I want some advice

Good morning everyone 

The last 10 months with our 5 house guests has been fun and busy.  They finalized the purchase of their brand-new just-built home yesterday and started moving in. The new home is beautiful and I will share some photos later. Right now it’s very much in transition as they move stuff from this home and from several storage buildings.

I’m guessing most all of you were in that recent cold spell over Christmas. That was a hard one, wasn’t it? Anyway we’ve known for a while that our doors and windows were kind of leaky, they are 22 years old. But during that cold spell with the hard winds, the curtains in our dining room were fluttering back and forth from the breeze coming in the closed and locked window.

So, we have started shopping for replacement windows and a replacement front and back door, there is a good company in our town and we feel very safe using them.

My biggest decision is what kind of front door to get. We can get a metal door which we can paint or they will paint whatever color we would like. Or we could get a wood door and my husband is thinking he would like a wood door.

Our home is brick, with a lot of terra-cotta in the brick and gray mortar. We have fairly new siding and it is white.

Our roof is brown and our fence is white. Shutters are white but could be painted.  

We do plan to paint the hanging light fixture glossy black to match the ones we painted by the garage door.  

What kind of door and what color do you think would look good with our home?  I don’t want a big glass window again.  I’m leaning toward maybe a row of windows just at the top or a solid door with no openings but I really don’t know. 

Do you think a color like terra cotta, gray or blue would be good?  Or what about a wood door and what stain wood?  

About 2023,  I plan to be back to blogging regularly 

Thank you all 

❤️ Rhonda 

November news 🦃🍁🥧

Hello everyone 

Today was getting things started for our Thanksgiving meal on Thursday.  

I think 10 of us will be here

I’ve started a pile on the  counter for the Thanksgiving ingredients, 

I saw Manuela at  https://acultivatednest.com/ had links to several free printable Thanksgiving planner sheets.  I’ve always just made my list on plain paper but this year, I printed off a few sheets that worked for me.  I plan to keep them and reference them year to year.  

Our 3 little house guests wanted to help peel the potatoes so I said sure! 

I diced onions and celery for dressing,  chopped pecans for several dishes and diced some onions just for anytime we need diced onion.  

We also grated some really sharp cheese to make pimento cheese to eat in celery.  

Earlier this month,  my husband and I spent 9 days in Branson, Missouri.  The trip had been planned for months with reservations and show tickets all paid for.  My husband has several back issues and one of them flared up shortly before we left.  But he still wanted to go so we did.  He was physically hurting most all of them time though 

There are many things to do in Branson and we like the musical shows best. 

We saw The Haywood’s, Clay Cooper, Hot Rods and High Heels, Christmas Wonderland, Jersey Boys, Hughes Family Christmas,  The Gatlin Brothers, The Bellamy Brothers and The Oak Ridge Boys- and maybe a few others but I can’t recall them as I type this.  

We stayed in a condo and ate most of meals there.  We didn’t shop except to get groceries at a huge, fairly new Aldi in Branson and of course Walmart.  

It was cold in Branson!  

We had a good time and got our fill of vacationing.  

And this homebody is happy to be home 🏠 

The Gatlin Brothers 

Jersey Boys - we learned the young man on the left side of the photo graduated from the university in our town. 

 He is an amazing singer and we also saw him in Christmas Wonderland 

Hot Rods and High Heels- a 50s theme show 

Clay Cooper 

Our sweet Cora- she is growing fast!  She likes plain raw carrots and doesn’t want them cut up.  

A funny joke about inflation 

Although there is really nothing funny about inflation.  

I know many people are truly struggling right now

❤️ Rhonda 

Back to regular homekeeping

Hello everyone 

It’s Monday and I’m hoping to have a productive week.

I made a to do list 

I checked off a few things but my husband had a morning Dr appt with his back specialist and then we got a grocery pickup.

No photo of our purchases though as I was in a hurry to put things away and it was just normal kitchen items.  

Sadly they were out of 8 things on my list- lactose free milk, hens, strawberries, clementines, and I don’t remember the other things 

And then we had a visitor.

So…….. I didn’t get as many things done today as I hoped but tomorrow is a new day. 

I put out a few fall decorations 

This wreath  is not new, according to my blog it’s been on our front door since at least 2014 and I think it’s several years older than that.

We got some much needed rain today so I’ll sweep the leaves later.  It would of been pointless today,

The pumpkins were bought at a church fundraiser by our son in law’s mother.  She takes her grandchildren there every year and since those children currently live here,  the pumpkins are on our front porch.  

The baseball shoes belong to them too 🙂

I saw this instagram recipe and tried it today as we had all the ingredients on hand 

Below is a screenshot from IG 

They were very fast to mix up and they are quite tasty.  I’m sure the grands will like them.  


Hope you all have a productive week

❤️Rhonda 

Shopping at a military commissary and some replies

Hello everyone 

My husband needed to go the VA hospital to get his eyeglasses adjusted. 

So while we were near a military base,  we shopped at a commissary.  Commissaries are grocery stores for military.  

Commissaries used to have very low prices compared to civilian stores.   Compared to stores in my town now though,  the commissary is about the same on most prices.  

We go there because their meats are higher quality and a good bit cheaper than I can buy locally.  They also have some brands we can’t get locally and they do have some good sales and coupon matchups.  

I got the  biggest  surprise and laugh when I saw a supply chain problem there. 

The meat was not wrapped on a plastic or styrofoam meat tray but was wrapped on an assortment of disposable plates.  😂

I’m guessing was did not make the butchers and meat wrappers too happy as the plates are much floppier than meat trays.  

We like to buy these big boxes of meat for $43

The commissary labels them Economy Boxes and I think they are a good economy. 

Our box had 3 packs pork chops, 1 pack of 2 pork tenderloins, 

1 beef roast, 2 trays of beef cube steaks and 4 rolls of 85% ground beef. 

I added up all the price stickers on the wrapped meat and it came to just a few cents away from $43 

I don’t know how much the ground beef rolls sell for but it’s like they were free because all the wrapped meats are things we might of bought individually anyway and they cost the total of the box. 

Our very best bargain today was eggs.  Are eggs really high where you shop?  I think the last carton of 18 eggs from Walmart was $5.89.

  

I’ve never seen eggs in 24 count cartons and these were $3.39 a carton. 

We bought 3 as we eat lots of eggs with 7 of us living here 

https://news.va.gov/101540/eligible-veterans-can-shop-at-defense-commissaries/

Commissary shopping privileges are now available to veterans rated with any military disability and their dependents  and for reserves, in addition to retirees and active duty. 

I’m not sure how vets without ID cards get that established to shop there but I do think it is worth it, especially if your nearest commissary has a great meat department like Tinker Air Force commissary.  

A few replies 

The White Lily flour made especially nice pizza crust.  It was soft on top and crisp on the bottom. 

The chocolate chip cookies were really good too and had a nice crispness to them too. 

If I am in the Deep South and can purchase this flour, I may get a few more bags but I won’t pay crazy shipping prices to get it any other way.  

About the stuffed peaches,  I used canned peach halves.  

Drain them and turn them all cut side up.

For a 28 ounce of peach halves,  I mix about 4 ounces of softened cream cheese, a little vanilla, maybe 1/4 c finely chopped pecans and 2 or 3 T powdered sugar.  

Then fill each peach half and keep chilled until serving. 

http://ifyoudostuff.blogspot.com/2020/12/blogidays-december-7-cream-cheese.html

That link is when I blogged about them a few years ago and also contains a link to YouTube video of  a homemaker preparing a very similar recipe.  

Sorry about my infrequent posts.

I am doing a good bit of cooking and cleaning with 7 in our home, but frankly, I just don’t get as much done as I used to.

I keep all the necessary things done but I don’t have the energy right now to do lots of creative or extra stuff.  

Hope you are well and happy 

❤️ Rhonda 

Another morning in the kitchen

Hello everyone 

First to answer a few questions- 

Cheese has always kept just in the freezer for us.  Sometimes I freeze cheese that I shredded and sometimes I freeze the pre-shredded cheese.  I can’t tell any difference in fresh cheese and thawed out cheese.  

Daughter and family are still living here.  Work is happening almost everyday at their new home but construction just takes awhile.  

About nonstick cookware, many of them say “lifetime warranty”. But in my experience, they all start sticking after a year or so.  

It’s hard for me with the cast iron, as it is heavy and my mind thinks you need soap to clean stuff.  But I use a scrub brush, hot water and sometimes a little salt.  Then I dry the skillet and use a paper towel to rub it with just a few drops of coconut oil.  So far, my big skillet is staying clean and I like using it.  I have 2 smaller skillets that I cleaned and re-seasoned. But I haven’t got in the routine of using them.  

With 7 in this home, the really big skillet makes the most sense anyway.  

About the 2 girls that came for the supper the night we had apple crisp,  it was no drama, just 2 sweet girls from out of town that had the same classes as our son and all worked at the same restaurant.

Now there was another night with some drama around that same timeframe. A different son had a girlfriend name Stephanie but they “broke up”. Then he quickly started dating Luanne. We had a family gathering around that same time and the son came with Luanne and somehow Stephanie knew about the party and she also came.  Nothing crazy happened but we were certainly on pins and needles wondering what might happen.  

On to today,  I wanted to try White Lily flour after seeing it on Southern cooking shows. Daughter and husband made a quick trip to South Carolina for his work and brought me back two bags of White Lily  flour. (Stores in my Oklahoma town don’t carry this brand) 

 So I’ve been looking on the White Lily website and found a few recipes and started them today.

Today is Friday and we almost always have pizza so I made a double batch of pizza dough. The website says pizza will be thinner and crisper made with white lily. Tomorrow is Saturday and we usually have a big cup to breakfast so I mixed up some ingredients to make biscuits. I use the recipe on the back of the bag and it calls for shortening. I don’t use shortening very often but I had a small can in the pantry. It was still in date but it smelled rancid so I just used butter instead. I also mixed up a batch of refrigerator chocolate chip cookie dough that you shake it to rolls and then can just slice off before you bake them. And granddaughter Elizabeth has been asking for peach halves that are filled with cream cheese mixed with chopped pecans, powdered sugar and vanilla.  So I made a batch of those too.  

Everything waiting in the fridge for supper and breakfast. 

On the right is a big pack of thick sliced that we bought from a fundraiser from grandson Gavin’s FFA group.

I think the breakfast eaters will be especially happy tomorrow.

White Lily flour recipes used 

Pizza recipe

https://www.whitelily.com/recipes/easy-homemade-deluxe-pizzas-3878/

Chocolate chip cookie refrigerator cookies recipe 

https://www.whitelily.com/recipes/chocolate-chip-refrigerator-cookies-3528/

Biscuit recipe on the back of the bag 

This is not a sponsored post. I think you might have to say that whenever you are talking about a product these days.
And I haven’t actually cooked any of this yet. I’ll let y’all know in my next post how it all turns out.

❤️Rhonda