Getting back to "doing stuff"

If you haven't noticed from my scarce posts,  I don't feel like I have been living up to my motto.  

Not that I am being Idle but the last year has brought lots of changes -my husband retired, my parents moved to our town, we now have 8 young grandchildren with 3 of them being babies.  

So I have been busy but I haven't done much creating or extra stuff that I like to do and get so much satisfaction from.   And when I do have free time, I've relaxed with Social Media and Candy Crush instead of doing things like handwork or recipe book reading,  

So yesterday, I decided it was time to get back to my "do stuff" ways.  

Our front entryway needs spruced up for fall so I looked on Pinterest for inspiration.  I found a simple photo and I am shooting for that look.  Here is a peek - a just sewn up Autumn-looking pillow by me

This morning, I got out the food processor and mixed up 12 pie crusts.  One will be for supper tonight and the rest are going in the freezer.  I used my tried and true recipe and mixed it up 3 times.  

Simple ingredients --- 

All the dough mixed up

Rolled out 

Then stacked alternating with wax paper in a plastic cake keeper.  9 of them went in pie pans and  the others are just discs of dough for top crusts or lattice when needed,  

My son is probably wondering how did I ever get this many pie crusts in our freezer,  Sunday, he helped me dig out a container of pecans when this chest freezer was messy and heavily frosted on the sides.  That was quite a chore.  So........

Monday, I defrosted and organized that neglected freezer so now there is plenty of room, see? 

There is a mess on the counter 

And in the sink but I only have to clean it up once!  

Other tips if you want to bulk-make pie crusts to freeze.....

    All of my pie pans, except one don't have handles.  The plain pans are easier to fit into bags or a        

     plastic pie or cake keeper.  

    Don't bother with fancy crimping before freezing.  When stacked, it will just get squashed. 

     Do the crimping after the crust thaws when you are making pie. 

We are a family that really enjoys pie.  I think these 12 crusts will last for several months and will be so handy to make a great dessert even if I'm busy.  

This sign is over the door of one of our pantries.  

Hopefully tomorrow,  I'll have the front porch area finished and ready to share.  

Flexible cooking and just a little CVS

Hello all.  I haven't blog in so long so I'll just jump in with the most recent things.  

Today, no grands are here and I've been cleaning and scratch cooking.  I'm cooking a 7 pound chicken in my big crockpot and I made a batch of homemade noodles.  This will make lots of food- we can eat, share and maybe freeze some.  

Yesterday was a different kind of day.  Our 15 month old grandson was with us and he was not in a happy mood.  So, for an easy supper, I baked a new product, Freezer To Plate.  It was so easy! Just put the box ingredients, water and chicken pieces in a baking pan, cover and bake.  

It is low calorie, very easy cleanup and comes in 4 flavors.  I bought ours at a military commissary but my daughter said she saw them at Walmart.   There are $1 coupons for this on Coupons.com and in this past Sunday's paper.  

I've only tried this flavor and it's good.  My husband and I both liked it.  

One of the best things about living now is we can be flexible and have choices about so many things.  We can do slow cooking when we choose or we can still serve our family good food with easy products.  

This week is a good week at CVS.  I've made 2 trips and this is most of what I bought but some candy, drinks, deodorants and granola bars have already been consumed or shared and aren't in the photo. 

I think I spent $24 cash with lots of coupons and cvs deals. And I have $31 in ExtraCareBucks for next week.  

It is finally starting to cool off so I may think about doing some fall decorating soon. 

But I shook my head when I saw a home in my neighborhood already decorated for Halloween. 😱 seems a bit early to me..................

I still ❤️ CVS

CVS has made a few changes in their coupon policy.  They previously accepted their own coupons if they were expired and they also now limit the stacking of their coupons.  Before, if I had 2 of their coupons for $5/25 on diapers and I was buying $25 in diapers, I could use both of those.  Now, I would have to have $50 in diapers to use 2 and they could not be expired. 

Lots of CVS shoppers on the Facebook groups are upset about it and make it sound like the worst thing ever.  

Well, I haven't been to CVS in several weeks but there were some good deals this week so I went today and I did just as good as ever.  So much for the "sky is falling" talk on the FB groups......

I had $15 in ExtraCareBucks, all the rest of the coupons were from this past Sunday's paper and CVS red box machine and the CVS app.  

My total started at $88 and dropped to $10.77.  

I got back $13.88 in ExtraCareBucks for my next trip.  

A dust ruffle for the full size bed in our toy room

We have just a full size bed on a metal frame in this room.  I didn't like how when the bed was made the traditional way with a regular dust ruffle and a quilt on top, it got so messed up when the grands played in there.  The dust ruffle was always crooked and the quilt would slide one way or the other and it just  messy.  

So after a lot of thought,  I came up with an idea to sew a dust ruffle in a way that it shouldn't slide and to just use a colored fitted sheet on the bed when no one sleeping.  

I moved the top mattress and covered the bottom box spring with an old fitted sheet and pulled it so it was tight.  

Then with a yard stick and marker, I marked a line 3 inches inside.  It will be my sewing line.  

This way the dust ruffle is completely under the top mattress with no poking out of the base sheet the dust ruffle is sewn to. 

Then I looked through my fabric stash (I have a big fabric stash, most of it was gifted to me). 

My original idea was to reuse some floral curtains but I can't find them (maybe they were too faded and I got rid of them, who knows?). So I decided to use a fabric that the children would like.  

I had long lengths of some mountain wildlife fabric and some deer fabric.  

I went with the wildlife print.  Then I measured the length - I think it was 18 1/2 inches, allowing for hem and turning under top. 

I cut out lengths and I used either 5 or 6.  I sewed them all together in to one very long length and machine hemmed the bottom and turned under the top edge about a 1/2 inch.  

Then, I got down on my knees and pinned the dust ruffle to the fitted sheet base all around 3 sides.   I pinned it on the line I drew.  

At the corners,  I just folded the extra length into pleats until it looked OK.  

I took the whole pinned together sheet and dust ruffle to the sewing machine and sewed it close to the pinned edge.  This was the trickiest part as it was a rather big piece to steer through a sewing machine.  

I put the freshly sewn dust ruffle back on the bed, put the mattress back on with a sage green fitted sheet and added some patchwork pillows I sewed about 6 years ago.  

 Now the grands can roll their cars all over the bed and not mess up the bedding. 

Also, I know the top sheet will need laundered often and it will be much easier to wash than a bedspread or quilt.  

The bed is ready for anyone to sleep in it, We can just add the top sheet and blankets.  

I like that the dust ruffle hides the ugly metal frame and I think the grands will do some pretend playing with the animals and cabins on this dust ruffle.  

An assortment

I ordered 2 dozen silicone baking cups from Amazon and have been having fun with them.  

I put some in my granddaughter's lunch one day (Her parents always fix her lunch for school but I was happy to this once and she was so excited about the muffin cups). Tammy has been posting lunches she makes for her grandsons with silicone cups and it is a fun way to pack lunches.

If you want some, silicone cups are for sale on Amazon and EBay, at a range of prices, some are very low! 

Elizabeth's lunch - all things she likes- clementines, pecans, Aldi veggie chips and a PBJ sandwich. 

I also baked some blueberry muffins, in just the silicone cups, using no muffin pan.  

They work great. 

If you are patient and wait to eat the muffins until they cool, the muffins pop right out of the cups.

I did hand wash the cups.  I think they are dishwasher safe but I imagine they would just fly and float around as they are so lightweight.  

Shopping Haul at the VA Hospital - really 

My husband has had several appointments at the VA hospital recently.  (He is fine, no worries)

There is small store there called The Patriot Store that sells snacks, some clothes and gift items, just an assortment.  We arrived early so we browsed there instead of sitting in the waiting room.  

My husband found a belt that he really likes and needed - belts seem hard to find and this one is just right.

I found a small silicone ladle that I had on my list of wants.  

And these flag decorations were almost free- 75% off. 

These flag banners were 24 cents and the flag tinsel were 49 cents.  I like that they are flat and will be easy to store until needed.  

We visited at our son's home on the way to the hospital.  When we left, 4 year old Andie handed me a little bundle and said "here Grandma, you will need this while you wait at the doctor" 

It was a sheet of stickers and 4 crayons rolled up in a sheet of paper.  Isn't she sweet? 😍

Speaking of Andie, here she is with her little sister Charlie and baby brother RJ

Baby RJ - he is wonderful (and so are professional photographers )

Aldi has a new, expanded line of baby products.  We very much like their new Little Journey diapers.  

They are about 1/2 the price of name brand diapers and work just as good.  

That's our giant Jackson ❤️ 

He doesn't care what kind of diapers we use, but he does likes playing with the packages.  

Braeden - with a self-inflicted carpet burn he got when he rubbed his face too fast on carpet 😱

Boys!