End of July already?

Hello everyone

I didn’t plan to take such a long blogging break and I’m not sure I’m jumping back in to blogging regularly.  Who knows? 

In the top photo, 

I’m on the left and my son in law’s stepmom is on the right. 

We didn’t plan it but we were both dressed the same this morning 

Isn’t her home pretty?  

They have a pool and I’m guessing the blow up dragon was brought inside to keep it from blowing away.

I didn’t even notice it until I saw it in the photo.  

Life is still busy here.  

The new house for our son in law and daughter is being built but it’s not finished yet so our home is full and busy.  

It’s crazy hot there- 105-108 everyday but there is a break in sight. 

Hot and windy- kind of like living in a convection oven 🥵🥵🥵

My husband’s parents are both in their late eighties and have had several health issues so my husband has been spending about a week every month or so in Arkansas helping with dr appts, home maintenance, etc. 

I’m still stocking up and still cooking a lot. 

Our garden was pretty much a bust except for blackberries and flowers.  

   

CVS tempted me last week with their daily freebies and I had one really good day shopping there. 

First purchase in store  it was about $30 and I got back about $30 in CVS ExtraCareBucks 

I thought I would jump back in to the drugstore couponing deals after that. 

I went back today and took my planned purchases to checkout but it didn’t go like I expected at all! So I didn’t buy any of it. 

Early this evening, I went online and spent all my CVS ExtraCareBucks and ordered a f ew things and I think I’ll be done with CVS, at least for now.  

Below is today’s purchase 

The total spent was about $15
There are good deals to be found,  I just don’t feel like figuring them out right now. 

  

This sunflower was a seed planted in a disposable cup of dirt by grandson Jackson in his first grade class.  I kept a close eye on it and planted it outside, watered it often and it bloomed into such a pretty flower.  

I’ve been doing plastic canvas and finished this set of boxes for fall. 

I’ve started a snowman for winter but no photo yet.  

That fruit tray was full of melon and strawberries when the meal started.  

We’ve been eating lots of cantaloupes, watermelons and strawberries during this heat spell.  

And Popsicles! 

Our sad news is Cora and family have moved to a different university, 11 hours away. 

But we spent lots of time with her the last 6 weeks or so and it’s a good move.  We are happy for them but of course we miss them. 

And we will see them in 2 months 😀

There is a huge park near their new home and I’m happy they are in such a nice town. 

I guess that’s all the big news here. 

Hello to you all 👋🏻

❤️Rhonda 

May 11 - crazy Walmart delivery order

I bought groceries on Monday at Aldi for the week. 

But they didn’t have the sugar-free Gatorade that my husband likes to drink after he has been doing things outside.

 So I decided to do a Walmart delivery order. I ordered 2 12 packs of his Gatorade and then I needed to add a few things to bring the total up to $35 for free delivery. 

So I added two bags of flour, a box of Triscuits that my granddaughter really enjoys  and 12 big cans of tomato sauce.

 I  use canned tomato products often to make things like chili and big batches of homemade pasta sauce.

The Gatorade will be delivered tomorrow but I got the other items today.

So just imagine my surprise when there were eight or nine bags on my front doormat after the delivery.

I ordered 12 cans of sauce but I was delivered about 35 cans of sauce! I haven’t taken all of them out of the bags yet So I’m not exactly sure of the exact number they delivered.

 I have no idea how this huge this mistake happened-  

Circled in yellow are the 12 that I ordered and had put away. And then my husband said wait, what about all these other bags? 

I have notified Walmart about the mistake but I have not heard back from them yet.

 Other times when I have received extra Walmart things I didn’t order, they have said sorry about the mistake and please keep them as a gift or pass them onto someone else.

Crazy, right? 

❤️ Rhonda 

2nd week of May -this week’s to do list, a YouTube link and what I did last week and comments

Hello everyone 

First, here is this weeks to do list.  It’s very simple and loose as things come up and I can’t finish tasks I hoped to.  

I know y’all all understand that 

Last week is a perfect example of things happening that needed fixed 

We had a huge flash rain storm last week and I discovered in the middle of the night that water was coming into our house,  

We didn’t have any permanent damage or need to call our insurance company.  And we have worked on a few things to hopefully prevent this again.  Anyway, I was busy with lots of mopping,  removing water from the living room rug and master bedroom carpet,  washing several loads of towels that mopped up rain water - so very little was crossed off last weeks to do list while I spent 2 days dealing with the water in our house. 

This week is so far going just fine.  

It’s really hot so my husband grilled burgers for Monday supper.  We ate all the meat but there were leftover buns and toppings so I decided to just serve those tonight with a new to us recipe.  

It’s a recipe called mesquite grilled chicken sandwiches (but it doesn’t use any actual mesquite) 

https://gluesticksblog.com/mesquite-grilled-chicken-sandwich/

I’ll let you know how they turn out.  

A project that has been on my list for sometime isto clean out a closet in our garage and make it exclusively a cleaning items closet. If you walk out through our laundry room, this closet is right there beside the door. It’s functional now but it’s not clean and it’s not pretty. I got the idea from seeing a YouTuber makeover her cleaning closet. 

I remember this homemaker’s cleaning closet was very pretty but she purchased a lot of stuff to accomplish her vision.

I looked on YouTube but I cannot find the exact video that I remember.

Then  last week I saw Emily Wilson on YouTube redo a closet in her home. Her style is much more like my style. She didn’t go out and buy a bunch of stuff. But she accomplished the goal she wanted to.

https://youtu.be/XNf-3__rxVs

While I would like to get this closet fixed this week, it is very hot in Oklahoma right now. And there is not a lot of ventilation in our garage. So it might get done but I might have to put it off until we have a cool spill.

Terri left a comment but I accidentally deleted it. 

She is very right about the fact that we won’t always little boys to fetch things in hard to reach places. 

I certainly don’t know everything about children but I do know children are not children  very long.

❤️ Rhonda 

May 2- weekly to do list

Good morning

I’ve been to my doctor for a yearly checkup first thing this morning and I sorted the laundry and have  the first load started.  

Now I need to get busy doing some housework and I need to go back out and do 2 errands.  

Hope we all have productive weeks

❤️ Rhonda 

May 1st- organizing a cabinet and things from our walk

Hello everyone 

After church,  I asked a grandson to help me with a corner cabinet in our kitchen.  

It has a narrow door but it’s open all the way back to the corner.  

It will hold lots of stuff but it’s very easy to lose and forget about stuff too.  

I went through all the stuff he pulled out and then made a list to put on that door to help me remember what’s in there 

The cabinets are not full and that’s fine with me.  

I’m guessing some of y’all would like a JJ to help you with some hard to reach places too 😊

Later in the afternoon, I went for a walk and the two grandsons rode their bikes.

This business that is closed on weekends has a great parking lot for bike riding. The boys look a lot farther off in this picture than they really are.

 But it is a good size area that they can make loops on and you have to go up and down the entranceway.

They both burned off lots of silliness during our exercise outing. 

This is in the yard in a house several blocks from our house. I think the plant is called clematis and it blooms every spring. 

The first year it bloomed, I thought it was  silk flowers as I had never seen a real lavender flower  blooming like this.

In case you’re wondering, the side of this house faces the west. 

   

We stopped at the little free library in our neighborhood. We know the teacher that runs it and it is OK to take whichever books we want.
I’ve been reading the Benjamin Franklin book to two of the boys. I read the Paul Revere book and have started the book about John Hancock.

 They may be intended for children but they have lots of good history in them.

In our yard, several rhododendron bushes are in full bloom, above.

Below is a peony bush that will be blooming any day.

Terri

We had a heavy rain a few nights ago and it washed away almost all of the flowers on the bleeding heart plant.

 So it may have lasted more than a week, but not much more.

 They are very pretty plants though.

Happy May Day to everyone 

❤️ Rhonda