BEDA #4 Thrifty Thursday - dishwasher tips

Hello everyone 

With 7 people in our home, our dishwasher normally runs at least 2 full loads daily.  

My favorite and cheapest dishwasher detergent is the Great Value powder one.  It gets all the tea and coffee stains off of white mugs and leaves everything squeaky clean.  I fill the soap cup just half full too.  

My dishwasher requires a rinse agent.  Without it, the dishes are so wet after any cycle.  I’ve tried vinegar but it didn’t help at all and generic rinse agent didn’t help either.  

Name brand rinse agents are in small 8 ounce bottles and are about  $5 at my stores.  Then I found the huge 32 ounce bottle on Amazon for about $10.  I’ll keep buying it from Amazon if this price continues.  

I’ve discovered my dishwasher does an excellent job of cleaning everything on the speed cycle.  It’s about 60 minutes and the other cycles are 2 - 21/2 hours.  It’s kind of tricky to set the speed cycle though.  So to remind me and the others in our home,  I marked the buttons with the order to push them to run the dishwasher on the speed cycle.  

That part of the dishwasher only shows when the door is open.  So there aren’t any sharpie marks causing an eyesore in my kitchen.  

  

Thank you everyone who answered about the mystery gadget.  I’m pretty sure it is a no touch door opener. 

I had no idea.  

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #3 meals this week

Hello everyone 

I like seeing real meals other homemakers serve so I took photos of our recent meals to show y’all 

This was Sunday morning breakfast- hash brown made from left over baked potatoes, scrambled eggs and sausage gravy.

I cook lots of things from scratch but not gravy, I use this 

  

It’s not health food but it’s lots lower in calories and quicker to make than scratch gravy 

Lunch that day was make your own salad and/or sandwich 

Supper was a jointly prepared meal 

Meat grilled by son in law,

Sides of  green beans, corn, watermelon and rolls prepared by me. 

Dessert for a few days was compliments of son in law’s mother, who took them all to buy new school clothes and also a bunch of cookies 

 

And extra sodas from their meal at  Pops on Route 66

Another heat wave came through. I planned ahead and cooked some easy to reheat favorites for the 106 degree days 

  

A big batch of homemade Mexican rice, lentil taco filling, beef taco filling and assorted extras like tortillas, chips, fresh salsa, etc.  

and if anyone gets tired of Mexican, they can have a hot dog.  

These are our very favorite hot dogs. 

Ballpark white smoked Turkey. 

They are no longer sold in Oklahoma 🤷🏻‍♀️ So my husband stocks up on them when he visits his parents on the Arkansas-Texas border.  

And a question for you all 

Anyone know what this gadget is?  

❤️Rhonda 

BEDA #2 gardening is full of surprises

During the last 4-5 days of July, we had cooler temperatures and a good bit of rain.  

Since it was cooler and the ground had softened up,  I spent Saturday morning weeding and pruning the front yard flower beds. 

The hot weather had made the weeds thrive while our grass looks so brown. 

Ducky likes to hang out in the front yard and he is attached to a very long tether as our city has leash laws.  His tether is long enough that he can go all over our yard and driveway but not long enough to go in the street. 

I use this kneeling bench when I garden.  And I don’t think my cranky knees could pull many weeds without it.  

3 bags of weeds- and a lot of crinum leaves that I cut way back. 

On that Saturday,  just 3 days ago, I cut this bed of crinums back to almost nothing.  

You can see in the photo where the green part stops. 

My huge surprise was seeing all these crinum lilies pop up and getting ready to bloom.  

I’m guessing all the flowers were waiting down deep and couldn’t pop up through the thick maize of leaves.  

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Wouldn’t it be fun if all plants grew as fast as these crazy crinums?  Kind of like Jack’s magic beanstalk seeds 🙂

❤️Rhonda 

I’m going to try BEDA- blogging every day in August

We will see how this goes.  Like in April, I am going to try to blog everyday in August.  

My first august post is going to short though. 

My husband brought back some old things as he is cleaning out closets and such at his parents.  

My daughter wants the big Frankhoma boot.  I’m keeping the 2 tiny eagle pitchers to put out when I have patriotic decorations out. 

I’m pretty sure our daughter in law I will find a home for the other things .

We’ve been discussing this old spoonrest and it’s meaning.  

“A wife can throw out more with a scoop than a man can bring in with a shovel.”

This is very old,  I’m guessing maybe from the 1920s or 1930s.

It’s obviously not at all politically correct by 2022 standards.  

What do you all think it means?  

We’ve got a few theories and have no idea what is right.  So I really want to know what you all think. 

❤️ Rhonda 

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