Easter eggs and April goals and lists, lists, lists

Good morning, 

We had fun on Sunday. First was church, and then we 

Ate eggs

Colored eggs 

And had an indoor egg hunt with plastic eggs because  we’re having cold, wet, windy weather and it just wasn’t nice enough for an outdoor hunt. 


Son Bobby couldn’t be here for Easter but before the holiday, he brought us 2 bunny butter sculptures from Winco.  It was just fun have fancy butter and it was very good tasting butter too. 


Our Easter Menu- 

Ham from Aldi- my husband smoked it on the patio 

Rolls from Aldi and Bunny shaped butters from my son 

Deviled eggs 

Pickle tray 

Fruit tray -my brother 

Fresh spinach salad - Jimmy and JohnMark 

Corn casserole in crockpot 

Green beans in crockpot 

Carrot cupcakes -Nina 

Blackberry pie, apple pie- my dad 

Tea- lemonade 

I had help and I planned make ahead things that would be ready to eat at noon when we got home from church 

I usually plan a weekly to do list and this April, I’m trying a list of goals for this month. 


Our pantry and freezer are just too full (and messy) so I plan to continue using foods from them all month and buying just fresh produce and dairy items as needed.  

I want to finish all those sleeping shorts. 

I got a brand new sewing machine in December but I haven’t even used it.  I keep using my old machine as I haven’t had time to sit and follow the instructions to learn how to use the new machine.  The new Brother one has a lot more functions than my old Necchi one.  So, learning the new machine is an April goal.  


To keep track of April goals, I found this free printable sheet.  

It’s great for the daily things,  

https://www.popsugar.com/smart-living/photo-gallery/44467993/image/44468164/Download-Monthly-Goal-Tracker


Here’s my weekly to-do list, not pretty but functional 


The question mark this week is the public teacher issue- they are striking for now and it’s unsure how long it will last.  So, I had 3 grandchildren here on Monday.  We stayed pretty busy in the morning going to visit my parents and brother and then we went to this little guy’s school where they are serving meals during the walkout.  

We went for lunch and my three really enjoyed the school cafeteria.  

The cafeteria is also serving breakfast but my 3 were their first diners all day.  While we were there, 2 others came and that was all. 

They offer the free meals because they think there is a need in the community for it but I’m not sure. 

Anyway, we went because the kiddos wanted to and they are missing their teachers and friends.  They got lots of attention from the support staff members that are still working and they  got a good lunch that I didn’t have to prepare or clean up. 

Later in the day, the school system nutrition director asked on Facebook for people to please bring their children for the meals.  If children don’t come, the schools don’t get reimbursed.  

Then we had rest time.  JJ, who is almost 5, had such a busy Easter weekend and Monday morning, he pretty much passed out once he laid down. ❤️ 

❤️

Hope you all have a good week! 

Bargains, packing stuff to donate and a silly boy

I stopped at Goodwill and bought 1 bag of fabric for $4.44

Inside was 2+ yards of the strawberry cotton knit, that I think will make a cute summer top for me.  I like it very much!

3 yards of lightweight green sweater knit that might make a fall top or sweater 

The other 2 pieces were strange synthetics I don’t care for and I didn’t keep them.  



Walmart has a markdown bread rack.  I always browse it and pick up items I think we would like.  

This week I got 2 bags of 6 count bollilos for .59 each and a small pack of Naan for $.80

We’ve always been happy with the quality of this markdown bread.  If we won’t eat it right away,  I freeze it until needed.  




I cleaned out unwanted clothes from our closet this week and then took them and donated them. 

Instead of putting them in new trash bags to transport, I folded the clothes into stacks and then tied up each stack with some old yarn.  

Trash bags are expensive so using yarn saved that money. 

And tying them in yarn added a handle to each bundle and made them easy to carry.  

This is how I found JackJack when I woke him up from his nap.  That is not how I put him in the bed. 

And no, I don’t normally wake up sleeping toddlers but he had slept for several hours and it was time to get his brother from school.  

Branson, Zaycon, Sewing, Family

Hello everyone 

This past blogging break was because we spent a week in Branson celebrating our 38th wedding anniversary.  

We had a very nice time.  We saw 2 very good IMAX movies- one was about US National Parks and the other was the early history of the Ozarks.  

We shopped some, browsing several antique businesses, a brand new Dollar Tree and a giant Menards.  

One the big things to see in Branson is live music shows.  We saw 

SIX

The Hughes Family

Broadway’s Greatest Hits

Dublin’s Irish Tenors and Celtic Ladies

and the biggest show in Branson is 

Samson at the beautiful Sight and Sound theater.  

All of these shows were so good and we recommend them all.  

We also enjoyed an amazing Sunday Brunch at Keeter Center  at College of the Ozarks.  

Below is my husband with a Dogzilla at Fuddruckers.  I had a crispy chicken salad and we both like their high tech soda machines with so many flavors of bubbly drinks.  I think he was drinking limeade and I had diet cherry ginger ale.  Fuddruckers is our favorite Branson restaurant. 

Before our trip,  we got our first ever Zaycon order.  I saw a deal awhile back to get boneless skinless chicken breasts for .99 cents a pound for first time customers. 

Pickup in our town was in a church parking lot.

Customers line up in their cars and then the Zaycon workers get your order from their truck and put it in your trunk- so easy.  


The chicken was fresh and packed in 4 10 pound bags in one box.  



So, we repacked ours into zipper bags and froze them in meal size portions.  

I think we are stocked up on chicken for a good while! 



Did you know leprechaun traps are popular among elementary age kiddos?  If you happen to catch a leprechaun, then he has to give you all his gold.  

These 2 grandsons were out of school on St. Patrick’s Day so they built a trap at our house.  Look on Pinterest for Leprechaun Traps if you’re wondering how popular this is.  

They had lots of fun building it and used stuff I already had, some from our craft room and some from the “trash” 

5 Star Hotel- they took it home that night and didn’t catch a leprechaun but did find a note from a leprechaun who said it was a great box and left them some candy as a consolation.  


Our grandson in Pre K did have school on St Patrick’s Day and they had a party.  The students were asked to provide bite size portions of green foods, preferably naturally green and not dyed.  

I was amazed when I saw this photo of all the different green foods.  

JJ seems to be eating a pickle first but his table mates seem to be eating their cookies first 😂

You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink, right? 

This weekend, 6 of our grands were here at the same time Sunday.  They are a very sweet and fun group ❤️

They played and hugged 

We did indoor things like coloring books, play dough and we had some fake eggs that are made of paper and they colored with markers on them.  




Sewing- these grands all need pajamas for our house.  

I plan to sew up a bunch of loose fitting, comfy sleeping shorts with fabric from my craft room.  


I’m only making 2 sizes as I think the smaller size should fit 4 of the grands and the larger size should fit the 3 oldest.  I had a size 5 pattern and I just enlarged it for the size 8.  The littlest grand will wear baby pajamas for a while longer.  


I think I ended up cutting out 15 pairs.  I’ve started sewing them, factory style and hope to find time to finish them this week.  



Below is my to do list for this week.  

And now it’s time to get stuff done! 



Hope you all have a good week.  

PS- about subscriptions,  unfortunately I have no control over them.  They are done by google or blogspot I think.  

The link to them is on my sidebar,  right under my most popular posts and above the blogs I follow.  My advice is just add your email there if you want my updates emailed to you.  

But I don’t think the subscriptions work flawlessly though.  I used to get email updates from a few blogs but don’t anymore.  So when I want to keep up with a blog, I add it to my sidebar.