To do list, sewing, coupon shopping

My Monday to do list- I recycled last weeks and just glued this week’s plans on top of last week’s list.  

Below are dishes I plan to cook from now until the end of May.  They will be prepared in what ever order suits us.  

Below is the dress I finished for our granddaughter Elizabeth to wear when her class visits a one room school house.  It’s pretty standard that Oklahoma 3rd graders study Oklahoma history and either re-enact the Land Run or visit a one room school house.  I remember when my children visited the prairie school house, they really enjoyed it.  

The basket is for her lunch and my daughter used the same basket when she was in 3rd grade. 

I didn’t sew the dress from the scratch but I cut down an adult dress I got years ago at a $1 a bag rummage sale.  

Below are my our pioneer ancestors.  That my fraternal great grandparents.  For awhile, the farmed and lived in a sod house near Cordell, Oklahoma.  It looks like a very hard life to me and  I’m thankful for them.  






I’m still doing some coupon shopping at CVS and Dollar General.  This is what I bought this past Saturday at DG.  I only used Digital coupons,  which you get by signing up for a free account at DG.  

Both stores have similar sales going on this week too.  

I guess that’s all the news I know for now. 

Have a wonderful week everyone ❤️

Rummage sale finds, surgery for a grand and Sprouts

good afternoon,  

Thanks for the hints on my comment situation.  I mostly blog on an iPad but I will go to our desktop and see if that solves the problem.

Terri- I did try deleting my google plus account and that didn’t fix it yet, but I’ll keep trying.  

Again, thanks for all the advice

2 of our grands are out of school today and they spent the night here. 

We went to a benefit rummage sale at a nearby church. 

The Stand and salon chair were $1 each - an amazing bargain for 18 inch doll accessories

The doll is mine that I use as a mannequin when I sew doll clothes.  She is wearing an exercise outfit that I made from my shirt I never wore.  

We found all these like new American Girl books for .50 each. 

The big Tupperware tray seems to be in the brand new condition. 

The pampered chef meat forks are very heavy duty and something my husband has been wanting. 

He also got a like new contractor grade hoe 

I wanted another set of s&p shakers and I think these Crystal ones will be just fine.  


Near ball toss toy was $3.

It didn’t come with balls so I sewed some up super fast,  using old child socks and beans,  

   

This grandson has had a  rough fall and winter with 6 bought of strep. So, he had his tonsils and adenoids removed yesterday.  He had a restless, uncomfortable night but is doing better today.  

He perked up when he saw his siblings and he started happily playing with this ball toss toy.  


Sprouts sent another coupon this morning.  It had great deals on avocados, bell peppers and walnuts. 

I liked the chicken deal- boneless, skinless chicken breasts for $1.77. 

They were regular priced at $3.99

I put one pack in the crockpot and I’ll shred and freeze it for future meals. 

The others were laid out on lined and sprayed cookie sheets and put in the freezer.  When their frozen solid, I’ll bag them in large freezer bags.  Then I can just thaw out how many I need. 

Have a good weekend everyone ❤️

Evelyn’s new bedspread

Evelyn was given a pile of fleece blankets and she remembered this older post from me where I made our bedspread from fleece blankets

https://ifyoudostuff.blogspot.com/search?q=Bedspread+

And then she made her own.  

I think it turned out great and really suits her Texas lifestyle.  

She blogs at  

Blessed in Bowie.

She is a thrifty, creative and upbeat woman and she lives not too far from where I grew up in Texas.   

So, we pretty much share the same accent 😊 

Thursday cooking and crafts

My versions of batch cooking- one crockpot has chicken breasts in broth.  

The other one has a roast that we will eat for supper and share with my parents.  

The chicken was shredded and saved for future recipes. 

The veggies have been peeled and are in the crockpot with the roast now.  

I also made a sandwich box. It’s  a 3 layer Tupperware deli keeper that I got at a thrift store years ago.  

My husband and son especially like that we most always have sandwich fixings ready so they can make quick sandwiches. 

About carrot tops,  they are edible but they may be bitter.  I really don’t like bitter so I won’t be eating them,  

I pulled out these rainbow, string pieces I quilt squares I made several years ago and planned to start sewing them together.  They were stacked neatly and pressed, but they were not trimmed.  So my sewing time was spent trimming them all. 

Maybe tomorrow I’ll start sewing them together.  

I have oodles of jewelry supplies, passed to me from my mom, so I made 3 simple bracelets this afternoon.  I think I’ll like them for spring.  

I still cannot comment on any blog even though I tried signing in and out, changing settings, restarting, etc. 

This is what it looks like when I try to comment, I can’t get it to let me sign in,  and when I do go ahead and leave a comment,  they just disappear into cyber space.  

Any suggestions?  

Wednesday in my kitchen

I visited several blogs this morning and attempted to comment but I don’t think any went through. 

And I still can’t post comments on my own blog.  Like Kim says,  it’s probably has an easy solution but I haven’t found it yet.  

Anyway,  on to things going on here. 

When I was a little girl,  I remember my mother sometimes put carrot ends in a little bowl of water on a window sill.  The carrot tops sprout on up and grow into a nice little sort of fern.  It was just a way for her to have a little pretty plant for nothing.  I don’t think just the tops would ever grow carrots.  It’s just a way to watch a plant grow and have some brightness. 

Garden centers and all the plants in grocery stores like we have now did not exist when I was young.  And even if they did,  my family didn’t have extra funds for frills like that.  

This is really easy to do- just put carrot ends in a saucer of water,  watch the water does not all evaporate, then in a week or so,  there will be carrot tops growing in the dish.  

That’s me, the first girl.  The boys are my brothers.  The other girls are neighbors.  

The photo was taken on Easter as we are holding baskets and my brother seems to be eating an egg but the film wasn’t developed until August.  (Probably because of a lack of fund for frills). And look at the little houses we all lived in.  The houses were built during World War 2 for workers at an ammunition plant. 

I don’t remember feeling poor as a child  but looking at this photo,  I wonder how people managed.  

The photo was originally black and white but my daughter found a way to colorize it.  

My husband likes grocery store orchids.  These were all bought months ago at different times and they have since rebloomed.  

Orchid blooms last a long time too.  

Corn on the cob was on sale yesterday at Sprouts 8 ears for $1.  

Aren’t the bicolor ears pretty? 

I like being on the email list for Sprouts as they send out great coupons.  

Yesterday was for the corn

Last week there was a coupon for .99 a pound honey crisp apples and .20 cents a pound onions.  

Both coupons included good deals on other groceries but they were not things I wanted. 

You always hear that coupons are just for junk food,  well, not at Sprouts! 

I cooked the pickle chicken recipe I previously linked for lunch and we did like it.  The pickle juice just gives a really good flavor to the chicken.  And it is not overwhelmingly pickle.  

I wasn’t crazy about the flour breading and think I will try this other recipe for pickle chicken next time 

https://www.skinnytaste.com/pickle-brined-baked-chicken-tenders/

The only thing I didn’t like is how the chicken looks after being in the pickle brine- slightly green- but it tasted great.  

We are still eating veggies from the Easter relish tray.  I had some Greek yogurt onion dip and a piece of the cheese ball my son made.  

Dessert was watermelon 🍉 

I truly appreciate your comments and I hope to get my replies straightened out soon. 

Have a good day everyone ❤️

Blog issues and today

Good evening everyone, 

I was so surprised and so pleased to read so many comments on yesterday’s post. 

Thank you 😊 Y’all are very kind. 

But when I tried to replied to the comments, on my own blog,  I can’t.  It says I’m not signed in but obviously I’m signed in or I couldn’t add new posts.  

Frustrating!  Oh well, no sense wasting time on things I can’t control. 




I am doing WW online ( used to be called Weight Watchers but the name is shortened now.  

And so far I really like it.  The app works great and the points are easy to count.  

I’ll say more about it as time goes on.  

Tonight for supper,  we had a homemade pizza made with 2 ingredient dough.  The dough recipe is just 1 cup of self rising flour and 1 cup of plain, fat free Greek yogurt.  This recipe has many variations and is all over Pinterest.  It is not exactly like traditional pizza dough but it’s very good.  

The pizza is on a 10 by 15 inch pan and 1/4 is a 7 point serving.  I had enough points left at supper to eat 2 but was very satisfied after 1 quarter.  My husband gave it a thumbs up too. 

On the side was some of relishes left from our big Easter meal.  

Tomorrow I’ll make the pickle chicken recipe.  It’s marinating in the fridge.  And the pickle juice was saved from when I made the Easter relish trays.  
pickle chicken recipe

I’ll let y’all know how we like it.  

Here’s an update on my to do list- I sewed on the pioneer dress and it just needs the hem finished.

I’m pleased with my progress so far.  

We’ve started our spring gardening,  I had fun putting little succulents in these copper molds that I got at a church rummage sale for a nickel each several summers ago.  

I bought them for the grands to use as sandbox toys.  They had great fun with them when we had a huge sandbox. But now that sandbox is planted with berry bushes.  

So now the grands play with sand in this water table and they’re just as happy.  

Weekly to do list and where I’ve been

Good morning friends,  

I made a pretty to do list for this week and thought I’d share it.  

I just wasn’t in  a blogging mood all winter.  There seems to be so much drama on the internet and I have no interest in.   

I’ll be blogging things I do.  I’m no expert and I’m not giving or seeking advice on how my family eats or shops or doctors or uses resources or anything.  I’ll just share what I do and you readers can visit if my life interests you.  

That being said,  let’s move forward, OK?  

One of the our recent highlights was a trip to Southern California to celebrate our 39th anniversary.

We didn’t see any whales but we truly enjoyed our 3 hour cruise 🚢.  It was beautiful day and the ocean water was so clean! We did see lots of dolphins. 

I have an early appointment to get my teeth cleaned and then I plan to come home and get some housework done. I’ll also be checking on my parents.  My dad was so sick yesterday and he couldn’t come for our family Easter lunch and egg activities.  

Have a good day everyone ❤️

Weekend meals

Hello everyone

5 of our grands were here a good part of this weekend so I tried to plan meals ahead. 

At Aldi, I got celery and strawberries.  We all like raw celery with peanut butter, or spreadable cheese or just plain. 

The strawberries were on sale and were so good!  They smelled like ripe berries in the store and at home, I was amazed they were very sweet and flavorful.  See how they are shaped kind of long and pointed? I don’t know if that denotes their variety or what but they were just delicious! 

I got a couple containers of donuts at Aldi as the grands like them for a treat or dessert.

And I almost always keep ready to eat bananas, especially when grands are here.  

We are all fans of orange Jello with lots of mandarin oranges.

Friday night meal was goulash, asparagus and bagged Asian salad.  

Saturday breakfast was eggs, sausage, toast and fruit. 

Saturday lunch was pizzas on Naan bread- decorated by the children.  

Saturday supper was grilled chicken tenderloins and turkey sausage

 homemade macaroni and cheese, fruit and jello 

Sunday breakfast was cinnamon toast, bacon, scrambled eggs and fruit.  The 3 year grandson was so proud that he got to shake the cinnamon sugar on to the bread.  

Thrifty tip 

When I cleaned the celery, I saved the scrappy pieces in a plastic bag.  I added the onion peels from the goulash.    

I labeled them and they will stay in the freezer until th next time I cook a chicken in the crockpot.  

I’ve got some more to post but my blogging app is not happy doing long posts so I’ll add the rest on another post later.

Have a good Monday everyone ❤️

March meals and other home things

I made this list for the fridge,  it’s my version of menu planning.

After we shopped,  I wrote down meals I could think of that could be prepared with ingredients we have on hand.  

I don’t think I’ll cook all these things in March but this gives me a daily aid to decide what to cook as the month goes on.  

One of the first meals of the month was a whole chicken cooked in the crockpot.  I just put the plain whole chicken with onion and celery scraps in the crockpot and covered it with water.  It cooked about 5-6 hours. 

The chicken was so moist and tender 😋

If you want good broth,  make your own. 

That simple cooking method made the best, flavorful chicken broth and it wasn’t full of salt like most canned varieties.  

With that broth and some of the chicken,  I cooked a bag of noodles in the broth and added diced potatoes, chicken and some frozen vegetables.

It was so good with the homemade broth and made 3 meals for us.  

This shrimp is from Aldi and I think it’s ones of their special items and not something they will carry all the time.  It was $4.79 at my Aldi. 

I cooked it just like the package said and served it on top of hot rice. 

It was just delicious and tasted like a good restaurant meal.  

If you like an easy meal every so often, we highly recommend them.

It’s also nice to find convenience foods that aren’t just highly processed too.  

BEFORE 

In February, I did a few organizing tasks.  

The silverware drawer was so full and very unorganized.  I really had just got frustrated with it wasn’t even trying to keep it organized. 

And sorry about the horrible photo quality ........

AFTER

After a lot of downsizing,  this drawer is functional and not frustrating anymore,  

Having dividers helps but I think the real key to organization is not having too much stuff.  

SEWING 

Am I the last seamstress to make one of the quick table runners?  I think they are called 20 minute runners and there are tutorials all over Pinterest and YouTube.  I made this one for Valentine’s Day.  

If a person can follow directions and sew on any level, they could successfully sew up this runner.  

I was scrolling through Instagram one morning while grandson JJ sat by me.  

He got bug-eyed when this photo came by and said 

“That’s not right, that’s just cray-cray” 

I think this little terrarium is rather cute and shows it’s OK to just use what you have.  

Thank you for visiting  🏠 

Hope you all have a great week ❤️

CVS coupon shopping - small haul

This week’s CVS deals were not the biggest bargains ever but I got good prices on things we need.

I started the week with $34 in CVS bucks from previous purchases.

I used some personal coupons from scanning my CVS card at the CVS red box coupon machine and price checker. 

The $3 Eucerin coupons were printed from coupons.com and I believe are still available.

The .25 Charmin coupons are from last Sunday’s paper.  

When I shop at CVS, I look for deals that give back ExtraCareBucks.  

Below are today’s purchases 

Before coupons it would of been about $63 ( very high I know, and that’s why I only shop at CVS sales with coupons)

After coupons it was $14 

I have $29 for the next sale and should also earn some Beauty Bucks that will show up in my account in a few days. M

I was especially happy to get more of this Eucerin skin calming cream.  

I have very dry itchy winter skin and this cream truly makes it all better.  I’ve only been using it a couple weeks but my legs and arms are soft and smooth now, never itchy anymore and in my opinion, my skin looks younger. 

I shared some with 2 grands that also have winter skin issues and they both like it.    Their mom says their skin is doing much better with this cream.