther King Jr. Day    Breakfast: French Toast, Oranges    Lunch: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Cut Veggies    Snack: Lemon Cookies    Dinner: Fried Fish, Baked Sweet Potato...

A beautiful sunrise earlier this year - the sunrises have been beautiful the days we have been able to see them. I feel like time is just zipping by exceptionally fast this January and I am having a very hard time realizing that January is already halfway over!  I had grand plans for my time before school started up again but I realized that I needed a real break more.  So that is what I did.  And the rest was so blissful!  I read two new-to-me books and started a third.  I took a nap or two (or ten).  I also spent a lot of time planning for the things that we both hope to do and need to do this year of 2019.  I hoping that those plans come to fruition and I can share them with you at a later date. We are watching our pennies this January - maybe more than usual, as we have had several things we need to pay for in 2019 that rise above and beyond our typical expenses.  Some are things we have put off for a time while John was in seminary/inte...

My husband's 45th Birthday cake - a friend made us this beautiful cake!  It was delicious! Halfway through the month already and we are busy this week!  Basketball tournaments at school and back to work for me.  John has confirmation programming starting back up and we are gearing up for dance competition season and a few family events.  It seems like 2019 has started with a bang this year!  I went to the grocery store between things on Saturday and bought $41 worth of groceries - a gallon of milk, bananas, frozen berries, a jar of peanut butter and veggies.  That was it.  I had hoped to spend a bit less but we were out of carrots, spinach and onions, all of which we eat regularly, and I purchased one pound of wild rice from the bulk food section, which is the cheapest way to purchase it, but that is a fairly high cost item.  I also skipped purchasing a couple of items because I simply did not want to spend that...

My husband's 2nd favorite pizza was our dinner on his Birthday this past week.  YUM!  I typically make pizza at home, but for his birthday dinner, this was a wonderful treat. Our first full week of 2019 this week and it includes a lot of activities already!  How did that happen?  Nothing like jumping in full swing.  Honestly, I am grateful that the children are enjoying school and their activities so much, even if it makes it a little crazy at times.  We inventoried the  freezers and the pantry and put together the menus for the months of January and February from mainly what we have.  We still have squash from the garden that needs to be eaten and a fair amount of frozen produce as well.  We managed to stock up on a couple of types of meat this fall with Thanksgiving and Christmas sales, so that will be the meat we are eating currently.  We have several events that we will be either stopping quick at home to eat, or ea...

21B Baker Street - the board game.  It is one of our favorites! I feel like 2019 snuck up on me.  For whatever reason, the arrangement of the holidays this year has left me feeling like they simply flew by.  Either way, we are now into 2019 and I am grateful for a few days to think and plan before the classes start again. We rang in 2019 at home, playing board games, eating appetizers, drinking sparkling juice and watching the New Year celebrations on the television.  We had a very enjoyable evening.  This past week, John and I spent time going through our budget for this year.  We have several large purchases we need to make and we have some medical bills that still need to be paid off.  I am very tired of pinching my pennies but it is necessary for a while again. I think we have a good plan in place and I am hoping we will make some progress this year.  Here are some things we did this week that will help make those financia...