Pinterest 5 in 5 -days 2 and 3 ( just a week late)

I tried 2 Pinterest recipes tonight.

As my husband prefers, we started the meal with a big salad. And I was very happy to be able to chew again. 

Supper was an oven meal. These 3 dishes all cooked at the same time and same temperature, the honey oat bread finished up about 15 minutes before the chicken and potatoes.  Whenever I plan a meal that can all cook at one time,  I feel very efficient. but it doesn't always go this smoothly. 
Paprika Roasted Chicken
Scalloped Red Potatoes with Rosemary
Honey Oat Bread  the bread is not a new recipe. I've made it quite a few times and I think it will always be a family favorite

Both recipes are very good. Not sure I will make the potatoes again as my husband and son both prefer cheese with their potatoes. I really liked the sauce so maybe I will just add some cheddar next time. 

Hopefully I can finish up this Pinterest 5 in 5 tomorrow and the next day.  

Anyone else playing along? It's AOK if you are pokey like me :) 

Very happy night for a wonderful couple

I can't believe I have not blogged in a whole week but we have just been busy here. We have company and I've been slowed down with some painful sores that interfere with chewing and talking.

We have had lots of fun this past week and the highlight was the wedding reception for our son Bobby and his bride Sheena. They were married in the summer in a "just them" private ceremony.   This weekend, they had a huge party to celebrate with all their friends and family.

This is a professional photo of the happy couple. There were 2 photographers there from OkiePhoto. One of them was running around them in circles with a sparkler while the other took these fireworks pictures. 

Really cool, isn't it? It really suits their fun personalities too.  

The party was just amazing and they had so many fun things to celebrate from a mountain of food and a   bounce house for the children. 

I really enjoyed the fireworks show, which the bride arranged and kept it a secret surprise for the groom. 

The flying lanterns were really cool too. They had a hundred of them and it was quite a sight to see them floating off in the night sky. 

My son took this photo. Little Elizabeth was so excited with the lanterns as her mom and dad light one. That is my dad, holding his great grandson JJ watching in the background. 

I did not take a camera to the party so none of these photos are my own, thankfully I could borrow them from Facebook.  OkiePhoto does amazing work and I am looking forward to seeing the rest of their great photos. 

Prayers and hopes for Bobby and Sheena, for a very long and happy married life together! 

Breakfast pockets - day 1 of Pinterest 5 in 5 challenge

Breakfast pockets

if you want to see the recipe,  it is on Pinterest and my changes are there too

I started the dough this morning and let it chill all afternoon. Then I made the filling and baked the breakfast pockets after supper. 

We are not hungry after eating supper so I can't tell you yet how they taste but they smell amazing! 

Thank you Carlye for the idea for this challenge!

Pinterest 5 in 5 days challenge and some other doings

Happy Fall Y'all!  I knew fall would be here soon but I don't look at the calendar much and was happy to read on Betsy's blog that fall had for sure arrived.
I bought a couple of mums and a couple of pumpkin type things.  Baby JJ and I found the green things,  I think they are horse apples maybe, growing on a tree behind the pond in our addition our morning walk.
I really like their apple green color and free always makes me happy.
That tonka truck belonged to my sons when they were little and now my grandsons like it just as much as their uncles and dad did.

Carlye Jo is having a Pinterest challenge on her blog,  to make 5 Pinterest pins in 5 days this week.  I love to do stuff and my first one will be some breakfast pockets.  The dough is mixing up in the bread machine as I blog.  The pockets should be quick breakfasts to keep in the freezer.  There is plenty of time to join in with us too.

Speaking of freezers,  I defrosted ours this morning.  The frost on the sides was starting to build up and pushing up on the baskets making it hard to get the door closed all the way.

I also put away some clean laundry that was air drying and straightened up the garage.
I don't usually get so much done when baby JJ is here but he is especially sleepy today.  He must of had a great weekend with his parents and big sister.

JJ likes to hold things while he sleeps and at my house,  he likes a bird potholder.  

Hope you all have a good Monday- whether you like to do stuff like me, or nap like sweet JJ.  

feeling a little nostalgic about beef stew

I am making Beef Stew this morning for Sunday lunch.  I am not feeling sad but I am remembering how I made beef stew so many times for other Sunday lunches when our children were younger and living at home.
I would get up early to cook the meat and some onions. Back then it was usually hamburger as it was much cheaper than stew meat.  Then I would put it in our big crockpot.  I would peel and dice so many carrots and potatoes,  enough to fill the crock pot as full as I could get it and then top it off with tomato sauce and some beef boullion.
It would simmer all morning and would be ready when we got home from church.  Sides were usually a box of saltine crackers and some sliced cheddar.
Our children and any friends they brought  home to spend the afternoon all liked that crockpot stew.  Rarely were there any leftovers.

Today,  it will just be husband and me and maybe the one bachelor son.  That is fine.  I am glad my children have grown up to be productive adults with sweet families of their own to raise.

Beef stew is not my favorite thing to eat but I sure have fond memories of it!



I know young parents don't always like hearing this but the days when your children are young and dependent on you just might be days you remember as the best of your life.
The days may seem really long but the years go by so fast!  

Pumpkin chevron dresses

My daughter in law showed me a chevron print peasant dress with pumpkin applique from Pinterest.  Of course it was expensive and she asked if I could sew something similar. Peasant dresses are quick and easy so I said yes.  And since I was making one little dress,  I also made a second one for our other grand daughter.  

the dresses are brown and white chevron with machine appliqued pumpkins

I used Mccalls 6530 for both dresses. The larger one is like the long sleeve version but I just cut the dress part longer and did not add a ruffle to the bottom.
The smaller one has no hem ruffle either and I did not add the chest elastic. Also, the smaller dress has elastic at the wrist of the sleeves.

The brown and white chevron fabric was bought on EBay. I was very happy with its quality, reasonable price and the fast shipping. The seller was FantasticsTreasures4U.

If these dresses get handed down to other little girls,  I put a size tag in the back of each one.  I used a small piece of seam tape and hand wrote the size with an ink pen.  

Home tour part 6- living room

This plaque hangs in the living room and is one of my favorite poems. Mine is painted on glass and was bought on EBay. Years ago, my mom made a big cross stitched sampler with this poem for her sister, my Aunt Bernice.  I keep looking for a cross stitched one for my own but have not found one yet

My husband built this little shelf and it holds some of my Longaberger baskets. I would like to put doilies under them, but any doilies in reach of my grands get grabbed and wadded up by them. The grands don't bother everything but they sure go for doilies. 

The living room - looking in from the front of the house. This room was redone before Christmas when we bought the new couches and chairs and that giant TV that my husband picked out and our son hung over the fireplace for us.

The couches have recliners on each end. We wanted this room to be comfortable for us and our guests.

I did not realize I liked golds and dark reds and greens so much until this room came together and most of the accessory pieces were things we already had.

Looking into the living room from the back of the house.

The green vase was a gift from brother and was handmade in Oklahoma from Oklahoma clay. I did not get flowers put in it right away so on my brothers next visit here, he filled it with it with silk roses. And spent an hour or more arranging them.

I got this old treadle sewing machine from my parents. It works but I prefer to sew with electricity :) I do like all the details on it and drawers are great storage for little things.

I sewed the curtains in the living room and in the kitchen-breakfast room all from the same fabric- roses on a gold background. I got the whole bolt of fabric for $19.95 at the antique mall in our town. It was a very good deal! 

Below- the toile pillows and table cloth are from a yard sale on the fancier side of town. The pillows are even filled with down. 

The faux Tiffany lamp is from a clearance sale at Lowes.

Yes, there is a loveseat in front of the gas fireplace.  We don't use the gas fireplace and would only use it if the electricity was off and we needed neat.
We do need lots of seating all our children and grandchildren are here.  So,  we have a comfy loveseat in front of the fireplace.  

That's our living room- thanks for dropping by. 

Coupon and thrift store shopping this week

The bulk of our groceries are now being purchased at the new local Aldi.

They don't accept coupons and I have not used many food coupons in the last few years anyway,

But I do still save coupons and save money with them by purchasing sale health and beauty items at CVS and also on a few things at Walmart. 

CVS had their own store coupons for $3.50 on Huggies and there was a printable manufacturer coupon for $2.50 on Huggies. So, I got the Huggies, that were $9.49 minus $6 in coupons on each one. I thought I could get another discount on them with my just downloaded Ibotta app but when I do the refund, the Huggies offer was gone.  Yes, couponing is complicated. 

I saw the CVS dish soap for 2/$3 and the bottles are big, seems like a good value. 

Walmart - used a newspaper B2G1F coupon on the Mr Clean erasers.

$3 newspaper coupons on the hair color that were $4.42

Thrift store shopping - and these pictures are not great

I just did some organizing and noticed we had just a handful of baby toys. I know we used to have a lot more but maybe the older grands were hard on them or took some home or they just got lost. 

I was ver happy to buy a bedspread bag full of nice baby toys for just $3. One is a mirror to attach the headrest in front of a rear facing car seat. Another is a string of action toys that can be attached to a car seat or stroller. 

I also got a batch of little boy clothes for the 2 youngest grands- lots jeans and shirts, 2 sleepers, a cute Nike one piece suit. The thrift stores in my town sell children's things for 50 cents up to $2. Most of the ones I got today were 50 cents or $1 each,

No pictures but I also bought 5, all like new, tops for me.

 3 are button up blouses (a red one, a light blue one and a dark denim one) with 3/4 sleeves, my favorite style, all from Dress Barn. 

1 is an aqua v neck sweater from Dress Barn and the last one is a brown short sleeve pullover, Chaps brand. 

I did not spend a lot of time shopping but the deals I got were things we need and use, the time spent was more than worth it. 

Home tour part 5 - Kitchen

Hello readers, this is my kitchen. I cook a lot and my kitchen is set up now to be convenient for cooking, whether it is just for myself and my husband and also for when there may be a dozen of us here.

Welcome!

 This shows one side of the kitchen. 

We still are enjoying the coffee bar we added when we moved over the fridge.

The other side of the kitchen.  Dishes, glasses and cups are in the top cabinets, Tupperware is in the bottom cabinets.  One drawer is for silverware and the other is a bit of junk drawer.

This kitchen sink is funny to me how it sits on angle, like the dining room. The kitchen is right beside our living room. I can't really look out a window while I do dishes but I can watch my husbands giant tv. Can you see it mounted over the fireplace?

I have quite a bit of vintage Pyrex. I have this upper cabinet full of pieces I use regularly.

More is displayed on the tops of the upper cabinet. I swap them around every so often.

This kitchen has TWO pantries, and it is one of the features that sold me on this house. One pantry hols mostly food.

The other holds appliances, cleaners, bottled drinks, and a little junk.

This room is actually the breakfast room but I've turned it into more kitchen space, it holds a smaller 2nd fridge, a chest freezer, a little armoire that holds cookbooks inside  with the bread machine and toaster oven on top.

My grandmother in law had this desk in her farm house kitchen and now it is in my kitchen. One drawer holds my planning spiral notebook, where I write out my to do list, budget plans, menus, etc. Another drawer holds coupon supplements. 

Thank you for stopping by today

coming up- the living room and the last bedroom 

Patriots Day

We remember.......

Update #1 on menu planning

I am so glad I made out this last menu plan.  It has made cooking easier and more fun. We've had some great meals and added some new recipes to the keeper file.  One recipe was just OK,  all the others will be cooked again.
Pinned Recipes from the menu plan that I've cooked so far -----

Shrimp creole

Easy crockpot beef tips

Cherry almond pound cake

Cheese and Onion Rolls- even better without the onions

Cracker Barrels Chicken N Dumplins'

Shrimp creole- above is my cooking and here is the link to the one on Pinterest. It was a really good meal.

Cheese and Onion rolls- but omitted the onions the 2nd time I baked them and liked them even better, 

Below- 3 kinds of bread baked for a big weekend barbecue in the country. I used the bread machine to mix up all 3, then packed them in an old dishpan lined with foil to transport to this very casual party. 

other happenings at my home

we had company this weekend that included the inlaws and all 5 little grandchildren were here at the same time.  That's 5 children born in 4 years- lots of fun and chaos.  

I am still so happy with the new Aldis in my town!  I wish everyone who wanted to shop at Aldis had one as near them as we do.  My grocery money is going much farther and the store is a very short drive, I am spending less time shopping too.

Sewing- the rainbow strip quilt top is half sewn, with the other half of the blocks just laying there waiting to be sewn.  

I ordered some brown and white chevron fabric to sew some simple fall dresses for the 2 grand daughters.  

And last week at Joanns,  I got sewing thread and needles when they were 50% off, and then 15% more off.  This week, Hobby Lobby has McCalls patterns for 99 cents and Joanns has Coats and Clark sewing thread for $1- I will try to go to both but with this hot weather, I may not make it.  

Husband is going to have right knee surgery #8, a revision to his knee replacement next month-with a highly rated civilian doctor,  so we are getting ready for that.- a little bit of actual prep like doing his FMLA paperwork  but mostly mental prep to get geared up for it.  

The  backyard safe room-tornado shelter is supposed to start construction this week- pictures to follow.  I am a little excited about it but I don't know why.  I hope we never, ever need to use it.  

And, If You Do Stuff was featured this week at a  Lets Get Social,  a big blog linky party.  It is a new to me blog party with a new to me circle of bloggers participating.  I've done a little blog hopping there today and found several blogs that really interest me.   Hello and Welcome to the new visitors to came here from Lets Get Social!  

I want to finish my home tour for you and show the kitchen, living room and one more bedroom- coming up soon!

that sums up our home over the last 5 days or so- lots of cooking, lots of family time,  a bit of sewing but not much computer time.   

Cooking rut to a plan

I read Countrified Hicks  very thought out and organized one month menu she posted.  Our meals have been hit and miss during this busy and hot summer.  We have eaten tacos from the freezer, chef salads, homemade pizza, sandwiches- those easy last minute meals- too often this summer.  I am ready for more cooking and more interesting food.
So I took the hint from Countrified Hicks and then looked on my cooking board on Pinterest and picked out enough recipes to keep us fed, I think through most of September.  I don't have to cook every night, because when I do cook a recipe for just husband and me,  there are usually leftovers for at least one more meal and sometimes more.  We are happy with leftovers too.

Here is my plan - in no particular order- except we are having the Shrimp Creole tonight.
I picked recipes and meals that we have most of the ingredients for, either in the pantry or the freezer.

1. chicken and vegetable hand pies with gravy from a mix and a green salad
2. Cheesy bowtie pasta with added veggies like broccoli, mushrooms, bell peppers and pepperocini, green salad and French bread
3. Hamburger helper night
4. Copy Cat ranch beans with corn bread and cole slaw
5. Korean Been Lettuce Wraps with rice and a green salad
6. Baked Chicken Tenders with baked onion rings and brussel sprouts
7. Farmers Pork Chops, oven roasted carrots and green salad
8. Salsa Verde Chicken, green salad, chips and salsa
9. Smoked pork loin with baked potatoes and roasted cabbage wedges
10. Chicken Almond, green beans and green salad
11. Chicken Lightly Seasoned with fried okra and green salad
12. Beef barley soup- the recipe makes a lot, I make cut it half this first time
13. Crock pot chicken enchilada soup
14. Crumb coated cod-or whatever fish I buy at Aldis- filets with cole slaw and corn
15. Shrimp Creole with rice and a green salad
16.  Beef tips in the crockpot with rice or noodles, green peas and green salad
17. Cracker Barrel Chicken and Dumplings, more green salad and broccoli

Yes- we eat a lot of salad.  Husband loves a big salad to start every meal, or at least 5 times a week.

I also want to try baking some new things
1. Custard Slices - from the Great British Bake Off television show (I love watching British shows on Roku)
2. Almond Tarts
3. Cherry Almond pound cake

sorry, no direct links to these recipes,  but all of them are on my Pinterest cooking board if you want to see them.  I hope to blog and review them as I cook them too

Have you got some Pins you want to try out?  

Home tour part 4

We have 2 hall ways in our home and both got new wall arrangements.

Our daughter in law painted the piece in the center of this arrangement and I really like how this all turned out, with our grands photos around it.  Yes, I am behind on getting good photo enlargements of the youngest grandson, but he is just 4 months old and too young to notice.

The bumper cars stay parked here when the grands are not riding them,

On the other side of this hall, the children's books stay on this shelf- they get used a lot and that is about as straight as they ever are.

A counted cross stitch sampler lovingly stitched by my Aunt Evelyn.  Can you find your state on it? They are in alphabetical order.

The other hall is smaller and just has this little shelving unit. 

Our Bibles are one on shelf, the lunch box on the bottom shelf holds greeting cards and my husband keeps his stuff in the drawer.  

That is a plug on top for charging cellphones, etc. 

The last of our 3 extra bedrooms is a guest room. It got a different bed, different window valance and all different things on the walls.

This room is mostly used by my parents when they come to visit and I try to keep it as empty as possible so they have room for their stuff and it is easy to move around in. 

One of my grandmothers made the star quilt on the bed and I think she used a kit.

The hexagon quilt was made by my other grandmother.

A little portacrib for the rare naps of grand children. Quilts were made by my grandmother.

I made this last summer with my then 4 grands.  I think little hands and feet are just so cute. 

The hall bathroom- I don't think I changed anything in this room except organizing it's big floor to ceiling cabinet.  

Thank you for visiting- I'll show our living room, kitchen and the last bedroom soon. 

Saturday bridal shower

I had the pleasure of attending a bridal shower for this sweet young lady, Christa. Christa and my daughter are kind of like The Odd Couple but they have been best friends since 2nd grade. 

This is not a good photo, but I wanted to share the very special and very low cost shower decorations. 

I really like the personalized weathered wood pallet. In the background is an old window, with photos of the soon to be newly weds hung on old wire with clothes pins. The flowers were sunflowers with a little babies breath. 

It was just a perfect shower for Christa, who grew up in the country and now lives near a Florida beach.