Easter, my husband's project and CVS

Hello everyone,  I'm sorry to have taken such a long blogging break.  Spring is just a busy time, right?

We had a lovely Easter with almost all our family.  First was church, and then to our home for lunch, visiting and egg coloring,

Baby RJ is growing and quite a charmer ❤

His big sister Charlie is a bundle of smiles and activity. 

We didn't plan it but Aqua was the color of the day for many of us.  

This is baby RJ, sitting with my dad and cousin Jackson.  Jackson doesn't talk a lot but he does know anyone smaller than him is a baby and "baby" is one of his words.

There was no outdoor egg hunting because of rain but the grands had a great time coloring eggs.
That's the 6 oldest grands around this table with my brother and his girlfriend behind the 2 grands that  needed the most supervising.

This picture sums up what 2 almost two year olds are like - mostly just a blur 😂

My son has been re-doing his work office for awhile.  His window had a basic miniblind that he didn't like and he didn't want drapes.
He asked his dad to make this window cover - it's various widths of wood, stained in an assortment of stains, then attached to a frame and hung over the window.  

I think it turned out so nice.  Our son and his boss both like it a lot too. 

I haven't been to CVS in a few weeks but I had $20 in extracarebucks from a previous visit that were going to expire soon.  

I went planning to buy just 3 packs of Cottonelle that were on a deal. 

Well. My store was out of Cottonelle so I looked my in store coupons and the add and did a different deal. 

On the Scrubbing Bubbles, I used a $2/2 coupon on each pair.
I had a $2 instore any toilet paper coupon on the Total Home.
By purchasing $30 on these products, I got back a $10 extracarebucks for next time.
I used a $1 on any chips on the cheese balls and a $2 on any greeting card for the card.

My total was about $36 before coupons and went down to $3.22 after coupons.  

So even when deals don't go as planned, I still think it's worth it to shop deals at CVS.  

I know lots of you use cheaper, homemade cleaners, but I was not happy with them.  We have hard, heavy on lime water, and it needs extra help.  

The reason we celebrate today

baking and an Aldi haul

hello everyone,
in the photo, my baking cabinet doesn't look that bad but it was not working for me. It was hard to get to things and that support bar in the middle  has to be worked around. 

the white baskets were not working on that bottom shelf.  See how the sides flare out so there is quite a bit of wasted space?

At Dollar Tree,  I found the 3 pack of green baskets, on the bottom shelf now,  and I think they work much better. 
I sorted things,  and reused the white baskets on other shelves. 
I put labels on everything that needed one and refilled the canisters that needed refilled.
and if your an eagle-eye for details,  all 3 of these shelves have different shelf paper, not sure why, but we have lived here almost 15 years and I guess some needed replaced when others didn't

having the cabinet in order, made baking easier. 
I baked a cherry pie over the weekend and put some crusts in the freezer. 

the pie crust scraps get sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and baked like cookies- yum!

I had some over ripe bananas so I baked a double batch of banana pecan bread that will be served to our Easter guests.   

besides the baskets at Dollar Tree, I bought this silly whale bubble machine.  It runs with 3 AA batteries.  Pour bubble liquid in its mouth and turn it on.

It blows lots of bubbles and is pretty fun for a $1 toy. 

This weekend,  I shopped at Aldi with my husband and 2 school age grandsons. 

You all liked the commissary haul I posted last month so I took photos and here is a big Aldi haul--- 

the 3 pound bags of sweet potatoes were just .69,  10 pounds of russet potatoes and 2 pounds red onions

eggs, Fuji apples, a head of ice berg for tacos and sandwiches, strawberries,  baby carrots

3 bags of salad mix, 1 bag spinach, little cucumbers and little tomatoes

bananas and almonds for baking

4 bags of frozen veggies

sandwich bread, croissants for breakfast sandwiches and tortillas

whole milk, chocolate milk, half and half cream and 2 orange juice
the 4 year old requested the chocolate milk

frosted shredded mini wheat cereal- all the grand's favorite cereal
strawberry applesauce cups - 8 year old grand requested these
and diapers

ketchup, mustard, precooked bacon and paper plates

a pizza that we ate for lunch for lunch after shopping and it was really good!

2 spiral hams- they were $1.19 a pound

lots of cookies - remember Grandpa and 2 grands were shopping with me
I hardly ever buy cookies but Aldi cookies are good and very low priced compared to  name brand cookies  at other stores. 

I won't blame the chips on anyone because when I do buy chips, I usually buy about this many at Aldi.  They keep a long time and they are about 1/3 the price at Aldi as other stores. 

4 kinds of drinks to keep in the outside fridge and these will hold the grands for several months or more

4 new big shopping bags

and 2 little cars- for the grands who were shopping with us

you'll have to enlarge the receipt but I'm showing it if you want to check out Aldi prices.  Our total was $150 

that's all the cooking and shopping news from here - have a good rest of the week everyone  

This week, Hollar, and cooking

Hello everyone
This week was not normal.  My husband was out of town for part of it and I was slowed down by mild cold.  I'm all better and husband is home now ❤
I made a list at the first of the week and I've gotten some of it done but some will keep waiting.

I had time to sew and I finished the Easter table runner.  

It was sewn 100% with  fabric and supplies on hand.  I even made the bias binding for the edge.  

It's all very scrappy but I like it.  

For the backing, I used some green clover fabric.  Now when March rolls around again,  I'll use the green side up and then as Easter gets closer, I'll flip it over the pink side. 

Have you seen any ads for Hollar.com?
I had a $5 off code from them and everyone gets free shipping on their first order of $15.
I wanted some extra scissors so I spent awhile browsing on their site.  They have quite an assortment and most of the prices are quite low.  Some things do have to be bought in multiples.

My order arrived in 1 week in this bright orange box.  

My total spent was $10 and below is exactly what I got as it came out of the box. 

The scissor quality seems very good.   The eye shadow brush is just the size I was wanting.  

These scrubbers look like they will scrub just fine and they are so sparkly with gold colored threads woven in. 

I ordered this broom and dustpan for grandchildren to sweep with when I am really sweeping.  It's quite a bit smaller than I was expecting but I think grands will still enjoy it. 

My review of Hollar is 👍🏻 Thumbs Up.  I will order again from them in the future.  

1 S

My favorite local  thrift store is having a closing down sale.  I'm sad they are closing but I did like their 50% off sale.  I got assorted children's clothes and toys, as well as one book and a wagon that is really good quality.  

I didn't cook much over the last week but some of children did.  My son used my grandparents bread recipe and made cinnamon rolls- filled with and topped with bacon.  😱

He cooks a lot but this was his first time to make yeast breads solo. 

My daughter baked a Batman  inside the cake birthday cake for sweet JJ.  

Have a Good Friday and weekend everyone. 

Beans, baking and kiddos

hello everyone,

I dusted off a really old recipe for red beans and rice.  I wrote it down following a PBS cooking show, maybe around 1985-ish.  My husband thinks it was from The Frugal Gourmet and he is probably right but it could of been Justin Wilson.  This is back before The Food Network, when there were just a few TV cooking shows, and mostly on public TV. 

Where the recipe is from, it makes good red beans.  I did adjust it a bit and didn't add the margarine or worchteshire - goodness, that word is hard to both say and spell

Two dozen sandwich buns baked with my grandparent's recipe  Some for weekend eating, some for the freezer and some for my parents. 

Spice pecan cookies made with a recipe from  Mrs. B's Butter Pecan Cookies  Her recipe calls for a butter pecan flavor cake mix.  I substituted a spice cake mix, and they turned out delicious.  This is a fast and easy recipe and I'm really glad Mrs. B shared it.   I think my husband would happy to eat them everyday. 

Our oldest grandson was in a musical at school called "The Swamp" He did a great job playing Bully the Bullfrog.

Have a good weekend everyone. We are expecting more rain but that's fine with us, Oklahoma still needs the water.