Homemade puppy toys

We've had our new puppy almost 2 weeks.  She is sweet and doing fine, but getting a puppy and all the gear we needed has not been very frugal.  She needed a crate, a collar and leash, dog food and chew toys and her adoption fee.

She is very playful and also  needed some toys to help entertain her.
I looked on Pinterest and saw many homemade dog toys.  I used long strips of fleece to make these because it's what I had on hand.  There are many similar tutorials using discarded t shirts.

Mabel has had lots of fun playing with these.  

If you want to make some,  just search for DIY dog toys on Pinterest.  

The grandchildren like playing tug of war with Mabel using the new toys.  

I don't recommend these fabric toys for every dog.  Our son once had a Staffordshire Terrier named Angel who would eat anything.  Angel once ate a whole sock and needed an expensive surgery to remove it from her belly.  These toys would never of been safe for her.  

Mabel just plays with these, so far.  And we will be keeping an eye on her.  

The past week ......

Hello.  I didn't mean to take a week off blogging.  But I was sick with a cold for 4 days, my husband was away at his parents for 6 days, and I was just off schedule.  But here are the highlights.


Our weather forecasters told us well in advance that an ice storm was coming.
Ice can be  the most destruction weather next to tornados.  If the ice is heavy,  it can can cause the entire power grid to fail and it can halt all traffic as roadways are just too slippery to use.
This is what we were concerned could happen-

Thankfully, in our area, we only had about a quarter inch of ice which was not enough to really harm anything.  

The trees and ground and all outside surfaces are encased with ice and it's quite pretty.  

It was just warm enough that the roads mostly were all clear and safe near us.  

Next week's forecast is for dry conditions and much warmer temperatures.  😄

My biggest household task was to work on our craft-computer room that just kind of became a dumping ground over the last few months.  😱

It took several hours but now it looks like this.  

A bit better, right? 

Now I can go in there and actually work on something. 

The closet - lots of assorted fabrics but  I didn't bother to refold them all,

Sewing table is cleaned and cleaned off.  

And I sewed up the mending pile- -a shopping bag that lost its straps, husband's holey shirt, sleeping pants that needed shortened and a ripped bath towel.

Lots left that messy room- a storage tub full of assorted smaller containers,  large bag of trash and a box full of recyclables.

Cooking- I didn't do much cooking while I was sick and while my husband was gone.  I had some leftovers and some frozen foods. 

Friday,  I cooked a small tritip beef roast in the crockpot with carrots and potatoes.  It turned out really good! 

We had  big salad with this meal.
I got the ingredients from the fridge.  All were purchased 2 days after Christmas.  I store most all produce in either plastic bags with most of the air squeezed out or in plastic containers with tight lids.
Produce most always keeps for 2-3 weeks when I do this.

The finished meal 

Dessert was chocolate pie- one grandson had whipped cream on top of his slice 

But the other grandson wanted his plain.  

Prep 2 meals at 1 time

hello everyone.  So far, I am continuing with the meal list and it is truly making my life easier.  Each morning,  I only have to decide which meal on the list to cook and I know I have everything needed to make it.

This week, I had a slow day and a very busy day.  So I decided to do 2 meals at once on the slow day.
I picked the Eggroll in a bowl and hamburger soup.

These are the ingredients I used- mostly regular pantry and fridge ingredients.

First I started cooking the 1 1/2 pound pack of 96% lean ground beef.  Once it was brown, I drained it and added the whole chopped onion to sauté together.

The carrots and potatoes  and celery were peeled and/or diced or grated.
For the hamburger soup, I covered the carrot and potato cubes in a bowl of water in the fridge until needed the next day.

Some of the carrots were grated for the egg roll in a bowl.

To make the eggroll in a bowl, just add the grated onions and grated cabbage (or cole slaw mix) to to the browned ground beef and a good splash or so of soy sauce and black pepper.  I also added water chestnuts and they were OK but I prefer to use more celery for the crunch instead of the water chestnuts.
It doesn't take very long to cook it until it's done and resembles the filling inside a restaurant egg roll. These are lots of recipes online for this tasty and economical dish if your want more in depth instructions.

I set out the crockpot so I could cook the hamburger soup in it the next day.  It was very fast to drain the carrots and potatoes and add them to the crockpot along with the cooked meat, canned tomatoes and a little beef boullion and black pepper.  

That pack of ground beef yielded enough meat for 3 meals so i labeled and froze that 1/3 and will it later for goulash or something like that.

I timed myself from start to finish and I was done with all this cooking, cleaned up and running the dishwasher after 45 minutes.  

Tonight I won't really be cooking at all. 2 grands are here and they want frozen pizza so I'll bake a Digiorno one and maybe cook me a Marie Callander pot pie in the microwave.  

So, that's my report so far on my meal plan.  😄