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. 

Betsy's pedicure party

I 

Betsy's pedicure partyLinking up to Betsy's party

Just paint your nails today, take a selfie of your feet and visit Betsy. 

you are serving cookies, aren't you Betsy?

I'll be back with the rest of my home tour soon........

Home tour- front door and dining room part 3

Welcome back to my home.  This is what you would see if you were at my front door.
I just moved the pots of flowers to the front. They had been in the backyard but the backyard is being cleared of anything that would be in the way of the new safe room that will be built soon.

sometimes using what you have works  and sometimes it is just too eclectic- This is for sure not my favorite arrangement I have ever had the front door but it will be fine for now.

Pots with zinnias and moss rose- Grandson Gavin will not like it when he sees his Tonka dump truck holding a pot of flowers but  I will sure let him play with it when he wants to.  It was in the backyard and I don't want the real concrete truck to mess up this old Tonka truck.


The Dining Room

Just inside the front door is our dining room, and it sits on an angle.  It is hard room to make work.  We first had a big round glass top table in here.  It looked pretty but it never felt too homey.   I think I like this older oval wood table, also set on an angle, in here the best.

New additions during my summer long spruce up- I used these patchwork bandannas bought at Hobby Lobby years ago- to make the window valance and table topper.  I really like the colors- red, sage green, a little pink and neutrals and have been using those colors in most all our rooms.

This buffet was in a hall but was a little deep for that walkway so I moved it to the dining room and like it best here.

The stars of this dining room are my husband's Royal Doulton plate collection.  He got 2 of the plates from his grandmother.  Then he discovered they were part of a set.  We shopped at antique malls and Ebay for a few years until he completed the whole set.  They are called "The Professions" and are 75-100 years old.

these are my 2 favorites- the Falconers because I like clouds and birds on the border
and The Admiral, because my dad was in the Navy (but was not an admiral)

linking up with some of these blogging parties  

In my home this week

We got more great produce from relatives. 

The tomatoes are from my mother in law.

Bell peppers are from my dad- we will enjoy fajitas tonight and stuffed peppers tomorrow night 

My brother grew this whopper watermelon. It if was even a hair longer, it would not fit in our second apartment size fridge.

My shopping at our new Aldi this week. I got all this for $24 after a $5 grand opening coupon was subtracted. My husband liked the grapes so much and ate almost half of them the day I bought them. So I made another trip there and got 2 boxes more.  

My company, while their parents worked this week, were 2 sweet little grandsons. But not at the same time. 

I hope you all have had a good week. 

I changed the font here, any opinions on if it is better or worse?

And I plan to show more rooms in my home tour very soon.  

Home Tour- play room 2nd stop

At the first of the summer,  this bedroom had toys and things in it, and a full size bed too.  That did not leave much floor space for playing so that bed is now gone and a love seat from the living room moved in here.
The love seat works much better for adults to sit on while they read books to the little ones or to just sit on while they watch the little ones play.
The quilt on the wall was one of my doll quilts when I was a little girl and was made by my great grandmother,  a real pioneer woman.
I made the paper banner that goes all around the room with paper I had.  The valance was originally from a thrift store and hung in our breakfast room for several years.

the view if you look in the door

Toddler kitchen (second hand gift to us from a family that had outgrown it)  It is Step 2 brand and very popular with my grands.

changing table- it gets used lots with 3 grands in diapers . I left the trashcan in the photo- there has to be a place to put all those diapers

 

this is where one grand daughter naps but she is in school all day now.  She napped here Sunday and had the triplet dolls lined up there.  My mom crocheted the baby dolls.  I made the patchwork shams a few years ago and I embroidered that wall hanging when I was in high school.  It looks really 70's I think.

this room has a big closet too but I usually keep a safety latch on it to keep the grands from getting out even more things.  It stores clothes, diapers, more toys and an airbed and a cot for over night guests.

Thanks for dropping by- 

linking up with some of these parties.......

Home Tour- 1st stop is the craft room

I had more free time than usual this summer and I spent a lot of it working on my house.  I did quite a bit of organizing, rearranging and a little bit of decorating.

I really enjoy when other bloggers do home tours,  my home does not look like a decorator has been here but I am going to try to do a home tour this week anyway.  no professional photographer either

what you see in the craft room when you walk in the door......
decorators would not approve of our ceiling fans in every room but this is Oklahoma and it gets HOT here,

3 shelving units full of supplies- I used to like to have everything stored neatly away, covered and out of sight but now,  I like things where I can find them easily, as long as they are still neat and organized.

the big desktop computer lives in the computer room too- but I am a bad photographer and can't get a good shot of the new slipcover I made for the office chair.

blinds closed above and blinds closed below- neither picture looks great though

Storage tubs- all full with patterns, plastic canvas and yarn, unfinished quilts and lots of fabric.
Yes,  I know it is a lot,  much was given to me by friends and the majority is from my mom.
I've thought about getting rid of a a lot of it,  but my husband thought that was a bad idea.  He said he has seen me make things with supplies on hand and he does not think I would be happy if I needed things after I got rid of them.  So, for now,  all this stuff is staying.

Paper craft table- the CriCut machine sits on top, papers are stored underneath. But right now,  my rainbow quilt blocks are spread out on it, no paper crafting happening right now.
Rubber stamps on the wall.
My husband and father in law built those stamp frames for me.

Sewing table with the thread rack and more rubber stamps on the wall.
Sewing tools like cutters, scissors and markers are on a tray under the thread rack.
The black and white brocade vinyl is tablecloth material sold by the yard in the fabric department of Walmart.

Ironing board- most all sewing needs some  ironing.
There is a closet in this room, a long closet,  but it was hard to store and then take out sewing things when needed.  So now the closet is used for holiday and baby things and my sewing things are out in the open, easy to use.

The black and white polka dot fabric on the chair and ironing board was bought at parking lot rummage sale, about 3 years ago.  It was a very long and very wide piece of fabric and it just makes me smile when I look at those dots.  Even when ironing :)

My sewing machine, a 4 year old Necchi- I like it a lot.

I used clear containers that 1 pound of salad greens are sold in at the grocer.  They are not the sturdiest of boxes but they are perfect for lightweight sewing supplies.  I learned this thrifty trick from Mary Ann.

This might be my favorite result of organizing.  I put all adhesives into one storage bin- assorted tapes and glues- and it has already been so handy.  When something needs made or fixed,  we all know right where to go for the right adhesive.  

linking to parties at

  Skip to my Lou , 

Craft O Maniac , 

Keeping it Simple, 

Creating Really Awesome Free Things, 

Tweak It Tuesday at Brenda's Cozy Little House

Easy Sunday Lunch

I wanted to serve an easy and healthy lunch today. So, I chose one of our favorites

Make your own taco and salad bar. 

Fresh salsa

Just dice about 2 cups of tomatoes-I used little ones but usually dice 1-2 big ones

Also fine dice 1/2 a fresh jalapeño and some onion.

Add some diced cilantro- a little cilantro goes a long way. 

Season with a little garlic and salt and lemon or lime juice.

Chopped romaine and diced purple onion if anyone wants to do taco salad.

Beef and pork taco filling from the freezer- it looked much better once it was heated in the microwave.

I also put out ranch style beans, grated cheddar, sour cream, tortillas and tortilla chips. 

Some of us had soft tacos. One had nachos and some had taco salad. 

Dessert was fresh pineapple and cantaloupe slices. 

I don't want to work too hard on Sunday and I don't like eating out on Sunday either.  Today's meal was delicious and a good solution, 

What meals do you have that are easy to serve a group after being gone for church?