Blogidays December 2

Hello everyone 

Below is a video how the twinkle lights look in our living room early in the morning - my favorite time to sit with a mug of hot tea snd just enjoy the decorations 

Some of the grands were here yesterday.  They did virtual school in the morning with their mom and then spent the afternoon here.

They helped Grandpa with his decorations in the front yard.  

My husband picks the outdoor decorations and I do the indoor decorations 

I’ll show a photo of them in their final arrangement all lit  up soon.  

I had a helper when to peel carrots and potatoes for supper.

She counted out the vegetables so we both had the same amount peel.  But I’ve peeled a lot of veggies in my 50 or so years of cooking.  

She was amazed how fast I could peel.   I ended up peeling most of both piles but she did work hard.  I assured her she would pick up speed if she kept practicing. 

This roast beef supper was shared by 3 families - my daughter’s family, my parents and us - and there were enough leftovers for my husband and I to enjoy today.  

The first of the month means going over bills and what we plan to spend and budget for.

We don’t have many bills and I keep track of finances in a binder, with a sheet of paper for each month.

I worked out the December budget yesterday morning.  

Merry Christmas everyone 🎄

❤️ Rhonda 

Blogidays December 1- to do list

Hello everyone and welcome to Blogiday #1.  I did a Google search and saw many variations of  Blogmas and Blogidays and I like the name  “blogidays” best so I’m  going to call it that.  

I made a pretty to do list and I’m happy to say, that we’ve already marked a few things off after I took the photo 2 hours ago. 

Supper is going to be a roast, inspired by Kim at http://outmywindowtoday.blogspot.com/

I think I’ll cook the roast with ingredients where it makes a gravy while it cooks.

I’ll slice the carrots and bake them and make mashed potatoes but use homemade chicken broth when mashing instead of milk and butter. 

Early this morning, I had some hot tea and did some Bible reading.  December is the perfect month to read Luke,  if you’re looking for a place to read. 

Now husband is having a late breakfast of toasted raisin bread from yesterday. 

I had a blueberry smoothie.  

Have a great Monday everyone 

❤️ Rhonda 

November # 6 - homemaking today

Hello everyone 

My husband was away helping his parents over the weekend so I used some of my alone time to freshen up and clean our home.  

So today,  I had plenty of time to sew.  

I made 3 aprons for the 3 grandchildren that don’t live near us.  

Two of them were sewn from some printed panels my mother in law asked me to sew. 

 But I know all 3 of the siblings will want aprons so I made a 3rd one for the oldest.  It’s fun fabric,  aprons printed on an apron 

I stopped at Walmart to get some cookie mixes to mail with the aprons and found these 2 along with lots of other flavors in the same brand.  

They look like flavors children will like.  They also had gingerbread,  several colors of sugar cookies and several kinds of edible cookie dough mixes in the same brand and all at the same price.   

When I got to the post office to mail this and another gift,  the line was so long- I felt like leaving but I got in the line and thankfully everyone was masked and standing at a distance and the line went much faster than I expected.  

My husband asked for raisin bread so I baked some in the bread machine.  It tastes delicious but didn’t rise much,  

I tested my yeast afterward and the yeast was quite active so I guess next time I should let the raisin bread dough mix in the machine but then let it rise in a baking pan and bake it in the big oven. 

Supper was chicken tacos with canned refried beans and corn.  

It’s cold here but no snow like I’m hearing other bloggers talk about in other states.  

Tomorrow is December 1 and I’ve been thinking all day that I’d like to try to blog every day until Christmas - kind of a Blogmas like youtubers that do daily December videos and call it Vlogmas.  I don’t expect I just invented Blogmas,  but I don’t remember anyone else calling it that.  

So,  I’m planning and hoping to do daily posts for the next 24 days - 

Christmas gatherings will be different this year but I still plan to do Christmas things,  they just might be on a smaller scale than in the past.  

I’ll be blogging about that and about just my normal home stuff.  

Hope you all are well.  

See you tomorrow 

❤️ Rhonda ❤️

November #5 getting ready for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2020 will be different this year.  I’m cooking some of the same foods and leaving others off as I won’t be feeding nearly as many as usual.

We will do a porch food swap with one of our children- he’s bringing cheeseball and pumpkin tiramisu and I’ll give him deviled eggs and mini pies.  

My parents are sequestered in their apartment.  They are being extra careful as there have been Covid cases in their building.  We will send a meal up to them via the bucket and rope  on their balcony.  

Since we are already enjoying our Christmas tree,  I never got out fall decorations.  I looked through them this morning and was happy to find  leftover paper goods from last year 

This is my simple menu plan 

🥧🥧🥧🦃🦃🦃🥔🥔🥔🫒🫒🫒🧀🧀🧀🧈🧈🧈🥚🥚🥚🍽🍽🍽🫖🫖🫖

I gathered up some of the ingredients to make sure I have what I was planning - fresh/frozen stuff is still in the fridge.  

The turkey is thawing in the sink covered with water.  

The only 2 time consuming dishes to prepare are the pie crusts and deviled eggs.  

So, I made the pie crusts this morning and they are now in the freezer waiting for Thursday morning.  Then I’ll thaw them and fill them and bake.  

My pie crusts taste good but I’m afraid no matter how I try,  my crusts just  look primitive.  

Happy Thanksgiving to all 🇺🇸Americans,  however your holiday looks this year.   

I’d love to hear how you’re doing Thanksgiving in 2020 

❤️ Rhonda 

November #4 rooms we’ve redone

Hello everyone

I finally got these rooms ready for photos and here they are.  I’m very glad everything looks fresh and very decluttered but it was a lot of work.  We gave away stuff,  took 3 loads to Goodwill and 2 loads of boxes to the recycle center.  There are still a few things left on my to do list but they will happen as we have time and energy.  

The biggest change was the new carpet in 3 bedrooms and hall.  It is Stainmaster from Lowe’s and we are very happy with the carpet but the process went so badly, I won’t spell out all details but  the manager refunded 30% of the purchase price.  So that kind of the made up for the terrible customer service.  

This is the grandchildren’s room.  It has a new trundle bed and new curtains.  

And new coffee tables with edges around the top to keep the Legos and Calico Critters corralled.  

The bed and table are from Amazon. 

The guest room/ “just in case” food room is hard to photograph.

I ordered lamps for this room, but we liked them so much, we put them in the master bedroom and have reordered the same ones for this room. 

Lots of food,  checked curtains from Amazon

Also in the guest room - nothing new though 

This is the sewing room and computer room.  3 of our vintage Ethan Allen pieces were moved in here and they are great storage.  

The work table is new and from Walmart 

The desk got a coat of paint, check curtains from Amazon

This rolling cart is for the grandchildren when they want to freestyle craft.  

It’s from Amazon.  

These hall photos show the carpet 

Breakfast room has new curtains from Vermont Country Store and a dining set from Walmart 

Formal dining room had no changes except we took the leaves out of the table several months ago. -no big family meals have happened here since covid anyway 

The living room is not finished - we need to repaint and change around the art but that will come later.  

And yesterday I decided to just go ahead and decorate for Christmas too.

The braided rug and check curtains are new.  

Living room from the other end 

Close up of these Santas  because I think they are so cute 

When I visit blogs and try to comment,  it tells me I am not signed in.  ☹️ I try to sign in and then it still says the same thing.  

I will try to get it figured out this week 

Have a good week everyone - anyone else already decorated for 🎄 Christmas? 

❤️🇺🇸🏡 Rhonda