In The Refiner's Fire

Chicken Pot Pie I am having a hard time believing that May starts this week!  Typically this time of year is so very busy - dance competitions and recital, music concerts, graduations and all the end of year programming for both school and church.  It is so quiet!   It feels very strange.  I am relishing the slower pace and at the same time I miss the things we typically do. I am grateful this week for grocery money, full pantry and full freezers!  We having a bit of produce to be used up this week and I am hoping that we can grill out a bit again this week.  We are supposed to have rain, so we will see if that is possible. Here is what we are eating this week: Sunday, April 26:    Breakfast:  Lemon Poppyseed Muffins, Banana-Blueberry Smoothies    Lunch: Grilled Cheese or Fried Egg Sandwiches, Cut Veggies    Snack: Popcorn    Dinner: Salmon, Sauteed Spinach, Onion and Peppers, Strawberry-Raspb...

My vincas are blooming! This week was full of lovely weather and I spent a lot of time outside in the yard (garden).  I cannot tell you how happy that made me!  It did wonders for my mental health and I am so enjoying spring poking out around the yard.  While Autumn is my favorite season, Spring is a close second and I am trying wholeheartedly to enjoy every second of it! We are still spending time mostly at home and still not spending much money.  I am grateful! Here are some things we did this week that were frugal: * We made meatball soup, chicken divan, grilled weiners and bratwurst which we ate with grilled zucchini and fruit salad, pasta with meatballs and tomato sauce, fajitas made with venison, onions and peppers, and homemade pizza.  * I also made muffins, scrambled egg "muffins" and cookies this week. * I mended a hole in the bag of our leaf shredder (like a leaf blower, but it pulls the leaves up and shreds them). * I spent a LOT of t...

I am loving these Zucchini bars! YUM! We are experiencing some warmer weather here this week and I am very excited about that.  Getting out in the yard (garden) is going to do wonders for my mental health and I am so grateful to have something "normal" for this time of year.  I have discovered in past years, if I do a lot of weeding and pruning in April and May as things are just starting to come up, it is much easier to maintain my flower and vegetable beds the rest of the year.  Our menu this week includes several items that are from our freezers and pantry.  I decided to use $20 of our grocery money each week to stock up on staples.  This week I used that money to purchase 5 pounds of all-purpose flour, a pound of dry chickpeas (garbanzo beans), a 32 ounce container of oil, and three 1 pound bags of all beef meatballs (on sale for less than the sale price of ground beef per pound).  Here is what we are eating this week: Sunday, April 19: ...

Quilt binding - before it was pressed. I realized after the fact that I took exactly one photo of our Easter and it was a plant that was popping out in the garden.  Seriously.  Easter was lovely for us, so I guess that is okay! We had a slower week this week after quite a bit of busy.  John was home more days this week and we started talking in earnest about setting up more of a rhythm to our days.  I think we're getting there!  There was snow on Sunday (about 5 inches of heavy, wet snow) and then a dusting on Monday and Tuesday.  It was 50F (10C) yesterday and the snow has basically melted.  This is April in Minnesota at its finest!  Buddy and I started seeds for cucumbers and beans this week.  I need to find my pea seeds and we can start those this week too.  I planted radish seeds as well this past week and I am looking forward to radishes and lettuce in something like 2-3 weeks.  I will plant more radish seeds every two...

Homemade pizza - pepper, olives and ham.  Delicious! We are looking forward to a little quieter week this week after the rush from Easter.  I am feeling like the children and I have sort-of settled into a routine. I appreciate that very much. It snowed here yesterday, Easter Sunday.  We ended up about 4 inches of really wet, heavy snow.  By early afternoon today, it was mostly melted.  Then, another inch or so of light fluffy snow came down.  This is normal weather for April in Minnesota.  It should all be melted by Wednesday afternoon and we should be back into the 50F degree weather by the weekend.  The children are asking to either grill out or cook sausages or wieners over the fire pit.  I think we will wait a week or two before we do that. I pretty much threw my grocery list pretty much out the window to purchase ham and turkey this week at the store.  Both were on sale for Easter and I know there are several meat packaging...

Zucchini Bars (with Figs) This last week was, honestly, a rough week for me.  I was dealing with some really odd technological issues and that turned into a real battle with tech support in ways it never should have. It has been a week and they are not resolved. A friend from church passed away (she had been on hospice since before Covid-19). A child's teacher emailed requesting unreasonable support from my husband and myself (the principal later emailed retracting this request - it was that unreasonable). We received word from my Cousin that my Uncle is on hospice care.  And my list could go on and on for several pages.... Yes, it was that type of a week.  Plus, it was Holy Week. Holy Week is always emotional for me.  And this year was no exception. There were still good things this week, and I am oh, so grateful! Here they are: Worship online.  Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. I needed those so much this week. A gift of real maple syrup...

Homemade face masks. This week seemed really long to me.  It is Holy Week - the week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday in the Christian calendar.  This is always a very busy week for the church and for a Pastor and their family.  This year was no exception.  John was at work several late nights video recording services for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, as well as Bible Studies and Devotionals.  The children and I had school online and we had some colder than normal weather and a little snow, just to keep things interesting, I guess!  I was very grateful for today to arrive!  I was ready for the weekend on Tuesday this week. Here is what we did this week that was frugal: * We made pizza twice this week, two types of soup, roasted vegetables served with rice, grilled cheese sandwiches and fried egg sandwiches, both served with apple and carrot slices, seafood chowder, four loaves of bread, zucchini dessert bars, oatmeal muffins, and s...

Chicken Lasagna right out of the oven this past week - it was so tasty! This week is Holy Week, the holiest week of the Christian church calendar.   It is always a busy, busy week for the Pastor and this year is no exception - additional challenges because of the Covid-19 pandemic and all the usual things besides.   I had grand plans for the food for this week but our tight budget and the lack of certain items in the grocery stores changed the plans I had.  I am totally okay with that and our menu looks delicious anyway, though not as traditional a Holy Week feast as I would have hoped. We have a lot of leftovers in the refrigerator at the moment so the first goal is to use those and then freeze anything we can not eat before it starts to go bad, reducing food waste.  We also have a lot of fresh vegetables - a parishioner gave us fresh asparagus from her garden this past week - so we will be eating those as well.  Here is what we are eating th...

Iris popping out! Just a little - they are much bigger today than in this photo. This past week went well but it still felt like a long week without all our normal activities to break up the week and help us remember what day we are on.  Here are some things I am grateful for this past week: * We are all still healthy; as are our parents and extended family members.  Some of my husband's family live in a state that has not issued a stay a home order and we are concerned for their health and well being.  I am grateful they are all still healthy. * The flowers and a few other plants along the house and garage are starting to pop out of the ground - iris, day lilies, lily of the valley, rhubarb and strawberry plants.  This is making me SO excited. * The first full week back to school online for the children went well this week.  * We still have fresh flowers on the kitchen table - only a little bouquet, but a bouquet nonetheless. * Music!  We ...

I see strawberry plants! I am so excited about the little bits of spring that are popping up around our yard - the strawberries, rhubarb, daylilies and iris starting to pop out of the ground are making me ridiculously happy!  I am hoping for warm weather over the next week or two so we can start cleaning up the yard from winter.  We have leaf mulch to remove from the flower beds and wood mulch to put down, grass to over seed a bit, and the initial weeding that I need to do each spring to keep the flower bed looking nice the rest of the year.  We have had a warm winter (comparatively) and it means that things are happening earlier than normal.  No complaints from me as long as we do not have another hard freeze! Here are the things we did this week to that we see as frugal: *  We made fried fish, minestrone soup, breakfast tacos, muffins, meatball skewers, chicken lasagna, pizza and oatmeal with maple cream at home this week.  We took meals if ...