What I'm doing this week

The pattern blocks found at a yard sale are for children but I've been enjoying them too.  It is relaxing fitting the shapes together, kind of like quilt making.

Our $5 bucket contained 2 kinds of pattern blocks, the shapes and colors are the same but the ones in the bucket are wood and the ones on the table are plastic.

Thanks to Tammy and Pam, I found some free printable sheets for the grand children.  Thank you both!

Reading - the devotions book was from a church rummage sale and I won the "all you need is less" book from a blog giveaway.

To do list and bills to pay- I've been busy all morning but with other random things and have not crossed a single thing off of today's list, yet, but I plan to! 

I am sad and disturbed about what is going on in the Middle East and the Central American children immigrating alone 

I have no answers and no blame - I don't want to talk politics either, that gets too ugly

But I am so thankful to live in the USA.  So, I decked out the dining room with some our patriotic things...

I found the window bunting at a thrift store for $1.50.  My mom made the little quilt by the door and the doilies. I made or probably thrifted the rest.

A very simple arrangement- just little flags in a jar.

Also on to do list is a trip to the post office to mail a letter and 2 small packages off. 

Supper will be stuffed Bell Peppers and a green salad.

What is going on in your home? 

3 parties 3 days in a row

Party #1

Grand daughter Elizabeth turned 4 and her parents hosted a magical Frozen party for her, complete with the "real" Elsa and Anna. All the children believed they were the real royalty anyway.

The princesses are actually actresses from a company in Oklahoma City and made the party special in many ways.

The food table - the water bottles are labeled "melted snowman" 

The blue drink is Hawaiin Punch and was a favorite of the children party goers. 

Treats were kisses, special chocolate bars and some blue glittered goo that is not messy at all. 

The princesses visited with everyone, lead the games, signed autographs on the children's colored pictures and sang songs.

They also posed for lots of photos and were smiling the whole time.  

Party #2

This was a birthday party for daughter Nina, hosted by her brothers. The meal was 3 trays of entrees from Olive Garden and a fruit tray and salad. All I did was make a loaf of bread in the ABM machine.

One of their coworkers named Jessica baked this pretty cake. It was lemon layers with blackberry filling and delicious! 

Sweet little girls in party dresses

One of her gifts was this vintage book - it had a gift card inside.

This beach wreath was bought from LLBean- it is really pretty. 

After the gifts were unwrapped, the little ones had the most fun with a sheet of bubble wrap.

Party #3

My Uncle Rex turns 93 this month and there was a big party at his retirement home for him and the other 5 June birthday residents.  About 40 of his relatives attended and my mother said it was more fun than any of the recent family reunions. One of my cousins sang, she picked some sweet songs from the 30s and 40s and some patriotic songs. Another cousin accompanied her on the piano. 

sadly, I did not take a camera so I don't have photos of this event.

My Uncle Rex is quite a man. He was a Sailor during WWII. His ship was sunk and he spent 3 days in the middle of the Pacific Ocean before the rescue ship arrived. His wife and daughter both died young and he raised his only grandson alone.

Now he is a champion pie maker and bakes a pie almost everyday and shares them with his neighbors. 

There are even more June birthdays for family yet to be  - but I don't think any of them will have parties quite like these. 

Neighborhood yard sale - mostly 25 cents each

My husband, son and I walked through for neighborhood for the annual yard sale early Saturday. It was cool with a light breeze so it was a pleasant morning.  We found a few treasures......

4 big hard back books by Mary Alice Jones. 25 cents each.  I remember reading many books by Jones when I was a child. Her messages are so sweet and

The illustrations are pretty and calming, I think.

My son bought this big old metal piece. It is not as big as a turkey roaster but close. He thought he might put several potted plants in it.

Sippy and snack cups- all 25 cents each.  These are all in great condition and sell new for about $4 each so I am happy to have them.

Funny Erma Bombeck paperbacks.....

2 sets of pajamas and a pair of kitchen towels - all 25 cents

A very nice big board book for 25 cents

And a Justin Wilson cookbook for 25 cents. Justin Wilson was a Cajun cook on PBS years ago. My dad and brother were just talking about him at last weekends yard sales and hoping they would find one of his books. Now, they will be happy to read this one!

Not pictured-  I also got some plastic drinking glasses from a free box and 3 jars- 1 is 2 quart and the other 2 are 1 quart for 25 cents each.  I store pantry items in glass jars and when I was trying to put something away  Friday, I did not have an empty jar for this new ingredient so I am really glad to get a few more jars. 

2 other nice areas in our town are having neighborhood yard sales today but we are going to skip them. 

Tell me if you found any second hand treasures :)

June 14-USA's National Flag Day

It is a beautiful day and I put our flags out early.  

Today is a special day as it is the 60th anniversary of our current Pledge of Allegiance. 

I pledge allegiance to the Flag      of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands:      one Nation under God, indivisible, With Liberty and Justice for all. June 14, 1954

A few yard sale finds

I didn't mean to take such a long blogging break,  but you all know how life just gets really busy with family and other  things just don't get done, like new blog posts. 

Thank you everyone who wrote or called and were concerned about my cyber-absence. :)

Saturday morning was the neighborhood yard sale in a big housing addition near us. I try to go every year. This year, my dad, son and 2 brothers came too. 

I

The Lucky Ducks game was $3

My Grandsons and brother  had a lot of fun with it and I think it will get played often.

Like new beginning reader book set $2

Bead set $1.50 - it had been opened and the instructions are gone but I think most or all of the beads are still in it.

Clock for the craft -computer room 25 cents! 

Gallon bucket full of wood geometric shapes $5 (the seller had 2 buckets, I only bought 1 and regret not buying both of them)

Bead set above and block set below

The wood shapes were played with by most all family - this is Grand daughter Andie with her 2 Great Uncles, my brothers.  Yes, they are wearing leas. It was a birthday party.  More on the 3 very fun parties that were 3 days in a row in the next post

I don't have photos of the other yard sale finds but one of my brothers is moving into a new home that is a lot bigger than his old home. He found 2 nice framed prints and I bought him a framed mirror that was just $2. I think my dad bought a coffee table type book about Harley Davidsons. 

I found one of my brother's prints on Amazon- http://www.amazon.com/Black-Framed-Master-Bedroom-Andrew/dp/B000Y115EA

It is perfect for him and he got his a lot cheaper at the yard sale. 

I have been cleaning out my home as well as my children cleaning out their homes. We had amassed a huge pile of cast offs. While I love shopping at yard sales, I dislike hosting yard sales. So my son arranged for a coworker with a pickup truck to come get that pile and haul it to a thrift store.  It would of probably been more frugal to sell but certainly not more enjoyable. 

Finances on Friday - a day late

Join the link up with Rebecca for Finances on Friday


We were Netflix members years ago and they sent me an email today, offering us another a free month. they are hoping we will re subscribe, and we might, but I doubt it as we have Amazon Prime. I looked around the Netflix site and am happy to see they have Call the Midwife, multiple seasons. I've never seen am episode, just a few clips, and I to watch it now.   We will see how much we enjoy this free month.

I cashed in my Swagbucks points for another $25 in paypal.

I went to Walmart today to exchange some jeans for my husband and while I was there I made one other purchase- price matching red grapes for 99 cents a pound. I got 2 bags for $4 instead of the $11 they would of been.

All the rest of our grocery shopping has been done at Aldi. We've eaten only home cooked or home prepared meals.

I needed milk, mostly for my grandchildren. I bought a gallon as it is cheapest per ounce that way. But some of the grands will be here less this summer while their parents are off work for summer so I poured some of the milk into a glass pitcher and put it in the fridge. I put the rest into 2 other plastic jugs and froze them for later.

Our family membership to the wonderful children's museum, just a few miles from our home, expired so I renewed it but got a smaller one. Last years was for up to 6 family members but I went down to just 4 and spent $100 less. My grands all enjoy playing and learning at this museum and I like that it is so close, very clean and safe and climate controlled.

The toddler room at the museum

The water table - always a favorite and somehow my grandsons still get wet even wearing the vinyl aprons :)

The museum has a craft area with all kinds of fun recycled things to create with 

Happy Memorial Day everyone - I am thankful for all our Veterans and active duty service members. I just wish the government did a better job fulfilling medical care for them. That's another post though.....

Product review

Greatly Blessed is a sweet blog with lots of  predict reviews, coupons and giveaways.  This link is  for a Contest I won there for this great Argan oil.
I had never heard of Argan oil but my daughter has been using a few healing oils so I was really interested in this one.  When this oil arrived, I offered it to her and I thought she was going to take it but she didn't so I started using it, mostly on my hands and cuticles, sometimes on my feet.
My hands get very dry with all the cleaning and washing I do.
After using this Argan oil for just a few days, my hands were honestly softer than they had been in years.  It truly works better than any hand cream I've ever tried, and I have tried lots of them.

The bottle has an eye dropper and I just rub a few drops of oil onto my hands just before I go to sleep.  It absorbs quickly and has not stained our bedding or my nightclothes, I was a little worried about oil stains but I guess it sinks into my skin so fast, nothing rubs off to leave stains.

I talk about lots of frugal things but I do splurge sometimes, one is for manicures and I just got one today.  This red polish is quite patriotic looking and just makes me smile.

I also won a book on a rather new blog called Femme Frugality.  Link to Femme Frugality
I have not got it yet but it looks like a book that is right up my alley.


Lots of blogs have giveaways and contests. The smaller the number of entries, the better are the odds of winning so if I see a smaller blog with a contest for something I like, I usually enter.

Finances on Friday and more Mother's Day sweetness

I've missed joining in with Rebecca at Renaissance for several weeks and I don't really have a complete list but here are some highlights from the last 3 weeks or so

I found these giant cans of fruit cocktail for $2 - we mostly eat fresh fruit but canned fruit is well liked by my husband and grandchildren, these will come in handy, I am sure.

They aren't old, the can dates are use by 8/16. Not sure why they were so cheap.....

Got a free 8 by 10 print at Walgreens in one of their promotions before Mothers Day. 

My husband spotted free Tide samples at Crest Foods in Oklahoma City and got us each one. 

The weather has been frugal with mostly mild temperatures- we have run the heat a few times to warm up the house after a cool night and one weekend when it was in the 90s, the ac was needed, but for most part, no power has been used to heat or cool. 

For 2 graduations, I made cards with some graduation themed rubber stamps bought years ago, wrote nice notes and mailed them off with checks inside. It was much easier than trying to pick out gifts and get them delivered,  I think graduates like cash best anyway. 

I bought some heavy cream for Easter but did not use it then. So, a few weeks later I used it make a triple batch of freezer biscuits.  I also made 8 pie crusts for the freezer. 

In my hurrying to clean up, somehow the metal biscuit cutter with a porcelain knob screwed to the top for a handle fell into the garbage disposal. When I turned on the disposal, what a racket!  The knob broke into many pieces and one of the screws was lodged in the disposal. When my husband got home, he took off the disposal, took it apart, and pried out that screw. He had to spend about $10 on new  plumbing fittings when he reattached the disposal to the sink drain.  Thankfully, now that disposal is working good as new! 

I used $14 in CVS ECBs that were close to expiring on a second pocket hose for the backyard.  I usually roll ECBs into another deal that offers more ECBs but the recent ads have just not has things we are needing. 

Would you believe I have not been to a thrift store since my last finances on Friday post?

My daughter personalized this small insulated bag for us. When we do errands or take road trips, we always take bottles of water. This bag will hold 4 bottles.  She uses a Cameo and a Heatpress to put personalized designs on most anything and has had several sales through word of mouth and her Etsy shop.

This little book is so sweet! It has more pages but the picture shows 4 of them. 

it is one of those little gifts that will be kept and treasured always. 

My son bought a bunch of succulents and brought them over with potting soil and pots.

We had fun sitting at the picnic table and selecting which plants to put together and in which pots. He took some of the potted succulents  home and I kept some. We both think ours have already grown quite a bit. 

Retro - and quite delicious-strawberry pie

My mom found this recipe in a Betty Crocker cookbook - I don't know what year but I am guessing a 1960s edition or so.  She made it often, especially for Sunday lunch.

I copied down her recipe years ago and cooked it yesterday for our lunch today.

Below is a photo of my recipe card- I had to make one change. Sliced and sweetened frozen strawberries, they used to come in a rectangle can- are not sold anywhere around here. So I used a pound box of fresh strawberries, chopped them in about 1/2 inch size pieces and added just 2 T of sugar. Then I stirred them into sugar free strawberry jello, as the recipe said to.

I used a 9 inch baked crust, instead of the called for 8 inch baked crust. 

Today, it was topped with cool whip but it would of been even more delicious with real whipped cream. 

Hope you all had a happy pleasant Mothers Day.  Some of our children were here today for lunch. I made this pie and quiche. My husband grilled chicken and my daughter cooked homemade Mac and cheese and 7 layer dip with chips. 

Strawberries are plentiful and low cost right now.

 If you need a quick dessert, I recommend this retro Strawberry Minute Pie.

Planting seeds and a new pocket hose

We needed new water hoses and I did some research on the new compact hoses.

After scanning the 2000 or so ratings for pocket hoses on Amazon, it sounded like it would work for us. 

Pocket hoses are not durable with high water pressure and with big yards. (We don't have either)

I was still a little wary so I bought one at Walmart so it would be easy to return if it was a huge failure. 

I used it today for the first time and I think it will be perfect for our small yard and for watering the outdoor plants. It is small enough to just wind it up on the faucet- no big hose reel or holder needed.

We've got an unplanted flower bed in the front and I think zinnias will be the easiest and least expensive choice. My husband picked out 4 packs of bright color zinnias. I mixed them all together and planted them in 2 rows this morning. 

So hopefully in 6 weeks or so, there will be a hedge of colorful zinnias. 

My mom always grew zinnias and I think they are so pretty and make really nice bouquets too.

But I don't see zinnias in other yards much - they used to be in most every yard.