In The Refiner's Fire

Sunrise!  So beautiful! We had a lovely coating of about 6 inches of snow this weekend.  It is lovely skiing and sledding snow and proved to be a fairly easy shoveling.  I love the look of snow and even enjoy skiing on occasion, so this was fine.  The roads should be fairly clear for the commutes tomorrow morning.  Good all the way around! John ran to the grocery store on Saturday and picked up a couple of things that we needed - milk, bananas, and a couple of other things.  That was it.  We did not need much. Here is what we are eating this week: Sunday, February 9, 2020:      Breakfast: Bagels with Peanut Butter      Lunch: Pasta with Veggies      Snack: Apple Crisp      Dinner: Three Sisters Soup, Cornbread Monday, February 10, 2020:     Breakfast: Eggs and Toast     Lunch: Leftover Soup     Snack: Yogurt     Dinner: Turkey Pot Pie Tuesday, February 11, 2020:      Breakfast: Overnight Oatmeal      Lunch: Leftover Soup      Snack: Yogurt      Dinner: Pancak

More Baklava!  Our son is really enjoying making this! This week has flown by - whoosh!  SO FAST!  I am not sure why, but it just seemed to go so fast and, suddenly, it is Friday.  Sometimes I think I blink and a day has passed. We had a relatively frugal week this week.  I did do a little shopping with the last of my Christmas money, purchasing a pair of shoes for work and some fabric to make a vest for our son's dance costume.  After spending 30 months of buying nothing new, when John was in Internship and Residency, spending money feels very expensive and painful, even if necessary. It has been three years since then and I still wince at the price of most retail items!  Often I put things back on the rack - even the clearance rack - because I feel the price is just too high.  I know my feet will thank me when I wear the new shoes and I am pleased that we can have a nice costume for our son.  That makes it worth it!  And, which made me even happier than the new shoes, we sp

I snapped this photo and the accompanying recipe from a magazine at the Doctor's office a while back.  And then completely forgot about it!  I am thinking of making it for Easter this year - it looks lovely! In some ways this is a quieter week than last; in other ways it is actually busier.  My commitments are back up to full steam now - all my classes are running and the February challenge started at Jazzercise.  The children have practice for theater as well as dance lessons.  John has Confirmation and some meetings for new employees at church.  I think we can figure it all out!  I am still trying to plan our menus around the freezers first in an effort to clean out our deep freeze and defrost it before the summer produce starts to come in. We have a while before that happens so I think we can do it! Here is what we are eating this week: Sunday, February 2:     Breakfast: Mango-Strawberry-Banana Smoothies     Lunch: Waffles from the Freezer with Walnuts and Chokecher

We had a deliciously lazy day at home today!  Today, February 1, 2020, is the only day in February we do not have some commitment.  I truly do not enjoy it when the calendar is that full but some months are like that.  The only time I left the house today was to do a quick run to the store with John.  The children were so efficient at putting the groceries in their place that they were all put away by the time we had our coats off!   So, no photo again today.  And I am grateful I can relax and enjoy some homemade chili and cornbread and conversation with my family after a day spent almost entirely at home. Meat was on sale this week and we were able to purchase a few things. Typically, we do not eat much red meat but we do enjoy chicken and fish on a regular basis.  Fish was on sale this week.  And so were meatballs and sausage.  We purchased all three.  Our meat stores were getting low, so I am grateful for more meat in the freezer!  I also purchased two packages of fair trade coffe

Angel Food Cake in Progress - YUM! It was a very busy week at our house!  I had very little time for things that were not absolutely required, thus the quilt week on the blog here.  We had a large plumbing bill earlier in the month so the end of the month was very little in the way of miscellaneous spending.  That ends up being frugal!  John and I were very pleased to be paid on Friday this week, giving us a little more leeway with our upcoming expenses these next couple of weeks. Here are the things we did this past week that we count as frugal: * We made most of our meals at home this week.  We had baked chicken with vegetables, taco soup with cornbread, scalloped potatoes with ham and spinach salad, homemade pizza, cinnamon biscuit twists with scrambled eggs, sandwiches and homemade chili.  We used leftovers for lunch most days and ate toast, homemade muffins, oatmeal and smoothies made with frozen fruit and yogurt for breakfast. * We used a gift card for a family lunch ou