Goodbye 2025

Hello friends,  

I’m ready to turn the page from 2025 to 2026. 

Actually, the last several years have been hard for our family but I’m hopeful 2026 will be better.  

but we will see, right?  

I’m planning for a more productive year ahead in several ways.  

We didn’t have very elaborate Christmas decorations out this month and I packed away all the Christmas things today and

  left up this 4 foot tree and put out mostly snow themed decorations.  

on the tv are screensavers from Youtube- there are so many there to choose from.  

This is the little New Years boy that was bought at a thrift store years ago but it’s really special to me because it looks like so much our grandson JJ.  

But the ceramic boy was here long before JJ.  

This may not be very readable and it’s just a rough draft so far. 

In 2026,  I hope to declutter, organize and clean every space in our home.  

Our home is not overly cluttered but every space needs some attention.  

I’ll try to take photos and show my progress.  

If you’re reading this,  thank you for sticking with me.

❤️Rhonda 

Orange Peel craft

I peeled a 3 pound bag of little oranges for quick snacks. 

The oranges went in the fridge and I had a pile of orange peels that smelled so good. 

I was wondering if I should do something with them. 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

The day before,  I saw an idea to cut the peels with a little star cookie cutter,  

then let them dry on your radiator and then string them into garland for Christmas decorating.  

It sounded very nice but I don’t have a tiny star cookie cutter or a radiator——-yes, I’m sure they could dry in the oven or just naturally——-

but I’m was still thinking.  

anyway,  later in the day,  the first thing I see on facebook is this reel 

https://www.facebook.com/hodgesfarmtexascooking/videos/813382301307963/

She had a pile of orange peels torn into small pieces and she strung them on a wire to make a little wreath.  

That sounded very easy so that’s what I did.  

I used a length of wire from my craft supplies and tore the peels into random shapes,  all roughly the size of quarters.  

Then I strung them on the wire.  

That’s what I used and had left from 3 pounds of oranges.  

No wire?  You can also string them with a needle and any kind of string or twine.  

I put a ribbon bow on mine and hung it on our junk pantry door in between 2 aprons.  

❤️Rhonda 

[Autosaved] catching up and groceries

hello everyone

I called my dentist office first thing Monday morning and they said to come in at 9:50 AM.  

They were able to re-glue my crown back on and everything is fine.

It was both painless and cost free.  

I started this post several days ago and now Friday,  I’m just getting back to it.  

You bloggers that post daily,  I applaud you!  

Between having spare time to sit and technical issues,  I don’t know if I’ll ever be a daily blogger.  

but on with news and doings 

Tuesday was Veterans Day and we went to our 5th grade grandson’s school for a very sweet and patriotic program.

My husband is 5ft11.  I think Jackson is growing about an inch this school year.  

I’m wondering how tall he will end up.  

This weeks Kroger grocery delivery- I think it was about $72 total 

I think everything was either on sale or had a good digital coupon except the canned cherries.  
2 bags of tomatoes, 3 pounds delicious green grapes, 4 packages lunch meat,  2 fresh salsa that were B1G1 and 2 cottage cheese 
5 pounds butter $2.99 each and that’s as cheap as I’ve seen any butter in 2025

milk, tortillas, tart cherries for a pie 
Grandchildren’s favorite bars, Kroger corn chips were way less than name brand 

the breads and pies were on flash markdown or I wouldn’t of bought them.  

Our daughter has been married 18 years.

  They registered and received a very nice set of pottery dishes that they’ve used exclusively ever since.  

Those dishes have really dwindled done to where they just need more dishes

She asked me if I thought white dishes could be found at thrift stores,  mainly bowls and plates.  

I had time to stop at Goodwill yesterday and found all these.  

They had so many! 

you can’t see all of it in the photo, but I bought a vintage 8 inch Pyrex pie plate for our kitchen.  

The finish is a bit faded but I don’t care.

It just shows this pie plate was used and enjoyed by a family in the past.  

TIP for stickers-  Those stickers were perforated and very difficult to pull off.  

So I put all the dishes in a sink of hot soapy water and left them to soak while I did an errand.  

When I came back,  the stickers were falling off on their own.  

I had time to go to a second thrift store but didn’t buy anything.  

Both stores seemed to be packed with merchandise.  I won’t say prices were great 

but I think shopping at most any thrift store should have good inventories.  

Hope you all have a good weekend 

❤️ Rhonda 

Monday new week to do list

good morning everyone 

I’m dressed and ready to go to a dentist appointment.  

A crown came off Saturday so I’ve been eating carefully since then.

I called my dentist and they told me come at 9:50. 

I’m very thankful they could see me this soon.  

Now it’s time to get busy doing stuff! 

❤️ Rhonda

The rest of Thursday’s cooking, boys and slime and maybe other stuff

Hello everyone 

I peeled and cut up vegetables to use in chili, taco filling and cooked ground beef.

I did the carrots to cook for a future side dish.

The bell peppers and red onion are for salad or whatever.
I cooked 3 pounds of beef for taco filling and 3 pounds of seasoned cooked beef.  

All went in the freezer for future meals.

I was way wrong in how many onions I would use.  

there is only one jar of onions in the photo but I put 2 jars in the fridge.  

They will keep a while but I need to plan some onion-heavy meals this month. 
3 pounds of beef went into a big pot of  chili along with a pound of cooked pintos.  
Lots of dishes were washed after the cooking 
This is ground beef from Kroger that I bought for $11.97 3 pound tube or about $4 a pound.

I was very happy with it.  It smells and tastes right and put off very little water/fat when cooked.

I froze the rest of it plain

I’ve never done it this way but I sliced each tube into about 1/2 pound sections and 12 hamburger patties.  

I put the tray in the freezer and will bag them up when frozen.  
3 of the grandchildren ate supper with us Friday.  I made a batch of our favorite buns,  mixing the dough in a bread machine and baking them in the oven.  

SLIME !  

this is still a popular craze I guess 

This is recipe we mostly followed.  

https://kidsactivityzone.com/fluffy-slime/

We made one recipe split between 2 bowls.  

Their mother provided the glue.  Other ingredients were shaving cream, baking soda, optional food coloring and a little borax mixed with water.

Many recipes call for contact solution which is not an ingredient we have.  Borax in water works great.  

These boys are 5th and 7th graders. Not shown, but their 10th grade sister came and played with some slime too and she had as much fun as they did.  

❤️Rhonda