In The Refiner's Fire

Sale flowers on my kitchen table. My goodness - nothing like taking almost a whole month off!  I really did not mean to.  The end of the semester is always busier and this year was no exception.  I am finally starting to feel as though I can come up for air a bit and take some time to do things other than work obligations.   I have a small bit of time off before classes start again and I am looking forward to taking a few days off and simply resting. Here are some of the frugal things we did or received in December that were frugal: * We ate most meals at home, making soups in the slow cooker and on the stove top, roasting meats and vegetables in the oven and cooking stir fries and some breakfast foods on the stove top.  Christmas meals included Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, green salad and fruit salad and Seafood Chowder, both served with potato lefse. * The children made cookies, homemade trading cards and plushies (stuffed animal toys) for their fr...

A beautiful sunrise earlier this month!  This week the U.S. celebrates Thanksgiving - a holiday dedicated to giving thanks for everything good from the last year.  I am so grateful for a day to rest, a day with my immediate family, phone calls with others, and lots of good food to eat!  I am grateful that we have everything we need, some of what we want, reliable housing and transportation, and jobs we can still do.  I am grateful that I was able to work from home two of three days this week and that my husband was able to have the minor surgery he needed this week.  I am grateful he is recovering well from that surgery and will be back at work soon.  I am also grateful for the ability to help others and to call and write (email, text, and letter) those we love when they cannot be with us in person for the holiday. We have been enjoying not doing much this week: we have done a  lot of staying home and watching movies and reading.  It has been heav...

New dirt in our garden bed - the two baby tomato plants did not make it through our freeze, unfortunately.  Our weather has been so up and down here.  Today we are in the high 30's F (~5C) for temperatures but we have a "stiff" wind today.  That makes it seem much colder when outside!  After a few days of sunshine the clouds today make it feel like real winter, even though it's not quite there yet. We found out that the new windows for our remodel project are a couple of weeks out so we are on hold with everything for a couple of weeks.  I am okay with that.  It gives us more of a chance to clean things out and work from home.  Once they get started on the windows, we have three to four weeks where we will not be able to work from home easily each week.  I am grateful that we do not need to change things up yet again for a few more weeks. Here are some things we have done the beginning of November that we felt were frugal: *  We continued to ...

My entire 2020 Carrot harvest. Ha!  We have had lovely, lovely weather this week!  It has been right about 70F (~21C) and sunny.  The fall colors on the tree leaves are amazing and I have been trying to spend as much time as I can outside.  We started the fall yard work for the year - raking leaves, cleaning up flower and vegetable beds and turning and adding compost and fresh dirt.  We have two beds completely done and the first round of leaves raked.  John and I and Buddy and I have taken several walks this week and John and Missy have been running regularly.  I have also enjoyed many a cup of coffee on my patio while doing email or reading.  It has been lovely.  I am hoping it lasts a few more weeks!  This week I harvested the winter squash and my three lonely, tiny carrots you see above.  I planted an entire package of carrot seeds this year, thinking I would get enough to can.  Most never came up.  I was going to repl...

  Man, this week was a rough week.  A lot of the overtime at work has caught up with me and I had the worst PHN flare I've had in almost two years.  I knew things were getting stressful but I did not realize how much.  I don't know about you, but I feel like 2020 has been a year of three steps forward, two steps backward, and then something veers right or left or up or something.  I am sure some extra sleep will help, as will taking an evening off but the truth of the matter is that my workload currently is unsustainable.  I have several co-workers who are "retiring" or choosing not to renew at the end of their contract or the school year or the term.  Next term could be a real mess if enough people do not continue.  While tempting, I still have more days when I enjoy my work than not.  Until that changes, I will push forward.  With my PHN flare and all the work this week, it seems like we did not do much that was frugal.  We did do...

Angel Food cake batter - Missy loves making these! This was a busy week - things going on with the remodel, having my cousin, Diane, here overnight at the beginning of the week and then few days into this weekend due to a medical procedure (she lives quite far away from the hospital here), the first full week of programming at church (mostly virtual or take-home) and first exams for both of my classes at work. Whew!  I'm grateful that it is the weekend. We did not do too many things this week outside of the ordinary due to the number of things we had on our plate this week.  Here are some things we did this week that we counted as frugal: * We made all our meals at home this week or packed lunches to take with.  I even sent some snacks to the hospital with Diane.  Meals included two types of soup,  stir fry, soft-shell beef tacos, and baked chicken.   * I repaired a fallen hem on a skirt. * We harvested tomatoes, eggplants, lettuce and green beans fr...

  Everything is back to a new "normal" this week. I am always grateful for getting into a routine.  I find routines very comforting and calming.  Our routine is certainly different right now - work and school look so different than before and with our remodeling project continuing, each day looks a little different.  It is all good and we are so looking forward to the result!  Here are some of the frugal things we have done this week: * We cooked all but one lunch at home.  For breakfasts we ate homemade lemon poppy seed muffins, eggs and toast, overnight oatmeal, cold cereal with milk, and fruit and yogurt smoothies.  Lunch was leftovers, pulled pork sandwiches, or noodles with pan seared veggies and cheese.  For dinners we made pork stir fry with rice, sloppy joes on buns with cut veggies, breakfast for dinner (pancakes, bacon and eggs), pork loin with couscous and a spinach salad, spaghetti and meatballs, and homemade pizza.   * John ...

Whew!  We're all back in school now and things are starting to fall into a routine.  The first week or two of school is always chaotic and this year is particularly chaotic with all of the additional things needed for (hopefully) preventing the spread of Covid-19.   I think we are back into a routine for the time being!  We started on our big remodeling project - I am SO excited about this!  The rain has slowed things down a bit but we should be back on track soon. Here are some things we have done since the beginning of September that we consider frugal: * We have made all but one meal at home, including two types of soup, pizza, overnight oatmeal, fried eggs and toast, bagels with cream cheese, egg bake with spinach and sweet potatoes, BLT's, fried fish, roasted veggie couscous, chicken lasagna, pasta with meatballs and marinara sauce, hamburger gravy over rice with a tossed green salad, chicken with potatoes and carrots, and for Labor Day we grilled with...

Our Anniversary dinner - salmon, pasta salad, and zucchini.   August has flown by so fast!  I am just amazed by how quickly it has gone. We were so blessed to get away for our Anniversary weekend with the children to a rented cabin in Northern Wisconsin.  We spent 5 days relaxing, enjoying the sound of the loons singing, reading, hiking, drawing (the children), writing (John) and doing embroidery (me).  The children went swimming and/or paddle boarding every day while we were there.  We stopped to see my cousin and her husband on the way home; it was so nice to visit!  We stayed outside (socially distanced with masks) and enjoyed a picnic dinner of hamburgers, cut veggies and grilled beets (beetroot) straight from their garden. Wonderful! Here are some other things we have done since the beginning of August that are frugal: * We made most meals at home including soups, roasted meats and vegetables, eggs (scrambled, fried,  baked) and home-baked bread. ...

Zinnias in my front flower bed this week. This was a relatively quiet week.  My course ended for the summer, the children and John are still working their normal schedules and the garden is starting to produce!  After a gap in blooms, we started having more flowers blooming as well.  The weather was absolutely lovely this week and I was able to get a lot of weeding and other yard work done.  Today, grades have been submitted to the Registrar's office and I get to take a bit of break before starting to get ready for fall semester. Here are some frugal things we have done this week: * We made bagels with cream cheese, blueberry-banana smoothies, banana-mango smoothies, scrambled eggs and toast for breakfasts this week. * We also made baked salmon with potatoes and salad, scalloped potatoes with ham, roasted chicken and vegetables, soft shell beef tacos with sliced apples, and pizza for dinner this past week. * We ate meals at home for lunch as well, including sandwiche...

Some of my flowers this month - cone flower (echinacea) and lilies. We had what is becoming here a rather routine week - work for all of us part time from home, part time at the office and the rest of the time doing things mostly from home with a trip to the store for groceries and a trip to the fabric store.   Here are some things we did this week that were frugal: * We made all meals at home this week:  Blueberry pancakes with scrambled eggs, Blueberry-Banana Smoothies, Oatmeal with Peaches and Walnuts, Leftovers, Baked Potatoes with Roasted Vegetables, Meatball Soup with Cornbread, Shrimp with Spinach and Mushrooms and Rice, Hard Shell Ground Turkey Tacos, and Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry with Noodles. * The children and I went to the fabric store and used a coupon to purchase on sale fabric for a concert outfit for our daughter and fleece pants for our son.  I also bought notions for my Mother, since she cannot got to the store right now and needed a few things...

Homemade Ice Cream - we still have about a pint in the freezer. I had a couple of days off this week and was so grateful for the break!  Back to work on Monday, but I did get some time to get my vegetables weeded and to get a bit ahead at work so it won't be quite so crazy for the next two weeks. Then I am off until September! Yay!  I am ready for a break. Here are some things that we did this last week: *  We made the following meals at home:  Blueberry pancakes, Beef Roast with Mushroom and Onion Gravy with Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower, Smoothies, Roasted Veggie Couscous with Tortilla Chips, Stir Fry with Rice, and a lot of leftovers.  * John brought home leftovers from a meal packing session at church and we ate those one night. * We harvested cucumbers, green beans and blueberries from the garden this week.  We also picked the first tomato! * I purchased notebooks for school for the children on clearance sale. * We picked up several requested books ...

My "fairy lilies" on my patio right now.  So pretty! It is hot this week - our temperatures are running about 90 F (32 C) this week with about 90% humidity.  I am not big fan of hot and humid (part of the reason I live in Minnesota!) but the vegetables are loving this weather!  The eggplant is growing well and everything else - tomatoes, beans, peas, cucumbers, summer and winter squash - are starting to set fruit.  I am very excited!  We should have cucumbers early this next week already.   I have today off and John and the children had to work today so I had a quiet house all day today.  I am so grateful for that!  The quiet and lack of schedule today is a very welcome change.  I do not have much left for summer session and I am grateful.  I am tired and need a rest or at least a change.  There is so much that we need to do this summer and I need some time to do those things as well. Here are some frugal things we did this pas...

A rainbow over our backyard!  It looked like the "pot of gold" was in our neighbor's yard. It was a week with a lot of "normal" happening this week - I am still teaching summer session, John is still doing his typical work and the children are working two days a week, exercising and taking voice music lessons.  In some ways I feel like all I did was work this week! Here are some of the things we did this week that were frugal: * We cooked most meals at home - bagels with cream cheese, PB&J toast, fried eggs on toast or smoothies for breakfast; lunch was mostly leftovers or salads; and dinner was roasted chicken with potatoes, carrots and onions, beef and vegetable stir fry served with rice, chicken noodle soup (made with the roasted chicken carcass), chicken pot pie with corn on the cob, homemade pizza, and a sheet pan dinner using sausages, carrots, onions, potatoes and Brussels' Sprouts.  * John and I each enjoyed one meal provided by our work places. ...

My tomatoes are setting blossoms! Hurray! I feel like things are not so frugal right now - we are getting ready to do some major repairs to our home and at least some major remodeling.  We also started paying for singing lessons for the children - this is something that the children will benefit from for a long time and we are grateful for the opportunity.  They are able to take one 15-minute lesson per week through school during the school year, and since they cannot do all the normal things this summer, we decided that this would be a good choice.  Our teacher's price is very reasonable.  We also have had several car repairs - some expected and some unexpected. Here are the frugal things we did this week: We ate all meals at home this past week or took meals with us.  We ate sandwiches, baked chicken with roasted broccoli and cauliflower, pancakes, pasta with meatballs, fried fish with couscous and fruit salad, taco soup with tortilla chips, and a beef roast w...

Maltese Cross next to my kitchen window this week - so pretty! We had humming birds visiting the Maltese Cross outside the kitchen window this week - what a treat!  I started feeding the humming birds that have been visiting our yard this year. They have stopped by in the past two years. That means there is other food in the area and I will not be disrupting their patterns or causing them hardship if we have to stop feeding them at some time in the future!  I love having humming birds in my garden!    It has been a quiet and busy week here. We have all been working mostly from home this week - the person the children are working for is ill so they will not be working this week, everyone at church worked from home this week while the building is sanitized in preparation for limited re-opening for worship, and my students had an exam this week so I was able to proctor that from home and lead a couple of discussions from home as well.    Our garden is growing ...

Giant Iris!  I have three types blooming in my garden right now This week was crazy busy with summer session happening, a LOT of rain (we received 5 1/2 inches in one evening at our home), and a variety of other things going on. The children had final exams this week and are very happy to have a week or two to relax before jumping into a babysitting job for the rest of the summer. Here are some things we did this week that were frugal: * We grilled hot dogs and bratwurst twice this week, roasted squash, made empanadas, baked homemade pizza, had pulled pork sandwiches, and several salads and no bake energy bites for meals and snacks this week. * I harvested lettuce and radishes from the garden this week.  We still have rhubarb too. * I planted bean, pea and carrot seeds in the garden this week. * I also spent quite a bit of time weeding and cleaning up the garden this week.  With all the rain, we had a lot of fallen branches and leaves and broken plants to c...

My lilac and bleeding heart bouquet this week - in a teapot! My lilacs are blooming!  They smell SO good and I am enjoying having a bouquet on my kitchen table.  I'm on bouquet #2 this week since lilacs do not live very long once picked.  That is quite okay - I am so happy they are blooming! Our week went by - ZIP - just like that - this week. It was a week where I kept saying things like "Today is Wednesday. Oh, wait, it's Tuesday" or "It's already Thursday? How did that happen?"  And yesterday I went in to work with an article of clothing on backwards (fortunately, no one noticed).  Yes, that is how my week went. Here are the frugal things we did this week: * We made homemade pizza, Venison with peppers, mushrooms and potatoes, Taco Soup with cornbread, scalloped potatoes with ham, poppy seed muffins, biscuits, and Finish Ribbon Cookies this week. * We ate all meals at home. I enjoyed a miniature sized desert that was left on my desk (my bo...

My first bouquet from the yard in 2020!  Dwarf Iris - two types. We had a quiet week this week.  The children had their Advanced Placement (AP) tests, I had finals and getting ready for summer session, and John was working on a lot of upcoming videos for church items.  We were definitely busy  - a quiet busy - this week! Mother's Day was lovely and we were able to have social distancing visit with my best friend and her husband on Mother's Day.  It was a treat for both of us.  The children had a friend drop off a gift for each of them - belated birthday gifts.  They also had a social distancing visit - their friend sitting in their car and our kids standing on the grass of the yard.  Both were a really nice break for all of us. Here are the frugal things we did this week: *  We made scalloped potatoes with ham served with salad, muffins and blueberry smoothies, a sheet pan dinner using sausage, peppers, onions and potatoes, a pork ...

Dwarf Iris in my garden this past week. This past week, our children turned 15 years old.  I feel like that time has flown so quickly!  At dinner on their birthday, we spent time reminiscing about past birthdays. It was fun to hear what they remembered and how much they enjoyed the different things we have done.  We have not had a party since their 10th birthdays and will have one next year for their 16th birthdays, so not having a party this year was fine.  The printable birthday banner (I've had it on the computer for a while and don't remember where it was from - if you know, please let me know so I can add a link!) and a decoration from our Christmas box.  I was trying to get the extra decorations and it looks like I missed the end of the banner! I found a printable banner on my computer that I had download from online a while ago and our daughter assembled it.  We hung it between the kitchen and living rooms.  Then I hung some fold out ...