BEDA #12-15

Oops!  I thought I missed 2 days of BEDA but it was 3.  

First,  I’m starting Monday with a new to do list for the week.  

Our weekend was both busy and slow.  

My husband smoked a ham and 2 chickens so meals were easy.  

Saturday morning, I tried to do some in store shopping but it was very frustrating.

First I went to Dollar General- I wanted to use their $5/25 Saturday coupon.  It was so busy in there and all the shopping carts were being used by other customers.  It was so crowded,  I just left. 

Then I went to a Walmart.  This store is being remodeled -again!  

Their AC was not working right.  

I live in a college town and the students are retuning so many of them were shopping at Walmart with their parents so many of the aisles there were full with clumps of shoppers.  

After I bought a few things,  I got back in my vehicle.  

Walmart is normally less than a 10 minute drive from home but it took me 30 minutes because so many major streets in my town are closed and/or being redone and because of the all the college traffic.  

I finally got home and told my husband I may never shop in a store again.  Of course at some point, I will.  But Saturday morning was just no fun at all.

And I will NOT be shopping on Saturdays. 

I hadn’t made energy balls in a good while but some the grands asked for them.  

Mix the honey and peanut butter and vanilla.  Then stir in the oats, then the chocolate.

Roll into small balls.  2 of mine probably equal 1 golf ball.  But you can make them any size.  

I have several containers of honey in my pantry but honey has really gone up in price. 

  I think to make these less expensive,  any kind of  maple, pancake syrup would be a perfect substitute for the honey.  I know honey is from a different source than pancake syrup, but they are the same sweetness and consistency so I’m confident it would work. 

 The maple and peanut butter would be a good flavor combination too.  

These energy balls are delicious and much more filling than a store bought granola bar.

They do take a while to roll into balls.  I sat down at the kitchen table and watched a YouTube video while I did them.  

I keep them in the fridge but they would be fine in lunchboxes for a few hours.  

Anyway,  sorry about my absence and for my shopping rant.

I’ve got a list to work on now.

Hope you all have a productive day and no shopping drama 

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #11 all kitchen stuff and a movie

Hello everyone 

I stayed home all - did our laundry and a few kitchen things.  

I used the crusts that were cut off for the school lunch sandwiches.  I tossed the crusts with melted butter and just a little garlic salt.  Then I toasted them in this kind of new convection oven. 

We’ve had it a little more than a month and I’m really happy with it.  

It was especially nice for oven cooking things during that bad heat wave.  The oven gets hot but it doesn’t seem to heat up the kitchen like my regular oven.  

I’ve baked cookies, bread, muffins, biscuits, cake, tater tots in this oven all successfully. 

The downside is it’s large - the box of jello is for size reference.  

I do like using it - things are cooking at eye level and so it’s very convenient to keep watch of things while they bake.  

We bought it on Amazon and the brand is Elite Gourmet.  I think it was about $130 but it may be different now.  

Years ago there was another blogger named Lyn who didn’t have an oven.  I’ve thought about her, and so far, it seems this could be a substitute for a traditional oven for most baked things. 

But I’m not trying to convince anyone to buy this.  “influencers” are rather annoying these days.  

I’m just writing about what we are doing. 

But so far, this convection oven-giant air fryer works for us.  

Back to the croutons,  my husband and I had big salads at lunch with croutons and the croutons really made a nice addition to our salads 

Supper tonight was pizza. Leftovers are in the fridge as our son in law is still working and the grandsons have ball practice. 

I expect the late comers will reheat their slices in the new oven.  

I used up some of the leftovers from last night’s Mexican meal and made more burritos for the freezer.  

One of my husband’s friends told him how much he liked a movie called Father Stu.  We rented it from Amazon and watched it this morning. 

Warning -the language is terrible- but it has such a good message about God’s grace and forgiveness.  

It’s main stars are Mark Wahlberg and Mel Gibson.  

We both liked it and would recommend it to adults

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #10 kitchen stuff and laundry

Hello - 

There was some smoked pork left from the weekend so I mixed it with cheese and a drained can of Ranch Beans,  

Then I filled tortillas with it

Rolled them up and put in individual bags to freeze for lunches for whoever wants them. 

Ranch beans are pinto beans cooked in Mexican spices and are not to be confused with Ranch dressing - as happened with a grandchild 

I also made 16 sausage biscuit breakfast sandwiches to freeze.  

For the taco filling,  I cubed some beef round steak, added taco seasoning and a little barbecue sauce.  Then it cooked in a crockpot most of the day.  It was tender and delicious! 

Salad topping for the Mexican food

That was supper tonight- served with tortillas and chips.  It was a lot of food and we will have the leftovers for another supper or for lunches 

I don’t normally do the grandkids laundry but I did today 

And that’s all for BEDA #10 

❤️Rhonda 

BEDA #9 a grands day

From yesterday, a storm came through early evening and dropped a lot of rain in short time. It also had some straight line winds. 

This tree is across our street. 

Several  neighbors have fence damage. 

A new house being built, 3 blocks away, lost it’s  trusses.

We had a broken flower pot and a little fence damage.  My husband and oldest grandson fixed our fence this morning. 

I think that broken tree is going to need a professional tree service. It’s a Bradford pear and I’m not sorry it will be gone.  Bradford pears are pretty when they bloom but they stink, give some people terrible allergy issues and they too weak for Oklahoma winds.  

Oklahoma weather is no joke. 

Today 5 of our grands were here for some of the day. 

We got Little Caesar’s pizza and had lunch with their great grandmother in her retirement apartment.

Some of them did Perler beads

Some of us learned to make a sliding knot to make jewelry with no clasps or fasteners 

This video spells it out - it took me a couple of attempts but I’ve got it mastered now 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6Qy5WdSq74

Our fridge has several containers of leftovers so no cooking tonight.

Everyone can heat up their choices. 

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #8 cleaning closet

Today I did some housework, including vacuuming and mopping.  

During my blog break, I cleaned and organized several areas in and around our home that were big jobs but I’m so glad I had the time and ability to do them.  

One of those jobs was making a cleaning closet.  

In our garage is a small closet that was not designated for anything so it ended up being a catchall.  

I talked about wanting to make a cleaning closet in this post http://ifyoudostuff.blogspot.com/2022/05/2nd-week-of-may-this-weeks-to-do-list.html

I didn’t take a before photo but that’s the after photo. 

 The vacuum, carpet cleaner and spin mop are in there, along with a regular mop and bucket and some assorted dusters, brooms, etc

It’s a small closet and it didn’t turn out Pinterest worthy but I appreciate it every time I clean. 

When I was thinking about doing this,  I thought I would need to buy a hanging rack but a few nails but in the shelf support work perfectly to hang every thing and didn’t cost a thing.  

❤️Rhonda