Book Review: White Christmas Pie by Wanda Brunstetter

Book Review: White Christmas Pie by Wanda E. Brunstetter



While I do love reading, I'm not getting to it as often as I like nowadays. I keep saying once I'm finished with my PhD I'll have more time to read. Who knows? But over the holiday break I get a chance to read more often. I just finished White Christmas Pie by Wanda Brunstetter.

This book was a nice, light read. The main character was Will who was left to be raised by Amish couple when he was 6 by his English father Frank who was looking for a new job, as his job as on the road trucker wouldn't suffice for a young boy that needed to be in school. Fast forward to when Will is 22 and still living with the Amish family and is engaged to an Amish young lady to be married.

What will happen with Frank reaches out to meet his son? Will will leave the church and return to be an Englisher? What will happen to his fiancee?

This book was neat because it told the story from the perspective of Will, but also from his biological father Frank. Both, were struggling with some issues and it was interesting to see the perspective from both sides.

The White Christmas Pie doesn't come into play into later on the story, the last probably 4-5 chapters really, but it tied everything together nicely.

If you like Amish fiction- this is a good one.

If you are interested in my other book reviews- you can see them here.

A note about my freezer and pantry and $100 grocery challenge

Yesterday I posted about my challenge to spend only $100 in January on groceries for my family of 5. I just wanted to expand on that a bit. I'm hoping to keep my spending down in January to jumpstart our debt payoff for the year, but also to eat up some of what is in my pantry/freezer so I'll know what I'm running low on for this gardening season and to be able to defrost my small chest freezer as it's time!

1. We live in an area where I have Sam's Club, Kroger and Walmart available. I prefer not to go to Walmart as it is in an area of town further from my home, it's always super crowded and it's kind of shady. I do go to Sam's Club sometimes but do the majority of my weekly shopping at Kroger.

2. We eat meat, mainly venison (deer meat ) and fish that we catch ourselves. We also occasionally get a wild boar and make sausage from that. I do buy turkey bacon and chicken sometimes, but we don't have any at the moment and I don't see myself buying any during January and my low spend challenge.

3. We were gifted a turkey at Christmas from a man in our church, and although we typically don't buy a turkey, we may smoke it during January and enjoy turkey this month.

4. I can and freeze a lot from our garden during the year. I have a pantry full of pickles, relish, jelly etc. It's hard to make a meal though with pickles and jam/jelly even though they are nice. I can other items as well like pasta sauce, green beans, soup etc. but am running low of most of those. I'm sure I'll use those items up during the month.

5. We have blackberry and blueberry bushes and along with eating them fresh last spring/summer and canning some, I have quite a few berries frozen. I'll use that for just eating plain, muffins, smoothies popsicles etc.

6. We have chickens so will have a supply of fresh eggs all month.

January- $100 a month for Groceries Challenge

January Challenge: $100 this month for groceries!

Week 1

We are a family of 5, kids are 14,12 and 8 and both my husband and I work full time. We are trying to pay down our debt, live intentionally and keep some kind of order in our chaos. This month my challenge to myself is to spend $100 or less or groceries. I normally spend $400 a month on groceries. So this month I will be trying to eat out of our freezer and pantries and keep purchases to a minimum. 

The first trip of the year was to Kroger and ended up costing $23.07. 

A few other things about our family- we don't have food allergies- so no restrictions there and no special diets. I'm a Registered Dietitian so we try to eat healthy, but I'm not on any restrictive sort of diet. My kids take their lunches to school each day, as do my husband and I. I cook 99% of the meals, and we are committed to not eat out in January.

So here's what I got:
-6 cucumbers ( in the produce bin for 99 cents) Will cut up to snack on, put in the kids lunches etc. Couldn't pass up such a great deal.
- Huge bag of sugar snap peas on sale for $3.99 from $7.99. Again, to snack on, kids lunches and I might stir fry them with the peppers and ingredients I have at home
- 3 lbs of apples for $2.99
- 2 bell peppers @ 89 cents each
- 1 gallon of milk for the kids because they love milk
- bunch of bananas
- 2 containers of turkey for the kids lunches. One of my children can't have peanut butter and jelly at their school because another child has allergies, so I send turkey with him. The other kids get pb&js
- loaf of bread
- package of sliced cheese for sandwiches and crackers and cheese

Total of $23.07 for week 1

I know I can make bread for cheaper. And I do sometimes. But I bought this loaf for .89 cents and feel that the saving of time is worth the 50 or so cents I save versus making it. To all you that make your own bread all the time- kudos- you are my hero.

So that's where we are. My kids and I are off work/school until January the 6th, so I'll cook and prep a lot of meals and snacks in the next few days.