February 2 - a birthday, frost, sewing and cookies

Hello everyone

Happy Groundhog Day

It’s also our oldest grandchild’s 12th birthday.  He was home from school today so we took his presents and Whataburger for lunch and had a nice visit with Gavin and our daughter in law. 

We ate in their new barn that is finished on the outside but the inside is still a work in process. 

 The whole family has been working hard to make it functional and look good too.  


Yesterday we took my parents to 2 early doctor appointments.  

Look at this thick frost on the car 

It was 3D frost, almost like little icicles sticking up instead of hanging down.  

In the lobby at their retirement home,  I saw this cute love sign.  I’d like to make one for our home.  

I hemmed 2 pair of dress pants for our son.  

He pins them up at his home with binder clips and such.  

I’ve hemmed so many pair for him,  I had quite a collection of clips so I sent them all back with these hemmed pants

Sewing list progress 

2 of our granddaughters are Girl Scouts and one has just started her yearly cookie sales.  

If you want to buy cookies from your local scouts but don’t want the cookies,  the Girl Scouts will deliver them to a local group that appreciates cookies.  

Elizabeth’s troop’s donations go to our local food bank and youth shelter.  

Andie’s sales won’t start until next month.  

The sales are sort of staggered across the country.  

But don’t feel like you have to buy cookies if you don’t want to,  I am amazed every cookie season at how many cookie sales our granddaughters rack up.  There are a lot of cookie fanatics out there! 

Again, happy Groundhog Day 

And a joke 

❤️ Rhonda 

February 1- homemaking highlights from the last of January

Hello everyone 

The last couple of weeks have just been normal weeks here with a little cooking, a little sewing and some family time.  

My husband is itching for spring and growing things.  Our breakfast room is our sunniest room so it’s been turned into a seedling hatchery. 

In the sewing room,  I made 2 new aprons for me.  The pattern is not new but one I’ve been using for more than a dozen years or so.  

  

Both aprons are polka dot, one is lined with off white muslin and one is lined with tiny black checks 

I want to do more sewing so I made a list 

My granddaughter said maybe I could do one project a month and be done by November or so.  I told her I hoped to finish a lot sooner than that.  I guess we will see.  

Cooking 

We had homemade pizza and I used the recipe on the back of an Aldi yeast envelope for the crust.  

It made a really good thin crust.  

I just put the 5 simple ingredients into a bread machine on dough cycle and baked the pizza the traditional way.  

Dough - 3 cups flour, 1 packet yeast, 2 T olive oil,  1 teaspoon salt and 1 cup water 

I will use this recipe again!  

2 grandsons and Grandpa enjoying pizza and watching an aquarium show 

Some grands are still doing remote school

    

And we do a few crafts when we do school here too - that’s just a simple rag banner by Elizabeth 

We finally got to have Christmas with the 3 grands in another town ❤️❤️❤️

Andie, RJ and Charlie 

And one more recipe.  It’s a recipe I’ve made before and I like that it’s so quick to get it started with a no knead dough.  

I made this with pecans instead of walnuts and it’s really good.  I added cinnamon and left out the vanilla and the frosting too. 

Here’s hoping February is a good month

I’m going to try to blog everyday again like I did in December 

❤️ Rhonda 

January 18 - jumble of stuff

Good Monday everyone 

Here’s the new list for this week - decorations  are stickers

This GEICO ad was in a new magazine and I thought the top card was so cute 

  

The ad is postcards that can really be mailed or just given to someone.  

I drink a bit of tea and that’s why I like the tea one so much.

We aren’t GEICO customers,  I just like this ad.  

Early this morning,  I picked up a Walmart grocery order.  This Walmart is very close to Chic-Fil-a  and Chic-FIL-a has been sending me rewards in emails.  I haven’t bought their food since January 2020 and I guess they want me come back.  

So,  I used those rewards and got us a yummy breakfast,  almost free. 

Then later in the morning I picked up my parents Walmart order. 

My mom was happy that they subbed a 12 pack of toilet paper for the 6 pack she ordered.  

(If Walmart subs a bigger item, the customer only pays for the original item they ordered.) 

Also this morning,  I stopped at CVS as I had some CVS ExtraCareBucks to spend.  

 

It was all a good deal but some the store coupons did not deduct and I just don’t enjoy figuring out the deals anymore.  

I left with $3 Extracarebucks and I will spend them in the next week or 2 but that will probably be my last coupon shopping trip to CVS.  

Meals this weekend

One grandson was here Sunday morning so made a big  Dutch Baby and sausage links. 

Supper was fried rice made with Saturday’s leftover grilled pork chops and lots of carrots, onions and corn.  

 

That grandson was tired! 

He spent all afternoon sleeping in a living room and we weren’t being quiet at all. 

In case you can’t tell,  I am not a fan of all the censorship that is occurring and seems to be continuing to occur in the USA.  

I think the powers that be have some good intentions but I also think it’s a very slippery slope and free speech will not be a right in the USA after this.  

I don’t talk politics here  and I don’t consider censorship to be a political issue but a US Constitutional issue.  

I have no solution but..........

But here’s a funny meme about it 

❤️ Rhonda 

January 16- food prep and a new way to eat leftovers

Hello everyone 

I wrote up a menu sheet for meals we have ingredients for.  It will cover at least 2 weeks and meals are listed in no particular order. 

I will cross off each main meal as we eat it.  

I did a little food prep for the week ahead 

From left to right 

Fresh strawberries in red Jello

1 Chopped red onion 

A sweet potato and white potato to roast with supper tonight 

4 diced yellow onions 

5 peeled oranges 

2 pounds of peeled and sliced carrots (sliced by the Presto Salad Shooter) 

My son said he learned this method on Instagram and they have been using their leftovers to make yummy panini sandwiches.  

You start with a large tortilla like the kind for sandwich wraps, and cut one slash in it just to the center 

Then add whatever leftovers or fillings in each fourth

   

Now fold each quarter in until it’s folded into a quarter 

Then heat it in a Panini machine (I’m sure a griddle or skillet would work too, you’d just need to flip it to cook both sides)

You end up with a fancy restaurant type sandwich.  

I think these are a wonderful idea- and a thrifty way to use up leftovers,  even tiny amounts.  And if your fixing multiple sandwiches,  it would be easy to make them different to please each eater.  

Hope you’re all having a good weekend 

❤️Rhonda 

January 14- not much

I’m not really feeling like blogging right now.

I’m seeing so much fact checking and censorship going on in media,  I’m losing my desire to read or visit any kind of media.  

That being said,  I don’t plan to shut down this little blog without announcing in advance.   But it is a possibility 

Here are a few homemaking things I’ve been up to 

This weeks to do list above - before anything was done 

A little food prep- I peeled a bunch of oranges that had been hanging out in the crisper drawer 

My husband ate them all in 3 sittings.  

A funny from my daughter 

And no, she is not really selling them for any price.  Her family will really enjoy them.  

That’s it for now 

❤️Rhonda 

January 9- cleaning, tacos and chicken

Today was a housecleaning day.  I vacuumed and mopped from one end of our home to the other.  

We have a steam mop but lately I’ve been going back to this mop and PineSol.  

This mop seems to get closer to the baseboard edges than the steam mop.  

I’m making a big batch of taco seasoning- a recipe I’ve been making for years. 

I add a heaping tablespoon of this taco seasoning to the cooked ground meat for tacos. 

My son has been sprinkling it on raw chicken and then grilling or sautéing the chicken and he says it’s really good.  

When my daughter had to eat gluten free,  she really liked that this seasoning has no thickeners with gluten like most storebought mixes do.  

And we all like the way it tastes.  

Supper tonight was chicken, green beans and corn on the cob.  

I marinated the chicken in dill pickle juice in the jar the pickles were in - it kind of looks like a science specimen in a jar of formaldehyde but it really does cook up delicious.  

Before 

After - half of the dill pickle chicken sautéing in a skillet. 

Below is the link for the recipe I used loosely - we like this recipe a lot but we can only make it after we’ve used a jar of dill pickles 

Dill Pickle Chicken  

❤️ Rhonda