August #2

Hello again 

Y’all are so sweet with all the comments on yesterday’s post.  I agree that Cora is lucky or blessed, whatever you like to call it, to be in our family.  She had been in foster care for most of her life.  

But I think we are even more blessed than she is, to get to watch her grow up.  She really is a wonderful little girl.  

She did great at her first day of baby school.  

Here are her 3 day old shoes after 1 day at baby school 

Looks like they were worn by a little girl playing hard all day.  

Supper tonight was stuffed peppers, naked okra and chopped salad.  

I’ve blogged about naked okra before and it’s so good and easy.  In a hot nonstick skillet,  I add about 1/2 T of olive oil and then I add a bag of frozen okra.  I let it cook until okra thaws and starts to brown, then I add some diced onion, salt and pepper and let it cook on medium heat until everything is very brown.  It takes maybe 20 minutes from start to finish.  I promise it is not slimy cooked this way.  

Lejmom asked how I drain ground beef.  I use this pasta pot.  I cook the meat all the way through.  Then I add hot water straight from the faucet into the pasta pot and meat.  I rinse the meat several times and drain it through the holes in the lid.  It works great! 

link to previous post about my pasta pot

I just looked on Amazon and they still sell my model but of course the price is much higher than it used to be.  

I got mine free but I liked it so much and bought one for daughter several years ago.  She still uses hers often, mostly for pasta.  They are also great for cooking corn on the cob and then just drain off the water through the holes in the lid.  

A kitchen tip - we eat a lot of produce so we have skins and peels and seeds to deal with.  

When I’m preparing produce,   I spread out a grocery bag and put all the cast off parts on it. 

  

When I’m done,  it’s easy to just fold up the bag and dispose of it.  

In the past we tried composting stuff like this.  We followed advice and had a turning composter but our garbage never composted so now we just put it in the trash. 

But you do whatever works for you.  

Blogger has made so many changes.  Today when I edited my blog roll, of all the blogs I try to read,  it changed settings and only shows a few.  

They are still there,  you just have to click on the See All link under the last one.  

I know several of you use my blog to keep up with blogs you like and I hope this works ok for you.  

I’ll got on the desktop computer soon and see if I can fix it but it may be a few days 

And for now,  I don’t have a link for subscribers to sign up.  There are several hoops to just through to set one up and maybe I’ll get around to it soon,  

Have a good week everyone 

❤️ Rhonda 

August things

Good evening everyone- this summer has truly gone by in a blur.  

The best news from this summer is we have a new granddaughter-  an adorable 2 year old named Cora.  She is healthy, happy, very smart, very busy, funny and loved by all of us.  

  
She is fond of her cousins,  especially Elizabeth who Cora calls “Beth” 

Because she is adopted and that situation,  I won’t be sharing much about her.  

She has been spending her days with us, while her parents work,  for about 2 months.  But tomorrow,  she starts full time at a child care center.  

Our town has a number of day care centers but they all have waiting lists- there seems to be shortages of most everything anymore but an opening for her came up.  

I’m a bit nervous about daycare -  but Cora seems to be easily adaptable and very brave so I’m probably worried for nothing.  

My mom has had a rough summer.  She spent almost 2 weeks in a hospital and then 3 weeks in a skilled nursing home.  

Now she is back at their retirement home in Respite Care,  which I’m not sure of the definition but it’s a lot like assisted living with hopes that she will back to previous mobility and health.  

  

It’s a very comfortable apartment.  It has a living area,  a bedroom, a bathroom all accessible for her needs and a small kitchenette.  

Her meals are all provided  so the the kitchen is used by her guests.  

My dad still sleeps in the apartment down the hall where they have lived for 5 years but he spends his days with Mom in this respite apartment,  

Mom still has a ways to go but she looks better now than she has since at least a month before her surgery.  

The nursing shortage, because of Covid,  is also affecting their retirement home.  The nursing staff is short handed and the nurses  there are working way more than 40 hours.  Their Director of Nursing normally would be in a office doing paperwork and such but she working on the floor doing patient care.  

Covid really has had a detrimental domino effect on so many things.  

You all know I like to bulk cook.  I did a big grocery pickup yesterday (yes, Covid is so concerning and I’m staying stocked up) 

This morning,  I made 2 salad and cooked 7 pounds of ground beef.   And Yes, today is Sunday but I had it all cooked and the kitchen cleaned up in plenty of time to watch our local church service streaming on line.  

Some of the beef was cooked with just onions and I will use it for things like soup, goulash and stuffed peppers.  

The rest of the ground beef was cooked with taco seasoning.  

That’s a green salad,  a diced veggie salad and extra diced onions.  

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Taco meat and plain burger 

All divided and in freezer containers 

If you want to see inside our freezer——

The top 2 shelves are mostly things I cooked to freeze like today’s meat, chili, pasta sauce, chicken broth, etc. 

also peaches and grated cheese 

there are also some big containers of pecans and walnuts 

Also on the 2nd shelf are bags of frozen vegetables.  

The 3rd shelf is meat straight from the store- assorted chicken pieces, chicken sausage, more ground beef

On the 4th shelf are bags of blackberries and green beans from our garden and bags of grated cheese. 

Then on the very bottom are whole chickens and more vegetables.  

So, that’s what has been going on with my home and family.  This week I plan to get some homekeeping things caught up,  visit my parents everyday and my husband will be having an outpatient back procedure (as long as Covid doesn’t blow up so much that the VA hospital stops non-emergency procedures before his appointment) 

Hope you all have a good week and hope you all stay safe

❤️ Rhonda 

Where did July go? A bunch of stuff to catch up

Hello everyone 

I’ll just start catching up and say I’m sorry for not posting a single time in July 

First- if you aren’t signed up with Esearch,  please do!  I don’t get a referral but it could be very worth your time. 

I just finished a 4 month test using liquid laundry detergent (both detergents were very good but the second one was amazing and I suspect it was Tide in the new hygienic clean variety). 

Esearch kept me supplied with detergent for 4 months and I did a short survey every 2 weeks or so.  And then I got paid $250.00!

I don’t know how they pick participants and I never know when I’ll get a test,  I just always check my email from them for offers and they don’t come very often.  

This is the 2nd or 3rd detergent test I’ve done for them and the others paid but not quite this well.  

https://www.esearch.com

This link is fixed now and goes to Esearch 

Our new fence is finally complete!  It’s a white vinyl privacy fence, that should last the rest of our lifetime.  

It goes around our backyard- and we have a typical suburban home lot 

I have been doing almost all of our grocery shopping online with Walmart Pickup since February 2020.  

This week I decided to get my groceries at Aldi.  First I stopped at the Dollar Tree that is next door to Aldi.  I wanted to stock up on the shelf stable milk- in case your wondering, it tastes exactly like refrigerated milk but it is so nice to have in the pantry when you only need milk and don’t want to go to the store. 

I bought 10 shelf stable milk, 2 animal crackers and 2 huge boxes of flavored Cheerios - I’m sure grandchildren will enjoy the cookies and cereal.  

I scanned my receipt and submitted it to Fetch.  You won’t get rich doing Fetch but you just take photos of your grocery receipts and submit them.  It takes seconds and you should earn a gift certificate every 6 months or so

I was pleased to see the Cheerios were a bonus item. 

https://fetchrewards.onelink.me/vvv3/referraltext?code=E6TNG

That is my referral link if you should want to try Fetch 

Then I went to Aldi and bought the things in my list 

I thought Aldi’s prices seemed good! 

I was curious how I would of done if I’d ordered the same things on Walmart Pickup so I went to their app and added everything to see the total -I didn’t place order, I just wanted to compare 

Walmart was $15 higher 

This is not an exact comparison as the 2 stores have different items but the Walmart list is what I would if spent on the same list.  

All that meat was used for bulk cooking that I like to freeze for easy meals.  I made a big batch of chili and a big batch of pasta sauce.  

I cooked chicken into taco meat,  plain cooked chicken cubes for meals like chicken noodle soup and shredded chicken for chicken salad, enchiladas, etc.  

I’m quite happy our freezer is so stocked with easy meals.  

  

I used crockpots and the stovetop to cook all that chicken.  The chicken taco meat was seasoned with just salsa. 

I cooked lots pintos for the chili and used lots of chopped onions in the chili and pasta sauce.  

  

At Aldi, it’s been so long since I shopped in person and I didn’t have bags in my van.  My husband got these wine boxes as as the Aldi worker was stocking shelves.  They were perfect for groceries- very sturdy and even cushioned on the inside. 

To close,  I had written out what some people would call a pro-Covid vaccine rant.  

I’ve deleted it and I’d like to say more as my family has been depending on all kinds of medical workers for 6 weeks and counting as my mother recovers from a complicated surgery.  

I’ve always been  in favor of ALL vaccines.  

Why wait when a vaccine could save your life, make people around you safer and take stress off the medical system?  

❤️ Rhonda 

Summer news - yard sale finds, baked carrots

Hello everyone 🌞

There will probably not be many posts from me for awhile- I’m just busy with home and garden and family.  

And when I’m not busy,  I often rest or do things that I forget to take photos of and then blog.  

Above is when I took 5 grands to a local splash pad and they all left their shoes in a pile while they played in the water.  

A fun activity the last couple days was working on this Americana puzzle with my oldest grand.  He is 12 and really likes puzzles. 

This was a $1 puzzle from the Dollar Tree and just as much fun as expensive puzzles.  

There have just not been many yard sales in our area. 

I went to one neighborhood sale that in the past had dozens of sales but this year there were less than 10. 

And one home had all their cast offs piled in the front yard and were FREE

This FREE tall metal trash can is dusty but the inside was spotless and never seemed to of been used- my husband wanted it to put in his workshop. 

  

I also got a box of kid jigsaw puzzles and a case of diamectous earth- all of the above things were FREE. 

I paid for these things below  but not much 

A company called The Fruit Truck was in our town and we got a case of Georgia peaches

They were so good!  We ate some, shared some,  froze some and put the rest in the freezer after we peeled and sliced them.  

For Kay

My baked carrots aren’t really a recipe but a method

I peel and slice and about 2 pounds of carrots. 

Put them in a baking dish. 

Add salt and pepper, a few pats of butter and a teaspoon or 2 of sugar (I don’t add water) 

Cover the dish with a lid or foil. 

Bake at 350-400 for 45 minutes or so.  

I usually make these when I’m making another baked dish and they bake along just fine beside a chicken or meatloaf or whatever.  

Kay- hope your farmer husband likes them 

Hope you are all having a nice summer 

❤️ Rhonda 🇺🇸

June 12 - garden produce, Grandma tricks and meals ☀️

Hello everyone 

The sunshine is good for the garden.  We’re harvesting blackberries everyday and have  picked green beans the last 2 days. 

My husband dug up the potatoes he grew in barrels - reds, whites and Yukon golds 

Some are big and some are little - and there will be lots of potatoes on our menu this summer 

Even after caring for 8 grandchildren over the last 12 years,  I am learning a few new tricks with grandchild #9 

This is the best and easiest  to use diaper rash treatment ever!  Just spray a little on and there’s no waterproof cream to try and wash off your hands afterward- 

It really works fast on diaper rash too 

Grand #9 is young enough to need daily naps.  Naps are always easier to start with a few books but this room has insulated curtains and my eyes don’t see the book well enough to read in the dark room. 

So I remembered I had a clip on book light and it works perfectly.  

I used last weeks to do list but some of the meals changed 

Onions, carrots and oranges prepped for the week 

Other carrots were grated and baked into carrot muffins 

I mixed up a double batch and got 20 normal size muffins-some we ate, some we shared and some were froze

They are a moist muffin, not real sweet- perfect for breakfast 

Some of our Meals this week 

Salmon patties, cabbage and potatoes and bell pepper - looks funny because it was hot and steamed my camera 

Crockpot baked potatoes, barbecued chicken and spinach from the garden - we ate chicken several meals and shared some 

Baked carrots, corn and potatoes, and more of the barbecued chicken

A recent guest told us they didn’t ever like leftovers.  I don’t get it- we enjoy leftovers and they are so easy on busy days 

What is your opinion of leftovers? 

Hope you’re  all enjoying the end of spring ☔️ 🌧 💐 

❤️Rhonda