May news #6 - home things and books

Hello!

I’m here, just haven’t felt like I had any news to blog.  It’s been a quiet week. My husband had physical therapy twice and I’ve been home.  We’ve both been reading lots on Kindles.  

Last month I showed y’all the mess when I emptied out some kitchen cabinets.  

here

I did get it all put in a much better way, with less stuff and I’m happy with it.  But this is the only cabinet that got new shelf paper.  I ordered some on grocery pickup and it’s very pretty but I’m not fond of it’s  quality at all.  

Below is the baking cabinet and I’m very happy with how easy it is to get just what I need when I’m cooking. 

In the corner is my Kitchenaid mixer bought in 1988 I think.  It’s been used so much and still works perfectly.  

More masks - this style is what my family members like best.  I’ve been adding wire to the nose area and it really helps with fit

A very sweet blog reader in Waco offered to mail me some elastic and I came this week so I’ll be finishing more masks soon.  Thank you so much Stacy!  I mailed you a card yesterday.  

Our dog Ducky loves to chew so I ordered him a Super Chewer Barkbox.  He was very happy with the food products they sent  but he doesn’t like the toys one bit.  Barkbox offers satisfaction guaranteed so I messaged them and that very day they answered and shipped out smaller toys for Ducky.  

So hopefully he will like the smaller toys.  

The Barkbox toys are great and look to me like they will stand up to very aggressive chewing.  

Ducky is going to pass these toys on to his “cousin” dog Murray who lives in Georgia.

Murray is bigger than Ducky, and getting bigger as he’s still a puppy.   

Isn’t Murray a cutie too?  His Mom Megan took this photo 

Remember when I shared the cinnamon rolls our son baked 

here

His sister bakes cinnamon rolls too.  She made several double batches and delivered them with baking instructions for Teacher Appreciation gifts and Mothers Day gifts. 

And they were delicious!

The Recipe  she used 

here.  It’s a great recipe and  she used regular butter frosting, not cream cheese as a family preference 

One of the books I’ve read, and it’s about a pandemic but I really enjoyed it and recommend it.

I ordered mine from Thriftbooks.com but I sure it’s available other places, maybe even the library if they ever open back up.  

 I’m also reading this series 

here 

It’s a very long but interesting series.  

So,  I’m really enjoying reading but I’m not getting a lot else done.  

But during this situation, I think it’s OK.  

Hope you all are fine

❤️Rhonda 

May news #5 - to do list and more plants

Good morning ☀️ 

This week’s to do list- I’ve already done the grocery pickup and went in to Walmart to buy a gift card that we use for our gas purchases.  

I replanted the zinnia patch from last year, with seeds saved from last year’s zinnias.  

Look at all the new baby zinnias- zinnias are so easy to grow from seed and once they start blooming,  they bloom all summer 🌸 

Our breakfast on Sunday- just frozen biscuits with scrambled eggs but it was delicious 😋 

I’m hoping to get lots done today and go for a walk if the rain cooperates with my plans.  

Have a great Monday everyone

May News #4 - flowers and masks

Hello everyone 

If you want to make the simplest mask I’ve seen,  watch this video 

https://youtu.be/0JGQv1hnuH0

Below are small child size ones 

Some very lawyer-ish masks for my son.  He wanted them all solid navy so I added a tiny tag of twill tape to the inside so he can tell which side has been facing out and which side goes on his face.  

Our home so looks so happy with all the spring flowers blooming.  Many of them are perennials my husband bought on clearance at Lowe’s in recent years.  

The bushes with white flowers are Mock Orange and I think they’re so pretty.  

The dianthus came back so big and full this spring -they are the big pink and red clumps.  

Below is a peony that only had one bloom last year.  This year it had more than a dozen buds.  

 

Right by our front door - did  you notice in these photos all our windows were open?  It was breezy and mid-60s yesterday so I opened all our windows and gave the house a good airing out.  

We had a redwood picnic table that was looking so weathered and not in a good way.  

So my husband turned it into a 12 foot planter that fits perfectly where the patio ends and before the fence.  

Then he planted it with more assorted plants from Lowe’s 

And a little funny thing

3 of our grandchildren were here yesterday while their mom had a doctor appointment. 

They were so happy to be here and acted so nice. 

Toward the end of the visit, Elizabeth and JJ were crafting but Elizabeth wasn’t happy that JJ was kind of copying her.  

I told her she was being kind of grouchy.

JJ said "maybe she needs a nap”

Hope you are all well

❤️Rhonda 

May News #3 - weekend painting, more masks 😱 and a new to do list

Hope you all have had a good weekend.  We had a nice one,  quiet one of course.  Are there any other kind during quarantine?  

This is my cactus painting from the free Friday night Facebook class.  It was fun

I keep hearing about people that need masks so I cut out a bunch more 

And my weekly to do list that I already started on today 

Chat with you all soon

❤️ Rhonda 

May News #2 the edible plants

My husband has taken over the outdoor gardening.  His big project this year is putting pavers between the raised beds to cut down on weeding and mowing.  He’s doing it slowly as he has a bad back, bad knees, etc- but considering all that,  I think he made lots of progress doing it all on his own.  

Somehow that silly gnome birdbath came home with is from Lowe’s.  

Some of the tomatoes are just starting to form 

We’ve been eating our lettuce and spinach for several weeks.  We are hoping the heads will grow back and keep replenishing, but who knows?  At least one of them looks very hopeful.  


also in the beds are assorted peppers and onions 

And Potato Land looks be growing so good! 

In the wildest corner of the back yard is a rose Bush we bought at Aldi years ago

We had to get rid of all our knockout roses as they all had that awful rosette disease 

 

And on the picnic table is this year’s fairy garden.  Grands and adults all enjoy rearranging the figures.  

❤️ Rhonda