In The Refiner's Fire

Our pumpkin plant, a few weeks ago. It is more than twice this size now!  I have been spending a lot of time in the garden this week and have accomplished quite a bit.  I still have some weeding to do to catch up from all the rain and heat we have had but, overall, things are looking good.  We have been harvesting string beans and strawberries.  I have one pepper almost ripe (this weekend!) and the tomatoes are so close.  Our CSA share has been giving us so many good things - their garden is about two weeks ahead of ours so I am expecting ours to be fully productive my mid-August. It seems like everything is slow this year.  We had a late spring here this year.   A friend also gifted us cucumbers and raspberries from their huge garden as well.  YUM!  Our weather has been lovely this week and I have greatly enjoyed being in the garden this week. Here are some things we did this week that we count as frugal: *  We ate all but...

Lillies in my garden this spring. So much good food to eat this week!  We got another CSA box this week containing many good things and we harvested string beans and a few strawberries from the garden as well.  We did go grocery shopping and bought mostly fruit and dairy products.  We did get pork on a buy one get one promotion, which I was delighted with!  We will be using that later this summer. Here is what we are eating this week: Sunday, July 21, 2019:    Breakfast: Bagels with Peanut Butter    Lunch: Waffles with Strawberries and Walnuts    Snack: Root Beer Floats    Dinner: At a Church Event Monday, July 22, 2019:     Breakfast: Bagels with Peanut Butter     Lunch: Leftovers     Snack: M&M Cookies     Dinner: Sheet Pan Nachos Tuesday, July 23, 2019:     Breakfast: Oatmeal Muffins, Strawberry Smoothies     Lunch: Bagel Pizzas with Cheese...

A lovely snapdragon in my garden right now.  I have others on my kitchen table as I'm typing! We have been HOT here this week!  Our actual temperatures have been in the mid-80's F (upper 20's C) but our heat index (combination of temperature, humidity, etc.) has been roughly 103 F (approximately 40 C).  We are very grateful for our central air conditioning and that we have plenty of water and easy-to-prepare foods so we did not need to heat up the house with the oven or stove.  At least for me, when it is so hot out, it is easy to stay inside and not spend much money. Here are the things we did this last week that qualify as frugal: * We ate in or packed a lunch every day this week even though I would have rather bought take-away. * I picked up a free loaf of bread using a punch card we won at a raffle.  (No having to turn on the oven!) * Picked flowers from the garden for the kitchen table twice. * Harvested the last of the lettuce and enough stri...

One of my beautiful roses! Thanks K.W. for sharing your photo! I do not have any food photos right now - so you get to enjoy one of my roses!  They are beautiful this year but the aphids are hungry and I have been spending a lot of time taking care of the roses this year. I do think the blooms are wonderful this year and well worth the extra time! We are receiving our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Box full of veggies and some fruit each week.   This week we received: Green Cabbage, Broccoli, Green Onions, Kale, three types of Lettuce, Turnips, Kohlrabi, Asparagus, Mint, Dill, Basil, Pea Pods, and Beets (Beet Root).   All sorts of delicious things but no fruit this week!  We received strawberries the last few weeks and should receive raspberries this week. I also harvested lettuce and string beans from our yard.  Here is what we are eating this week: Sunday, July 14, 2019:     Breakfast: Toast with...

White Cosmos in our garden. Summer is half over already - wow!  I have finished my summer term class and am enjoying some well-deserved time at home.  I have a few meetings and things that I need to be in at work for over the rest of summer but for the most part, I am off until the end of August!  It has been a year with a lot of mentally and physically taxing things going on and I am grateful for the break. My garden is going well this year!  I have had continuous flowers and have been able to have a bouquet of flowers from my garden on my kitchen table every day since the middle of May!  This has long been a goal of mine and I am ecstatic to have reached it!  My garden is mostly perennials and a few flowers that reseed themselves each year, so very inexpensive and only requires time, mulch and maybe some water (depending on the weather) to maintain.  I typically buy a few annual starts but I can grow those from seed if needed in the future or ...