Prepping the outside for winter

I spent most of Friday doing yardwork. A hard freeze was predicted for the night and my grandchildren were all somewhere else so Friday was a perfect day to get lots done. 

I mowed and edged and did lots of pruning of all the flowering bushes as well as pulling up the last of the zinnias. 

All the clippings got bundled and bagged and will be picked up Monday. Our city's waste management picks up our trash, our recycling and our green waste. 

The backyard was in need of organizing too. So I put one play area on the east side....

Another play area by the back door and picnic tables. (If you don't live in Oklahoma or haven't followed my blog for long, you may be wondering about that giant gray thing. It is a concrete safe room for tornado protection. Yes, we have been thinking of ways to beautify it but haven't yet got around to it)

The grandsons will be thrilled with this new digging area made with paver stones from a neighbor and dirt of pots that need replaced. 

The only plant still growing in the vegetable pots was this jalapeño. It has tiny peppers and quite a few buds on it. My husband moved it up near the back door to protect it from last nights freeze. It survived th night just fine. But I am wondering if it will actually give a harvest. 

There were 2 pots of succulents on the front porch and I brought them in for the night too. They really thrived this summer. 

The 2 pink rose bushes both still had a few blooms. So I clipped and saved the pretty ones before I whittled down the bushes. 

One quirky thing about my town is we are home to lots of Canadian geese that live here year round. For some reason, they forgot to fly north and now they just stay. 

They look cute but when a big bunch of them hang out on streets or sidewalks for long, there is a lot of icky big goose you-know-what on the ground afterward. 

There they go, marching down our street in row...... I am glad they weren't hanging out here while I was working so much yesterday. 

some of this weeks cooking

we were out of our favorite homemade sauce  so I made an extra large batch.
I don't use an exact recipe.  It is pretty simple and I just mix it up until it tastes right.

it uses lots of tomatoes,  a little olive oil and onions.
spices are oregano, basil, garlic and just a little sugar.

first the onions get sauteed-   then the tomatoes and spices are added

after it simmers a while,  it gets divided into meal size containers and put in the freezer for future meals.

while the sauce simmered,  I mixed up and baked a loaf of Raisin Bread

Raisin Walnut bread - mixed in the bread machine and baked in the regular oven.  I used  my grandparents bread recipe but increased the sugar and added nuts and raisins when the machine beeps time to add stir ins.

Raisin bread

1 cup water
2 T butter in cubes
1 t salt
1/3 C sugar
2 t cinnamon
3 cups flour- bread flour is nice but all purpose or your favorite would be fine
2 t yeast
put all ingredients in a bread machine on the dough cycle, then add
1/2 cup chopped walnuts and 3/4 cup raisins ( I like to chop them a little too) when the bread machine beeps for the add in time.
When it is finished rising, punch down and form into a loaf and put in a well greased loaf pan.
I think I used an 8 inch loaf pan but it would work in a 9 inch loaf pan too.
Let rise again and then bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 35-40 minutes.

My grandmother made raisin bread and she always topped her loaves with white frosting.
I don't add frosting as we like our raisin bread lightly buttered and toasted.
either way raisin bread is Yum!

my husband's work lunch and breaktime box - I packed a turkey and cheese sandwich on a homemade bun, Popchips and olives.  Also grapes, a jar of fresh pineapple chunks, cashews and jalapeno string cheese.  Beverages are coffee and a bottle of water.  

Fun weekend food

Hello everyone
I knew my grandchildren would be for several meals over the weekend so first thing Saturday morning,  I got out the fruit I had bought at great prices at Aldi on Friday-  I cut it up bite size and put it in  covered serving dish in the fridge.

I think we all ate some of this fruit at 3 different meals.  It was so easy and convenient to have it all ready.
Their sale ends Tuesday night but right now,  Aldi has whole pineapples for just 99 cents and I think the red grapes are less than $2 for a 2 pound bag.  Ours were all fresh and delicous and a very thrifty fruit tray.

For fun,  the grands made something from Pinterest- edible acorns.
They are Hersheys kisses,  Mini Vanilla wafers and chocolate chips stuck together with a bit of homemade chocolate frosting.  They look a little like acorns but taste a lot better.

I gave each child a plate with 4 wafers, kisses, chocolate chips, a dab of frosting and a small plastic knife.  

5 year old Gavin ate his acorns about as fast as he made them.

4 year old Elizabeth worked very seriously as she made hers.  She ate a little but she mostly enjoying the crafting part of it.  She also made extras to take home to her dad who was busy with his moonlighting yardcare business.  

1 year old JJ didn't craft much- I think he mostly just got frosting all over his face.  

if you look in their hands, you can see some of the finished acorns.  

2 year old Braeden was not interested in crafting.  He only wanted to eat Kisses.  He worked so hard unwrapping each one and kept all his wrappers in a pile.  

The acorns were fun and get a thumbs up from all of us!  

Last minute costume

My daughter had bought an Olaf the snowman costume for little JJ. It is a very cute costume but he doesn't like it at all, I think it limits his movement too much.  Since his sister will either be Elsa or Anna, JJ also needs to be a Frozen character.
She sent me this link and asked if I could sew this tunic.

Some online tutorials are good and some are not but I give this one a big thumbs up!
It had an easy to print free pattern and a list of exactly what to buy and where she bought it.

So yesterday, I spent $7.49 at Joann's and 80 minutes constructing this tunic from start to finish.

I also think this blogger, Neka at Thrive is genius! She and her 6 children made and modeled 100 costumes with mostly things in their wardrobes.

I must say that I don't like Halloween and I don't celebrate it  And    I'm not much of a Disney fan either.  I do help with costumes when asked by my children.

And I do pass out candy and compliments to children when they knock on our front door.  

And about the candy, I don't buy it early as we tend to eat it and then need to rebuy :) 

A jumbled up post about what I've been up to

Bargains 

I don't buy much at Walmart but I do seem to need to go there once a week or so for something we can't buy other places.  I always look at their clearance aisle when I do go. 

Last week, I found these children socks for $1 a package

And today, I found more little girl socks for 50 cents a package! These all have 6 pairs in each bundle

Aren't the owl ones so cute?

Cooking

My husband picked out this Butterball oven ready turkey breast a few weeks ago.

It sure came in handy when I needed to cook a meal for seven with not much notice.

In the package is a whole turkey breast on the bone wrapped in an oven bag and a bag of gravy mix.

It was so quick and easy to just put that turkey in the oven to bake.  It baked for about 3 hours while I cooked a few simple sides and played with my grandsons. 

I don't have a photo of the cooked turkey but it turned out great! It was moist and delicious and so easy.  I will be buying this again! 

Crafting

I helped my grandsons make these acorn inspired crafts. Their mother sent the photo above for inspiration and their other grandmother sent some tiny acorns.

So, we found some ribbon and Pom poms in the craft room and started crafting.

After separating the acorn caps from the we used fabric-tac glue to adhere the pompoms and ribbon to the acorn caps. 

Cute and fun! 

Here are the boys busy with crafts last week.

Sewing 

My son wears suits every weekday and he just got 3 new ones. One was mail ordered, one is from Nordstrom Rack and the other one, a Ralph Lauren pinstripe, is from a local salvage store and was just $40.  All the coats fit but the pants needed hemmed and I was happy to do that. 

Suits can cost a bundle and I think he ended up with 3 nice ones at much less than retail.

This is a terrible photo of 2 denim aprons I sewed for myself, the necks and pockets are finished with some vintage bias tape. One is blue polka dots and the other is red checks and yellow calico.

This little guy kept me busy most of today. Who needs toys when there is a big box to play in?

About the wipes, I have changed many diapers in the last 5 years and used many brands of wipes.  Huggies wipes are thick and moist and by far my favorite brand. 

I get them by subscription from Amazon- that big box comes every 2 months for about $9-$10. 

The shipping box is really fun too.