The cheapest in years.....

We went to the Oklahoma City area today. I took these gas sign photos in Edmond, OKCity, and Midwest City. 

I don't know for sure where the lowest gas prices in the world are but they sure are low in Oklahoma City.

We filled up here for $2.27 a gallon, the giant roof over all the gas pumps was also a plus on this soggy, rainy Saturday.

What are you paying for a gallon of gasoline?

Busy Friday

hello everyone!
Today was just a busy day!   I had to do several errands and I did a little cooking.
I made this Dream Bars recipe 2 weeks ago to take to an event at my husbands job.  They were delicious and simple to stir up so I made another batch this afternoon to have for desserts this weekend.  I made the recipe exactly as posted except I used pecans instead of almonds. 
They seem like a fancier cookie but are really very easy. 

One of my appointments this morning was for a dental cleaning- I had a good checkup and I always like the goody bag of samples.  The tiny tubes of toothpaste and mini floss are perfect to put in my travel makeup bag. 

I also got a flu shot- I know these are controversial but we choose to get them. I've been getting them for about 10 years but I didn't get one last winter and I ended up suffering through 7 colds.  So,  hopefully I will be healthier this winter. 

I said I wasn't going to CVS this week but they sent me 2 emails in the last 2 days.  One was a coupon for $5 off $15 and the other was $3 off $15 of beauty products.  I saw on Youtube about the Tresemme deal- it is on sale for $4 a bottle,  I had $2 manufacturer coupons for each one and a scanner coupon for $2.50 off $10 of Tresemme.  
I needed some hair color as the gray hairs on the top of my head are way more noticeable than I prefer so I got this Clairol that was on sale for $6 each and I had $3 coupons for each one.  

after all the coupons were subtracted,  I paid $2.91 for 2 hair colors and 3 large shampoo-conditioners.   That was too good a deal to pass up. 

All of these products count toward the CVS beauty club program.  For every $50 in beauty products purchased,  you earn a $5 Extra Care Bucks.  

My CVS tips are to be sure to use a CVS loyalty card, link it to your email and pay attention to emails from them (I got $8 from this week) and to always scan your card at the red scanner in CVS for more store coupons.  Also,  go online and register your card to the Beauty Club at CVS.com.
I know it sounds complicated but once you get used to it, it is easier and very much worth the effort

 I picked up my grandson after morning nursery school.  After he had lunch and a good nap,  we facetimed with my parents.  Facetime is so nice and almost as good as a real face to face visit. 

I also got a manicure with a very festive red polish.  

Hope you all have a nice weekend! 

Monday to do list and muffins

Good Monday to everyone! The first snowfall of the season came yesterday.  Thankfully our roads did not get bad and today's sunshine is melting that 2 inches of snow so fast.


I wrote out such a long list for the week last Monday that I didn't get it finished until Sunday.
So,  I wrote out a much shorter list week and I've already finished it, except to hem those pants. 
With my list done,  whatever will I find to do to stay busy?  Ha!  Even if my list is done,  I've always got a craft project going or some cooking to do or something. 
I've never bored at home,  are you? 

In the kitchen, a carton of sour cream needed to be used up so I baked a batch of Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Muffins (I first posted this recipe on my first blog, so long ago!)
There were also 2 very ripe bananas so I used them in  my banana bread recipe and  baked that dough in muffin pans too. That recipe calls for 3-4 bananas but it worked just fine with 2.
 Both recipes made a dozen regular size muffins and 10-12 mini muffins. I know my grands will enjoy snacking on these mini muffins. 

CheeseBurger Soup recipe review

Julie, a non-blogging internet friend, said she had just made this soup. It sounded good and I had all the ingredients so I made a batch for our lunch today.

Julie was right - cheeseburger soup is delicious and perfect for a chilly day like today. 

Soup recipes are flexible and I made a few changes. I used 3 cans of beef broth instead of the chicken broth, Decreased the herbs to just one quarter teaspoon each and used Gouda cheese instead of Velveeta,  oh, and I didn't add the sour cream at the end either.

And obviously I am not a professional photographer,, but trust me, cheeseburger soup tastes way better than it looks in this photo😄

another multi topic post

first,  I'll show the CVS deal I did this week- we won't run out of toilet paper anytime soon :)

The Kleenex and Scott were on sale and when you purchase $30 of it, you get back a $10 CVS gift card.  The paper towels were free with a coupon from the red coupon scanner box and is one that will print one time for every card holder.

I only had 1 manufacturer coupon ( I think I could of found more if I had looked harder but I didn't have time) but even still,  I got everything for $21.83 and got back another $10 gift card.  

To plan out  my CVS shopping,  I scan over the future ads posted at Slick Deals.Net in the Forums.   this site usually has the next 3-4 future weeks ads.
I don't plan to shop at CVS next week but I am going Thanksgiving week as CVS has lots of items that week that end up free with the extra care bucks refund.  So I will save that $10 gift card to roll on to those free deals.


that is our hall bathroom.  It had a 24 inch wide door on it which made it hard to get into if a person was using a walker or a wheelchair.  Our son is just an amazing handyman and he changed out the 24 inch door for a 36 inch wide door.

My husband changed out the toilet for a chair height toilet with grab bars.

it is really nice having family members that can do stuff like change doors and toilets and that happily do it!
about this bathroom,  the walls are pale yellow but I don't like the yellow rugs on the floor.  We had black ones in the past but they always looked lint-y.  We had white ones and they just got dirty fast.
Any decorating advice on what color or design of rugs would look good with yellow walls and black-white toile?


Grand daughter Andie was here with her handyman extraordinaire daddy. She like playing in the backyard dirt pit as much as her cousins.

Grand daughter Elizabeth was here that windy day too. She liked making bouquets out of catalpa tree leaves.  

Our weather has turned COLD and grandson JJ needed some long sleeve shirts.  I needed to drop some donations off at the thrift store so I shopped a little while I was there.  
I found lots of little boy long sleeve shirts and some comfy wind pants.

Notice the 5 tiny baby onesies on the top 2 rows?  They were just 10 cents each and since we are expecting 2 more grand babies,  I couldn't resist.  We don't know yet if these 2 new cousins are boys or girls and they won't be here until late spring.  

The waiting is hard but I am sure we will be so busy and the time will go fast. 

CVS deal and a delicious new supper recipe

I haven't shopped for deals at CVS in a few weeks but when I saw this Huggies diaper deal,  it was one I knew I should do.

I followed these instructions to print my coupons .  I also had a CVS scanner coupon that took off another $1.50.
I spent $19.13 for 4 packs of diapers and got back a $10 CVS card that can be spent on just about anything. (I will be looking for a future deal to spend it on)  I especially like that the Consumer Queen had all the details of this deal in one place and it took almost no effort on my part to.  Some deals are just so complicated but this one was easy.

Have you read The Iowa Housewife's blog?  She has cooking tips and beautiful food photos with the recipes.  I read a pork chop recipe she had last week and was sure my husband would like it.  So,  I made it yesterday and it is a keeper recipe.  It is a lot like a chicken rice recipe I have made for years but this one has bell peppers in it.  

Baked Pork Chops and Rice from Sue- The Iowa Housewife 

I cooked ours just like she did,  but used less salt and just used 3 large pork chops .

Thank you Sue~

So far this week.....

Yesterday was Election Day in the US.  I watched some of the news coverage about the results this morning, politicians on both sides were vowing "to get things done" 

I guess time will tell if they do. I'm not holding my breath though.......

I made out a short to do list on Monday and am thankful most of it is done and has been scratched off. 

We shopped at the commissary yesterday, which is a good but funny place to shop. 

The produce looked especially good and many of the things we wanted were good prices. Besides these 2 winter squash, we also bought yellow crooked neck squash and zucchini. I don't think we have ever bought 4 kinds of squash at one time. This is funny because my husband really only ate corn, green beans, potatos and salad when we got married, now he likes most everything. (Except cream cheese, sour cream and Ranch)

Most of the produce was priced by the pound. 

It was funny to me that our giant head of cabbage was priced by the head- it was just 33 cents for a head of cabbage that weighs almost 5 pounds. 

We will be eating lots of vegetables over the next few weeks.

And Even at the commissary, I use coupons! 

My daughter's Autumn mantel

She said everything is from previous years except for the burlap canvas.  She bought the burlap canvas at Hobby Lobby and made the design with her Silhouette.

The burlap canvas is hung in front of a framed mirror.

I think it turned out so nice! 

Thank you to everyone who left comments about my commenting problems. I have a gmail account and I am going to see about switching to it for blogging. Hopefully that will work out the glitch,  we will see........

Weekend doings and Blog Comment problems

First- I've been having trouble leaving comments on some blogs. I can add the comment and it looks like it was done but on blogs that have comment approval,  some of my comments don't go through and I get a long jibberish email saying this

Delivery Status Notification (Failure)

Mail Delivery Subsystem

To

3_RtUVAoJCS4cdgYVSfObniKRYY.MYW0bYRpYPecKYV.MYW@blogger.bounces.google.com

Oct 31 at 6:32 PM

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:
and it goes on and one but that is the top of the emails.

It is very frustrating and I have been in contact with some of the bloggers.
Anyone have any suggestions on how to get my comments to go through or how to fix this?

I have certainly been annoyed by spam commenters. 
My blog comment settings seem to be working pretty good on filtering out spam right now- I don't have the word verification,  commenters have to be registered users and I only require approval on comments on posts more than 7 days old. 


now on to more pleasant topics......

we get most of our eggs from some country friends that home-grow them.  We haven't had any for a few months but they have new hens now.  The eggs are small but aren't the colors pretty? there are 4 shades of white, beige and brown.  The blue eggs are the bluest chicken eggs I've ever seen.

3 of the grands were here at the same time and they liked digging in the new dirt pit. 

When I helped my parents downsize, I got 2 very nice bundt cake pans.  I used this rose shaped one to bake a yellow cake

I frosted it with the chocolate frosting left from last week's acorn project. The frosting had been in a covered bowl in the fridge and was fine. Waste not, want not!

Costume fun-

This is my daughter in law Sheena at her job on Friday.  She is as pretty and as sweet as an angel too  

below- the 2 little pirates are granddaughter Andie and her cousin Lily.  I think the Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy passing out candy are so funny~  the man is really named Andy but I am amazed he is happily dressed as a big rag doll. 

here are 2 of my grands in costume looking forward to candy. 

Prepping the outside for winter

I spent most of Friday doing yardwork. A hard freeze was predicted for the night and my grandchildren were all somewhere else so Friday was a perfect day to get lots done. 

I mowed and edged and did lots of pruning of all the flowering bushes as well as pulling up the last of the zinnias. 

All the clippings got bundled and bagged and will be picked up Monday. Our city's waste management picks up our trash, our recycling and our green waste. 

The backyard was in need of organizing too. So I put one play area on the east side....

Another play area by the back door and picnic tables. (If you don't live in Oklahoma or haven't followed my blog for long, you may be wondering about that giant gray thing. It is a concrete safe room for tornado protection. Yes, we have been thinking of ways to beautify it but haven't yet got around to it)

The grandsons will be thrilled with this new digging area made with paver stones from a neighbor and dirt of pots that need replaced. 

The only plant still growing in the vegetable pots was this jalapeño. It has tiny peppers and quite a few buds on it. My husband moved it up near the back door to protect it from last nights freeze. It survived th night just fine. But I am wondering if it will actually give a harvest. 

There were 2 pots of succulents on the front porch and I brought them in for the night too. They really thrived this summer. 

The 2 pink rose bushes both still had a few blooms. So I clipped and saved the pretty ones before I whittled down the bushes. 

One quirky thing about my town is we are home to lots of Canadian geese that live here year round. For some reason, they forgot to fly north and now they just stay. 

They look cute but when a big bunch of them hang out on streets or sidewalks for long, there is a lot of icky big goose you-know-what on the ground afterward. 

There they go, marching down our street in row...... I am glad they weren't hanging out here while I was working so much yesterday. 

some of this weeks cooking

we were out of our favorite homemade sauce  so I made an extra large batch.
I don't use an exact recipe.  It is pretty simple and I just mix it up until it tastes right.

it uses lots of tomatoes,  a little olive oil and onions.
spices are oregano, basil, garlic and just a little sugar.

first the onions get sauteed-   then the tomatoes and spices are added

after it simmers a while,  it gets divided into meal size containers and put in the freezer for future meals.

while the sauce simmered,  I mixed up and baked a loaf of Raisin Bread

Raisin Walnut bread - mixed in the bread machine and baked in the regular oven.  I used  my grandparents bread recipe but increased the sugar and added nuts and raisins when the machine beeps time to add stir ins.

Raisin bread

1 cup water
2 T butter in cubes
1 t salt
1/3 C sugar
2 t cinnamon
3 cups flour- bread flour is nice but all purpose or your favorite would be fine
2 t yeast
put all ingredients in a bread machine on the dough cycle, then add
1/2 cup chopped walnuts and 3/4 cup raisins ( I like to chop them a little too) when the bread machine beeps for the add in time.
When it is finished rising, punch down and form into a loaf and put in a well greased loaf pan.
I think I used an 8 inch loaf pan but it would work in a 9 inch loaf pan too.
Let rise again and then bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 35-40 minutes.

My grandmother made raisin bread and she always topped her loaves with white frosting.
I don't add frosting as we like our raisin bread lightly buttered and toasted.
either way raisin bread is Yum!

my husband's work lunch and breaktime box - I packed a turkey and cheese sandwich on a homemade bun, Popchips and olives.  Also grapes, a jar of fresh pineapple chunks, cashews and jalapeno string cheese.  Beverages are coffee and a bottle of water.  

Fun weekend food

Hello everyone
I knew my grandchildren would be for several meals over the weekend so first thing Saturday morning,  I got out the fruit I had bought at great prices at Aldi on Friday-  I cut it up bite size and put it in  covered serving dish in the fridge.

I think we all ate some of this fruit at 3 different meals.  It was so easy and convenient to have it all ready.
Their sale ends Tuesday night but right now,  Aldi has whole pineapples for just 99 cents and I think the red grapes are less than $2 for a 2 pound bag.  Ours were all fresh and delicous and a very thrifty fruit tray.

For fun,  the grands made something from Pinterest- edible acorns.
They are Hersheys kisses,  Mini Vanilla wafers and chocolate chips stuck together with a bit of homemade chocolate frosting.  They look a little like acorns but taste a lot better.

I gave each child a plate with 4 wafers, kisses, chocolate chips, a dab of frosting and a small plastic knife.  

5 year old Gavin ate his acorns about as fast as he made them.

4 year old Elizabeth worked very seriously as she made hers.  She ate a little but she mostly enjoying the crafting part of it.  She also made extras to take home to her dad who was busy with his moonlighting yardcare business.  

1 year old JJ didn't craft much- I think he mostly just got frosting all over his face.  

if you look in their hands, you can see some of the finished acorns.  

2 year old Braeden was not interested in crafting.  He only wanted to eat Kisses.  He worked so hard unwrapping each one and kept all his wrappers in a pile.  

The acorns were fun and get a thumbs up from all of us!