Sewing, meals and a big yard sale haul- really long post

One of my April goals was to sew these 15 pairs of sleeping shorts.  I did finish them and they came in very handy. 

Our son in law had to go to Washington D.C. for work, it was a 5 day trip over a weekend and our daughter was able to go too. 

Their 3 children didn’t go.  They have 2 other sets of grandparents who helped with them and we had them for 3 overnight stays.  

They children loved picking out their shirts and shorts at bedtime and I didn’t have to fiddle with matching them all up.  

These 3 love fruit so we made 2 fruit trays before they got here.  These made meal time so easy- I just needed to add a main course and vegetable.  





For one meal when their great grandparents also joined us,  I baked a simple layer cake.  It was a big hit.  

Cake makes a meal more like a party.  




More Kitchen doings——-

A sandwich box and as soon as I make it,  my husband made himself a sandwich.   



This supper started out as a head of cabbage, some leftover baked potatoes and smoked pork from the freezer. 

It’s not a pretty meal but it was delicious- stir fried cabbage, hash browns and pork. 


This meal was Salmon patties, sautéed fresh spinach and baked sweet potato cubes. 

Pigs in a blanket, Caesar salad and fruit - 

We’ve ate one watermelon this spring and it was so good - it was a seedless one from Aldi.  I’ve since bought a second one and I hope it’s the same. 




My son and I went to 3 rummage sales early this morning.  We bought most of this at a church sale, it was so organized and priced low.  


He got the stool for $5 and the cow painting for .25

At a different sale, I got the 3 big things- $3 scooter, $5 shopping buggy, $5 riding toy and  the .25 tool box was at the church sale.  

Look how much the tiger riding toy sells for on Amazon 😳


These metal kitchen things are mostly for sandbox toys.  Our sweet puppy has been chewing on the plastic sandbox toys but I don’t think he can chew up these. Most of them were .05 each except the 2 bigger pans were .50


The square is a Pampered Chef stoneware baking dish .50

I think the Oneida pottery clover canister will look for St. Patrick’s Day. 

More miscellaneous 

And more- the box of beads has so many beads in it. 

I’ve looked at the Operation game but it may be a dud- the parts are so so tiny.  


The basket and 2 big planters were .75 each

The big bowl was .50 and I think the whisk broom was .10.  

 2 pair of like new shorts for a grandson .50 each 

And 8 crocheted dish cloths- never used- for .10 each 

Ducky got a .25 Olaf toy 

I hope all of you are fine  and that you liked seeing what I’ve been sewing, cooking and buying.

❤️🏡❤️

April goals -Kitchen is done ✅

One of my April goals was to clean and declutter our kitchen.  I knew it would be a big job and I really didn’t think it would all get accomplished this month but I’m very happy to post that it is done. 

The after pictures look so much better so I am going to show them first.  

All of my vintage Pyrex is now in one cabinet.  I’m considering taking the doors off but I have mixed feelings about it.  For now,  I’m happy to open the doors, see all the Pyrex and easily get out the one I need.   

Below is the cabinet that now holds baking things.  



One of the things I wanted to change was to not have anything (for now) on top of the cabinets.  

I like the emptiness of it very much.  


The food pantry has been straightened from bottom to top- it’s hard to photograph because it’s sort of on an angle 



Right across from the food pantry, is the junk pantry and it also has been decluttered and organized better.  



The artsy way to display Pyrex bowls is have them raised up inside each other so all the designs and colors show.  My cabinet shelves are not very tall but I found these sturdy little portion containers at Dollar Tree.  I put them inside each bowl to stack the next smaller one on top and they made them the perfect height and rise for my cabinet.  

For this corner cabinet,  I did put a few things back in it but it is kind of like a black hole if I’m not careful.  

I wrote down everything I put in it, then typed it up in big bold letters and taped it to the inside of the door.  

This should make it way easier on the rare occasions  I need the punch bowl, or cookie cutters, or........

9 year old grandson Gavin was a big help with this kitchen clean up.  

He stood on the countertops and handed down all the stuff than used to be displayed on the upper cabinet tops. 

Then he cleaned out this crazy corner cabinet.  

See how deep it is?  

He can fit all the way straight laying on the shelf.  


Below is what the kitchen looked like for a few days while the work was in progress.  😱😬

 

Our house is several trash bags full lighter and I have 3 tubs full of kitchen things that will be leaving here soon too.  I still want to give the counters and backsplash a deep cleaning.  

I haven’t accomplished all my April goals but I’m very happy this big big decluttering and organizing job is done! ✅

Hope you all are having a good April, even with surprising weather and in Oklahoma, the teacher walkout is on day #9.  

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.