In The Refiner's Fire

Salad Lunch! YUM!   This week starts December - wow!  In some ways 2020 has gone so fast; in others, so slow.  This Saturday we will start the Christmas baking - shortbread cookies this weekend.  Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent so we will start with the Christmas Decorations.  We will be putting the tree up early this year, since we need to have it down by January 4.  We typically leave it up until the 6th (Epiphany) or a bit later but this year we need it down for the construction on the house to continue. Here is what we are eating this week: Sunday, November 29, 1st Sunday in Advent:          Brunch:  Egg Bake          Snack: Popcorn          Dinner: Taco Soup, Tortilla Chips Monday, November 30:          Breakfast: Eggs and Toast          Lunch: Leftover Soup          Snack: Yogurt     ...

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 ...

  Roasted Veggies are a staple for dinner around here! This fall seems to be flying by so quickly!  We have had up and down weather here in Minnesota - something very normal for this time of year.  Last week it was lovely, mild weather with lots of sunshine and this week started out with cold and snow and ice.  I am so grateful for a warm, safe, sturdy home and the ability to cook warm food when it is cold out and make something cool when it is hot out. So many are not so fortunate! The garden is done for the year (and currently under snow and ice), but our freezer, pantry and refrigerator are very full.  Here is what we are eating this week: Sunday, November 8:          Brunch: Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins, Yogurt          Snack: Popcorn          Dinner: Chicken Divan Casserole, Whole Wheat Buns Monday, November 9:          Breakfast: Eggs and Toast, Bananas   ...

Our garden produce from the 13th of October.  The weather is so weird here - last week I was harvesting garden produce, today we received about 4 inches of heavy wet snow! October snow of this magnitude is not common in Minnesota, though a "dusting" is not unheard of.  It should melt and be warm enough to stay snow-less for the next week or two.  I am sincerely hoping to have no significant snow until after Thanksgiving again!   We are working on eating the things in our freezers that need to be cooked in the oven or on the stove top as we are heading toward a time when we will not have a working stove top or oven for up to six weeks.  I have several things that can easily go in the slow cooker and we have an electric skillet.  We will need to be creative!  In the meantime, I am enjoying the food we are making! Here is what we are eating this week: Sunday, October 18:           Brunch: Eggs, Toast and Smoothies   ...

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...