BEDA #3 changes in our kitchen

Hello everyone 

I thought y’all might like to see the changes I made to our kitchen as I switch from feeding 2 to feeding 7.  

The 5 younger members of our household all take water bottles to school and work so I cleared off this top shelf to store them.

The bread machine stays on the counter now instead of stored on the pantry floor.  We’ve been enjoying fresh bread, rolls and of course pizza, courtesy of this handy helper. 

I did buy 2 bigger pans for cooking, both are from Home Goods and we’re about $50 total. 

They don’t have measurements on them but I think the biggest one is maybe 10-12 quarts and the smaller one may be 4-5 quarts capacity. 

The brand is Deane and White 

Besides the groceries we most always have,  there seems to be food everywhere in our home,  brought by Daughter and family 

  

In the breakfast room, hall and garage 

Daughter and family are more social than we are.  They went to a birthday party yesterday and brought home leftover cupcakes from a fancy local bakery 

Right now, they are at a another birthday party and I’m wondering what they might bring home this time.  

Our youngest granddaughter Cora turned 3 in February.

Today she was baptized at their church.  

We love her so much!

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA- #2 crafting, Pizza Friday and Walmart delivery

Hello again

I really enjoy reading all your sweet comments welcoming me back, thank you!

A craft I have enjoyment doing is plastic canvas. I first started doing plastic canvas maybe 35 years or so ago. It’s an economical craft because all you need is the plastic canvas, yarn, scissors and a blunt needle. I also like that the finished items are flat and are easy to store away for the different seasons.

Above are some Easter magnets that are on our refrigerator right now.

 I stitched the carrots several years ago and the bunny just got stitched  this year.

The grandchildren have asked to learn how to do it. First I did a stitch along with Elizabeth who is almost 12.

 We both made a rainbow magnet.

I found this simple pattern online and I don’t know who gets the credit for it.

Daughter Nina remembered doing plastic canvas when she was about Elizabeth’s age. She has started a set of gnomes for Easter, they are also refrigerator magnets.

Then JJ who is almost 9 wanted to start a project. His mother drew a flag with permanent markers onto the canvas and he is stitching it.

Jackson is almost 7 and he has started a very simple striped coaster. It’s a little harder for him and I’m not sure he’ll finish it but maybe he will. He has also been painting with watercolors and I think this painting is especially nice.

For meals, we have decided that either Friday or Saturday night will be pizza night. And last night was Friday and it was pizza night. I made the crust and the bread machine. We also had a simple salad.  I cubed the homemade bread left from a Thursday supper and made a few croutons for the salad. Dessert was frozen peaches from the freezer.

  

Walmart delivery - I know many people do not like Walmart and that’s fine.  But I am a Walmart shopper and have been taking advantage of their free delivery 

Not the delivery where you have a pay a subscription for, but free shipping for some items as long  as your total is $35+

This delivery is only for staples- not for fresh produce or frozen things or fresh dairy, bread or meat. 

I have ordered things like canned goods, soft drinks, flour, crackers, salsa in plastic jugs, 

 paper products, personal care items, pet food, underwear, socks, office supplies- lots of things! 

Delivery seems to come within 48 hours  and Walmart always alerts me when it is out for delivery and when it has been left at my front door.

Sometimes the items come straight from a local Walmart and are delivered in White sacks. 

And sometimes they come through FedEx and are in a box.

I also check out first through Swagbucks and have been getting a few Swagbucks back on all my Walmart purchases, even though the Swagbucks site says they do not credit for groceries. But so far might have all credited.

The tricky part about it is some things can be shipped and sometimes Walmart wants you to pick them up at the store. I do grocery pick up sometime but with gas prices, I really prefer them to just bring my purchases  to my front door. So if you try this, before you check out on the Walmart app, make sure you see what the shipping or the pick up method is. If your order gets split and one part is less than $35 then you will be charged a shipping fee. So far I have had no problems because I do look at everything closely when I check out.

Another disadvantage is sometimes things are delivered at several different times. If you live in an area with a lot of porch Pirates or you don’t like multiple deliveries, then this Walmart shipping may not be for you. 

I am home most of the time so it’s not inconvenient at all for me.


I know that people in rural areas can have problems with deliveries. So this method might not be for you. Below is an actual post from someone I know that was put on Facebook yesterday. They live in a rural area in Texas and this delivery they got through UPS really takes the cake.

Can you see their delivery is in a white sack tied up in a bush! If I lived where they did and had this kind of delivery service, I don’t think I would ever get anything delivered!

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA- #1 2 families in 1 home

Hello everyone- it’s been a long time! I’m not going to discuss details but the last 10 months or so have been a hard, unusual and sad  time for my entire family and that is why I have not read or wrote blogs much. 

The latest change is our daughter and son in law sold their home and have started building a new one.  But, it won’t be finished for maybe 10 months.  Family home rentals are hard to find and they want to save money for new home stuff so………their family of 5 has put much of their stuff in storage and moved in with us.  

Our home has an almost perfect layout for 2 families.  

It has a large master bedroom on one end.  We moved in 2 recliners and the laptop/printer into our master so we can retreat in there if needed (but so far, we are mostly in our room just to sleep. 

We have a big walk-in master closet and lots of extra stuff is stored in there during this process.  

The other 3 bedrooms are on the opposite end of this home.  I spent several weeks downsizing in these rooms- some stuff was donated and a little bit was put in storage.  

Before our daughter’s family moved in, The craft room looked like this……

Most all the sewing and craft things are in this end of the room.  That tall piece on the right is 2 pieces that stacked perfectly! I’m short and can’t see in the top drawer but that’s what stools are for.  

They are vintage Ethan Allen and I’m a big fan of how solid they are and how their finish holds up.  

A slim bed for a slim granddaughter on the other side of this room- 

This closet is still pretty full but 1/4 of it on the bottom right was emptied for  this granddaughter 

The 2 grandsons are sharing this room - there is a small walkin closet and dressers on the other end 

The parents are in the “guest room”

I didn’t change much in the living areas except I added a craft corner to the living room 

Zero changes in the dining room and thankfully our table is plenty big enough for all 7 of us 

In the breakfast room,  I did store away all the decorations on the hutch as I knew they were bringing food and it’s on there now.  They also brought a freezer full of locally grown beef and a full fridge which is in my husband’s shop ( I’ve bought a few groceries since they’ve been here but not nearly as many as you might think) 

And we are all hoping to garden so we have some seeds started (this photo is several weeks old and the plants have grown a good bit) 

So far,  things are going just fine and I think we all are enjoying seeing each other often.  

Yes, I am cooking more but I like cooking.  I’m doing more laundry but I don’t mind that either.  I’m thankful for appliances, utilities and cleaning products which make laundry so easy compared to past generations and many people in other countries.  

Our daughter and son in law both are employed, their children are in school and they are all busy with school, ball, dance, church activities, scouts —- so they live in our home but they are gone more than they are here.  

They also brought their dog, Winnie.  I was most worried about how the 2 dogs would get along but they are doing great! 

They are almost the same age and weight. .  They play hard outside and then mostly sleep when they are inside 

Ducky and Winnie - yes, our grass is brown.  It’s been a cold, dry winter but the grass will start growing soon and should be green then.  

BEDA means blog every day in April.  

I’m going to try! 

❤️ Rhonda 
Thank you for visiting today 

First post for February 2022#7

Hello everyone - I have less free time for blogging right now but I want to check in.

We have had a big snow event that’s lasted several days.  Granddaughter Cora was here today and we made tiny snowmen in the living room.  If you look close,  you’ll see a clear tray full of snow on top of a towel on a coffee table. We made snowmen and had lots of fun.  Cora wanted some tiny hats for the snow people but this was a spur of the moment activity and I didn’t have any tiny hats.  

I wish I had a before photo but Ducky got his first ever grooming, as in a professional haircut and he looks very handsome.  

Our oldest grandchild Gavin turned 13 this week.  His cousin Elizabeth isn’t far behind him  either.  

They spent lots of their early days here but now they are in different schools in 6th and 7th grade.  

I’m still trying to declutter and organize every square foot of our home.  I spent a few minutes cleaning out these 2 upper cabinets in our laundry room.  




These are the BEFORE photos 😱😱😱

I only spent a few minutes working on them but I think it was well worth it.  

I removed the lightbulbs from most of their packaging to save space 

These are the AFTER photos 

All of this came out of the cabinets and went into the trash or recycle bin.  

Our laundry room stays pretty busy as I do our laundry and another family’s laundry so I’m quite happy I squeezed out the time to get this job done.

I also cleaned out our small entry closet but I didn’t take any photos.  I think my husband most appreciates this better space, I found a coat he forgot about pushed to one end so he’s been happily wearing it.  

Lejmom -  yes we still have some pantry items stored in 2 bedroom spaces but not as much and not as spread out as it was in 2020.  

But it’s likely a family will move in with us for several months so I’m trying to figure out how to keep a lot of pantry items and have room for them too.  Haven’t quite figured it all out but I’m planning options in my head and I’ll blog when I figure it out.  

Hope you all are fine 

❤️ Rhonda 

New week and some of last week’s stuff 2022 #6

First is my new to do list.  It includes more cleaning and organizing projects I hope to get done this week but they may carryover into February.


It wasn’t on the list but I decided our food pantry needed some organization and cleaning out as well.

The canned goods were all on the bottom shelf and were hard to keep organized and to see what was in the back so the main change was I moved the canned goods up to the second shelf from the bottom.

I also refilled the clear square canisters. Over the last few months as they were emptied, they were washed and stored away in a lower kitchen cabinet. I got them all out and refilled them with our snacks and crackers and baking items.

I also did a little organizing in the baking cabinet.

The baking ingredient cabinet is right over the counter where the microwave used to be in the corner. Now the mixer is there holding some decorative bowls when it’s not being used. And all of the counter space is wide open so when I do get ready to bake or cook something, there is room to work.

Another area that has been bugging me was this narrow freezer space of our refrigerator. I’ve been trying to plan meals around the food that was in this freezer to make some more space in it. And then this weekend I pulled everything out and put it back in in a more organized way. On the top shelf in the red basket are nuts. On the next shelf are Popsicles where the children can easily get out the one they want. On the next shelf in that clear shoebox container are meets. And then in the bottom are things like frozen vegetables and fruits in bags.



I also cleaned out the cold side of the refrigerator but there are no before or after pictures. You all have seen messy refrigerators and straightened up refrigerators.

Oven was needing cleaned. So I ran the self cleaning cycle on both ovens yesterday. For the oven racks, I put them in a bathtub and sprayed them down with Dawn power wash several times. The Dawn did a really good job on them. They don’t look brand new but a whole Lotta stuff washed off of them and they look good enough to me. I wiped out the oven this morning when they were cool. The only problem area is a little tiny grease splatters burned onto the window glass. In the past I tried the vinegar and baking soda method  that so many people recommend but that didn’t do the job. So I’m planning on getting some spray on oven cleaner just for that glass and see if that works. I saw other people recommended it so I’ll let you know. 

Below is the link for the door rack we bought.  So far, we like it just fine  There are many door racks for sale on Amazon and Walmart and eBay.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0924GX2ZQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details

I’m hoping we all have productive weeks. But so far it’s 10 o’clock and all I’ve done is start laundry and put the oven back together so………..

I think I’ll publish this post and put this iPad down and get busy doing more things around my home. Hope you all have a great day 

❤️ Rhonda