Blogidays December 22- meals and fudge

Hello everyone 

Yesterday, Ducky visited the doggy spa, mainly because he was so smelly.  I noticed his dog bed was also stinky.  The tag on it said to only spot clean but spot cleaning was not going to freshen it up so I machine wash and dried it.  It looks great now, doesn’t it? And it smells nice. 

In my opinion, those tags that say not to machine wash are not usually reliable.  I’ve machine washed all kinds of stuffed toys, ball caps, athletic shoes and pillows and now I’ll keep washing this dog bed when it needs it. 

Grand kids were here today.  I made baked tacos for lunch.  For the toppings, I diced them finely and mixed together and then just added a small handful to each taco.  

 

I chopped pecans and planned bake banana bread and make fudge.  

So far, only the fudge has happened and it turned out delicious,  

I used This Fudge Recipe 

It called for 3 cups of chocolate chips.  I put the milk chocolate chips in a measuring cup and added enough semisweet chips to make 3 cups.

I put the chips in a microwave safe bowl with 1/4 cup diced butter and I can of sweetened condensed milk.  

Then I microwaved it for 3 minutes on 50% power for 3 minutes,  it was melted then and I just stirred it until it was combined and added 1 t vanilla and about a cup of chopped pecans.

The I spread it in a buttered dish and let it cool and then cut.  

It is really nice fudge- creamy and just firm enough to cut.  

If you need a quick treat for Christmas,  I recommend this fudge 

That puzzle that was started a few days ago is now finished and back in the box.  

It’s almost Christmas- hope you all are ready with your preparations and can enjoy the special day

Replies 

About the yard signs - I believe both sign companies are franchises.  Card My Yard has been in our town for maybe 3 years and now Gypsy Signs are here.  In general, they put the signs out the night before the special day and then pick them back up after dark the next day but that can vary.  I’ve seen them for weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, graduations, births of new babies, promotions, back to school- etc.  

I think if someone wanted to start a business, a sign franchise might be something to look into. 

The Star was quite visible for us last night as we had very clear skies.  I’m sorry so many of y’all had clouds.  

❤️Rhonda 

Blogidays-December 21- Star of Bethlehem

I’m guessing you’ve all heard about the very rare space occurrence this evening - some are calling it the Star of Bethlehem or the Great Conjunction.  

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/the-great-conjunction-of-jupiter-and-saturn

Ever since I heard about it,  this song has been playing in my head and I have watched both of these on Youtube almost daily 

Star of Bethlehem with lyrics in captions 

And Star of Bethlehem sung by 3 young sisters 

We are planning to watch the southwest sky around sunset tonight and I just might keep listening to Star of Bethlehem whenever I want 

Merry Christmas everyone 

❤️Rhonda 

Blogidays December 20 - Merry Christmas sign

Hello

I entered a Facebook contest last week from a new business that does yard sign greeting cards..

I was surprised when I won and thought the prize would just be the 2 elves with the ‘we miss you’ and tree. 

The company just sent me this photo of the sign they put out at my parents retirement home.  They live on the 2nd floor and can see it from their balcony.  Many of the residents walk daily on the sidewalk and I think they will enjoy seeing it too. 

These yard cards are great!  The company sets up the ordered message and then also removes it, usually in the evening so the sign is a surprise to the recipient.  

This business is called Sign Gypsies-Stillwater 

Isn’t this  a fun greeting? 

❤️ Rhonda 

Blogidays December 19 - birthday fun

Hello everyone, 

First I want to thank everyone for the sweet comments about my granddaughter’s project.  She was on the front page of our newspaper today and now has more orders for ornaments - several of them were from people with families that have been through Covid and want the ornaments to commemorate what they went through in 2020.  In fact she has so many more ornaments to make,  I’m going to help her tomorrow.  

I’m still amazed how much she accomplished and how many people it has made happy ❤️

And thank you all for the loving comments about her 

Today we celebrated my birthday and it’s been a great day.

I went to see my parents first thing and my mom crocheted this adorable snowman for me.  

I talked to or saw all my grandchildren and children today.  

We ordered Panera catering for our lunch -salads, soups, baguettes, sandwiches and desserts.  It was delicious and there was so much, we had it for supper and will have it tomorrow and maybe Monday too.  (I know everyone is not a fan of leftovers but we are) 

My children gave me some wonderful scented candles, wax melts, potpourri and  hand lotions.  

And my husband gave me a beautiful pearl necklace. 

I took a few more photos at my parents retirement home.  

  

Both of these smaller trees have lighted gifts around the base.  They look really good in person.  

If y’all have read my blog any length of time,  you know I like to grow succulents. 

I saw this mini succulent that hangs on a car mirror on Mercari and it may be cute buts it’s ridiculous and would most likely block a lot of the drivers vision.  

But it is really cute 😊

Good night everyone. 

Hope you all have a good day 

❤️Rhonda 

 

Blogidays December 18 - our little philanthropist

Hello everyone 

This will be a brag post about our oldest Granddaughter- 10 year old Elizabeth 

I think these photos will explain what she did 

She ended up selling 97 ornaments and raising almost $600

Below is what she bought (with Walmart grocery pickup) 

We helped her family pick up and deliver all this to the hospital.  

They loaded the snacks into their van and the drinks went in the back of my husband’s pickup.   

Our former next door neighbor is the Public Relations director at our little hospital and she was just so happy with this donation. 

She said there are 90 workers in the Covid unit (at this little hospital😳) and she said this will really help them be more comfortable and help raise their spirits.  

Little people can do big things and I’m very proud of her and happy that the workers will get a little boost

❤️Rhonda 

Blogidays December 17 - lunch and a school program

Hello - I didn’t forget to post today, it was just a busy day.  

Some of the grands were here for the afternoon after they did their virtual school work and zooms. 

This was our impromptu lunch - 

fruit, 

little frozen pizzas

French fries because the kiddos asked for them and they baked with the pizzas

Chocolate chip muffins because Elizabeth wanted to make and eat them

 Chocolate Chip Muffins is on of the first recipes I ever got from the internet and have been baking them since 1998. 

In the evening, we drove out the the country school where 2 grandsons go and saw the 6th grader play his trumpet in a Christmas concert 

A friend of ours is a single foster mother and has adopted 4 of her foster children.  She posts some of their activities on FB and this one was so funny,  I thought y’all would all laugh at it.  

She has lots of confidence,  doesn’t she?  

Good evening everyone 

❤️ Rhonda 

Blogidays December 16- pecans, treats and funnies

Hello everyone 

My husband has spent a lot of his recent free time picking out pecans,  He harvested 2 1/2 five gallon buckets full from trees in son Clint’s pastures.  

Most years, those native trees don’t produce much but this year they produced lots. 

 

So far,  we’ve put 4 containers in the freezer.
The container with an aqua lid is big,  it will easily hold 5 pounds of flour.  

I guess I can make about all the pecan treats we want. 

Above are some treat boxes my daughter made for coworkers.  They look yummy, don’t they? 

I started a new jigsaw puzzle.  I made sure to get the border done before grandchildren arrived yesterday.  

This is not a hard puzzle but I get annoyed by puzzles with pieces that have straight sides that aren’t part of the border 😳

  

Don’t those look like they should be in the border? 

I won a Facebook giveaway but I can’t show it yet. 

I also read on Facebook that my cousin in West Texas won this chair.  

It’s a fun looking chair but I’m glad I didn’t win it.  

What would you do with it when it’s not Christmas? 

Just a very funny joke 

And a very appropriate mug for 2020 - I don’t own it,  I just saw it for sale on Mercari 

Hope you are all well 

❤️ Rhonda 

Blogidays - December 15- YouTube channels I like to watch

I like to watch homemaking videos on YouTube.  There are so many channels to choose from and these are a few I have watched for awhile and most of these always have good videos.  

I like homemakers who show real things they are doing - not made up situations just to have something to film.  I also like calm YouTubers,  there is so much drama in the world and I prefer to watch peaceful videos.  

All of these women are homemakers but they have different style homes, different size families,  different cooking styles and live in different parts of the world.  I don’t agree with everything they say but I do learn from and am entertained by all of them.  

But they all seem “real” 

Hillary of Old World Home - she lives in New Jersey and has a beautiful home all done on a budget

Kate lives in California and would be described as a Hippie if  this was a different decade - she can go off on long winded tangents so she’s good watch when you want some thing long to play. 

She’s a vegan married to a man from India.  She gardens a lot! 

This is Lilliana, she is Portuguese and lives on a military base with her British husband and 2 sons.  I first watched her do a British grocery haul and I found it so interesting.

She does thrifting and cooking videos too.

Erika lives in Virginia and does all kind of videos from traveling to decorating to cooking.  They have done many remodeling projects too, all on a low budget.  

I subscribe to a lot of channels but these are the ones I most always watch when they have a new one. 

If you watch Youtube, please tell me who your favorite channels are.  

Merry Christmas 🎄 

❤️ Rhonda 

 

Blogidays December 14 weekly to do list

Hello

Today’s post is short - I spent a good bit of today giving our floors a much needed deep clean.  

My husband cleaned the bathrooms 🥰

Ducky mostly laid around and napped.  

Now we’re watching a very predictable but also very pretty Hallmark movie 

Good evening all 

❤️ Rhonda

PS - we are expecting more snow tonight and tomorrow ⛄️ ❄️ ⛄️

Blogidays December 13 snow, lights and a neat sewing idea

Good evening 

We had a quiet day at home and did get  several inches of fluffy snow 

  

We watched church online 

It was really good message, about how the lineage of Christ is full of imperfect people 

Supper last night was a baked chicken and vegetables 

We had some of the leftover chicken in chef salads for supper tonight.  

Last night before the snow came, we drove through some of our town and saw some really nice Christmas lights 

I like all the lights whether they are multicolor and multi themed or whether they look like a designer did them.  

They all seem to say “merry Christmas” to everyone who sees them

I saw this free standing stocking idea in an email this morning and thought some of y’all might like to see it,  

Everyone doesn’t have a mantle or want to put up stocking hooks so this could be a perfect solution for them 

https://so-sew-easy.com/no-hang-christmas-stocking-no-fire-place/

Merry Christmas everyone 

❤️ Rhonda 

Blogidays December 12 - kiddo fun, groceries, meals and a reply

Hello everyone 

The 3 local grands spent the night with us.  

We worked some of the jigsaw puzzles I bought at the new salvage store 

We made some bead and chenille stem creations 

And I put the littlest guy to work.  This laundry room cabinet is deep and I saw there were 3 jugs of Tide hiding in the very back.

He happily crawled in and pulled them to the front so I can use them 

I did a Walmart grocery pickup this morning.  I got produce for next week and I wanted to get more Hershey chocolate mint candy canes before they are gone- I’m sure they will only be available through Christmas. I also got a box of Oreo candy canes.  

The Oreo ones are OK but not nearly as good as the Hershey chocolate mint ones. 

I got a few substitutes and the best one was getting a 22 ounce box of ham instead of the 9 ounce I ordered and paid for 

The new grapes are very good.

As always,  I rebag the green vegetables and squeeze out all the air.  I think they last a lot longer and are crispier when kept in a sealed container.  

I like these plain storage bags that use a twist tie- they are about .02 each and I think that’s budget friendly.  

I ordered bananas again and today they arrived yellow instead of green like the last green bunch. 

Meals -

The turkey lentil chili was ok but when I make it again,  I will the spice blend I prefer from  flat landers chili  instead of the spice amounts on yesterday’s recipe.  

flat landers chili

Supper last night was hotdogs, chili, corn and oranges. 

Breakfast was scrambled eggs and oven bacon.  The grands had reheated frozen pancakes and I baked the last 2 freezer biscuits for my husband.  I had my eggs and bacon on a pita.  

That meal was enjoyed and used up 4 bags of odds and ends in the freezer.  

Lunch was sandwiches with grapes and the children all had a candy cane for dessert. 

Supper will be a baked chicken with salad and sweet potatoes.  

The weather forecast is for snow tonight.  We do get snow in Oklahoma but not too often so it’s kind of exciting.  And it won’t bother us if the roads get bad because we aren’t going anywhere.  

Replies - 

Thnak you,  you’re very sweet and what an accomplishment to make 4 quilts since September.  

Frugal Things Everyday is still active but she moved to Wordpress instead of Blogger.  Her blog looks different but she is still putting out really good posts. 

https://frugalthingseveryday.com/

I’m not sure but I think you’ll need a Wordpress account if you want to leave her a comment 

The grands have gone home and now I’m going to relax with some hot 🫖 

Hope you’re all having a good Saturday 

❤️Rhonda 

Blogidays December 11 - supper, books and a pretty mantle

Hello everyone 

Tonight we are having chili and hot dogs for supper.  I plan to loosely follow this recipe and cook it on the stovetop and will let you know tomorrow how we like it.

We like lentil taco filling but I’ve never put lentils in chili before. 

turkey lentil chili recipe link ⬅️⬅️⬅️⬅️

Books I’ve been reading 

If My Heart Had Wings

I like 80% of this book.  I liked reading  about how some pilots trained for WWII as I imagined this could of been how one of uncles trained during then. 

The part I didn’t like was the awful 2nd husband of the lead character so I just skimmed through that part. 

But all the history about life during WWII was so interesting.  

I’m in the middle of this book.  

The Darling Dahlias and the Voodoo Lily

This is book #9 in the Darling Dahlias series, set place in a tiny Alabama town in the 1930’s.  Each book is stand alone but I think they are better if you read the whole series.  

I got most of mine from Thriftbooks.com  but I’m pretty sure they are available at public libraries.  

My daughter works in a library and reads a lot.  I knew she would think was funny 

And speaking of my daughter,  below is her 2020 mantel and tree 

I don’t read as much as she does but I have been enjoying reading.  

Any book recommendations?   

Merry Christmas 

❤️ Rhonda