Please Pray

*B* has applied for a job at my school (in my department, no less) that would mean a significant change for us. He has an interview on Monday. If you could, please pray that he gets this job. We'd really appreciate it!

How Much is Enough?

This question has been the central question of my life lately. How much time is enough to spend at work? How much water is enough to store? How much food is enough to have stored? How many pans are enough to have kept? How much time is enough to spend with my parents? How many hours spent researching are enough to decide I can't go any further in my family tree (will post on this later)? How much time is enough for myself?

I've been really worried lately about shoulds, supposed tos, have tos, and not at all worried about want tos, cans, and wills. I've been living my life for other people (my bosses, my dad, my dead ancestors and future children, the omnibus "they").

Do people ever do what they want when they want to? If guilt doesn't drive one's life, what does? What should? I would imagine this answer to be God, but how does one get past a guilt-driven life to make it a God-driven life?

Distraction and The Joy of Promoting Life

No matter how hard I've tried lately, I have not been able to write a good post. I've got 3-4 started posts that I just haven't been able to finish.

Today has been wonderful. Mind you, it is way hotter than it should be (~90 degrees), but things are really coming together. We even put in the air conditioner:
To keep the water that drips off the air conditioner from ruining the deck, *B* threw a plant under there. Now, originally, that plant was slated to die. But judging by the lovely purple flowers, it doesn't mind sitting, bare-rooted, in an old kitty litter box. We'll see how that one does.

Wednesday, we got a new refrigerator. Our old one wreaked of rotting meat. I could deal with that (with some baking soda) but it turns out that the automatic defrost was not working correctly, so every few days, a deluge of water would flood the refrigerated compartment. Besides that, it was older than I am, very loud, and not very efficient. We found a great deal, and decided it was in our best interest. It's a lovely Frigidaire, with much more storage in the refrigerated section.

We did notice, however, the freezer was much smaller. I have been begging for a separate freezer for months now. Given the deal we got on the fridge, and that it would be a good investment, we went out and bought a freezer Thursday night. It showed up yesterday, and it is gorgeous. I'm now able to buy meats on sale and store them for future use. I can (and did!) make pizza dough for quick meals. I'm very excited :o)

Friday, *B* made a fence for us:
Hailey, though we love her, was destroying my plants. So we portioned off the back half of the yard for gardening only. Believe it or not, it makes the yard feel a little bigger. I keep waiting to take a picture of the backyard until the hose is reeled in, but that will never happen, so here you go:
Today, I have a chicken roasting in my oven. My parents and brother are coming over for a Sunday dinner reminiscent of Thanksgiving. We're having the most magnificent roast chicken, which I once chronicled here. The gravy that comes from that chicken is amazing, so we'll have mashed potatoes, peas, and cranberry sauce. My mom's bringing dessert, but I don't know what it is.

This morning, I worked really hard on the garden. I put in the ever-bearing strawberries, and all we have left to plant are sunflowers, nasturtiums, and marigolds:

Maybe I'll get to them later today. Check out the progress on the garden front:

We're finally starting to produce produce :o) Our strawberries out front are all bearing fruit, green though they may be:

The lettuce is almost ready to be harvested. I finally got my garlic and onions planted alongside my shallots:We have one stalk of asparagus! That's great because they are apparently hard to get started.

We've finally gotten a meal plan made for our week, and we're going to stick to it. Our dinners will be:

Sunday
Roast Chicken
Potatoes
Peas
Cranberry Sauce

Monday
Chicken Fried Steak
Yams
Spinach
Corn Bread

Tuesday
Pineapple Chicken Curry (from Ready.Set.Plan)
Rice
Mixed Veggies
Mango Smoothies

Wednesday
Tacos
Baked Apples

Thursday
Beef Stir Fry
Rice
Mandarin Oranges

Friday
Pizza
Salad
Applesauce

Saturday
Cheeseburgers
Baked Potato
Baked Beans
Grilled Peaches

So Blessed

A fellow science teacher runs an environmental science course. Every year, near the end of the year, they visit the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. For the second year, I've been invited to chaperone the trip. It is the highlight of my year. This year, though, we got to take a motorboat out into the bay:

The shoreline

Isn't it gorgeous?

The headquarters of CBF. It was the world's most green building when it was built in 2000.

Where I ate lunch!!!

After the motorboat, we got to canoe in a backwater creek. Of course, I couldn't take nearly as many pictures there. But they are gorgeous as well!

I couldn't post a whole lot of pictures on here because many of them had school kids in them. Trust me when I say it couldn't have been a better day for a field trip.

I am so blessed!

Simple Pleasure Thursday

My simple pleasure is the Chesapeake Bay. I went with a school field trip to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. We went out on a decent sized boat, did water testing, then netted some bay creatures to study. We had lunch on a gorgeous beach, then canoed in a back water creek that leads to the bay. I saw a gorgeous heron. I will post pictures asap. It has been one looooong week.

Yummy Giveaway

The lovely blogger over at Adventures in Self Reliance is giving away a really nifty looking breakfast pack. Check it out: Adventures in Self Reliance give away

Buying for the Right Reasons

This year, the lovely lady at Tomato Soup Cake has been on a no-spending spree. Essentially, she hasn't been buying anything aside from absolute essentials like food. This is an endeavor I would eventually like to try. For the most part, aside from pantry items, gardening supplies, and paying off debts, I haven't bought a whole lot lately.

There is one notable exception. And I didn't even pay for it. But I do love it.

A few weeks ago, my dad was complaining that I have Teflon coated pans. Even my pots were Teflon coated. Honestly, I hated them, too. I got them for my college graduation, and asked for them because they were blue. Talk about a lame reason. My pans were flaking, and I already had to throw one pan out because of the extent of the damage. My dad offered that if I found stainless steel, copper bottom pans that weren't ridiculously expensive, he'd get them for me. I found them, and he bought them. I now have a 10 piece set of Paula Deen cookware.
I will admit that the fry pans are not stainless steel. Try as I might, I could not find any that were. But something is better than nothing, and I'm sure the coating is a better quality than the ones I had.

*B* and I cleaned out our pan cabinet today so that we could put away our new items. I've always griped about the cabinet because things come flying out at you when you open it. As we started pulling things out of the cabinet, I realized that I haven't EVER used half of the things in it. I've never used the glass tops for my casserole dishes. A ton of the things in there belong to my mom. So I got rid of my awful, flaky Teflon pans and will be replacing the whole stressful cabinet with only 12 items (I had one copper bottom pot with lid already). Even though it involved spending money and temporarily increasing the amount of stuff we have in our house, it eventually ended in saving money (in not having to buy new pans every couple of years) and getting rid of the stress that that cabinet caused.

I'll let you know how they work out!