February 25- hello again 👋🏻

Good morning ☀️ 

Last week was nothing but rough!  It was so cold and snowy and icy.  

Thankfully we never lost power or water and the conservation things we did like keeping the water, gas and electric usage as low as possible, were not fun but we made it.

 

Melanie asked about our meals - before the coldest weather came,  I cooked several entrees and we reheated portions in the microwave as it used the least amount of power.  

We also had sandwiches.  

Below is a recipe we tried from Joanna Gaines.  

I divided it by 3 for just my husband and I.  But made as the recipe is written, it would be super family style meal.  

The salad was so good and so simple.  I made the salad a second time and we had it again last night with a different meal.  

The salad is a diced English cucumber, tomato and onion with just a little olive oil and lemon juice for the dressing.  

Apparently the weather got Walmart all out of whack and I could not get a grocery pickup so I went to the store Saturday.  

There were lots of bare spots but I found everything on my list except the caramel sauce. 

Walmart normally sells maybe 50 kinds of sliced bread but on Saturday, they had only 3 kinds.  We liked 2 of them so that is what we bought.  

And we ended up buying the ice melt at a local cleaning supply business.

Our house was very much in need of a good cleaning.  

I didn’t vacuum or steam mop when we were watching our electric usage and the floors were extra dirty because of tracked in snow and ice melt and grands being here.

I also didn’t do laundry.  

So I made my to do list on my iPad this week and I’m so happy most of it is done. 

Today, I’ll work on laundry.  

When we went to Walmart,  we also went by a thrift store.  I saw a vintage metal tole lamp on their Facebook page and I was so happy they still had it for sale,  

I’ve been changing the lamps in our home from lamps with cloth shades that get so dusty and are hard to clean to lamps with metal or glass globes that can be cleaned easily.  

Apparently I’m not the only one as these are listed at high prices on EBay. 

That’s the exact same lamp! 

Ours was $9.99 and my husband spent $17 on some new lamp parts to improve it.  

I’ll take some photos and show how nice it looks in our living room soon.  

I helped 3 grands with their virtual school the first part of the week and now they are in actual classes at their school 2 days a week. 

However 2 grands that have been going to in person classes most all this school year are back in virtual school because the town is have water problems, not weather related but a pump failure.  They should be able to return to school as normal next week after being out for 2 weeks.  

Seems like since the virus arrived, it’s always something, isn’t it? 

A holiday to plan for 😊

And I think this Instagram post sums up my feelings during so much of this last 12 months.  

❤️ Rhonda 

February 17- hard winter phase and bananas

First,  here is how the bananas are faring 

The bananas are pretty much fully ripe now.  The one I ate yesterday was a little riper than I prefer but it was still firm and not mushy like ripe bananas can be.

My unscientific results seem to say that bananas bought while green will keep a week and still be edible using this Rubbermaid box. 

I’ll keep using it and let y’all know it goes.  

In weather news,  it’s been so cold and we have about a foot of snow on the ground.

We’re having energy problems too. 

Our area has had to have electrical rolling blackouts and we’ve been asked to conserve all energy.

So we are keeping our heat turned lower than we prefer and we aren’t using any appliances like stove, washers, dryers, sewing machines, vacuum cleaners, etc: 

Some friends of ours that live just south of the Dallas area live in a town with a failed water plant, caused by the weather.  

First in their house, some water lines froze and then all water has stopped coming to their home.

To at least keep toilets flushed,  they are thawing buckets of snow for flush water. 

Above is part of what he posted on Facebook.  

Thankfully their 10 year old son is helping and thinks it’s all a big adventure.  


I’m ready for this winter adventure to end.  Thankfully above freezing temperatures are coming this weekend and maybe things will start getting back to normal.  

❤️ Rhonda 

February 14- White Valentine’s Day

First an update on the bananas 

I ate the ripest one at breakfast and it was perfect.  The bananas from the greenest bunch still have a little green to them but they are ripening too. 

Kim,  you are funny! But I couldn’t go buy bananas right now even if our roads were driveable.  

I didn’t need to buy much of anything though- just milk, eggs and onions.  

We’re getting the snow that was predicted.  It’s very fine and blowing so it’s drifting in places and bare in others.  

And it’s just getting started!  We won’t be done with snowfall until Wednesday I think. 

All holidays have been different since the pandemic started.  

We had a mini Thanksgiving meal for our Valentines lunch.  

  

It was delicious and there are leftovers for maybe 2 more meals. 

I had wanted to make some homemade pimento cheese to put in celery sticks but my husband was napping and I couldn’t get that tiny pimento jar open so I’ll make it  later this week.  

One of our grandsons made this Valentine for his mom.  

Sweet as can be, right? 

Happy Valentine’s Day

❤️ Rhonda 

February 13 - just bananas

Day 3 of the bananas in the Rubbermaid keeper

The bananas are ripening.  I ate the ripest one today and it was delicious 

But about the experiment.  I am not doing it right.  

I should have 2 equal banana bunches with one in the keeper and one on the counter to really tell how the box affects the ripening speed.  

Maybe after this snowstorm is over,  I’ll try it that way for a more scientific result.  

In case your wondering,  this box is different from an ordinary plastic food storage box.  

The lid is thick and kind of like a honeycomb 

❤️ Rhonda 

February 12 - just waiting on Snowmegaden

Hello everyone 

Our weather forecasts are just frightening-and it doesn’t matter which network I look at, they all say about the same. 

Maybe 15 inches of snow and very cold for a long time - this seems like a forecast for northern Alaska, not Oklahoma. 

Lejmom asked if I still keep a stocked pantry and yes I do. 

About the Great Value green beans,  the ones I’ve bought seem fine.  I’m sorry you had bad ones.  

 My husband had an early dr appointment today and I didn’t go with him.  He’s been scheduled for a knee replacement in March so will need to do a few things to get ready for that.  

Breakfast was some of the nut bread baked yesterday, toasted.  It was so good with my hot tea! 

Lunch was leftover soups and jalapeño cornbread.

For the cornbread,  I used our very favorite recipe and added a drained can of Mexican corn,  about 1/3 cup of diced canned jalapeños and some sliced jalapeños on top.

The jalapeños grew in our backyard yard and I canned them.  For jalapeños,  they are NOT hot,  they just have a really nice pepper flavor.  

Day 2 of bananas in the Rubbermaid keeper 

They’ve ripened a bit but even the yellowest ones are not yet ready to eat.  

🤷🏻‍♀️ I don’t know how they will do- we will see! 

❤️ Rhonda