I want some advice

Good morning everyone 

The last 10 months with our 5 house guests has been fun and busy.  They finalized the purchase of their brand-new just-built home yesterday and started moving in. The new home is beautiful and I will share some photos later. Right now it’s very much in transition as they move stuff from this home and from several storage buildings.

I’m guessing most all of you were in that recent cold spell over Christmas. That was a hard one, wasn’t it? Anyway we’ve known for a while that our doors and windows were kind of leaky, they are 22 years old. But during that cold spell with the hard winds, the curtains in our dining room were fluttering back and forth from the breeze coming in the closed and locked window.

So, we have started shopping for replacement windows and a replacement front and back door, there is a good company in our town and we feel very safe using them.

My biggest decision is what kind of front door to get. We can get a metal door which we can paint or they will paint whatever color we would like. Or we could get a wood door and my husband is thinking he would like a wood door.

Our home is brick, with a lot of terra-cotta in the brick and gray mortar. We have fairly new siding and it is white.

Our roof is brown and our fence is white. Shutters are white but could be painted.  

We do plan to paint the hanging light fixture glossy black to match the ones we painted by the garage door.  

What kind of door and what color do you think would look good with our home?  I don’t want a big glass window again.  I’m leaning toward maybe a row of windows just at the top or a solid door with no openings but I really don’t know. 

Do you think a color like terra cotta, gray or blue would be good?  Or what about a wood door and what stain wood?  

About 2023,  I plan to be back to blogging regularly 

Thank you all 

❤️ Rhonda 

November news 🦃🍁🥧

Hello everyone 

Today was getting things started for our Thanksgiving meal on Thursday.  

I think 10 of us will be here

I’ve started a pile on the  counter for the Thanksgiving ingredients, 

I saw Manuela at  https://acultivatednest.com/ had links to several free printable Thanksgiving planner sheets.  I’ve always just made my list on plain paper but this year, I printed off a few sheets that worked for me.  I plan to keep them and reference them year to year.  

Our 3 little house guests wanted to help peel the potatoes so I said sure! 

I diced onions and celery for dressing,  chopped pecans for several dishes and diced some onions just for anytime we need diced onion.  

We also grated some really sharp cheese to make pimento cheese to eat in celery.  

Earlier this month,  my husband and I spent 9 days in Branson, Missouri.  The trip had been planned for months with reservations and show tickets all paid for.  My husband has several back issues and one of them flared up shortly before we left.  But he still wanted to go so we did.  He was physically hurting most all of them time though 

There are many things to do in Branson and we like the musical shows best. 

We saw The Haywood’s, Clay Cooper, Hot Rods and High Heels, Christmas Wonderland, Jersey Boys, Hughes Family Christmas,  The Gatlin Brothers, The Bellamy Brothers and The Oak Ridge Boys- and maybe a few others but I can’t recall them as I type this.  

We stayed in a condo and ate most of meals there.  We didn’t shop except to get groceries at a huge, fairly new Aldi in Branson and of course Walmart.  

It was cold in Branson!  

We had a good time and got our fill of vacationing.  

And this homebody is happy to be home 🏠 

The Gatlin Brothers 

Jersey Boys - we learned the young man on the left side of the photo graduated from the university in our town. 

 He is an amazing singer and we also saw him in Christmas Wonderland 

Hot Rods and High Heels- a 50s theme show 

Clay Cooper 

Our sweet Cora- she is growing fast!  She likes plain raw carrots and doesn’t want them cut up.  

A funny joke about inflation 

Although there is really nothing funny about inflation.  

I know many people are truly struggling right now

❤️ Rhonda 

Back to regular homekeeping

Hello everyone 

It’s Monday and I’m hoping to have a productive week.

I made a to do list 

I checked off a few things but my husband had a morning Dr appt with his back specialist and then we got a grocery pickup.

No photo of our purchases though as I was in a hurry to put things away and it was just normal kitchen items.  

Sadly they were out of 8 things on my list- lactose free milk, hens, strawberries, clementines, and I don’t remember the other things 

And then we had a visitor.

So…….. I didn’t get as many things done today as I hoped but tomorrow is a new day. 

I put out a few fall decorations 

This wreath  is not new, according to my blog it’s been on our front door since at least 2014 and I think it’s several years older than that.

We got some much needed rain today so I’ll sweep the leaves later.  It would of been pointless today,

The pumpkins were bought at a church fundraiser by our son in law’s mother.  She takes her grandchildren there every year and since those children currently live here,  the pumpkins are on our front porch.  

The baseball shoes belong to them too 🙂

I saw this instagram recipe and tried it today as we had all the ingredients on hand 

Below is a screenshot from IG 

They were very fast to mix up and they are quite tasty.  I’m sure the grands will like them.  


Hope you all have a productive week

❤️Rhonda 

Shopping at a military commissary and some replies

Hello everyone 

My husband needed to go the VA hospital to get his eyeglasses adjusted. 

So while we were near a military base,  we shopped at a commissary.  Commissaries are grocery stores for military.  

Commissaries used to have very low prices compared to civilian stores.   Compared to stores in my town now though,  the commissary is about the same on most prices.  

We go there because their meats are higher quality and a good bit cheaper than I can buy locally.  They also have some brands we can’t get locally and they do have some good sales and coupon matchups.  

I got the  biggest  surprise and laugh when I saw a supply chain problem there. 

The meat was not wrapped on a plastic or styrofoam meat tray but was wrapped on an assortment of disposable plates.  😂

I’m guessing was did not make the butchers and meat wrappers too happy as the plates are much floppier than meat trays.  

We like to buy these big boxes of meat for $43

The commissary labels them Economy Boxes and I think they are a good economy. 

Our box had 3 packs pork chops, 1 pack of 2 pork tenderloins, 

1 beef roast, 2 trays of beef cube steaks and 4 rolls of 85% ground beef. 

I added up all the price stickers on the wrapped meat and it came to just a few cents away from $43 

I don’t know how much the ground beef rolls sell for but it’s like they were free because all the wrapped meats are things we might of bought individually anyway and they cost the total of the box. 

Our very best bargain today was eggs.  Are eggs really high where you shop?  I think the last carton of 18 eggs from Walmart was $5.89.

  

I’ve never seen eggs in 24 count cartons and these were $3.39 a carton. 

We bought 3 as we eat lots of eggs with 7 of us living here 

https://news.va.gov/101540/eligible-veterans-can-shop-at-defense-commissaries/

Commissary shopping privileges are now available to veterans rated with any military disability and their dependents  and for reserves, in addition to retirees and active duty. 

I’m not sure how vets without ID cards get that established to shop there but I do think it is worth it, especially if your nearest commissary has a great meat department like Tinker Air Force commissary.  

A few replies 

The White Lily flour made especially nice pizza crust.  It was soft on top and crisp on the bottom. 

The chocolate chip cookies were really good too and had a nice crispness to them too. 

If I am in the Deep South and can purchase this flour, I may get a few more bags but I won’t pay crazy shipping prices to get it any other way.  

About the stuffed peaches,  I used canned peach halves.  

Drain them and turn them all cut side up.

For a 28 ounce of peach halves,  I mix about 4 ounces of softened cream cheese, a little vanilla, maybe 1/4 c finely chopped pecans and 2 or 3 T powdered sugar.  

Then fill each peach half and keep chilled until serving. 

http://ifyoudostuff.blogspot.com/2020/12/blogidays-december-7-cream-cheese.html

That link is when I blogged about them a few years ago and also contains a link to YouTube video of  a homemaker preparing a very similar recipe.  

Sorry about my infrequent posts.

I am doing a good bit of cooking and cleaning with 7 in our home, but frankly, I just don’t get as much done as I used to.

I keep all the necessary things done but I don’t have the energy right now to do lots of creative or extra stuff.  

Hope you are well and happy 

❤️ Rhonda 

Another morning in the kitchen

Hello everyone 

First to answer a few questions- 

Cheese has always kept just in the freezer for us.  Sometimes I freeze cheese that I shredded and sometimes I freeze the pre-shredded cheese.  I can’t tell any difference in fresh cheese and thawed out cheese.  

Daughter and family are still living here.  Work is happening almost everyday at their new home but construction just takes awhile.  

About nonstick cookware, many of them say “lifetime warranty”. But in my experience, they all start sticking after a year or so.  

It’s hard for me with the cast iron, as it is heavy and my mind thinks you need soap to clean stuff.  But I use a scrub brush, hot water and sometimes a little salt.  Then I dry the skillet and use a paper towel to rub it with just a few drops of coconut oil.  So far, my big skillet is staying clean and I like using it.  I have 2 smaller skillets that I cleaned and re-seasoned. But I haven’t got in the routine of using them.  

With 7 in this home, the really big skillet makes the most sense anyway.  

About the 2 girls that came for the supper the night we had apple crisp,  it was no drama, just 2 sweet girls from out of town that had the same classes as our son and all worked at the same restaurant.

Now there was another night with some drama around that same timeframe. A different son had a girlfriend name Stephanie but they “broke up”. Then he quickly started dating Luanne. We had a family gathering around that same time and the son came with Luanne and somehow Stephanie knew about the party and she also came.  Nothing crazy happened but we were certainly on pins and needles wondering what might happen.  

On to today,  I wanted to try White Lily flour after seeing it on Southern cooking shows. Daughter and husband made a quick trip to South Carolina for his work and brought me back two bags of White Lily  flour. (Stores in my Oklahoma town don’t carry this brand) 

 So I’ve been looking on the White Lily website and found a few recipes and started them today.

Today is Friday and we almost always have pizza so I made a double batch of pizza dough. The website says pizza will be thinner and crisper made with white lily. Tomorrow is Saturday and we usually have a big cup to breakfast so I mixed up some ingredients to make biscuits. I use the recipe on the back of the bag and it calls for shortening. I don’t use shortening very often but I had a small can in the pantry. It was still in date but it smelled rancid so I just used butter instead. I also mixed up a batch of refrigerator chocolate chip cookie dough that you shake it to rolls and then can just slice off before you bake them. And granddaughter Elizabeth has been asking for peach halves that are filled with cream cheese mixed with chopped pecans, powdered sugar and vanilla.  So I made a batch of those too.  

Everything waiting in the fridge for supper and breakfast. 

On the right is a big pack of thick sliced that we bought from a fundraiser from grandson Gavin’s FFA group.

I think the breakfast eaters will be especially happy tomorrow.

White Lily flour recipes used 

Pizza recipe

https://www.whitelily.com/recipes/easy-homemade-deluxe-pizzas-3878/

Chocolate chip cookie refrigerator cookies recipe 

https://www.whitelily.com/recipes/chocolate-chip-refrigerator-cookies-3528/

Biscuit recipe on the back of the bag 

This is not a sponsored post. I think you might have to say that whenever you are talking about a product these days.
And I haven’t actually cooked any of this yet. I’ll let y’all know in my next post how it all turns out.

❤️Rhonda 

Hello on the last day of summer

Hello everyone 

Sorry about my break- days are busy and not always very interesting so I haven’t really thought to share anything. 

Today was fairly routine but some of you might like seeing what I did.

First,  my to do list for this week was not pretty but I’m thankful so much of it is done,

 

Today was mostly a kitchen day.

I had some ripe bananas so I baked a batch of muffins- half went in the freezer and the other half are for whenever anyone feels like eating some. ‘

Granddaughter Elizabeth ate 2 when she got home from school 😋

My husband’s favorite quick breakfast is a sausage biscuit. 

I cooked these with one roll of sausage and 1 can of biscuits,  the leftovers freeze perfectly and reheat in the microwave

I’ve blogged about sausage biscuits many times.  The new thing in the photo is I’ve been using cast iron.  I’ve mostly used nonstick but I’m tired of replacing them when the nonstick starts sticking. 

My husband had a few pieces of cast iron that he got from a friend way back when our sons were in a church youth group and my husband cooked for the camp outs. 

He showed me the skillets and I did a little research.  One is a Waggoner brand and really old I think.  It was quite an effort but I cleaned them and re-seasoned them and this skillet in the photo cooks so nice,  

I made a batch of taco seasoning, which I have also blogged about many times.  We all still like it! 

I did a grocery pickup from Walmart - want to see what I bought?  

Inflation has me shopping very basically 

Block cheese, milk, In the bags are biscuits.

Onions, apples, oranges, lettuce, tomatoes, grapes

Lots of cheese, Turkey pepperoni, black pepper, bread, tortillas and hot dog buns.  

  —- I ordered Walmart brand bread and tortillas because of their lower price  but they subbed the name brand ones for the store brand price. 

Non food items were pill boxes and hairbrushes  for me,  vitamins for me and husband  and allergy med for one of the grands. 

I repacked the cheese to freeze in smaller portions 

I prefer to use reusable containers but didn’t have enough today.  

Last week I made big batches of lentil taco filling and pasta sauce.  

They are in the freezer  in the rest of my containers so I had to use a few zipper bags for this cheese when I ran out of empty containers.  

Dessert tonight was an apple crisp made with 3 apples that were starting to wrinkle.

It’s a Betty Crocker recipe and it was delicious. 

I had a very happy memory when I was making it.  About 20 years when one of our sons was in college, he came for supper and brought 2 sweet girls.  I don’t remember what I cooked for the meal but dessert that night was also Betty Crocker’ s apple crisp.  Those girls especially enjoyed that dessert.  

I used my cookbook for the recipe but I found the exact recipe here https://lovintheoven.com/betty-crockers-apple-crisp/

Except I used 1/2 cup of brown sugar instead of 3/4 cups and no nutmeg. Just cinnamon 

And here is the room I spent so much time in today.  My kitchen is open at both ends so I took a photo from both angles. 

Good night everyone 

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #16 all about Perler beads

Hello everyone 

My grandchildren really enjoy Perler bead crafting.  I think we first started doing them back when Elizabeth and Gavin were 1st and 2nd graders- they are now 7th and 8th graders and still like Perler beads as do all the 7 younger grandchildren. 

Perler beads are plastic and we’ve like the regular size as well as Biggie Perler beads.  

Perlers also come in a micro size, about like seed beads but we haven’t used that kind.  

When you buy new beads, they come in color sorted trays and in bulk mixed buckets.  Either work fine but we all prefer the sorted trays.  

You need a base plate to work the Perlers on.  Plates come in shapes as well as plain square ones.  

Tweezers are not necessary but I prefer to use them and I think all the grandchildren do too. 

After the pattern with beads is complete,  you just cover it with the Perler paper and iron with any regular iron. The iron melts the beads and they whole thing holds together.  

The ironed side will look smooth and the other side will look like the beads. M

After ironing,  we put a heavy book on top and let the designs cool as they sometimes get a little wavy if they cool uncovered.  

These are a few of the grands recent makes - patterns come with the bead sets or can be found online or you can just make up your own art work. 

Below is a 3 dimensional bookshelf complete with books made by Elizabeth.  There is also a Biggie beads project that I will use as a trivet. 

JJ made the pattern himself.  Afterward I told him it looked like a Trip Around The World quilt and he didn’t believe me until I showed him the quilts on Pinterest.  He thought he was first person to ever make this pattern.  

Adults like doing Perler projects.  

In our experience, 3 years up to 6 are best with the Biggie beads. 

Some 6’s can do regular Perlers and by 7, all the kids have mastered the regular ones. 

If your needing a project that multiple ages can all enjoy, or maybe you’re starting Christmas shopping- we all think Perlers are great! 

They are sold at craft stores and big places like Amazon and Walmart. 

You might even find some at a yard sale. 

Our very first Perlers were given to us by a family who’s daughters had stopped using them.  

❤️Rhonda 

BEDA #12-15

Oops!  I thought I missed 2 days of BEDA but it was 3.  

First,  I’m starting Monday with a new to do list for the week.  

Our weekend was both busy and slow.  

My husband smoked a ham and 2 chickens so meals were easy.  

Saturday morning, I tried to do some in store shopping but it was very frustrating.

First I went to Dollar General- I wanted to use their $5/25 Saturday coupon.  It was so busy in there and all the shopping carts were being used by other customers.  It was so crowded,  I just left. 

Then I went to a Walmart.  This store is being remodeled -again!  

Their AC was not working right.  

I live in a college town and the students are retuning so many of them were shopping at Walmart with their parents so many of the aisles there were full with clumps of shoppers.  

After I bought a few things,  I got back in my vehicle.  

Walmart is normally less than a 10 minute drive from home but it took me 30 minutes because so many major streets in my town are closed and/or being redone and because of the all the college traffic.  

I finally got home and told my husband I may never shop in a store again.  Of course at some point, I will.  But Saturday morning was just no fun at all.

And I will NOT be shopping on Saturdays. 

I hadn’t made energy balls in a good while but some the grands asked for them.  

Mix the honey and peanut butter and vanilla.  Then stir in the oats, then the chocolate.

Roll into small balls.  2 of mine probably equal 1 golf ball.  But you can make them any size.  

I have several containers of honey in my pantry but honey has really gone up in price. 

  I think to make these less expensive,  any kind of  maple, pancake syrup would be a perfect substitute for the honey.  I know honey is from a different source than pancake syrup, but they are the same sweetness and consistency so I’m confident it would work. 

 The maple and peanut butter would be a good flavor combination too.  

These energy balls are delicious and much more filling than a store bought granola bar.

They do take a while to roll into balls.  I sat down at the kitchen table and watched a YouTube video while I did them.  

I keep them in the fridge but they would be fine in lunchboxes for a few hours.  

Anyway,  sorry about my absence and for my shopping rant.

I’ve got a list to work on now.

Hope you all have a productive day and no shopping drama 

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #11 all kitchen stuff and a movie

Hello everyone 

I stayed home all - did our laundry and a few kitchen things.  

I used the crusts that were cut off for the school lunch sandwiches.  I tossed the crusts with melted butter and just a little garlic salt.  Then I toasted them in this kind of new convection oven. 

We’ve had it a little more than a month and I’m really happy with it.  

It was especially nice for oven cooking things during that bad heat wave.  The oven gets hot but it doesn’t seem to heat up the kitchen like my regular oven.  

I’ve baked cookies, bread, muffins, biscuits, cake, tater tots in this oven all successfully. 

The downside is it’s large - the box of jello is for size reference.  

I do like using it - things are cooking at eye level and so it’s very convenient to keep watch of things while they bake.  

We bought it on Amazon and the brand is Elite Gourmet.  I think it was about $130 but it may be different now.  

Years ago there was another blogger named Lyn who didn’t have an oven.  I’ve thought about her, and so far, it seems this could be a substitute for a traditional oven for most baked things. 

But I’m not trying to convince anyone to buy this.  “influencers” are rather annoying these days.  

I’m just writing about what we are doing. 

But so far, this convection oven-giant air fryer works for us.  

Back to the croutons,  my husband and I had big salads at lunch with croutons and the croutons really made a nice addition to our salads 

Supper tonight was pizza. Leftovers are in the fridge as our son in law is still working and the grandsons have ball practice. 

I expect the late comers will reheat their slices in the new oven.  

I used up some of the leftovers from last night’s Mexican meal and made more burritos for the freezer.  

One of my husband’s friends told him how much he liked a movie called Father Stu.  We rented it from Amazon and watched it this morning. 

Warning -the language is terrible- but it has such a good message about God’s grace and forgiveness.  

It’s main stars are Mark Wahlberg and Mel Gibson.  

We both liked it and would recommend it to adults

❤️ Rhonda