Where did July go? A bunch of stuff to catch up

Hello everyone 

I’ll just start catching up and say I’m sorry for not posting a single time in July 

First- if you aren’t signed up with Esearch,  please do!  I don’t get a referral but it could be very worth your time. 

I just finished a 4 month test using liquid laundry detergent (both detergents were very good but the second one was amazing and I suspect it was Tide in the new hygienic clean variety). 

Esearch kept me supplied with detergent for 4 months and I did a short survey every 2 weeks or so.  And then I got paid $250.00!

I don’t know how they pick participants and I never know when I’ll get a test,  I just always check my email from them for offers and they don’t come very often.  

This is the 2nd or 3rd detergent test I’ve done for them and the others paid but not quite this well.  

https://www.esearch.com

This link is fixed now and goes to Esearch 

Our new fence is finally complete!  It’s a white vinyl privacy fence, that should last the rest of our lifetime.  

It goes around our backyard- and we have a typical suburban home lot 

I have been doing almost all of our grocery shopping online with Walmart Pickup since February 2020.  

This week I decided to get my groceries at Aldi.  First I stopped at the Dollar Tree that is next door to Aldi.  I wanted to stock up on the shelf stable milk- in case your wondering, it tastes exactly like refrigerated milk but it is so nice to have in the pantry when you only need milk and don’t want to go to the store. 

I bought 10 shelf stable milk, 2 animal crackers and 2 huge boxes of flavored Cheerios - I’m sure grandchildren will enjoy the cookies and cereal.  

I scanned my receipt and submitted it to Fetch.  You won’t get rich doing Fetch but you just take photos of your grocery receipts and submit them.  It takes seconds and you should earn a gift certificate every 6 months or so

I was pleased to see the Cheerios were a bonus item. 

https://fetchrewards.onelink.me/vvv3/referraltext?code=E6TNG

That is my referral link if you should want to try Fetch 

Then I went to Aldi and bought the things in my list 

I thought Aldi’s prices seemed good! 

I was curious how I would of done if I’d ordered the same things on Walmart Pickup so I went to their app and added everything to see the total -I didn’t place order, I just wanted to compare 

Walmart was $15 higher 

This is not an exact comparison as the 2 stores have different items but the Walmart list is what I would if spent on the same list.  

All that meat was used for bulk cooking that I like to freeze for easy meals.  I made a big batch of chili and a big batch of pasta sauce.  

I cooked chicken into taco meat,  plain cooked chicken cubes for meals like chicken noodle soup and shredded chicken for chicken salad, enchiladas, etc.  

I’m quite happy our freezer is so stocked with easy meals.  

  

I used crockpots and the stovetop to cook all that chicken.  The chicken taco meat was seasoned with just salsa. 

I cooked lots pintos for the chili and used lots of chopped onions in the chili and pasta sauce.  

  

At Aldi, it’s been so long since I shopped in person and I didn’t have bags in my van.  My husband got these wine boxes as as the Aldi worker was stocking shelves.  They were perfect for groceries- very sturdy and even cushioned on the inside. 

To close,  I had written out what some people would call a pro-Covid vaccine rant.  

I’ve deleted it and I’d like to say more as my family has been depending on all kinds of medical workers for 6 weeks and counting as my mother recovers from a complicated surgery.  

I’ve always been  in favor of ALL vaccines.  

Why wait when a vaccine could save your life, make people around you safer and take stress off the medical system?  

❤️ Rhonda 

Summer news - yard sale finds, baked carrots

Hello everyone 🌞

There will probably not be many posts from me for awhile- I’m just busy with home and garden and family.  

And when I’m not busy,  I often rest or do things that I forget to take photos of and then blog.  

Above is when I took 5 grands to a local splash pad and they all left their shoes in a pile while they played in the water.  

A fun activity the last couple days was working on this Americana puzzle with my oldest grand.  He is 12 and really likes puzzles. 

This was a $1 puzzle from the Dollar Tree and just as much fun as expensive puzzles.  

There have just not been many yard sales in our area. 

I went to one neighborhood sale that in the past had dozens of sales but this year there were less than 10. 

And one home had all their cast offs piled in the front yard and were FREE

This FREE tall metal trash can is dusty but the inside was spotless and never seemed to of been used- my husband wanted it to put in his workshop. 

  

I also got a box of kid jigsaw puzzles and a case of diamectous earth- all of the above things were FREE. 

I paid for these things below  but not much 

A company called The Fruit Truck was in our town and we got a case of Georgia peaches

They were so good!  We ate some, shared some,  froze some and put the rest in the freezer after we peeled and sliced them.  

For Kay

My baked carrots aren’t really a recipe but a method

I peel and slice and about 2 pounds of carrots. 

Put them in a baking dish. 

Add salt and pepper, a few pats of butter and a teaspoon or 2 of sugar (I don’t add water) 

Cover the dish with a lid or foil. 

Bake at 350-400 for 45 minutes or so.  

I usually make these when I’m making another baked dish and they bake along just fine beside a chicken or meatloaf or whatever.  

Kay- hope your farmer husband likes them 

Hope you are all having a nice summer 

❤️ Rhonda 🇺🇸

June 12 - garden produce, Grandma tricks and meals ☀️

Hello everyone 

The sunshine is good for the garden.  We’re harvesting blackberries everyday and have  picked green beans the last 2 days. 

My husband dug up the potatoes he grew in barrels - reds, whites and Yukon golds 

Some are big and some are little - and there will be lots of potatoes on our menu this summer 

Even after caring for 8 grandchildren over the last 12 years,  I am learning a few new tricks with grandchild #9 

This is the best and easiest  to use diaper rash treatment ever!  Just spray a little on and there’s no waterproof cream to try and wash off your hands afterward- 

It really works fast on diaper rash too 

Grand #9 is young enough to need daily naps.  Naps are always easier to start with a few books but this room has insulated curtains and my eyes don’t see the book well enough to read in the dark room. 

So I remembered I had a clip on book light and it works perfectly.  

I used last weeks to do list but some of the meals changed 

Onions, carrots and oranges prepped for the week 

Other carrots were grated and baked into carrot muffins 

I mixed up a double batch and got 20 normal size muffins-some we ate, some we shared and some were froze

They are a moist muffin, not real sweet- perfect for breakfast 

Some of our Meals this week 

Salmon patties, cabbage and potatoes and bell pepper - looks funny because it was hot and steamed my camera 

Crockpot baked potatoes, barbecued chicken and spinach from the garden - we ate chicken several meals and shared some 

Baked carrots, corn and potatoes, and more of the barbecued chicken

A recent guest told us they didn’t ever like leftovers.  I don’t get it- we enjoy leftovers and they are so easy on busy days 

What is your opinion of leftovers? 

Hope you’re  all enjoying the end of spring ☔️ 🌧 💐 

❤️Rhonda 

June 6- meals from last week and my plan for this week

Hello everyone 

Last week’s meal plan worked out really well and I cooked everything but 1 meal on the schedule.  

My husband picked spinach and a few strawberries.  Big or small harvest,  we enjoy whatever grows. 

I always get a kick out of the chicken marinating in dill pickle juice- the recipe is linked in my previous post. 

I served the dill pickle chicken with fried rice

We had a busy weekend!  

We had a house guest and a family here and neighborhood yard sales, also grands had dance recitals and baseball tournaments.  

I baked a coffee cake and blueberry muffins for our weekend breakfasts.  They were good but not recipes worth sharing or baking again.  

We watched a streaming church service this morning and it was really good! 

I think thats just an overlooked typo- and it should say sons not sis 

Sunday lunch was grilled burgers grilled today by my husband  and everything else was leftover from yesterday’s family meal.  

It was nice to have an easy meal ❤️

I spent part of this afternoon cleaning house so that’s why there is not much in the cleaning category. 

Grandchild #9 will be spending  most summer week days with us so I will adjust my to-dos to just necessary stuff for now.  

And that’s fine - one thing I know is kiddos grow up very fast 

And lastly, we have lots of lilies blooming right now- yellow, white, pink, red and orange.  They are quite showy! 

About washing machines- my new machine does have a center agitator and a huge tub.  It has a water lever sensor and you can let the machine decide how much water it needs for the load or you can set the load for a full tub regardless of size.  It also self adjusts if a load get unbalanced.   So far- I’m very happy with this new machine.  

If you want to look at it more closely - https://www.lowes.com/pd/Maytag-Commercial-Grade-3-5-cu-ft-High-Efficiency-Top-Load-Washer-White/1002579758 

  It runs about $1000 so if that price won’t work for you,  don’t look.  There are cheaper machines that still work great.  

If you think my washer is fancy,  this is the set my daughter in law bought.  

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/combo/washer-dryer-bundles/4cc94347-de57-4017-a52b-259f1afe3af4

It’s a washer and dryer set, both appliances will do a small load and a large load simultaneously.  

But it’s a very heavy set and they live in an old farmhouse,  so it’s too heavy for the laundry room floor and they will need to upgrade their floors.  Also it uses more water than their current plumbing can drain so they are going to need to update their plumbing too.  

If you’re wondering how heavy, it took 4 men to set the washer in place 😳 I’m just guessing but it may be too heavy for mobile homes and maybe upper floors too.  

I had no idea washers and dryers came with so many features.  

Hope you all have a good week 

❤️ Rhonda 

June 2nd - unbusy almost summer day

Hello everyone 

Today was a day spent with grands so I did very minimal home things.  

I took 6 of them to a park and they had so much fun. One grand had the best time playing with a classmate who just happened to be at the park at the same

There were 4 of us here for supper and my husband offered to go get takeout.  

There were a few things in the kitchen to clean up for the day.  So I did that while they were gone,

One thing I do every evening is set up the coffee and tea makers for morning.  

My husband drinks 1 mug of coffee and I drink 2 mugs of tea.  

  

They are marked with a silver Sharpie so guests know which pot is which. 

It’s really nice to just push a button and brew our morning beverages, whenever we are ready in the morning.  

The clocks are not set, in case your wondering if I cleaned up the days dishes at midnight - 

Ducky went to our vet for his yearly shots, a checkup and med refills.  

I think our Vet charges very reasonably for his services- the prescription are just expensive! 

But we do love our dog so we take him to the vet to keep him healthy.  Also, living in the city limits he is required to have up to date rabies vaccines.  

At least the weather is being  thrifty! 

We’ve had so much rain, we have not watered any of the garden or yard in weeks.

It’s also cool enough to just have windows open but not cool enough to need to turn on the heater.  

Below are the links to recipes requested 

dill pickle chicken recipe   

spaghetti salad recipe  but no sesame seeds, and I’ll use multicolor bell peppers and a diced cucumber 

This YouTube video also shows how to make Spaghetti Salad 

lejmom- yes, this Commercial Maytag has a huge tub and an old school center agitator.  I hope I never have to use any kind but a center agitator washer. 

Hope you all are having a nice week so far 

❤️Rhonda 

June 1st - a new month and new things

Good morning everyone 

First I’ll show my homekeeping things from the last day or 2.

We have 2 freezers and 1 is quite small.  It really needed defrosted.  So I emptied it and turned it off.  Then I put 2 beach towels folded to fit on 2 shelves.  When I checked it after 3 hours,  the ice had melted and dripped into the towels- very easy! 

Then I organized the frozen food. 

The big freezer has meats, vegetables, nuts, chicken broth, etc 

The small freezer has some frozen treats, breads and fast to fix foods

No apologies for the fast food items - grandchildren will be here this summer, sometimes at the spur of the moment.  It’s very nice to have easy meals they enjoy with no fuss.  

Our 15 year old washer quit working Thursday.  I really don’t like being without a washer and my sweet husband drove to Oklahoma City to get this new one.  

So far, it works so nice! 

We’ve had a very cool and wet May and June is starting out that way too.  

How’s your weather?  

Gardening is a little slow but we are enjoying strawberries very much! 

This strawberry seemed to have antlers 😳

Yesterday’s kitchen stuff - I emptied and cleaned the 3 drawers and everything in the door of the fridge.  

A few veggies were starting to get sad so I made a chopped salad and peeled all the carrots. 

Other meals in May 

  

Beans in the crockpot before I added the water and cooked them 

Taco 15 bean soup with cornbread and blackberry cobbler 

Spinach from our garden, creamed potatoes and salmon patties 

I haven’t sewn this week but earlier in May, I sewed up a stack of potholders 

I also deep cleaned my van’s interior and got my car seats up to date for the grands that need car seats. 

This booster seat had a stain on the cover and it was bugging me so- I sewed a cat on top of the stain. 

When the grand that sits on this seat saw it, he giggled and so did his brother 😊

Clean van interiors are so pleasant! 

This weeks meal plan

Monday Pintos, cornbread and Joanna Gaines Salad

Tuesday Fajitas with leftover smoked chicken and steak

Wednesday Shrimp, baked potatoes and Cole slaw 

Thursday Dill pickle chicken 

Friday Red beans and rice with chicken sausage 

Saturday Family meal 

         Grilled hot dogs with a relish tray of onions, pickle relish, shredded cheese, mustard and ketchup

         Spaghetti salad

          Chips 

         Deviled eggs 

         Either birthday cake or blackberry cobbler 

Sunday - eat out or leftovers 

The biggest news here is that a very sweet child has been added to our family.  (Grandchild #9!) 

No details at all as it is an adoption still in progress.  

The sweetie will spend time with us while parents work.  

I found this nifty changing table on Facebook Marketplace (it’s also on Amazon) and it’s perfect for the short time left that the child will be in diapers 

It folds up and is very sturdy even though it may not look like it in the photo.  

Hope you all have a lovely June- I’ll try to blog but I can’t promise I’ll have time 

❤️ Rhonda