A thrift tip and checking things off my list

hello everyone,

Thank you all so much for the big welcome back

First I have a thrift tip 

   

I prefer to use our dishwasher over handwashing and I used to use pods, but can you believe the price of those things now?

I switched  exclusively to this powder detergent from Walmart and it works great in our dishwasher.  

I don’t like pouring straight from the box because it comes out too fast so I switched to using an empty drink mix container that also had a scoop

I marked the scoop with a permanent marker at about 1 tablespoon. This much detergent gets our dishes as clean as any expensive pod I’ve ever used.

The canister with the dishwasher soap in it is under our kitchen sink with the label, so if anyone else is doing the dishes, they should be able to figure it out.

I think I read on someone else’s blog that they only use a quarter teaspoon of dishwasher powder per load.  That seems like a very small amount, but maybe that would work.

For now, I’m going to stick with about a tablespoon

This runs around four dollars at my local Walmart and a box last me about three months

We run the dishwasher daily, sometimes twice a day if I am cooking a lot or we have extra people in the house

I’ve been working on that to do list. I started on Monday.

Today I worked on a few kitchen drawers. Why do those drawers get so many crumbs in them?

I saw a whole maker on YouTube using a little handheld vacuum to clean the crumbs out of her kitchen drawers, and I thought that would be a handy appliance

But I am trying to get things out of my house, not more appliances.

When I was vacuuming, the floors I thought about my hose attachment and that’s what I used today. It was a little cumbersome than a little handheld vacuum, but I already own this vacuum and I already know how to use it so that’s a win-win.

I did remember to take some before and after photos

  

  

  

The first photo is the before, and the second photos are the after

See all those cribs in the potholder drawer 😱

and besides just cleaning out the crumbs, I changed out the potholders.

I found these new ones in my sewing room and thought I should be using them instead of the old, stained ones

Gardening tasks are pretty small right now

when I watered this morning, I found three tiny green bean plants have started coming up in the green bean bed

two grandsons are here today and I believe this will be the last of the tomatoes of this season

And I’m thankful the boys like picking them

supper tonight was just myself and the two boys

So I planned pizza for supper. I made up a batch of dough and realized it was more than we would need so I used part of it to make 1 pizza for 3 of us. 

And then the other two parts were  partially baked for future pizza.

I used 2 Pie plates to bake them, I also brushed them with a little bit of olive oil and a little bit of seasoning

  

I’ve never done this before, so we’ll see how the parbaked  pizza crusts turn out later.  

They are in the freezer, waiting for a future meal. 

I’ve got more to tell you, but this is long enough

So hopefully, I will add more to another post tomorrow

Hope you all have a very nice weekend

❤️ Rhonda 

it’s been a while…….

Hello Everyone

We had a very quiet summer while my husband was recuperating from a shoulder injury and  surgery that was much harder than either one of us expected it to be

he is doing much better now.

So things are starting to get back to normal here, and I am getting back to more homemaking instead of just the bare necessities. 

you may remember, I planted a spring garden. I harvested lots of bush green beans. I have since cleaned out that bed and planted another crop for fall

We also planted a few assorted peppers and several small tomato variety plants

The tomatoes have done amazingly well with very little care

One day we picked 20 pounds

And this morning I picked about 3 1/2 pounds

I have made spaghetti sauce for the freezer with some of them, have made fresh salsa many times

And have shared lots of them. My daughter works in a big office building that has a sharing table and she says our tomatoes are very popular there.

Our other summer entertainment has been birds

Robins like to build a nest on our pergola. I think this is the third year they have done so

This year, we have had five nests with baby Robins. 

Robins  grow up very fast And both parents provide equal care for the babies

My photos are not very good because I have to take them from a distance and the pergola is up kind of high.

My granddaughter has suggested we put a trail camera up there and we just may do that next year 

We have also enjoyed hummingbirds

We just had two feeders, but we may expand on that next summer.

This morning, I made my first pretty to do list in several months

I discovered my big black ink pad for the rubberstamps was not very fresh. But I have a smaller one and it worked good

Last week, I made this sort of master meal list for the month.

These are dishes that we have ingredients for and I’ve already made several of them even though there’s no check beside any of them

Sometimes it helps when I’m not feeling very inspired to look at a list. 

During the summer, we did enjoy takeout and restaurant meals several times.

But we live in a college town and the college kids are back, which means there’s lots of traffic and it’s not much fun to go out at busy times

So I intend to cook  At home whenever possible

Thank you all for the kind comments During my blog absence

I’m hoping to be back blogging and back to getting things done

❤️ Rhonda 

Not the busiest Wednesday

Hello everyone 

We had 2 errands today.  The first one was picking up summer  lunches and breakfasts from our local school system  They pass out a week’s supply at each weekly pick-up.  

The second was going to the hospital for my husband to do his pre-op screenings.  Both were so pleasant and efficient.  I truly appreciate when events like this go smoothly.  

My main housekeeping today was doing all our laundry - just 3 loads so it wasn’t a huge task.  

Lunch was a stir fry made with normal vegetables we usually have the last of the Texas Roadhouse steak left from that family meal on Sunday.  

Simple and very tasty 😋 


These pots are in our backyard and are holding deeply discounted plants from the Lowes clearance racks.  

They all perked up and really grew once they were transplanted into bigger pots.  

Good night everyone 

Hope you all sleep well with sweet dreams 

❤️ Rhonda 

Shopping day

Hello 

Y’all sure know how to welcome me back, thank you!  

Today’s harvest is less impressive than yesterday.  There were also 2 little tomatoes and my husband ate them before I took a photo.  

He said they were delicious 

Here’s my list with a few more things checked off 

I did some shopping this afternoon

Below is just a few groceries we needed from Walmart pick up 

The Acetaminophen is for my husband.  He found out this morning he will have shoulder surgery next week.  He has to stop his other pain relievers but can take acetaminophen ( this is a new recommendation,  before his past surgeries, he couldn't take any nsaids or Tylenol). 

I needed yarn for a plastic canvas project and Joann was the cheapest and easiest place to get it.  

Believe it or not,  these 3 items were from CVS and were .21.  I had a coupon for the nail polish and hair products and CVS sent me a $4 coupon on anything because I haven’t shopped there in so long.  

All of these items were from Walgreens and I spent $41 cash with some digital coupons and Walgreens cash for all 

of it and I got back……

$11 in registers rewards and $14.39 in Walgreens cash for future shopping trips.  

Walgreens is my favorite couponing store!  

All coupons were digital coupons. 

If you want to try some deals,  first get the app for whatever store you want to shop at.

Below are some media accounts that give good information on sales and coupon matching.  You can find them on YouTube and IG.  

Savvy coupon shopper 

LA Savings 

Couponing with Kayla 

There are lots more besides these.  

Supper tonight was a doctored up Pizza. 

It was good but tomorrow I will plan out meals with vegetables 

My husband and I both a bit down and anxious thinking about the surgery but I think by tomorrow,  we will be ready to face whatever.  

And thank you everyone for the warm welcome back 

❤️Rhonda 

Getting back to doing stuff

Hello everyone

I’ve pretty much been away from blogs for several months - lots of reasons from me just not feeling like myself, my husband having health issues and several family situations I can do nothing about.  

I can work on myself and I’ve been to the doctor.  One of my issues is responding to very well to a new prescription but other issues still exist-  so,  I’m just going to do what I can, try to fix what I can and just live with the rest. 

And I want to get back to being more productive.   

So,  I made this list for the new week.  And as of this evening,  I’ve checked off a few more things too.  

I picked a little more than a gallon of green beans this morning.  We have one row of them in a skinny bed and they are producing quite well. 

We had a family meal last night with family packs from Texas Roadhouse.  

We all ate heartily but there lots of rolls left.  

My husband’s favorite breakfast is a sausage biscuit or 2.  

So I decided to use a lot of those rolls for breakfast sandwiches.  

I happen to have a good supply of breakfast sausage bought during Kroger sales.  

So I cooked up 3 rolls and made about 2 dozen breakfast sandwiches.  

I put all but 1 box in the freezer and the other one in the fridge.  

They heat up easier when their are not frozen.  

He can just heat up 1 or 2 for his breakfasts.  

And when a box empties,  we will take a frozen box and put in the fridge.  

In the sewing room,  I’ve started 2 more strip quilts.  

It’s my favorite kind to sew.  

We have 2 twin extra long beds in a guest room and regular quilts are just not long enough for these beds 

so I’ll sew these to be size that covers them like a bed spread.  

That’s all for now 

❤️Rhonda