2 big meals and a crazy shopping event

Hello 

To start off the year, we cooked our traditional meal Black Eyed Peas, rice, cabbage, ham, and cornbread.

There were seven of us here to eat

Today,  I made breakfast for 5 as 3 grands slept over.  

15 year old Elizabeth spent most of her time here working on a little scrapbook project for a friends birthday. 

we weren’t sure how to put the pages together in a book and I had read online that Hobby Lobby’s Christmas clearance went to 90% off this morning.

so we went to Hobby lobby in hopes of finding something to bind the pages together or to get a small photo album to put the pages in. 

They opened at 9 AM

We got there at 11 AM

I think all these serious clearance shoppers got there at 9 AM.  

I kind of glanced at what was left in the Christmas aisles, there was not much left and a good bit of what was there was broken. 

The lady at the front of this line had at least three carts of Christmas clearance.

By the time we checked out, she had been loading her purchases into her little car for a while. And apparently all of her purchases would not fit in her car as she was pushing one of the shopping carts still full of her  clearance purchases back into Hobby lobby. We guess she was going to try to leave them there while she went home and unloaded her car.

That’s a lot of shopping!

All we bought was one Purse size photo album.

And if I ever think I need 90% off Hobby lobby Christmas Clearance, I will plan ahead and get there at 9 AM. 

But I probably will not ever go there again to Hobby lobby on January 2, the day they traditionally mark everything 90% off

So, did any of y’all go out bargain shopping?

If you did, I hope you found what you wanted

I don’t think I needed a single thing on the Christmas markdowns anyway.  

❤️Rhonda 

first day of 2026

hello everyone

Don’t we all want to be more organized in 2026?

When I cleaned out the junk pantry two days ago, I found these paper sheets that I bought at Dollar tree.

I separated them and put each one on a piece of pretty paper. I also put our freezer inventory On some pretty paper.

Then, I used magnets to hold them to the refrigerator

This should help keep appointments and groceries on hand at the front of my mind, planning ahead to make the best use of time and groceries we already have

I used part of the paper. I cut off when I mounted the calendars and wrote out my grocery list.

I needed to do three errands yesterday and I stopped at Aldi to purchase groceries.

Kroger is going to stop delivering to Oklahoma and I am really going to miss it.

But I plan on using up the groceries we have and hopefully having some low spend grocery months for the first several in 2026.

New Year’s Eve is not a good time to go shopping. I got there about 3 o’clock in the afternoon.

So many of the shelves were practically empty, it looked like that store had been shopped hard!

there was one young man running a register, and I did not see any other workers in the store.


I mostly got what was on my list. I had to substitute the type of lettuce I wanted and I added cherries and strawberries because grandchildren will be here and they really like them. They were a good price too.

Our New Year’s Day tradition is to eat Black Eyed Peas, pork, cabbage and cornbread. My husband is going to smoke a spiral ham that I got on sale From Kroger for $.99 a pound. He also made some pimento cheese stuffed jalapeño poppers to smoke while he smokes the ham. He’s never made them before and he didn’t have a recipe. I imagine they will be very good

❤️Rhonda 

last day of 2025

good morning everyone

Today I have a few errands to go on.

Then to celebrate, we will watch a live stream from the Clay Cooper theater in Branson to bring in the new year. 

Tuesday, I did some house cleaning. And this pantry I call our junk pantry was just disorganized as could be.

Of course, I did not take it before Photo. I really need to do better at that.

But above is the after picture

Earlier this year, I put two small boxes in the bottom of the junk pantry

One was for keeping throw away plastic and one was for keeping cans

I pulled out the plastic containers to stack it So it would fit in the box better

It’s just amazing how many plastic food containers we bring home.

And this is certainly not every container, sometimes I didn’t wash them. Sometimes we have used them for other things.

The clear square one is from tiny tomatoes.

I think it will be especially good to plant more tomato seeds in. It already has drainage holes in the bottom.

in Oklahoma, it will be time to start gardening seeds in the house pretty soon.

I think starting the seeds in the house is my favorite part of gardening.

Happy New Year’s Eve everyone

❤️ Rhonda 

Goodbye 2025

Hello friends,  

I’m ready to turn the page from 2025 to 2026. 

Actually, the last several years have been hard for our family but I’m hopeful 2026 will be better.  

but we will see, right?  

I’m planning for a more productive year ahead in several ways.  

We didn’t have very elaborate Christmas decorations out this month and I packed away all the Christmas things today and

  left up this 4 foot tree and put out mostly snow themed decorations.  

on the tv are screensavers from Youtube- there are so many there to choose from.  

This is the little New Years boy that was bought at a thrift store years ago but it’s really special to me because it looks like so much our grandson JJ.  

But the ceramic boy was here long before JJ.  

This may not be very readable and it’s just a rough draft so far. 

In 2026,  I hope to declutter, organize and clean every space in our home.  

Our home is not overly cluttered but every space needs some attention.  

I’ll try to take photos and show my progress.  

If you’re reading this,  thank you for sticking with me.

❤️Rhonda 

Orange Peel craft

I peeled a 3 pound bag of little oranges for quick snacks. 

The oranges went in the fridge and I had a pile of orange peels that smelled so good. 

I was wondering if I should do something with them. 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

The day before,  I saw an idea to cut the peels with a little star cookie cutter,  

then let them dry on your radiator and then string them into garland for Christmas decorating.  

It sounded very nice but I don’t have a tiny star cookie cutter or a radiator——-yes, I’m sure they could dry in the oven or just naturally——-

but I’m was still thinking.  

anyway,  later in the day,  the first thing I see on facebook is this reel 

https://www.facebook.com/hodgesfarmtexascooking/videos/813382301307963/

She had a pile of orange peels torn into small pieces and she strung them on a wire to make a little wreath.  

That sounded very easy so that’s what I did.  

I used a length of wire from my craft supplies and tore the peels into random shapes,  all roughly the size of quarters.  

Then I strung them on the wire.  

That’s what I used and had left from 3 pounds of oranges.  

No wire?  You can also string them with a needle and any kind of string or twine.  

I put a ribbon bow on mine and hung it on our junk pantry door in between 2 aprons.  

❤️Rhonda 

[Autosaved] catching up and groceries

hello everyone

I called my dentist office first thing Monday morning and they said to come in at 9:50 AM.  

They were able to re-glue my crown back on and everything is fine.

It was both painless and cost free.  

I started this post several days ago and now Friday,  I’m just getting back to it.  

You bloggers that post daily,  I applaud you!  

Between having spare time to sit and technical issues,  I don’t know if I’ll ever be a daily blogger.  

but on with news and doings 

Tuesday was Veterans Day and we went to our 5th grade grandson’s school for a very sweet and patriotic program.

My husband is 5ft11.  I think Jackson is growing about an inch this school year.  

I’m wondering how tall he will end up.  

This weeks Kroger grocery delivery- I think it was about $72 total 

I think everything was either on sale or had a good digital coupon except the canned cherries.  
2 bags of tomatoes, 3 pounds delicious green grapes, 4 packages lunch meat,  2 fresh salsa that were B1G1 and 2 cottage cheese 
5 pounds butter $2.99 each and that’s as cheap as I’ve seen any butter in 2025

milk, tortillas, tart cherries for a pie 
Grandchildren’s favorite bars, Kroger corn chips were way less than name brand 

the breads and pies were on flash markdown or I wouldn’t of bought them.  

Our daughter has been married 18 years.

  They registered and received a very nice set of pottery dishes that they’ve used exclusively ever since.  

Those dishes have really dwindled done to where they just need more dishes

She asked me if I thought white dishes could be found at thrift stores,  mainly bowls and plates.  

I had time to stop at Goodwill yesterday and found all these.  

They had so many! 

you can’t see all of it in the photo, but I bought a vintage 8 inch Pyrex pie plate for our kitchen.  

The finish is a bit faded but I don’t care.

It just shows this pie plate was used and enjoyed by a family in the past.  

TIP for stickers-  Those stickers were perforated and very difficult to pull off.  

So I put all the dishes in a sink of hot soapy water and left them to soak while I did an errand.  

When I came back,  the stickers were falling off on their own.  

I had time to go to a second thrift store but didn’t buy anything.  

Both stores seemed to be packed with merchandise.  I won’t say prices were great 

but I think shopping at most any thrift store should have good inventories.  

Hope you all have a good weekend 

❤️ Rhonda 

Monday new week to do list

good morning everyone 

I’m dressed and ready to go to a dentist appointment.  

A crown came off Saturday so I’ve been eating carefully since then.

I called my dentist and they told me come at 9:50. 

I’m very thankful they could see me this soon.  

Now it’s time to get busy doing stuff! 

❤️ Rhonda

The rest of Thursday’s cooking, boys and slime and maybe other stuff

Hello everyone 

I peeled and cut up vegetables to use in chili, taco filling and cooked ground beef.

I did the carrots to cook for a future side dish.

The bell peppers and red onion are for salad or whatever.
I cooked 3 pounds of beef for taco filling and 3 pounds of seasoned cooked beef.  

All went in the freezer for future meals.

I was way wrong in how many onions I would use.  

there is only one jar of onions in the photo but I put 2 jars in the fridge.  

They will keep a while but I need to plan some onion-heavy meals this month. 
3 pounds of beef went into a big pot of  chili along with a pound of cooked pintos.  
Lots of dishes were washed after the cooking 
This is ground beef from Kroger that I bought for $11.97 3 pound tube or about $4 a pound.

I was very happy with it.  It smells and tastes right and put off very little water/fat when cooked.

I froze the rest of it plain

I’ve never done it this way but I sliced each tube into about 1/2 pound sections and 12 hamburger patties.  

I put the tray in the freezer and will bag them up when frozen.  
3 of the grandchildren ate supper with us Friday.  I made a batch of our favorite buns,  mixing the dough in a bread machine and baking them in the oven.  

SLIME !  

this is still a popular craze I guess 

This is recipe we mostly followed.  

https://kidsactivityzone.com/fluffy-slime/

We made one recipe split between 2 bowls.  

Their mother provided the glue.  Other ingredients were shaving cream, baking soda, optional food coloring and a little borax mixed with water.

Many recipes call for contact solution which is not an ingredient we have.  Borax in water works great.  

These boys are 5th and 7th graders. Not shown, but their 10th grade sister came and played with some slime too and she had as much fun as they did.  

❤️Rhonda 

very productive day

Hello everyone 

I’m pretty happy with how much I accomplished today.  

As scheduled,  Kroger delivered my order.  

They put it all right by front door.  Isn’t that great?

There were no substitutions and no unfilled items so I was especially thankful.

Below is what $164 will get you in Oklahoma right now.  
15 pounds of ground beef,  3 1/2 pounds cheese, 3 pounds sausage,

  2 pounds hot dogs, 1 package lunchmeat and a container of salsa.  
Complete Non essentials 

The chips were 4 /$10, I think the brown sugars were $2 each and the white sugars were 2/$5,

  sodas and 2 packages of snacks my husband requested 
Bell peppers, onions, carrots and spinach 
Orange juice and milk -  I really appreciate Kroger guarantees at least 10 days of fresh with dairy products - This milk is dated 12 days out and I pretty certain it will last even longer than that.  
and 2 strings of tree lights.  

Not shown -3 dozen eggs and a freebie bag of potato patties - they were already put away 
I filled up our morning pill boxes for a month - a few prescription pills and a few vitamins 
I worked out our November budget and paid a few bills.  It feels good to have it planned out and not have to think about it anymore 

If you have any older elementary -middle school age children in your life,  you’ve likely heard about 6 7 

Well,  I know it’s just a craze and mostly nonsense.  But I am 67 years old so now when I hear 6 7,   I’ll think they are talking about how special I am  🤭 

Are any of y’all 67?

Our granddaughter Cora is 7.  Last night at dinner she said “we aren’t allowed to say six seven unless we are counting”. 

Her dad asked her what it meant and she said she didn’t know.  

So I think it means the children are annoying their teachers with their 6 7.  

But this will pass…….

I also cooked up 9 pounds of that ground beef today and cleaned up all the dishes.  

The pictures are still downloading from my phone to my ipad so hopefully I’ll blog about those tomorrow.  

Hope you all have had a great day

❤️ Rhonda 

 

I think my posting issues are fixed

I’m sorry for the crazy posts this week and thank you all for your help and kind words.  

I’ll just get back to the homemaking and daily life posts I like to 

Our 5+ year old Bosch dishwasher quit working a few weeks ago.  

We don’t think it was repairable so we just took it.   I have just been washing dishes by hand. 

 There are normally just 2 of us here and we really don’t use that many things.  

We have been rinsing everything after we use them and I usually wash everything from the entire day after our evening meal.  

I prefer to let everything air dry.  

Towel drying dishes is not allowed in commercial food establishments as it can spread bacteria so I’m happy to air dry.  

We already had this little metal shelf and it just fits in the dishwasher hole.  I keep the dishpan and drainer,  gloves and brushes on it when not in use.  

 They are sort of out of sight but still very easy to access.  

I think my favorite part of this washing method is when I put away the dry dishes.  It is much easier on my slightly cranky back and my husband’s very cranky back to move the dishes from counter height than to get them out of a low dishwasher.  

Kroger is supposed to deliver my order tomorrow morning.  

One of their specials is 80/20 ground beef for $3.99.

Have yall priced beef lately?  It seems to of really jumped up in price.

I hope the 15 pounds I ordered come.  

I plan on cooking part of for taco filling and part of it for chili,  all to put in the freezer for easy future meals.  

We like lots of beans in our chili so I put a pound of pintos to soak and will cook them in a crock pot first thing tomorrow morning.  

Hope you are all fine

Good night everyone 

❤️ Rhonda