It's snowing here. Yes, a good Southern snow. And I've been hearing my transplanted Yank friends complain all day about how Southerners have their little panic attacks about snow, make fun of us, etc. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. I love the few times a year that we are blessed with a white blanket of disruption. I don't care that I don't know how to drive in the snow. I just don't go out! I like that we aren't socked in all winter. I like that snow isn't that common around here. I'm definitely made to live in the South, just not too much further South than here! It's too humid much further south, but that's a different story...

It seems like we either get winters with no snow, or we get a ration of good stuff. This appears to be a year of the good stuff. Being snowed in makes me 1) want to work on crafts; and 2) hungry. I have been hungry all day! I made a disappointing batch of peanut butter balls this morning. Well, disappointing to me since Little Man and Dear Hubby love them. I'm making banana bread in the morning, and I've got the ingredients to make my first ever King Cake. Yeah, I know it's not Mardi Gras yet, but it's like a trial run seeing as I've never made one before.

I also used today to make my very first Pioneer Woman (thepioneerwoman.com)recipe! I'm kind of late on the game on making one of her recipes, and I'm kicking myself now that we've enjoyed such a good dinner. Why didn't I try her sooner!

I chose this recipe because it's made with cube steak. Yes, I know I just watched Food Inc. last weekend, but I was careful with my meat selection. I paid a bit more for the meat, but the total cost of this recipe for the four of us was less than $10.

You can find the full recipe for this delish sandwich at thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/marlboro_mans_f/.

So, I set about slicing onions and sweating them in butter. Yes, butter. Not in Paula Deen quantities, but close.



While the onions were cooking, I set about emptying the dishwasher.



After I finished that little task, I cut up the meat and seasoned it with Lowry's.



I cooked the meat as described in the recipe, but I had a problem with it being too watery in the pan. It didn't get quite as brown as I'd have liked. I drained the meat, but in retrospect, I shouldn't have drained as much as I did as I didn't have as much gravy as The Pioneer Woman did in her pictures.

But here's the finished product:




I didn't add any cheese, and it was absolutely fine. But I think you could easily add some provelone or similar cheese with good results. The Pioneer Woman indicates that you can tweak this to your taste, but we like it the way it is!

Caught myself being cheap

E Belle broke her arm Sunday night. We have no idea how, even though we were all very close to her. She was playing in the floor near some furniture, then she suddenly screamed. The ER docs said Sunday night it was a dislocation, then we got a call Monday morning saying it was actually broken, we needed to come back. E Belle has proven herself to be a brave girl and has adapted to her ginormous splint and sling with grace. She'll have the splint for a week, then she'll have more X rays to see if they can find out more about the break, and we'll go from there. We don't know if this is a short term, medium term or long term issue right now.

But her mama sure did try to skimp to no avail!

Of course, her long sleeve shirts don't fit over this mass of bandages and plaster she's sporting. My first thought was to just stick her in short sleeves. We have heat! Preschool has heat! The car has heat!

But then I dropped her off at preschool yesterday. Once I took off her coat, her teeth started to chatter. Poor baby! Crazy me seemed to have forgotten that we're in the middle of the coldest streak we've had in 25 years. It hasn't been this cold since I was Little Man's age. Why do I have my baby in short sleeves?

So I immediately headed over to Once Upon a Child, a local children's resale store, and grabbed some sweatshirts and long sleeve t's - 5 tops and a brand new sleeper for just over $20. I cut off most of one arm, sewed a little cuff, and tada! My E Belle can be warm.

My original idea was definitely not a good one. I shouldn't have tried to be cheap at the expense of the comfort of my child. Poor girl's already dealing with a sling and splint. Why make her cold? This was a bad time to try to be cheap. I was still frugal - I got what I needed at a good price.

Manna from heaven

It's really hard on almost anyone when the bottom looks like it's going to fall out. You know what I mean - those little and big things that happen as part of life and home ownership that just come at ya when you are least expecting them.

That's what happened to us. And my frugality isn't what saved us. It was God. Just like He provided food for the Israelites as they wondered around the desert in the form of manna, He provided for us this week. And just like manna, which was provided just for that day with the instruction to not be greedy, not to store it or it would go bad, this gift was also just the right amount. In sharing this, I am only doing it to thank God and share our blessing with others. It's not in any way meant to be braggardly. We've been there, done that when it comes to financial woes. We've gotten by when the income was $1300 a month and rent was $800. It's not about us - it's about what God has provided.

I'll go back to the beginning of December. The first issue was our property tax. We pay these ourselves at the end of the year instead of having an escrow account (long story), but due to poor planning, well, we were in a lurch, but it was handled. Not great, but okay, we'll deal, we can make that bill.

One day in early December, I noticed an inch wide stream of water pouring down the wall in our bedroom during . Not good. Got a guy to come out and check out the problem. Turns out, the flashing on the roof at the chimney was not done correctly a few years back, resulting in a water seep. Great. Estimate - $1600. Yikes! And right at Christmas. We had someone else come and do a patch fix, and so far, it's worked okay, but not perfect. We've got to take care of the flashing soon. Ka-ching!

Then our most used TV went out. I know, I know, TV isn't a necessity. But it went out a few days before Christmas, and ironically, we had discussed forgoing presents for me and Dear Hubby and just getting a new one anyway. We decided to wait instead. Suddenly, the TV stops turning on, and there ya go.

Four days after Christmas, we got hit with the Big One. Our gas furnace that covers our main level and our basement stopped working completely. Get our regular company to come check it out, and we're told all kinds of stuff, including that to repair it, we're looking at $1K, but it couldn't be done for another week because the part had to be ordered. They couldn't get someone out for an estimate until the next day, and with the New Year holiday, that meant four more days without heat (and we've got lows in the teens right now). Got another company for the furnace estimate, and another long story somewhat short, we weren't given the whole story - there was actually a crack in the pan in the furnace, which was downright dangerous, and even if we did the $1K repair, we were at risk for a CO2 leak (and no, he wasn't just trying to get us to buy a new furnace - we already passed on the repair and were buying a furnace anyway). So, we got a new furnace. MAJOR ka-ching!!

Now to God's blessing. Dear Hubby has worked his tail off at work this year, but with the economy, things were down. It wasn't his fault, the work just wasn't flowing like normal. We didn't expect a bonus at all, but he got one. And you know what? When we add all of our expenses above up, it comes out to almost EXACTLY the amount of the bonus check that landed in our hands the day after the furnace died. YES!! God provided EXACTLY the amount we needed. No more, no less. Just like the manna from heaven. God knew what we needed. He knew that we were going to be in dire straits - we were looking at HAVING to go in to more debt, which just makes our stomach churn. Yes, he gave us some fun funds in there, too, but He provided. Thanks be to God!