BEDA #3 meals this week

Hello everyone 

I like seeing real meals other homemakers serve so I took photos of our recent meals to show y’all 

This was Sunday morning breakfast- hash brown made from left over baked potatoes, scrambled eggs and sausage gravy.

I cook lots of things from scratch but not gravy, I use this 

  

It’s not health food but it’s lots lower in calories and quicker to make than scratch gravy 

Lunch that day was make your own salad and/or sandwich 

Supper was a jointly prepared meal 

Meat grilled by son in law,

Sides of  green beans, corn, watermelon and rolls prepared by me. 

Dessert for a few days was compliments of son in law’s mother, who took them all to buy new school clothes and also a bunch of cookies 

 

And extra sodas from their meal at  Pops on Route 66

Another heat wave came through. I planned ahead and cooked some easy to reheat favorites for the 106 degree days 

  

A big batch of homemade Mexican rice, lentil taco filling, beef taco filling and assorted extras like tortillas, chips, fresh salsa, etc.  

and if anyone gets tired of Mexican, they can have a hot dog.  

These are our very favorite hot dogs. 

Ballpark white smoked Turkey. 

They are no longer sold in Oklahoma 🤷🏻‍♀️ So my husband stocks up on them when he visits his parents on the Arkansas-Texas border.  

And a question for you all 

Anyone know what this gadget is?  

❤️Rhonda 

BEDA #2 gardening is full of surprises

During the last 4-5 days of July, we had cooler temperatures and a good bit of rain.  

Since it was cooler and the ground had softened up,  I spent Saturday morning weeding and pruning the front yard flower beds. 

The hot weather had made the weeds thrive while our grass looks so brown. 

Ducky likes to hang out in the front yard and he is attached to a very long tether as our city has leash laws.  His tether is long enough that he can go all over our yard and driveway but not long enough to go in the street. 

I use this kneeling bench when I garden.  And I don’t think my cranky knees could pull many weeds without it.  

3 bags of weeds- and a lot of crinum leaves that I cut way back. 

On that Saturday,  just 3 days ago, I cut this bed of crinums back to almost nothing.  

You can see in the photo where the green part stops. 

My huge surprise was seeing all these crinum lilies pop up and getting ready to bloom.  

I’m guessing all the flowers were waiting down deep and couldn’t pop up through the thick maize of leaves.  

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Wouldn’t it be fun if all plants grew as fast as these crazy crinums?  Kind of like Jack’s magic beanstalk seeds 🙂

❤️Rhonda 

I’m going to try BEDA- blogging every day in August

We will see how this goes.  Like in April, I am going to try to blog everyday in August.  

My first august post is going to short though. 

My husband brought back some old things as he is cleaning out closets and such at his parents.  

My daughter wants the big Frankhoma boot.  I’m keeping the 2 tiny eagle pitchers to put out when I have patriotic decorations out. 

I’m pretty sure our daughter in law I will find a home for the other things .

We’ve been discussing this old spoonrest and it’s meaning.  

“A wife can throw out more with a scoop than a man can bring in with a shovel.”

This is very old,  I’m guessing maybe from the 1920s or 1930s.

It’s obviously not at all politically correct by 2022 standards.  

What do you all think it means?  

We’ve got a few theories and have no idea what is right.  So I really want to know what you all think. 

❤️ Rhonda 

End of July already?

Hello everyone

I didn’t plan to take such a long blogging break and I’m not sure I’m jumping back in to blogging regularly.  Who knows? 

In the top photo, 

I’m on the left and my son in law’s stepmom is on the right. 

We didn’t plan it but we were both dressed the same this morning 

Isn’t her home pretty?  

They have a pool and I’m guessing the blow up dragon was brought inside to keep it from blowing away.

I didn’t even notice it until I saw it in the photo.  

Life is still busy here.  

The new house for our son in law and daughter is being built but it’s not finished yet so our home is full and busy.  

It’s crazy hot there- 105-108 everyday but there is a break in sight. 

Hot and windy- kind of like living in a convection oven 🥵🥵🥵

My husband’s parents are both in their late eighties and have had several health issues so my husband has been spending about a week every month or so in Arkansas helping with dr appts, home maintenance, etc. 

I’m still stocking up and still cooking a lot. 

Our garden was pretty much a bust except for blackberries and flowers.  

   

CVS tempted me last week with their daily freebies and I had one really good day shopping there. 

First purchase in store  it was about $30 and I got back about $30 in CVS ExtraCareBucks 

I thought I would jump back in to the drugstore couponing deals after that. 

I went back today and took my planned purchases to checkout but it didn’t go like I expected at all! So I didn’t buy any of it. 

Early this evening, I went online and spent all my CVS ExtraCareBucks and ordered a f ew things and I think I’ll be done with CVS, at least for now.  

Below is today’s purchase 

The total spent was about $15
There are good deals to be found,  I just don’t feel like figuring them out right now. 

  

This sunflower was a seed planted in a disposable cup of dirt by grandson Jackson in his first grade class.  I kept a close eye on it and planted it outside, watered it often and it bloomed into such a pretty flower.  

I’ve been doing plastic canvas and finished this set of boxes for fall. 

I’ve started a snowman for winter but no photo yet.  

That fruit tray was full of melon and strawberries when the meal started.  

We’ve been eating lots of cantaloupes, watermelons and strawberries during this heat spell.  

And Popsicles! 

Our sad news is Cora and family have moved to a different university, 11 hours away. 

But we spent lots of time with her the last 6 weeks or so and it’s a good move.  We are happy for them but of course we miss them. 

And we will see them in 2 months 😀

There is a huge park near their new home and I’m happy they are in such a nice town. 

I guess that’s all the big news here. 

Hello to you all 👋🏻

❤️Rhonda 

May 11 - crazy Walmart delivery order

I bought groceries on Monday at Aldi for the week. 

But they didn’t have the sugar-free Gatorade that my husband likes to drink after he has been doing things outside.

 So I decided to do a Walmart delivery order. I ordered 2 12 packs of his Gatorade and then I needed to add a few things to bring the total up to $35 for free delivery. 

So I added two bags of flour, a box of Triscuits that my granddaughter really enjoys  and 12 big cans of tomato sauce.

 I  use canned tomato products often to make things like chili and big batches of homemade pasta sauce.

The Gatorade will be delivered tomorrow but I got the other items today.

So just imagine my surprise when there were eight or nine bags on my front doormat after the delivery.

I ordered 12 cans of sauce but I was delivered about 35 cans of sauce! I haven’t taken all of them out of the bags yet So I’m not exactly sure of the exact number they delivered.

 I have no idea how this huge this mistake happened-  

Circled in yellow are the 12 that I ordered and had put away. And then my husband said wait, what about all these other bags? 

I have notified Walmart about the mistake but I have not heard back from them yet.

 Other times when I have received extra Walmart things I didn’t order, they have said sorry about the mistake and please keep them as a gift or pass them onto someone else.

Crazy, right? 

❤️ Rhonda 

2nd week of May -this week’s to do list, a YouTube link and what I did last week and comments

Hello everyone 

First, here is this weeks to do list.  It’s very simple and loose as things come up and I can’t finish tasks I hoped to.  

I know y’all all understand that 

Last week is a perfect example of things happening that needed fixed 

We had a huge flash rain storm last week and I discovered in the middle of the night that water was coming into our house,  

We didn’t have any permanent damage or need to call our insurance company.  And we have worked on a few things to hopefully prevent this again.  Anyway, I was busy with lots of mopping,  removing water from the living room rug and master bedroom carpet,  washing several loads of towels that mopped up rain water - so very little was crossed off last weeks to do list while I spent 2 days dealing with the water in our house. 

This week is so far going just fine.  

It’s really hot so my husband grilled burgers for Monday supper.  We ate all the meat but there were leftover buns and toppings so I decided to just serve those tonight with a new to us recipe.  

It’s a recipe called mesquite grilled chicken sandwiches (but it doesn’t use any actual mesquite) 

https://gluesticksblog.com/mesquite-grilled-chicken-sandwich/

I’ll let you know how they turn out.  

A project that has been on my list for sometime isto clean out a closet in our garage and make it exclusively a cleaning items closet. If you walk out through our laundry room, this closet is right there beside the door. It’s functional now but it’s not clean and it’s not pretty. I got the idea from seeing a YouTuber makeover her cleaning closet. 

I remember this homemaker’s cleaning closet was very pretty but she purchased a lot of stuff to accomplish her vision.

I looked on YouTube but I cannot find the exact video that I remember.

Then  last week I saw Emily Wilson on YouTube redo a closet in her home. Her style is much more like my style. She didn’t go out and buy a bunch of stuff. But she accomplished the goal she wanted to.

https://youtu.be/XNf-3__rxVs

While I would like to get this closet fixed this week, it is very hot in Oklahoma right now. And there is not a lot of ventilation in our garage. So it might get done but I might have to put it off until we have a cool spill.

Terri left a comment but I accidentally deleted it. 

She is very right about the fact that we won’t always little boys to fetch things in hard to reach places. 

I certainly don’t know everything about children but I do know children are not children  very long.

❤️ Rhonda 

May 2- weekly to do list

Good morning

I’ve been to my doctor for a yearly checkup first thing this morning and I sorted the laundry and have  the first load started.  

Now I need to get busy doing some housework and I need to go back out and do 2 errands.  

Hope we all have productive weeks

❤️ Rhonda 

May 1st- organizing a cabinet and things from our walk

Hello everyone 

After church,  I asked a grandson to help me with a corner cabinet in our kitchen.  

It has a narrow door but it’s open all the way back to the corner.  

It will hold lots of stuff but it’s very easy to lose and forget about stuff too.  

I went through all the stuff he pulled out and then made a list to put on that door to help me remember what’s in there 

The cabinets are not full and that’s fine with me.  

I’m guessing some of y’all would like a JJ to help you with some hard to reach places too 😊

Later in the afternoon, I went for a walk and the two grandsons rode their bikes.

This business that is closed on weekends has a great parking lot for bike riding. The boys look a lot farther off in this picture than they really are.

 But it is a good size area that they can make loops on and you have to go up and down the entranceway.

They both burned off lots of silliness during our exercise outing. 

This is in the yard in a house several blocks from our house. I think the plant is called clematis and it blooms every spring. 

The first year it bloomed, I thought it was  silk flowers as I had never seen a real lavender flower  blooming like this.

In case you’re wondering, the side of this house faces the west. 

   

We stopped at the little free library in our neighborhood. We know the teacher that runs it and it is OK to take whichever books we want.
I’ve been reading the Benjamin Franklin book to two of the boys. I read the Paul Revere book and have started the book about John Hancock.

 They may be intended for children but they have lots of good history in them.

In our yard, several rhododendron bushes are in full bloom, above.

Below is a peony bush that will be blooming any day.

Terri

We had a heavy rain a few nights ago and it washed away almost all of the flowers on the bleeding heart plant.

 So it may have lasted more than a week, but not much more.

 They are very pretty plants though.

Happy May Day to everyone 

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA - winding up

Sorry I missed several days of BEDA but my week went off track - 

Wednesday the youngest grandson chipped a tooth at school and was in quite a bit of pain and I just focused on his needs.  

Thursday my husband had an outpatient procedure done on his back and it was stressful but so far,  it’s seeming like it might be a success- it takes time to know for sure but we are thankful it went as well as  it did.  

So Friday,  I tired to catch up doing all the things I didn’t do Wednesday and Thursday.  I got a lot done but I also wore myself out.  

I’m pretty sure y’all can all relate……

So on to today

I’ve been looking for a good blueberry muffin recipe. I’ve tried several but they weren’t as good as I hoped.  Y

I baked this version from an older Betty Crocker cookbook this morning.  They were great! 

2 of them are streusel-less as one grandson said he didn’t like streusel 🤷🏻‍♀️

I made the recipe exactly as written except I used wild frozen blueberries and added more cinnamon to the streusel.  

We needed a few groceries so I went to Walmart this morning.

 I didn’t look at all the prices but I was shocked to see the cheapest eggs were $3.08 for 1 dozen and small watermelon were $8.47!

Thankfully we have 2 sources of home raised eggs.  

But I’m guessing all of you are seeing these shocking grocery price increases.  

We had a really nice treat  today that was free. 

My daughter entered a contest sponsored by a new local company that specializes in charcuterie type snacks and 6

She won a dozen snack cups.  

The cups were identical and I’ll try to list everything in 1 cup

Chocolate covered cashews and in shell pistachios on the bottom

A giant strawberry and 2 blueberries on a skewer

Giant grapes on another skewer

Mini Stroop waffle cookie

A flat pretzel cracker dipped in chocolate 

A salami rose

Long piece of cheese- maybe a mild cheddar?

A long pretzel and a twizzler

All 7 of us thought these were a very fun treat.  

This is not something I will buy but we live in a college town and I expect this business will do very well here.  

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #26 Walmart, supper and a few replies

Hello everyone 

I needed to take a return of something bought online to Walmart.  

I also wanted to get some chapstick and fresh fruit 

Here’s what I bought at Walmart for $42 

Fruit 

Chapstick and water flavor drops 

Egg dye for next Easter. I’ve already put it in the box of Easter decorations that I store away from year to year. Walmart had Easter things 90% off. It was mostly egg dying kit and most of them were pretty crazy looking but I like the way these looked kind of natural.

I also think the eggs dye better when the cups  have two tablets in them instead of just one. And that’s why I bought so many.

Three tops and a pair of black pants, all for me. They were on clearance at pretty good prices.


The reason I felt bad yesterday was because I haven’t been sleeping well. And that’s because my husband was away in Arkansas helping his parents. When my husband was an active duty Marine, I think he was gone as much as he was home. And I don’t remember having trouble sleeping back then. But now when he’s gone, I’m not scared. I just don’t sleep well.

He came back home today and I decided to fix a really good supper. We had meatloaf, mashed potatoes, baked carrots and a little bit of asparagus from our garden.

Lejmom Jane asked about picky  eaters. The three grandchildren living with us do prefer to eat like average children. They would like to have hamburgers, pizza, and tacos most every meal. But the older they get the less picky they are. 

Two of these grandchildren don’t like very much spice. One of the adults doesn’t like black beans, one doesn’t like carrots, one is allergic to avocado, one doesn’t like raw onion. 

Most of the picky issues are pretty easy to deal with. If you notice in the photo above, part of the meatloaf does not have sauce and that’s an easy adjustment I’m happy to make.  

 Cheryl  Some of those Youtubers are such fear mongers. 

There may be big problems in the future but I don’t know how some of these Youtubers can be so sure about everything. I think they must make a lot more money when they have viewers keep turning in for more of their predictions, which all that is is predictions. I don’t think when Covid started, anybody could have predicted that two years later the world would still be dealing with it in a big way. Yes, there may be very big problems in the future. But there may not be. I do think it is very wise to keep someone of a stock pile at home. But if things get as bad as one channel I watched predicts, I think people would come and steal whatever food you had stockpiled anyway. So I’m not watching any channels about doomsday stuff. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I don’t know what the future is but I do know God is in control. I’m not going to be an ostrich with my head in the sand but I’m not going to live in fear either.

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #25 to do list but very little productivity today

I’m not feeling 100% today. I did write out the list and I did get a few things done but not much.

My biggest accomplishment was washing and putting the clean sheets and blankets back on the 3 grandkids beds. Hopefully tomorrow I will feel like doing my normal tasks.

I watched several episodes of my new favorite YouTuber, In The Kitchen With Momma Mel.  Everyone in our household enjoys watching Momma Mel cook.  She was one of the few YouTubers I have found who doesn’t seem to be trying to sell me something or scare me about something or influence me politically about something. She just films as she cook supper most every evening. Her meals are not fancy but they are food that we would enjoy. She is also very G rated.

This is the link to her latest video 

https://youtu.be/2mt6jOuybLg

Talk to y’all Tuesday 

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #24. a little food prep for the coming week

Hello everyone,  no weather excitement today 🙂

We did a bit of planning for meals for the next few days.  

For supper, I made big pan of fried rice.  My fried rice has very little oil and lots of vegetables.

Son in law John made teriyaki chicken thighs

I also made a fruit tray.

We have leftovers from last night’s meal (ribs, Mac and cheese, salad, rolls and link sausage)and lots of leftovers from tonight’s meal.

The employed adults made work lunches and we will still have enough leftovers for supper the next 2 nights.  

I like cooking but I’m looking forward to a couple of days off 

We didn’t forget about breakfast.  

I made a double batch of this recipe- except I didn’t double the sausage.  

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/241105/sausage-hash-brown-breakfast-casserole/

I’m obviously not a skilled food photographer but this casserole looks better in person and tastes really good too.  

Hope you all have had a nice weekend 

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #23 supper and after supper sheltering 😳😵😱

Hello 

Supper was ribs cooked by son in law John, mac and cheese made by daughter Nina, rolls made by me and a salad. 

Then we had some exciting weather and went to our storm shelter.  

So far no big tornados have touched down and we have got some very needed rain. 

We will stay aware but don’t worry about us.  Our shelter is very safe and Oklahoma has the best meteorologists in the world.  

❤️ Rhonda