4th of July and happenings

Hello everyone!

This is the front page of our newspaper today, I think it is the  nicest front page I've seen in a long time

This is an odd sight in our town - 4 giant dogs in a storage lot.  We don't know what they are for but they are great looking dogs and very well made.  My husband is 5'11" and they are taller than he is!

I made a batch of granola last week.  It uses very simple ingredients and turned out great!  I like to eat a little granola on top of yogurt.  

This is tastier and much cheaper than buying those little flip cups of yogurt with topping.  

I got the recipe from an Internet friend, Michelle @ homemakingwithlove

You can find her on Instagram and YouTube. 

Thanks Michelle ❤️

I followed this recipe, adding about 1/2 cup of coconut and because we have a bounty of pecans, about 1 1/2 cups.  I also baked about 25 minutes as I like granola extra crunchy.

Sewing - I cut out more than 20 burp cloths for my grandchildren and for gifts.  

The fabric is from Joanns.  

Below is another meal for a group that ended up being a meal to go.  

My aunt and uncle were in our town and they met us along with my parents at our daughter's house.  

Steak fingers,

Mashed potatoes

Gravy

Chopped tomatoes, onions and cucumbers dressed with a little balsamic dressing

Chopped fresh fruit

And a box of Aldi cookies- my daughter surprised us with a warm blackberry cobbler so all the adults had cobbler and only the children had cookies. 

I packed all the food into Dollar Tree plastic containers and everything carried nicely in my big Thirty One Gifts tote.  I put cold foods on one side and hot foods on the other.  

My husband put in a small garden, this first summer of his retirement.  He enjoys it and has harvested quite a few radishes, onions, yellow squash and bell peppers.  The tomatoes are starting to ripen like crazy 😍

 

We always seem to have a craft or two going on here.  

Below is Elizabeth making a birthday card for her dad.  

JJ likes to cut- I think we could hire him out as a confetti maker.  

He likes to ham for camera too 😍

Perler beads are so fun 

Elizabeth made a Grand Old Flag 

And I made a big Captain America.  

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                                       Happy 4th of July to all my American readers 

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June 22 - catching up

Hello everyone! Here are some highlights from the last week or so .........

We found these 18 ounce Pfaltzgraf mugs at the base exchange for just $3.99.  We would of bought more but they only had 3. 

I bought 3 sets of nails to be more than ready for Fouth of July.  One set is royal blue glitter, one set is red and I planned to mix and match those 2 sets and then I found the red, blue stripe and white with anchors set.  

Patriotic things are always appropriate as far as I'm concerned.  

Fathers Day- most all our family was here- 20 of us 😍

Lunch was tossed salad with tomatoes, onions and radishes from our garden, 

Garlic bread, our son made pasta salad and I made doubled eggs.  

My husband smoked brisket and a turkey breast, our daughter in law brought a potato casserole and I cooked green beans with tiny red potatoes. 

Fresh fruit 

My dad baked a blackberry pie with wild blackberries he picked near their retirement home and our daughter in law also brought a Texas sheet cake. 

The entertainment was a water balloon war with those new fangled quick and easy to fill balloon kits. 

It was messy and the main participants were the oldest 5 grands and the 4 young men.  They had a great time.  

It wasn't easy but we managed to get a decent group photo of the 7 grands,  they are wearing the dye shirts made with kits that Elizabeth got for her birthday.  Those squirt bottle tie dye kits work good too - but wear gloves if you use them.  I didn't and it took several days for all the dye to disappear from my cuticles. 

Our town has 2 brand new municipal water park splash pads. 

One is not too far from our home and has no admission fees.  

I took 3 of the grands this week and they had a wonderful time playing in the water for 2 hours.  

Then they had lunch in a pavilion next to the water park.  The summer lunch program, which I believe is a federal funded program operated by the school district, serves lunch there every week day to all children 18 years or younger.  

That day's lunch was a turkey and cheese sandwich with a fresh pear, baby carrots and a choice of white or chocolate milk.  

The grands were hungry after their water play and they gobbled down their sack lunches.  

Then we came home and they were all asleep within a few minutes.  

And I had a nice bowl of leftover salad from Sunday for my lunch and ate in peace while they all napped.  

I expect we will make more trips to the water park this summer.  

Granddaughter Andie stayed with us a few days.  She especially likes to "do crafts" which means she wants to cut and glue. She doesn't really care about structured crafts so I just spread the table with an old disposable tablecloth and gave her child safe scissors, a bottle of glue and scrap craft paper and a few stickers.  She was happy all day Tuesday just glueing and cutting away and making nothing.  

I think she is a good at drawing for a little girl who just turned 4.  

Can you guess what this is? 

A banana getting ready to swim in the ocean 😂

Have a good rest of the week everyone!  I'll be catching up on some housework and staying inside as much as possible.  It is hot here in Oklahoma, just like it always is in summer.  

June 14 - morning sky

Genesis 9:12-16

To the east, I was looking at a beautiful sunrise sky.

And when I turned to the West, I saw a huge rainbow.

The rainbow is so big and I couldn't get it all in one photo.  

Thank you God, for this rainbow as a promise from you to never destroy all life on earth with water again.  

comments turned off for this post- 

This is not a political or social discussion blog, 

I just want to share this mornings photos and some of my favorite Bible verses.  

June 12- church breakfast, CVS and bracelet information

We attend a tiny church. One man always cooks a big church-wide breakfast but he is away on vacation. ( the normal menu is eggs 2 ways, hash browns, biscuits and gravy and breakfast meats. )  We agreed to do the meal in his place but we did something much simpler.

Fresh fruit and assorted sweet rolls/ doughnuts all from Aldi. We also heated up precooked bacon and sausage.  One man grumbled about the lack of his favorites but everyone else happily ate fruit and doughnuts and meat.  

This little church building is rather quirky.  Can you tell from the photo that the serving bar is covered with floor linoleum?  

CVS today with no Extra Care Bucks.  

I only used coupons from recent newspapers and from the CVS red box scanner.  

The dropped from $134 to $41 

I got back $19 in ExtraCareBucks and should get $10 in BeautyBucks within 2 days.  

I had some questions about these bracelets. 

I used this tutorial for the patriotic one http://blog.consumercrafts.com/seasonal/summer-projects-seasonal/4th-of-july-patriotic/patriotic-bead-bracelet/

And the black with stars one is made almost the very same.

Yes, the beads do move around and are supposed to.  

I could not find the glue on end clasps in my town or from any USA store.  I ordered them from a very low cost EBay seller in China.

Good night 

And Good Bye weekend. As always, you go by so fast! 

June 6- June 11

Hello everyone, 

I had this unrealistic idea that I would blog everyday in June.  Obviously that didn't happen.  But here's what I've been up to.  

I took a supper to share with my parents at their retirement apartment.  My daughter's family also ate this meal. 

I baked a loaf of bread and some sandwich buns- and remembered to put yeast in both batches 😄

The entree was chicken salad.  I boiled and shredded one whole chicken. 

The small batch is just chicken and mayo. 

The big batch is chicken, mayo, toasted pecans, red grapes, craisins and a little celery.  It was so good!  I will be making this again.  And soon! 

There were also some grape halves and quartered tiny heirloom tomatoes to eat with the sandwiches.  

I made a big batch of chili- mostly for the freezer.  We like chili here year round though I've heard lots of people say they don't eat soup or chili in the summer.  We do both! 

My daughter found out about a small blackberry farm near us and has bought beautiful berries there twice.  

The berries are just huge, so good and have very few seeds.  

I put most of ours in the freezer for cobblers.  

We also ate plenty just fresh.

Granddaughter Elizabeth found a blackberry shaped like a heart ❤️

Huge Blackberries!  That's one berry by a regular teaspoon.  

We hope to get more in a week or so when a different variety is ready to pick.m 

As usual, I do my manicures with Impress press on nails.  I especially like this polka dot- glitter- orange combo.  

There's been a little jewelry making going on.  I have a lot of beads- passed to me when my mom downsized here crafting supplies.  

I made these 2 with Pinterest tutorials.

My son and grandson enjoy making rubber band bracelets.  

Sewing- I hemmed some suits pants for my son- but no photo. 

This stuffed cat had a tail problem- I suspect it had been swung around by its tail 😱 and was barely still attached.  

I sewed it back on - extra securely.  I also sewed up 8 cloth napkins.

Our neighborhood had its annual yard sale today.  We didn't sell anything but we did set out some discards by our front curb with FREE signs taped to them.  Everything was gone within in an hour 😄

That was easy. 

My grandson and I shopped at a few of the yard sales but nothing much interested us. We did see lots of good deals though.  I have been decluttering and organizing for several months and I just didn't see any bargains I wanted to let occupy our straightened up spaces.  

We did spend a quarter- grandson bought one of those old fashioned wood paddle toys with a rubber ball on a bouncy string.  

My husband has been gone for almost 2 weeks helping his parents after his mother needed surgery for a fall and his father came down with a bad cold.  Both are recovering and my husband returned safely home this morning.  🏡

So, that's what I've been up to!  I hope all of you are fine and getting lots done.  

June 5- new to do list

Here is my to do list for the new week- decorated with fabric washi tape from Dollar Tree and rubber stamps.  

Have you made your list yet ?

Thank you everyone who commenteb on my bread goof up.  I know little things just happen every so often but lately, when I do something goofy, I always wonder if I am getting Alzhiemer's.  🤔😱😳

I'm pretty sure Alzheimer's is a whole lot worse than just accidentally leaving out a spoonful of yeast in a recipe. 

Anyway, all your funny stories really made me smile 

Have a wonderful new week everyone! 

June 4- A little sewing, some thrift purchases, a recipe and an Oops!

Hello everyone.  I sewed up another tissue box cover and put it on the hall end table.

When a cold or allergy attacks are going around all our little grands,  we use a lot of tissues! 

Mrs. B, @ Her Peculiar Life I think these would be great secret sister gifts and they are very quick and easy to sew up.  

My son and I shopped at a couple thrift stores today.  

He found a nice leather belt but I didn't get a photo.  

I got 4 name brand golf shirts for my husband, $4 each.  They are all in brand new condition, except the Polo brand one.  It is very good condition and I know he will like the color.  

I'm not sure where I will put this skinny owl lamp but at $3, I knew I would regret not buying it. 

It looks a little crooked in this photo but it's not.  

There were a group of here for supper last night.  

I made this Peach Crisp recipe for dessert.  

It's a recipe I copied down years ago and have made many times since.  

It makes a lot of servings and is nice to take to pot luck type meals.  

I've always used canned peaches but I think thawed frozen peaches would work great and might be more economical than canned peaches.  

The oops - I put ingredients in the automatic bread machine to bake a loaf of bread and never did check it during the 4 hour cycle.....apparently I did NOT add the yeast.......

So instead of a nice loaf of light bread,  I found a bread rock 🙁

And just a bit of bragging- 7 year old Gavin colored this tiger and I think he has a very good eye for color.

Have a good rest of the weekend, everyone!