May news #9 - purchases

Good evening,  

I didn’t take any photos but we spent today with 2 grandsons that we’ve barely seen during this quarantine.  That was really nice! 

Back around the first of March,  our 10 year old Bosch dishwasher started leaking.  My husband said to buy a new one.  So we went to Lowe’s where the selection was quite limited.  Even so, it worked out for the best as I’m so happy with the new dishwasher we did pick out.  

It is also a Bosch and it has a feature I didn’t even know existed on dishwashers- a 3rd pull out rack.  

I use that third rack all the time.  Sometime I put shallow dishes on the top rack.  

Sometimes I take the silverware basket out of the bottom rack to make room for more big dishes and then load all our silverware and utensils in the top rack.  

The dishwasher was not frugal but it was on sale and to spend even less,  we brought it home in the back of husband’s pickup and then he installed it to save on delivery and installation.  

Other brands also had the third rack.  So if you plan on buying a new dishwasher,  I’m a big fan of this style.  

The disruption in the supply chain during this quarantine and not being to really shop in person has really concerned me.  

I’ve been keeping a full pantry and freezer and couponing stockpile for years,  but the shortages we’ve been seeing made both my husband and I want to increase our food storage at home.  

So,  we’ve added more food storage in our guest room.  

In the flat storage containers are different kinds of rice, beans, sugars. 

There are extra spices to flavor all those beans, plenty of coffee and tea, pet food, canned soups, meats, fruits and veggies and assorted household items.  

I have no idea if this was the right thing to do but except for some canned meats,  all the products are things we regularly use.  

I didn’t buy this in one shopping trip.  The stores in my towns have limits.  Most of it was was bought week by week through the Walmart grocery pickup.  

Have any of y’all felt the need to stock up more than usual? 

Time will tell if it’s necessary but if things do all get better,  we will just use these things in the future and be ahead on grocery shopping 

❤️ Rhonda 

May news #8 - mostly cooking

Hello everyone 

I finally made the chicken broth this morning.  I used vegetable scraps and chicken backbones, both saved from previous food prep and saved in freezer bags.  I put them in the crockpot and added water and let them cook all day on high.  

After cooking and straining,  there was close to a gallon of rich chicken broth.  I don’t add salt to mine.  The storebought broths are usually so high in sodium and we just don’t need that much extra salt.  

It will stay in the fridge all night.  Tomorrow, I’ll skim off the fat and freeze the broth in meal size containers.  

Homemade broth is easy and is almost free as it’s made from food that many people throw away.  

Supper was meatloaf made with this recipe.  I did alter it a bit,  using whole eggs, omitting the Worcestershire and doubling the recipe.  

Skinny Meatloaf

My husband and I really enjoyed this recipe.  I took some to my parent’s home and our son’s home and they all enjoyed it too.  

I will make this recipe again.  

This week’s to do list 

Hope you all are well

❤️ Rhonda 

May news # 7 - ordinary days

Hello everyone 

From comments from you all,  y’all  seem to like posts about everyday things.  I’m just doing plain, basic stuff right now so that’s what I’ll write about. 

But some people may think this kind of post is as boring as watch paint dry.  

Some of my grandchildren were here for their first sleepover in more than 2 months. They were so happy to be here and I know their parents enjoyed a break.  

We made play dough with corn starch and hair conditioner.  It makes a very soft, fragrant play dough and it cleans up easily.  

I’ve read you can do this with lotion instead of conditioner but I’ve never tried that.

It’s made with equal parts of both ingredients and then just add little dabs if it’s too dry or too wet.  

To make it thrifty,  use a bottle of conditioner from the DollarTree or use a bottle you already have at home but don’t like.  

We went for a walk and this one picked a bouquet of wildflowers for me ❤️

I went to my parent’s retirement home this afternoon and we visited with them on their 2nd floor balcony and me on the ground.  

It’s better than nothing.  They expect to be “Lock in” for 3-4 more weeks but who knows? 

I took them some pizza, art work from the grands,  bottoms of dress pants I hemmed for my son (my mom will use them in her crazy quilts) and newspapers.  

Besides hemming pants,  I altered the waist on a pair of my pants and sewed a simple swim poncho from an extra-long beach towel.  

It’s for the tallest granddaughter.  Her mom bought the towel and I just cut a neck hole and added wide bias tape to finish the seam.  

Her other grandparents have a very nice backyard pool so she can swim even if all the public places are not safe right now.mm

Meals have been simple too. 

Our weather has been mild and we’ve enjoyed outside several meals.

This very basic pepper steak as delicious.  It was diced up cube steak,  bell peppers from last summer’s garden, onions, and a spicy Szechuan sauce from Aldi,  served on rice.  

Those are the highlights from some ordinary days during this pandemic.  

❤️ Rhonda 

May news #6 - home things and books

Hello!

I’m here, just haven’t felt like I had any news to blog.  It’s been a quiet week. My husband had physical therapy twice and I’ve been home.  We’ve both been reading lots on Kindles.  

Last month I showed y’all the mess when I emptied out some kitchen cabinets.  

here

I did get it all put in a much better way, with less stuff and I’m happy with it.  But this is the only cabinet that got new shelf paper.  I ordered some on grocery pickup and it’s very pretty but I’m not fond of it’s  quality at all.  

Below is the baking cabinet and I’m very happy with how easy it is to get just what I need when I’m cooking. 

In the corner is my Kitchenaid mixer bought in 1988 I think.  It’s been used so much and still works perfectly.  

More masks - this style is what my family members like best.  I’ve been adding wire to the nose area and it really helps with fit

A very sweet blog reader in Waco offered to mail me some elastic and I came this week so I’ll be finishing more masks soon.  Thank you so much Stacy!  I mailed you a card yesterday.  

Our dog Ducky loves to chew so I ordered him a Super Chewer Barkbox.  He was very happy with the food products they sent  but he doesn’t like the toys one bit.  Barkbox offers satisfaction guaranteed so I messaged them and that very day they answered and shipped out smaller toys for Ducky.  

So hopefully he will like the smaller toys.  

The Barkbox toys are great and look to me like they will stand up to very aggressive chewing.  

Ducky is going to pass these toys on to his “cousin” dog Murray who lives in Georgia.

Murray is bigger than Ducky, and getting bigger as he’s still a puppy.   

Isn’t Murray a cutie too?  His Mom Megan took this photo 

Remember when I shared the cinnamon rolls our son baked 

here

His sister bakes cinnamon rolls too.  She made several double batches and delivered them with baking instructions for Teacher Appreciation gifts and Mothers Day gifts. 

And they were delicious!

The Recipe  she used 

here.  It’s a great recipe and  she used regular butter frosting, not cream cheese as a family preference 

One of the books I’ve read, and it’s about a pandemic but I really enjoyed it and recommend it.

I ordered mine from Thriftbooks.com but I sure it’s available other places, maybe even the library if they ever open back up.  

 I’m also reading this series 

here 

It’s a very long but interesting series.  

So,  I’m really enjoying reading but I’m not getting a lot else done.  

But during this situation, I think it’s OK.  

Hope you all are fine

❤️Rhonda 

May news #5 - to do list and more plants

Good morning ☀️ 

This week’s to do list- I’ve already done the grocery pickup and went in to Walmart to buy a gift card that we use for our gas purchases.  

I replanted the zinnia patch from last year, with seeds saved from last year’s zinnias.  

Look at all the new baby zinnias- zinnias are so easy to grow from seed and once they start blooming,  they bloom all summer 🌸 

Our breakfast on Sunday- just frozen biscuits with scrambled eggs but it was delicious 😋 

I’m hoping to get lots done today and go for a walk if the rain cooperates with my plans.  

Have a great Monday everyone