BEDA #8

Hello everyone 

We drove to a small town about 30 minutes away to watch a grandson run in a track meet.  

He ran hard and he had fun.  

This home is right beside the parking lot at the track and very much in town.  

Do you see their pet? 

Just a goat 🐐😵😁

Lowe’s is having a Spring event with giveaways every Thursday in April.  You have to pre-register here 

https://www.lowes.com/events/springfest?int_cmp=SpringFest%3AA%3ANoDivision%3AMerch%3ASpringFest_Events_Gardentogo

This is what I got today.  Next week’s registration is already over too.  But if you want to try for the giveaways on the 3rd and 4th Thursday’s of April, set a reminder to register on Wednesday night at midnight EST.   The details are very clear on the Lowe’s site.  

Isn’t that a great freebie?  

Super was a baked chicken and oven roasted vegetables-carrots, little Yukon potatoes and sweet potatoes. It was very easy and tasted really good after a busy day 

Hope you’re all having a good April 🌞

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #7 baking day

Hello everyone 

I made a few sweet things this morning- all with old, tried and true recipes.  

A double recipe of Banana bread- it made all those muffins and 1 tiny loaf , also a lemon dessert 

I printed off this recipe in 2000 and it’s still my go-to banana bread recipe 

The lemon dessert is an old recipe too.  I remember making it when my son Bobby was a baby and he will be 40 this month. 

It’s kind of like cheesecake but lighter and it doesn’t use cream cheese 

Oatmeal cookies - these are crunchy cookies and a lot like a granola bar 

Of course cooking leads to a lot of dirty dishes 

Thankfully most of them fit in the dishwasher and I washed a few more by hand. 

The kitchen is 100% clean now and we shouldn't need anymore sweets for days.  

❤️Rhonda 

BEDA #6 - bunch of stuff

Hello everyone.  

We voted in our school board and city council election and then we had a late breakfast at 

Jimmy’s Egg

My husband ordered a big breakfast but I ordered from the smaller 55+ menu.  My plate was still pretty big, there is a scrambled egg under the 3 strips of bacon and that’s supposed to be a mini stack of pancakes but it was more than enough for me.  

This was the first sit down restaurant meal we have had in so much months and we really enjoyed it.  

Also,  my husband and I are both fully vaccinated for Covid too so I’m feeling braver about doing low risk things like eating in a not-crowded restaurant.  

We did several errands while we were out.  Ducky went to the doggie spa, we went to the bank and got groceries with a Walmart pickup 

I needed to get some groceries before our house guests arrive.  I’m not sure what meals will be eaten here but I’m prepared.  

And Ducky went to the spa so he won’t offend anyone with his doggie aroma.  

Produce I ordered to top off what we already have 

In general,  the Walmart shoppers do a very good job picking out nice produce.  

Our supper was a quick meal- and we had such a big late breakfast,  we never ate lunch and just skipped to supper. 

There were leftover mashed potatoes from Easter so we had a simple Shepherds Pie with some asparagus from this yard.  

And this photo is before I cooked everything 

Our guest rooms are pretty much geared for grandkids but I tried to set this room as good as it can be for 2 adults.  

I stacked the coffee tables that are normally toy tables and pulled apart the trundle bed so there is room to walk in the room.  

It is what it is- I guess our guests can pretend they are at camp 

Hope you’re all fine 

❤️Rhonda 

BEDA #5 - banana keeper and T-ball

Not much to post about today. 

I worked on my to-do list as we have houseguests coming in a couple days and also marked off several errands

Jane (Lejmom) asked about the Rubbermaid banana keeper.  I am still using it and it’s good but I wouldn’t call it miraculous.

These bananas were bought March 25 and March 30.  

The top one is very ripe and the others are pretty ripe too but considering how long ago I bought them,  they look OK. 

With all the Easter stuff, we didn’t eat fresh fruit as much as usual but that’s ok,  I plan to make banana bread with these to have when our guests are here.  

My husband and I eat a banana most everyday and I plan to keep using this banana keeper.  I think it does help keep the bananas at least a bit longer.  

Cons are it’s a big ole’ box and it wasn’t cheap.  

This evening,  I watched a grandson play T-ball.  

It was nice warm evening but windy.  For once, I was glad to be wearing a mask as between my cap, sunglasses and mask 😷 

all the dust blowing off the field didn’t get in my eyes, nose or mouth.  

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #4 to do list and more family fun

Hello everyone 

Next week is going to be busy so I made my list today.  When I have lots going on, it helps to just write everything down and then I feel a little bit more in control

And we had the nicest surprise today- a visit from our daughter in law and her 3 children.

They live about 1 1/2 hours away and we haven’t seen them much since the pandemic started.  

It’s not a good photo of any of us except Andie (in the middle) but I love it because it was such a happy time.

I hope you all have had a nice weekend- and now it’s time to get ready for the new week 

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #3 - family day

Today, we had our first family holiday gathering in more than a year. 

To get ready I 

 

Made jello  cups and deviled eggs——

  

Boiled eggs for coloring and made tea and fruit drink 

  


Emptied the trash and set up the tea and coffee makers 

I didn’t cook the main part of the meal.  We had catering from Texas Roadhouse

And it was delicious! 

The children had a ball hunting for plastic eggs and coloring eggs 

  

  

We’re closing out this day watching The Ten Commandments movie 

Hope you all have a special Easter 🐣 

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #2 - mostly outdoor day

Hello everyone 

In the house,  I ran the self clean cycle on my ovens.  It took all day but I’m glad it’s done.  And it was a beautiful day so having the windows open was very pleasant.  

I had several frozen bags of chicken pieces and veggies scraps so I filled up the big crockpot and made a batch of chicken broth. 

It turned out so nice! 

If you want to see exactly how I do this  Homemade chicken broth 

The only cost is the electricity as it’s made with only scraps.  

I got an email from a company I work with occasionally.  

Right now,  I’m trying out a household product that most everyone uses and will get paid $90.  The company mailed me the products and I do short surveys explaining what I think of it.  

This email asked me to tell my family and friends about the research company.  

I do recommend them.  

I did not qualify for the survey in this email but I’m sharing it to show what their emails look like and that they do want people to sign up.  

I’m not positive but I’m guessing this is for  USA residents only.  

The company is www.esearch.com 

ESEARCH

I am not supposed to talk about the surveys I do but I can tell you I did another one in the fall. 

They sent me a months supply a cleaning type product and the next month they sent a different variety of the same cleaning product.  

I answered 2 short surveys for each and was paid $85 for that one.  

The cleaning product was something I buy and use anyway so besides the $85, I also didn’t need to buy that cleaning product.  

Outside,  I planted all the vegetable plants into raised beds.  

We’ve got tomato, potato, peas, green beans, asparagus, assorted peppers, broccoli and assorted lettuce in the ground now.  

Supper was just an easy meal -and I couldn’t cook on the stove as it was cooling down from the self clean cycle.  

My husband cooked hot dogs and hash browns outside on the grill.  

Our favorite dogs are Hebrew beef 97% fat free dogs.  


❤️ Rhonda 

April 1- Sheet pan supper and BEDA

Hello everyone 

It’s April 1st and my goal is to blog everyday in April- or BEDA

It may not happen but I’m going to try.  

I had some errands in the afternoon so I planned ahead for a supper that would be easy to complete.  

I decided to make a sheet pan meal like I see everywhere.  

I peeled and diced  the sweet potatoes and cut the asparagus into 2 inch pieces.  

For seasoning, I mixed together 

 2 t paprika

 1 t onion powder

 1 t sugar

 a few shakes of red pepper and garlic powder

 Salt and pepper to taste 

When I got home, I preheated the oven to 425. 

Then I mixed the sweet potato cubes with a tablespoon of olive oil and a small amount of purple onion and put them on a baking sheet and sprinkled with part of the seasoning,  

The potatoes baked for almost 20 minutes. 

I tossed the asparagus with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and sliced a package of Turkey smoked sausage.  

I added them to the potatoes and more seasoning and baked for 20 more minutes.  

It turned out so good! 

Most sheet pan recipes say put all the ingredients on the pan and cook all ingredients for the same length of time.  But sweet potatoes take longer to cook than asparagus and turkey sausage.  

And for these ingredients, I think it was best.  

Melanie  we are having an Easter gathering of some of our family.  The adults all have had Covid vaccines and I’m hopeful we can do it outside.  This will be our first family gathering since the  party back in Feb. 2020 

Valentines Gingerbread House

❤️Rhonda 

Messy purse and some Easter things

Hello everyone,  

I’ve kind of been on the go for the last 2 weeks and my purse was sure showing it.  

So I dumped everything out and went from there.....

Below is after I sorted and threw some stuff away - at the top is a Bill that needed paid and to the left is my phone and kindle

All the other stuff went back in my purse 

Inside my purse now 

This bag is bigger than I really prefer for everyday use but with all the going I’ve been doing, it’s been handy as it is also plenty big enough to add a drink bottle, a magazine and my iPad. 

After I did my purse,  I gave that big dining table a good cleaning and then put out a few Easter decorations- none are new, just things we’ve used at least a year, maybe more. 

I think 5 of the grands will be here for some cousin fun and an egg hunt so I filled some eggs

Some have a few coins in them and some have chocolate 

My plastic eggs are almost vintage -they’ve been collected and kept over the years and are sturdy.  

It seems to me that the new plastic eggs for sale now are so thin and cheaply made- they are just strong enough to use 1 time.  

Plastic eggs aren’t really green but I like that mine get re-used.  

More Parsimony   Those orange things are part of the watering system- if you look close you’ll see they are attached to black tubing.  My husband set them up and he can gently water all his beds at the same time 

The water sprays out of the orange things in a fine mist. 

And speaking of my husband,  he is doing great with his new knee replacement.  

He is so gung-ho  to get better.  He even rode a mile on our home stationary bike today and shopped at Lowe’s (for plants of course) 

Hope you’ve all had a good Tuesday 

❤️ Rhonda 

New week, new to do list

Good morning 🌞 

I made this week’s to do list over the weekend and also did 2 of the tasks on it.  

The top list is a new freezer inventory

And the bottom list is the to do list 

The weeds in the raised beds were bugging me and I’m happy all the beds are cleaned out 

But it’s going to get cold later this week so it’s still too early to plant most things. 

My photos aren’t great but we have a few asparagus shooting up and I’ll pick some today.  

The asparagus roots were planted in 2020 and we’ve read it takes 2 years to establish an asparagus bed so we were happy to see any kind of a harvest already. 

Also we have about 6 barrels of potatoes growing 

That’s all the weekend news 

This will be a busy-ish week with several appointments 

Have a good week everyone 

❤️ Rhonda