If you do stuff, stuff gets done.......

If you do stuff, stuff gets done.......

Friday, October 7, 2016

Monarchs, gardening, cooking, medical info and grands

Monarch butterfly season- they are loving our backyard zinnias.  At one time, I counted 8 of them feeding there.  
But I am a lousy photographer so I never got very many of them in one shot.



The front yard rose bed - before ......
My son in law told me about a new rose disease called Rosette and he thinks these bushes have it.  I did some internet research and I think he's right,  
Anyway, I usually trim these bushes way back in the fall so I just did it early this year.  
They may have to be removed but I'll wait till spring and we will see what happens.  


Cooking
I cooked a special meal one day as my husband returned home from his second trip to help his parents.  His dad needed surgery for a broken hip.  I'm happy my husband could go be with them and I'm happy my father in law is healing and my husband could come back home.  
We had some store bell peppers and some homegrown bell peppers.  So I made 2 pans of stuffed peppers.  We had one pan for supper, and also shared them with my parents.  The second pan went in the freezer for a future meal.  And yes, one pan looks different as the homegrown peppers are much smaller than the store bought and I added a little leftover mozzarella cheese to it as well. 

For dessert, I baked a blackberry pie.  These were wild blackberries my dad picked and we froze.  I used some of my freezer pie crusts.  There were some dough scraps so I made 2 tiny cherry pies.  I tried out pie in the silicone muffin cups and it worked great!  They baked nice and brown and released from the cups so easy.  
I used part of a can of Dollar Tree cherry pie filling for the mini cherry pies- down further you'll see what I did the rest of it.......
Our little backyard garden is yielding a bit of Okra.  
To cook okra, slice it thin and then shake it in a bag with just enough cornmeal to coat it.  
Put it in a hot skillet with a thin layer of oil to coat the bottom of the pan.  Add diced onions, salt and pepper.  
Keep cooking and stirring occasionally until it all cooked and browned.  
This is a very Southern dish.  And so good!  


With the rest of that can of cherry pie filling, I baked a half recipe of a family favorite for breakfast the next morning,  
Cherry Swirl Coffee Cake.  
This is a recipe I have used so many times.  Years ago, I wrote on this recipe "Nina's favorite". And then she wrote "yum yum". 😄

I baked that coffee cake in the early morning while we were in a thunderstorm.  Shortly after it was done,  our electricity went off and stayed off for about an hour.  
It was still dark so I got out 2 battery operated lanterns.  


Its nice to be prepared.  



And a medical tip .............
While my husband was away helping his parents, my dad had MOHS surgery on his nose for melanoma.  My brother was with Dad at the hospital.  Dad's nose requires some special care at home while he heals.  When the nurse was giving those instructions, my brother took a video with his phone and shared it with me and our Mom.  
This was so helpful to us to watch and to see exactly what to do.  
This is not the actual video- just a screen shot.  

So, many people have a phone that videos now.  If your getting special medical instructions like this, see if it's ok to video.  

I took my mom to a couple of her doctor appointments during the last few weeks while Dad is recuperating. And I 
was so impressed with her general doctor who made some changes in a prescription for her.  As he visited with her and told he what he wanted her to do, he was also writing it down.  Then he gave her that sheet of his instructions so she could know exactly what he recommended.  
That young doctor has the nicest penmanship too! 



Family Time

Right now, 4 of our grandchildren are having a cousin sleepover on our living room floor.  Before they went to sleep, they watched "Beauty and the Beast" and tomorrow morning, they are excited about riding their bikes. 

It's 3:30 a.m now and they are sound asleep, Grandpa is asleep but I am wide awake.  

I guess I'll be taking a nap tomorrow afternoon.  

19 comments:

  1. That is a really clever tip, to video the demonstration and instructions! Why didnt I think of that!?
    Beautiful cooking and loevly garden! So nice to see. Have a great new week Rhonda! xxxx

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  2. One of things that bothers me the most is when the doctors give you a lot of instruction expecting you to remember everything. I love that her doctor wrote it all down and I love the video instructional too. So smart! All these things are small but make such a big difference in recovery and day to day living.
    Sometimes I have problems sleeping too -So much going on it's hard to wind down sometimes. Rest well today!

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  3. Prayers for your father and FIL for quick healing.

    The okra I bet Allen would like. Will have to write this down. I love cherry desserts, thanks for sharing both recipes.

    Bet the grandkids had a blast. So nice that they are able to be around each other while growing up. My first cousins I saw like twice a year so was always just my sister and I.

    I was looking on the internet the other day at milkweed seed for butterflies. Around here a lot of it is gone by the sprays and such. I know it is a weed but is food for some things. You need to plant it in the fall for it to overwinter. We thought of putting it along our wooded fence lines and places.

    Nails are cute.

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    Replies
    1. I was thinking of planting milkweed, also. We have a huge yard and I'm happy to help the butterflies. I did not realize they should be planted in fall. Thx.

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  4. I love to add chopped green tomato in with my fried okra. Fall is the season to have many green tomatoes. If you only have a small amount of okra, adding green tomato makes it go further.

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  5. Great idea about video taping the instruction. They usually go in one ear and out the other when I'm at the doctor's. Looks like you had some really great meals from the garden. That was nice of the storm to wait until you were finished with your baking!

    Hugs
    Jane

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I am very glad it waited to shut off until my cake was baked. Being an early riser paid off that day.

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  6. Hi, I hope your Dad heals quickly and isn't in alot of pain. I've had skin cancer and it's not fun....I really like the idea of taking a video of home care instructions.....

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  7. Great idea for doctor instructions! I will mention that to my dad since he is hard of hearing. My mom generally goes to appointments with him but might miss a few as she will be having surgery shortly for breast cancer. The butterflies are beautiful! Not sure we will see many more this season as our weather has turned cooler.

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  8. Your okra looks delicious! We had a good crop of it this year also. My grandbabies love to sleep on a pallet of quilts in my living room also, so much fun to have them over. Prayers for your dad and father in law.

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  9. So sorry to hear about your father and your FIL. Your father's nose looks so painful. I hope they got all the cancer and that his healing process goes well. Good idea about videoing after care instructions, if you have their permission. When I brought my questions to the dr yesterday for my upcoming knee surgery, I had a pen ready so that I could write down the answers. I knew I'd never remember anything the minute I walked out the door! Your stuffed peppers look very yummy. Hope you got some sleep after having the grandkids over!

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  10. Praying for your Dad. I'm glad that you were able to have precious time with your grandkids...there is never enough of that!

    Be blessed!

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  11. Hi Rhonda,

    I so miss the monarchs. We would have hundreds of them in our backyard in AZ. Thanks for the memory.

    So sorry about all of the medical issues with both of your Dad's. I pray for healing for both of them and that they are back to good health soon.

    That cherry swirl cake looks scrumptious. I have other pie filling like blueberry. Do you think the recipe would work with that? Thanks for sharing it.

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    Replies
    1. Hi, thank you for praying for my family.
      Yes I think any pie filling would be fine in the coffee cake. Blueberry or peach sound very tasty to me.

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  12. Hi Rhonda, adding both of your dad's to my prayer list. MOHS is an incredible procedure! All of your home cooking is gorgeous. I love all of it, the okra seriously made me hungry for fried okra and I'm not finished with my coffee yet! A while back you posted all about your nails and I wanted to say thanks for that. I love those impress nails but some of my nail beds are a tad larger so I found that the Kiss ones fit me perfectly. A GREAT alternative to going to the nail shop. My toes stay polished really well but when I would polish my fingernails it only lasts for about two days, even with gloves and being super careful. I was at the place where I was just using mostly clear on my fingernails. The nails fit in my budget nicely so thank you for all of that great information! xxxColette :)

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    Replies
    1. Hi Colette, thank you for praying for my family.
      And I am so happy to hear my advice on press on nails helped you. I truly think presson nails are wonderful- pretty, much cheaper and quicker than a salon and that sticker on the back has to be safer than all the chemicals in a salon.

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  13. That Okra looks awesome. Thanks for sharing how to fix it. I will try this. Looks like a lot of intentional awesome living your doing. :)

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  14. I've never had okra--ever. It looks like if I ever come across some, now I'll know what to do with it. It just doesn't grow around here.

    The cherry coffee cake looks awesome. I used to make something along those lines years ago. Yum!

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  15. Hi Rhonda,

    Mmmm! Blackberry pie. It's been so long since I've baked a blackberry pie as they do not grow up here on the Montana prairie. When we lived in s.e. Texas one of our neighbors had nearly 3 acres of them growing wild on their property. They generously allowed us to pick all we wanted.
    Praying your father-in-law has a quick recovery.
    Blessings,
    Mrs.B

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