Clawing our way to financial independence

Yesterday a friend emailed and asked if I would meet her at Tim Horton's at 1230 for a visit. I said yes without hesitation, especially since she was driving 45 minutes to come up and meet and do a bit of shopping. I realized only afterward that I was on the verge of failing the Meal Planning Month! But decided since I had not yet paid for any meals out (with the exception of 2 coffees) that I would be ok. An hour later I realized Mr W was doing something in the kitchen and it turned out he was making me lunch before I left. Wow! So I had a quick bite to eat before meeting my friend and once there just had a cup of tea and donut (for $2.25). Mr W truly saved the day.

I went to a craft fair last night and bought 2 Christmas presents. So nice to support local artists. I bought a beautiful glass pendant and a fused glass bowl in turquoise, green and orange. It is awesome and I am trying not to covet it too much. I got a listing of where this artist is going next and may head off on another weekend to buy gifts for the in laws as well I like her wares so much. Each year we exchange small gifts with Mr W's brother and sisters, but focus our efforts on their kids. I like to find some small funky presents to give the brother and sisters though and I think some small glass dishes with locally made soap may be a good idea.

We made pizza last night but it definitely was not a winner. I ran out of time to make the crust so we used a frozen pre-made crust and I did not like it at all. Normally I whip up a pizza dough batch in my bread maker as follows (from ReBar cookbook):

1 ¾ cup water

¼ olive oil

1 teaspoon honey

1 teaspoon salt

4 cups whole wheat flour

1 tablespoon gluten (can be omitted if you don't mind flatter crust)

1 tablespoon yeast

Off to try and make sense of our messy garage.. groan… it is truly a disaster that needs cleaning…