November #4 rooms we’ve redone

Hello everyone

I finally got these rooms ready for photos and here they are.  I’m very glad everything looks fresh and very decluttered but it was a lot of work.  We gave away stuff,  took 3 loads to Goodwill and 2 loads of boxes to the recycle center.  There are still a few things left on my to do list but they will happen as we have time and energy.  

The biggest change was the new carpet in 3 bedrooms and hall.  It is Stainmaster from Lowe’s and we are very happy with the carpet but the process went so badly, I won’t spell out all details but  the manager refunded 30% of the purchase price.  So that kind of the made up for the terrible customer service.  

This is the grandchildren’s room.  It has a new trundle bed and new curtains.  

And new coffee tables with edges around the top to keep the Legos and Calico Critters corralled.  

The bed and table are from Amazon. 

The guest room/ “just in case” food room is hard to photograph.

I ordered lamps for this room, but we liked them so much, we put them in the master bedroom and have reordered the same ones for this room. 

Lots of food,  checked curtains from Amazon

Also in the guest room - nothing new though 

This is the sewing room and computer room.  3 of our vintage Ethan Allen pieces were moved in here and they are great storage.  

The work table is new and from Walmart 

The desk got a coat of paint, check curtains from Amazon

This rolling cart is for the grandchildren when they want to freestyle craft.  

It’s from Amazon.  

These hall photos show the carpet 

Breakfast room has new curtains from Vermont Country Store and a dining set from Walmart 

Formal dining room had no changes except we took the leaves out of the table several months ago. -no big family meals have happened here since covid anyway 

The living room is not finished - we need to repaint and change around the art but that will come later.  

And yesterday I decided to just go ahead and decorate for Christmas too.

The braided rug and check curtains are new.  

Living room from the other end 

Close up of these Santas  because I think they are so cute 

When I visit blogs and try to comment,  it tells me I am not signed in.  ☹️ I try to sign in and then it still says the same thing.  

I will try to get it figured out this week 

Have a good week everyone - anyone else already decorated for 🎄 Christmas? 

❤️🇺🇸🏡 Rhonda

November #3 To do list, Dollar Tree finds, etc

Good morning everyone 

Here’s my to do list for this week, starting Tuesday - it’s not prettied up but soon my crafting things will be where I can get to them and I’ll craft whenever I want to 

We did vote and when we got to our polling place, there was a longer line than we were expecting.  We got in line and a polling working was checking IDs and registration cards.  He checked ours almost as soon as got there and took us right in, with no waiting.  (I’m not sure why,  I think in Oklahoma, you can vote anywhere but since we were voting at our correct precinct,  there was a much shorter list to find our names on.  I’m just glad we didn’t have to wait) 

We did a few errands afterward,  including a stop at Dollar Tree.  

I found the plaid wrapping paper I was looking for and a plaid bow that I think will be our tree topper this year.  

Right now,  I’m planning on using Campbell Soup ornaments as the theme, and since Campbell is a Scottish name,  plaid seems to be I should use with it.  

With all the home projects we’ve been doing,  meals have been very simple.  

Last night was make your own Chef Salad and they were delicious 

I’m also having some blogger problems.  I can sign in to my blog and do posts. 

But when I try to comment on other blogs,  it says I’m not signed in and I can’t comment.  Hopefully I will figure it out soon - but who knows?🤷🏻‍♀️ 

Have a good Tuesday everyone 

Rhonda ❤️🏡🇺🇸

November #2 bleaches are not all the same

I recently learned something about different types of bleach. 

I’ve always used bleach when I do white laundry - to whiten it and to kill germs.  

And during Covid, I think lots of people use bleach who didn’t before.  

There are  2 kinds of bleach- brand doesn’t matter.  

One is just regular bleach and one is called no-splash or dripless.  That’s not the only difference.  

The plain bleach kills 99.9% of germs 

While the dripless kind just whitens, brightens and deodorizes.  

So if you’ve bought bleach to fight germs,  you might want to check and see if you have germ killing formula. 

It doesn’t matter what brand - the no splash kind for any brand is not a germ killer while the original formula does kill germs.  

I know lots of people never use bleach and prefer natural or less harsh cleaners.  

But I like to kill germs and will watch my bleach labels from now on.  

November #1 hello

Hello everyone.  Yes,  I’m still here and still busy with our home interior changes.  I can’t say they have gone smooth as silk but it is all starting to come together and we are very happy with the results.  

And I’ll show things when it’s done.  

October 31 is not my favorite today but children sure like it, especially for the candy.  

I made these treats for my grandchildren- 

Latex Gloves that are so 2020 were  filled with candy and little toys I bought last year on clearance for .09 a bag.  

We do have 8 grandchildren and their gloves were already mailed to them when I took this photo.  

I didn’t feel  comfortable being face to face with the trick or treaters last night so I set up this little table, blocking the front door. 

I put a sign on it that said "take 1 each.  Happy Candy Day”

Then I watched at the window and refilled as needed.  

The children all took 1 and our dog wasn’t crazy all evening with the doorbell ringing.  

This worked out great.  

We only had about 40 children come by and past year’s, we have had many more.   But everything is different, right?  

Last week there was an ice storm in Oklahoma.  Most all the trees still had their leaves so the ice made them especially heavy.  Many broke or fell and much of the state lost  power.  

Thankfully our power was only off 8 hours or so.   

We have a gas fireplace that kept us cozy. 

And we don’t have any limbs to clean up because we don’t have any trees in our yard-  we have lots of plants but no trees.  

There is a beautiful home behind these damaged trees.  It’s near my parents home and the way all the limbs are broken and hanging down, the house can hardly be seen now.  

That’s what most trees around our area look like after the ice.  

Happy November everyone 

❤️🏡❤️

Rhonda 

October #1 - home updates and grandchildren fun

Hello everyone

Welcome to our front porch, all decked out for fall.  My husband bought the mums. 

My son bought the pumpkins and we filled them with the succulents that grew like crazy on our patio this summer. 

The white pumpkins went to his home and he arranged the orange ones at our front door.  

Our interior re-do is still in progress.  

There’s a pretty new rug in our entry way and that will give a clue to the home style I’m working toward.

We are waiting on the new carpet to be installed and have those 3 bedrooms and hall emptied and their contents are pretty much living in our dining room for now.  

The new furniture has been ordered and most of it is in boxes in my husband's shop. 

Some of the new curtains are here and some are backordered.  I went with insulated  ones from the Vermont Country Store and I think we are really going to enjoy them.  

Once it’s all done,  there will be more to show but for now,  this  house is anything but normal.  🤪

Some of the grands have been here. 

These guys were very happy to get crocheted toys from my mom,  their great grandmother. 

 

Braeden is missing his top front teeth.  Gavin is wearing a mask just because it was a new mask.  

Most falls, we make acorns out of mini Nilla Wafers, Kisses, chocolate chips and chocolate frosting to hold them together.  

All the local grands made them but they weren’t here at the same time and I didn’t get a photo when the countryboys were here,  

Here are the city cousins very happily making and eating acorns 

  

I hope you all are enjoying fall and making the best of it as possible.  

❤️ Rhonda 🇺🇸 

September #5 - cooking and home plans

Hello everyone.  Our garden is still producing, this was Sunday morning’s harvest.  See the late coming lblackberries and strawberries? 

Tonight for supper, I prepped these veggies below 

\

I cooked the green beans and then added the potatoes and made salmon patties.  The cucumbers and onions are something my mom always made in the summer and I think most all people in our region eat them,  it’s just sliced cucumbers and onions,  salt, pepper, a teaspoon of sugar and half vinegar/half water.  They keep in the fridge for days.  

My grandchildren love granola bars and I tried this recipe 

⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

link to granola bar recipe

⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️   

They were delicious and I will be making them again. 

In January,  we decided we  wanted to update the 3 bedrooms on one end of house.  We’ve lived here 18 years and the white carpet in those rooms (especially after 8 grandchildren and 2 dogs) has seen better days.  We got distracted by the quarantine but we decided a few weeks ago to just go ahead and do it. 

First,  we picked out and ordered the carpet.  It’s a process and everything takes longer right now.  It will be at least 2 weeks until it’s installed. 

In the meantime,  we are emptying those rooms and painting.  And were also doing some minor changes in other rooms.  

   The dining room is getting full 

 And 2 of the bedrooms are just about empty.  

All the groceries for ‘just in case’ were moved to the master bedroom.  3 of the grands were a huge help with this task and I sure hope they are available when it’s time to move it back. 

And here’s my current to do list.  Some of it is things to do, some are things to shop for.  

I have no idea why we buy toys,  this 8 year old was happy for hours with a box 😊

Busy days here with gardening and home things.   I will try to blog as updates occur.  

All of our grands are in school in their classrooms, some full time and some 1/2 the week.  I know we are all just ready for life to get less stressful, right?  

Hope you all are fine 

❤️ Rhonda 🏠

September #4 - fun with grandchildren

Hello everyone

I’ve just about spent all of today doing nothing but going to the dentist.  I’m getting a crown and he had to do some extra numbing.  It’s just now wearing off so maybe I can get back to normal life now.  

Grandchildren were with us the last few days and they have all reached the age where they really eat - 

3 of them were here one day and we got takeout pizza for lunch,  I like using the Little Caesar app for ordering.  When you arrive at the store,  the pizzas are waiting in a hot box.  You just enter your code, take out the pizza and leave- no standing in line 

While they went with Grandpa to pick up the pizza,  I baked a batch of cake mix cookies 

These were yellow cake mix with chocolate chips -

Just use any cake mix- add 2 eggs and 1/2 cup of oil and about a cup of any addition like chocolate chips, nuts, oatmeal. Etc

Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes 

I went to my very first yardsale of 2020 on Friday. I saw the signs on my way to pick up grandchildren and stopped.  

I got 3 vintage magazines and a slimline beverage dispenser.  The dispenser is now in the fridge full of Crystal Light and it works great. 

This magazine was printed in the middle of World War II.  It reminds me of my grandmother.  She was a farm wife with 2 sons and 2 sons in law all serving during WWII.  ( and they all returned home alive)

Victory gardens were a topic in this issue and I thought these cartoons were funny 

And not about gardening but funny

Later in the week,  2 grandsons were here and they happily ate 

Baked tacos and homemade cinnamon rolls 

Baked tacos are so good and so easy!

Just put the shells straight from the box into a baking dish.  Add grated cheese and warm taco filling to each.  Then bake for about 5 minutes at 375 degrees.

Remove from oven,  add toppings and serve 

I made the cinnamon roll dough in a bread machine and used this recipe,  but no sticky topping.  I just frosted them and added some chopped pecans (and one grandson was not thrilled with the nuts so he looked carefully and picked a roll with the fewest nuts) 

Then later in the weekend,  the 5 local grandchildren were all here at the same time.  They have not seen each other much during the 🦠 and they had lots of fun together.  

They are getting big, aren’t they?  The are 10, 5, 8, 7 and 11! 

Babies don’t stay babies very long at all.  

Have a good week everyone 

❤️ Rhonda 🇺🇸

September #3 biscuits and broth

Good morning 

I’m trying to be more productive.  The pastor in Australia we watch is doing a series on Nehemiah,  where the wall around Jerusalem gets rebuilt For an application now,  he suggested we  all make 5 new goals.  That’s advice I needed as I have not thought about goals since this virus changed everything.  

So today,  I’ve been up several hours.  I did some Bible reading and an exercise video.  (Those are 2 of my daily goals) 

Then I looked on my to do list and thought this was a perfect time to start some freezer biscuits.  

I chose a recipe that used half and half, also known as light cream,  because I had 2 jugs of this cream that needs to be  used.  

I quadrupled the recipe and made the first batch plain.

➡️basic biscuit recipe  ⬅️

  

I added our diced jalapeños and sharp white cheddar to the second batch.  

They are all in the freezer, and when frozen, I will bag them up and bake as needed.  (I freeze them first on sheets and not touching so they don’t freeze together in one big lump.) 

I baked a few of the jalapeño cheese ones and they are delicious!  

In my last post,  I showed the chickens I cooked for taco meat.  

The broth from cooking them in the crockpot had been chilling in the fridge.  

I took the fat off the top and put the broth in containers to freezer for future recipes,  

It is really nice broth with a gelatin consistency and should be very good when I cook with it.  

When I was growing up,  everyone’s kitchen had a can with a strainer to save bacon grease for future cooking.  It was thrifty and Southern cooks like that bacon flavor in so many things. 

When I saw this ad for a local farm store,  I was so surprised!  

They are selling little tubs of bacon grease for $7.99!  

The looks to be the size of a small tub of margarine.  

I don’t cook with bacon grease but if I did,  I would not buy it ready made.  It is a free byproduct anytime bacon is cooked.  

And here’s a cartoon that made me laugh 

Have a good day everyone 

❤️Rhonda 🏠