New to do list and new stove

Hello everyone

It’s Tuesday but it feels like Monday so I wrote out a new to do list

It’s not real long as this isn’t a normal week but some  things need done 

My husband helped and we got quite a bit done. 

 It’s not checked off but the laundry is also finished and the Christmas decorations are packed away.  

Our decorations were up a long time this year.  

Supper was an easy meal- I used carrots, potatoes and fresh spinach that all were due to be used.  

I baked the chicken and carrots. 

About a month ago,  our bottom oven quit working and then about a week before Christmas, the top oven quit working.  

Also, the controls on the top were looking like they were on their last leg too.  

(Out stove was about 10 years old and looked like a normal stove but it had 2 ovens.  I used it so much,  I think I just wore it out) 

So my husband went stove shopping.  Our local Lowes doesn’t have much in stock but he found one that was on sale.  

It’s a Samsung and so far it is cooking so nice.  

No photos but it baked 3 batches of cookies beautifully.  

It baked 2 batches of muffins when grands were here for a sleepover. 

Chocolate chip muffins and Betty Crocker’s French Puffs 

I’m very thankful to have it.  

My only complaint is the timer sounds a little like the music from the movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind 🙄


❤️Rhonda 

Merry Christmas 2023

Merry Christmas everyone 

We had a very fun family gathering at our daughter’s home.  

We had food from Fuzzy’s Tacos. 

We had an all ages gift exchange and I think we will always do it that way.

It was so fun to the 91 year old open a remote control car and for the 6th grade boy to open a box of Tide and kitchen towels.  

In the end, all gifts were swapped and traded and everyone left happy.  

Lots of cookies were eaten too 😋 

Jeff and Rhonda 2023 

Monday- a new week, a new list

Hello everyone 

I’m ready to be back to a routine -as much a routine as is possible this time of year anyway- so I wrote out a new to do list for the week, 

I reset the guest room with some flannel sheets and it’s looking Christmasy in there 

I mixed up 3 kinds of cookie dough

Mexican wedding cookies, oatmeal cookies and sugar cookies- all are Betty Crocker recipes. 

I forgot to stir the pecans into the oatmeal recipe so I’ll use the chopped pecans for something else. 

I didn’t want to bake them this morning but I shaped 2 of the doughs into balls.  

All the dough is chilling in the fridge until I’m ready to bake.  

4 of the grands were here over the weekend which is why the guest room needed freshen up.  P

Elizabeth made this cute creation with Perler beads. 

The 3 boys said they wanted to do origami but they mostly made “ninja fighting “ instruments with paper 

Meals for the last week have all been pretty simple and cooked at home.

Beef stew with cheese and crackers 

One day I was gone in the afternoon so I made some smothered cube steaks in the crockpot and had the potatoes ready to cook at supper time 

Big salads are almost always served - my husband really likes salad 🥗 

One of the breakfasts when the grands were here- biscuits with scrambled eggs and gravy, and chocolate chip muffins 

I got a spiral ham for about $9 with Kroger delivery.  My husband smoked it and I served with a salad, green beans and box mac and cheese.  

It was a lot of ham! Some was diced and froze to add to breakfast eggs or casseroles.  Some will be used for sandwiches.  



I imagine most of you are busy with the same kind of things I am

Hope you all have a smooth and productive week 

❤️🎄❤️

Rhonda 

Want to hear about another trip?

Hello everyone 

We returned late last night from a trip to Greencastle, Indiana.

We flew so we made stops one way in Dallas Fort Worth and Indianapolis.

On the way back, we also stopped in Chicago.  

Anyway- we visited our son and family including our youngest granddaughter who is almost 5.

Greencastle is home to DePauw university and their home is on the campus.  

We did several things on campus including a Hannukah service at the spiritual center and Christmas tree ornament making event at the art center.  

We heard a really good music program in the Gobin church and enjoyed looking at the amazing stained glass. 

We went through a science building and learned about turtles and iguanas 

  

I wanted to bring home all the plants in the greenhouse.  They were just amazing! 

This hanging plant was huge!

So many brand new succulents getting started 

This tree really big and old, and seems to be thriving.  I think the director said it has been there at least 40 years.  

The blooms on the giant tree

Indiana is home to a number of covered bridges. 

With help from a map, we went looking for the 9 bridges in that Putman County.

Indiana roads are very twisty, loopy, curved, meandering- and the covered bridges are mostly in very rural areas.  (Does anyone know why?  Most all of Oklahoma is mapped in mile sections with main roads going east-west and north-south) 

We managed to find 3 in that county and 1 in the next door county.  

Even knowing how to read maps and using Google directions,  these bridges are hard to find for us newbies.  

Dunbar bridge 

Houck bridge 

Edna Collins Bridge - named for a little girl who drowned there 

All the covered bridges in Putman county  are red. 

This white one is in the adjacent county

Big Rocky Fork Bridge 

We stayed at the Inn of DePauw,  this was in the lobby and I thought it was especially pretty 

We also ate some really yummy meals at our son’s home and Greencastle has some excellent restaurants.

We even had some good meals at the airports.  

If you’re looking for a unique vacation spot,  I recommend Greencastle.  There is a lot to do there and it has the feel of Hallmark movie town- small and charming.  

We don’t have anymore trips planned.  

I’ve been working on some meals to cook and ordering some good deals from Kroger.  

Meals away are great but we really enjoy eating at home too. 

Tonight is some beef stew cooking in the crockpot.  

That’s what we’ve been doing 

❤️Rhonda 

December 1- hello🎄

Hello everyone

Sorry about the unplanned blog absence. 

About October 5, a family member (everything is ok now) had a medical situation and I needed to be at the hospital and then at their home after they were released.  You all know how that goes, right? 

Then toward the middle of November, we enjoyed a trip to Branson.  

I’m looking over my photos from the last 2 months and most of them are at Branson shows.  We saw 16 shows!  Yes, we really like shows and we were there during Veterans week so many of tickets were discounted or free.  

We had thanksgiving at our daughter’s home.  About half of the guests were our family and the other half were our son in law’s family.  I think there were 26 people, so much good food and it was nice evening their big, new home.  

Since we weren’t hosting thanksgiving, and I knew I would be in a Christmas mood after being in Branson,  I packed up our fall decorations and decorated our home for Christmas before we left on our trip.  

In case you’re thinking it was a lot of work,  No,  I’ve simplified decorations and it really wasn’t a big job.  

6 of the grands on Thanksgiving- yes they’ve gotten big! These six range from 7 to 13 years.  

Branson photos- if you’re interested 

Haygoods 

Smoke On the Mountain Christmas 

New South at Grand Country 

Irish Tenors and Celtic Ladies at Kings Castle 

Bald Knobbers 

Duttons Christmas 

Hot Rods and High Heels at Clay Cooper

Hits of the 60s also at Clay Coopers

America’s top country at the Americana 

Clay Cooper 

Branson restaurant meal- Charley’s steak house.  This meal was delicous! 

We both had leftovers that made a second meal at our condo 

We ate out some but we ate at our condo more 

  We stayed at the French Quarter again.  The kitchen is tiny but we were able to prepare easy and tasty meals.  

We are too old to eat heavy restaurant meals 3 times a day anyway 

I’m planning of blogging regularly but we will see how it goes. 

Happy December 1st everyone 

🎄❤️🎄

Rhonda 

Eat at Hometober days 4, 5, and 6- couponing- etc

Hello everyone 

For for eat at Hometober

On the 4th, we had leftover roast beef.  

On the 5th, we had delicious lentil tacos again.  

Yesterday,  I made a big batch of pasta sauce- the kind we call Roma Sauce 

where I first told how to make this sauce

  

It’s cooking in an 8 quart crockpot.  

Many containers of sauce went in the freezer and one will be for supper tonight on the 6th. 

 I’ll cook some pasta and green beans from our tiny fall garden.  

About couponing- 

These are not sales you could duplicate exactly but I do want to show you ways to save money, if you are wanting to do that

After I shop at CVS, they almost always put a high value extrabuck on my account or they email it to me.

On these two purchases, you can say that they have sent me four dollar extrabucks  several times. They can be spent on anything.

I like to stack them with other CVS coupons that are usually on everyone’s account

CVS sent me coupons for gold emblem snacks and also snacks in general. And a four dollar extrabuck

These nuts were buy one get one  1/2 off. Cashews are a family favorite!

So I bought two and nicelyntold the cashier I would like to add every available offer on my account to this transaction

I got 3 pounds of cashews for about $14

I was not expecting to get the four dollar extrabuck on this transaction but it was a nice surprise

Then in yesterday’s mail, there was another four dollar extrabuck from CVS

I looked over the other coupons on my CVS app

I saw one that was five dollars off $25 worth of candy

We don’t need any candy at this house, but I was wanting to fill the candy dish at a relatives assisted living home.

So I stacked my two $4 extrabucks with the five dollar off candy.

I don’t have a photo of the actual candy that I purchased because I’ve already taken it to my relative

But I bought six bags of the Hershey brand. That came to almost $24. But it needed to be $25 so I added a bag of peppermint that was a little over a dollar.

So I got six bags of chocolate candy and one bag of peppermint for about  $12.

My relative doesn’t eat this candy, but she does have a large candy bowl. 

There are many workers that come in and out of her apartment and they enjoy having a little treat and it’s just a nice little Thank you, saying we appreciate them.

So I was quite thankful to stock up on treat  for the workers for very little money

I went to Walgreens, mainly just to spend the reward from last week.

(And when I wrote about what I bought at Walgreens last week, I was wrong about my rewards.

Two of them are what are called boosters and had already expired so 

I only had $11 to spend in Walgreens Rewards.   yes, couponing is tricky.)

Walgreens also had cashews on sale. The 8 ounce bags were $2.99 each

The zipper bags were buy one get two free.

The bags are an OK deal, not the very best deal, but I was wanting to add more to my pantry stock.

This transaction was a little over five dollars.

So, if you are wanting to coupon, check your apps for the stores that you want to shop

After you shop there, check your app and your email again to see if they have sent you any personalized offers

In my experience, they tend to send offers for things you have already purchased.

At CVS I am still getting lots of baby offers even though our youngest grand is 4 1/2.  

I have not been back to Dollar General in two weeks.

And I don’t think I will be going back to either CVS or Walgreens again this week.

I have not looked into next week sales, but I don’t foresee myself being a super couponer like the people I see on YouTube or Instagram.

But I am very happy to have stocked up on things that my family really likes-like cashews which are a favorite snack of grand children and husband- and to treat all the workers at the assisted living home

If you’re wondering, I ended up with 5 pounds of cashews. 

I did check the dates on all the packages and all of them are dated well into 2024. 

I am positive my family will eat them before they go rancid.

This weeks to do list looks exactly like last weeks to do list

Because it is the very same list

I got so little done last week, I just re-used the same list for this week and added boxes for the things I really do try to do daily no matter what.

Even though it may be my motto, I don’t always get things done

Hope you are all having a really, really good week!

❤️ Rhonda 

Eat At Hometober day #3

"Will there be lentil tacos in Heaven?"

That is what grandson JJ said the last time he ate lentil tacos here. 

He Really Really likes lentil tacos!

Lentil tacos aren’t everyone’s favorite meal but my husband and I sure do like them and so do our grandchildren 

lentil taco recipe

Today,  I made our favorite lentil taco recipe times 3 in our  big crockpot.  

We had them for our supper,  in flour tortillas with traditional taco toppings. 

A triple batch makes lots of taco filling so I packed up the rest in meal size containers to freeze for future meals.  

❤️ Rhonda