If you do stuff, stuff gets done

First day of Spring 🌹 ☔️ 🐣

2026-03-20T20:27:29.872-05:00

Hello everyone 👋🏻

I’m still here and I’ll explain a little farther down. Today was one of the only days I’ve left home in 2 weeks. I went to my mother’s retirement home for their Spring Tea.

This hay bale is always outside, decorated for the seasons, and I think this bunny costume is one of the cutest the hay bale has ever worn.

The spring tea was as nice as can be.

The ladies behind this bar are some the workers and they had such a nice party set up.

There was hot tea on every table and so many yummy treats.

They brought around the food and served us all.
Below is my plate. I also had a tiny blueberry scone and a thumbprint cookie. Everything was delicious and I think all resident women enjoyed it very much. All the men residents were invited too but only 1 man attended.

I had black tea, a little croissant with chicken salad, a veggie stick cup with hummus dip in the bottom and fruit salad. The fruit salad was delicious. The young woman that made it said the secret ingredient was peach pie filling and I assume she means canned pie filling.

At home I’m still cutting up lots of fruit and vegetables. These Tangelo oranges are delicious but very hard to peel.

I’ve got mostly pepper and tomato seeds started in the house. I’m really pleased with how well they are growing.

This is why I’ve been away from blogging. My husband had a laminectomy back surgery. He’s been in continuous pain for about 3 years. He’s been to different doctors and a chiropractor. He’s has had physical therapy and multiple prescription and homeopathic pain relievers. He’s has used a back brace and a special chair. He traded in his pickup for a more comfortable car.

He’s had multiple pain shots and multiple spine ablations.

After trying everything, he saw a surgeon that several of our friends have successfully been treated by. The surgeon said he thought he could help him and we decided to.

It was not easy decision but my husband really felt it was the only option.

This surgery has a different recovery period than other surgeries. He’s is supposed to just take it easy until his 2 week post surgery checkup next week. He’s can’t drive or lift anything over 5 pounds.

So far, he is feeling really good. He is having discomfort from the surgery but he says all the back pain is gone.

below is his incision and I hope it doesn’t gross any of out too much.

I think it’s healing up nicely and an RN friend also thinks it looks good.

What would you all call this outfit below?

I stopped at Walmart to pick up a prescription and a woman shopper was wearing this very outfit.

It did not look like she had just rolled out of bed. Her hair was styled and she was wearing real shoes.

It looks like pajamas to me. I live in a college town and I’ve seen people wearing pajama pants in public for years

But this was new to me, seeing someone actually wearing a pajama outfit as streetwear.

Maybe I’m just out of the loop.

Or is this a thing people are doing everywhere?

Happy first day of Spring everyone

❤️ Rhonda

Meals this week

2026-02-15T20:20:48.567-06:00

Hello everyone

Here is what we ate for our main meals this week

This was a white chicken chili (that looks more green than white) It was based off of several recipes and contained white chicken, white beans, green chili verde sauce, onions, green chilis, corn, chicken broth and taco seasoning

Tuesday we had cheeseburger bowls- just everything that goes on a cheeseburger but no bun and served in a bowl.

Wednesday was dill pickle chicken- I save pickle jars and juice when the pickles are gone. Then chicken gets marinated in the refrigerator in that dill pickle juice for 8 or more hours.
I put a light coating of seasoned flour on each piece of chicken and then fried them in just enough oil to keep them from sticking.

we had some steamed vegetables and little oranges with the chicken strips.

Thursday is the day we went to the commissary.

That day we gate lunch at Cheddars that is just outside the Air Force base main gate.

My husband had a cheeseburger, I had blackened fish and we both had cole slaw.

It was a really tasty meal.

Friday night 2 grandchildren were here. We had homemade pizza.

The grownups like onions, peppers and jalapeños on theirs. The grandchildren wanted just meat and cheese.

Saturday morning breakfast was also eaten by the 2 grandchildren that slept over.

We all had some french puff muffins. Some of us had sausage, some had eggs.

When their dad picked them shortly after we ate, He ate a leftover muffin and the last of the sausage and he took the last muffin to our daughter.

Then Saturday, I cooked a new recipe with some of that stew meat in the meat bargain box. I was sure we would like it so I made a double batch.

It turned out really good!

We’ve ate it Saturday and Sunday and I put 2 meal size portions in the freezer.

https://southernbite.com/slow-cooker-beef-and-noodles/

What have y’all been cooking?

❤️ Rhonda

Thankful for some bargains

2026-02-13T07:18:48.070-06:00

My husband’s back is making him miserable. He just had an MRI and we aren’t medically trained but we can see from the MRI, he has problems. He has an appointment with a surgeon next week .

He hurts when he sits still and he hurts when he moves around, so to give him a distraction, we drove about an hour to the Tinker Air Force Base to shop.

Their commissary has always had good beef. I’m sure you all know how expensive beef is right now, I haven’t bought any for a while and beef was the main thing on my list.

The Tinker meat department is huge- probably 100 feet or more long.

They sometimes have these discount boxes made up. I’ve bought them before and I remember one time, they made 2 for me,

Anyway, they had 2 made up and I bought them both.

I trust their quality and I’ll just cook whatever is in them.

this box is all beef
this one is pork and beef
$74 seems expensive but it was heavy- so I bought it.

Inside this one was 4 rolls of ground beef, 3 packs of boneless pork, a big pork tenderloin, 2 stew meat and a small beef roast.

I added up the price stickers and these would have sold individually for $67.63—-instead of the $55 on the box price tag.
This all beef box had a large ground beef, 4 assorted roasts and 3 more packs of stew meat.

They added up to $128.51 —-a huge savings since I paid $77.

If you’re wondering if this meat was past its best date- No, not at all. I shopped on the 12th and this roast was packed on the 11th.

When we got home, I double- bagged some of these packages and put them straight away in the freezer.

I put the ground beef and stew meat in the fridge and I may cook some it before freezing.

I also have some chicken to repackage.

If you have elgibility and access to a military commissary, you might want to see what you can find.

In general, the current prices on most items are similar to civilian stores. I mainly commissary shop for meat. I think all the meat I browsed was lower than current store prices.

I need to get busy. That meat needs to be dealt with.

But I won’t need to shop for meat again for months!

❤️ Rhonda

Valentines fun

2026-02-09T12:20:43.253-06:00

Our Christmas tree is still up in our living room. I took off the Christmas ornaments and then put on winter themed ones.

In February, I put away the winter themed ones and put hearts on the tree.

Who knows, I may switch it to Easter things come March but I may pack it all away.

For now, it’s a fun decoration. I especially enjoy the twinkle lights in the evening.
there are a few Valentine decorations on our mantel. The valentines pillows are just zippered covers that are very easy to change.

Years ago, we homeschooled for 2 years. Our children enjoyed it and really benefited from it, What they missed most about school was the themed parties.

So we had our own Valentines party that first year of homeschool. We all made a valentine box, just like school, and then we put little treats in everyone’s box.

My children are all creative and so are their children.

Before we opened our boxes at this year’s party, we decorated gingerbread houses in Valentine themes.

I bought the kits at Walmart- 90% off - and I assembled them with a hot glue gun before the party.

Below are our boxes.
I wasn’t kidding when I said my children are creative. My daughter bakes so she made her box like an oven.

Her husband is a sports fan and his looks an Olympic curling arena.
The green is a Minecraft creature, a Minion and a very festive dragon.

Decorating the houses was fun - sorry no faces but some of our family members have privacy concerns-

There were 9 of at this party. After the sweet fun, we had a taco bar from Fuzzy’s.

I sent some gel window stickers to our granddaughter in Indiana. She really likes rearranging them on their dining room windows.

Look at all their ⛄️ ❄️ ❄️!

grandparent tip- window gels are fun and very easy to mail if you want to send a gift

links to two different parties we had in the past

https://ifyoudostuff.blogspot.com/2020/02/valentines-gingerbread-house-party.html

https://ifyoudostuff.blogspot.com/2015/02/happy-valentines-day-2015.html

Valentines party are fun! It’s not too late for you to plan one for your family. ❤️

❤️ Rhonda ❤️

meals and valentines

2026-02-08T12:55:39.422-06:00

as I started writing this post, it got very photo-heavy. So it will mostly be about meals and I’ll do a valentine post hopefully tomorrow

We had a lot of snow toward the end of January.

I also got my final Kroger delivery as they will no longer be doing deliveries in my state. I ordered a good bit on this final delivery and I’m not sure what I’m going to do about groceries. I really do not like shopping in the store anymore.

Below are the meals we had this week- nothing remarkable but we enjoyed all of them.

On Sunday, we had some boneless pork chops cooked in sauerkraut with mashed potatoes and biscuits
Monday, we had the leftover pork, kraut and potatoes. I also baked a batch of banana muffins with two very overripe bananas, and a pan of blonde brownies. Only my husband and I ate the meal, but my daughter and two grandchildren stopped over that afternoon and they were very happy to eat fresh muffins and brownies. It was nice seeing them enjoy eating the baked goods.
On Tuesday, I made a batch of coleslaw and some pickled red onions.

The onions were very simple.- thinly sliced red onion in a jar and then topped with 3/4 cup of Apple cider vinegar, a quarter cup of water, a tablespoon of sugar, salt and black pepper that had been boiled together
I also peeled and cut up two large sweet potatoes and intended to cook salmon patties that night.

But I had a few errands to run that day and by the time I got home, I didn’t want to even cook simple salmon patties
So Wednesday we took a little ham steak from the freezer, baked a few biscuits, and served it with the coleslaw and onions.
Thursday, I made a double batch of tasty lentil tacos in the slow cooker. I have made these many times and the recipe is here on the blog

I kept out a dish and the rest went in the freezer for future meal
so we had lentil taco salads that night.
Friday, I finally cooked the salmon patties. I don’t like cooking them in the house just because the smell lingers so long.

This ninja cooker is a slow cooker, but it also has a braise cycle so it will work like a skillet. The downside is it has a very short cord.

I took it to the patio and the only way I could use it at that plug without an extension cord was to set the cooker on a bucket.

There were no children or pets roaming around. The cooker worked great and I think I will always cook salmon patties on the patio from now on
We had baked sweet potato fries with the salmon patties

My husband cooked a pork tenderloin outside. We ate it with salad.

I’ve got a few valentine decorations up and we have had a very fun family valentine party.

I will blog about that very soon

talk with you all soon

❤️ Rhonda

To do list and home things from last week

2026-01-19T13:02:01.484-06:00

hello everyone

Above is my to-do list for this week.

I may do more than is on the list but maybe not.

My energy levels are just not what they used to be so I hope to do everything on the list and maybe I will do a few more things too

I’ll let y’all know

I picked up three of the grandchildren after school and then they had a sleepover.

I planned ahead for the evening meal. I decided we’d have hamburgers and baked potatoes.

So that morning I fixed up some topping and relish plates, and I washed potatoes to bake

I baked extra potatoes because we like to make hashbrowns from them

Sometimes I peel the cold leftover potatoes and cook them right away for hashbrowns. Sometimes I grate them and put them in a bag and freeze them for future hashbrowns.
Another day last week I knew I needed to be gone part of the day, but we would want supper.

I had written down this very easy pizza dough recipe.

So I mixed it up real quick before I left, then I put it in a bag with a little bit of oil in the refrigerator.

I copied the recipe down from somebody else online, but I don’t remember who.

It’s not a dough that you have to knead she said.

I do recommend the dough. It was very easy, and very Thrifty.

It made a tasty supper for the two of us

About The mixer bowl covers, I’m sure there are many tutorials for them online.

I made this one for our KitchenAid mixer several months ago and then I made the neutral color one for my daughter’s big mixing bowl

I just cut out two circles of fabric. For the KitchenAid mixer bowl, I Drew around a pizza pan for the circle pattern

Then machine stitch the two circles together, right sides together, close to the edge, leaving an opening to turn

Turn them right side out and again stitch close to the edge, leaving the opening unstitched

Stitch about half an inch away from the first stitching, but go all the way around this time

Insert quarter inch wide elastic Into that casing you just sewed, adjust the elastic for the right amount of tension for your bowl, and finish it off

I made this bowl out of two different fabrics so I can display the holly fabric at Christmas and the chicken fabric the rest of the time

These are a quick and easy sewing project and would make nice gifts I think.

I saw a purchased Bowl cover on a big salad That a friend brought to a gathering.

The outside was a pretty Fabric and the inside was that water resistant fabric that they use on cloth diaper covers, it has a name, but I don’t know what it is.

I like to have succulent plants in planters on our patio in the spring and summer.

This fall, I brought some of them into the house and put them in one of the bedrooms

It’s not a particularly sunny room because even though there is a big window, that side of the house is in shade most of the time

But I am very pleased with how well the plants are doing, and it’s not because they’re getting a lot of loving extra care from me.

I try to remember to open the curtains every day, but sometimes I forget

And I just water them every 10 to 14 days

See all the babies in this aloe plant?
These succulent leaves are turning into new plants. They are so interesting how the ends produce a new sprout. You can’t see it, but there are little roots right underneath the new sprout going down into the dirt. I will put them in small pots when it gets warm

I think this plant might be called a silver dollar plant but it’s putting off a new baby down in the dirt too.

My mom has crocheted most of all of her life.

She pretty much only does small projects now, but she still crocheting everyday.

She made these Snowman heads Several years ago, they were probably supposed to be Christmas tree ornaments I’m guessing,

Anyway, she decided she wanted them put on a wreath.

She had an 8 inch wooden embroidery hoop, and she crocheted around it. Then she wanted me to hot glue the snowman heads onto the wreath.

I didn’t like the idea of putting hot glue on them. So I got a big needle and put some yarn in it and sewed each head to the wreath

Now it is hanging on her front door in her retirement home.

my husband has good day and bad days.

He recently got new hearing aids from the VA and they have done wonders helping his tinnitus.

This morning he cooked our breakfast and it was delicious!

I don’t believe it was in the weather forecast, but we woke up Saturday to a very light dusting of snow. It wasn’t enough to hinder traffic, it just looked pretty

hope you are all having a good start to your week

❤️ Rhonda

a slow week

2026-01-15T11:01:09.715-06:00

hello everyone

I didn’t mean to let a whole week go by without blogging, but I guess that’s what happened

Last week was kind of a shopping week. For me anyway, it was a lot of shopping.

once again, here is an AFTER photo of my newly organized pantry.

Before this photo, the canned goods were not sorted. So the first thing I did was sort and count all of the items

I was really surprised to find out we had no canned fruit of any kind except for two cans that were in the refrigerator.

And we had no refried beans. Sometimes I make homemade refried beans, but it’s nice to have them in the pantry.

these photos are not in the order of my shopping, but I’m just going to leave them in this order and y’all are smart enough to figure out what I did.

I went into Dollar tree and walked every aisle and bought the above five items.

The shelf stable cream is a new item.

The strawberry cream savers are my granddaughter’s favorite candy, they are hard to find, and she was very excited to see these. She said she had never seen them in a roll, they are usually in a bag.

This is the back of the cream container.

It does contain carrageenan. It is an ingredient that adversely affects some people

I am a fan of shelf-stable milk. I’ve kept it in my pantry for years.

It was so nice to have it when my grandchildren were little and liked milk in their sippy cups. if we ran out of fresh milk and I couldn’t get to the store, there was usually some shelf stable milk from Dollar tree in our pantry back then.

I do remember one of my grandchildren suspiciously, eyeing that shelf stable box when I filled their cup. But then they tasted it and realized it tasted just like the fresh milk.

My husband went with me to Aldi

I especially wanted to stock up on canned fruit and refried beans.

Canned foods are not as popular as they used to be. I remember when we first started shopping at Aldi, maybe a dozen years ago or so.

Back then, the canned food aisle was huge.

Now the canned foods are just part of one side of a aisle

But we did buy canned peaches and mandarin oranges and refried beans and tomato paste. This is part of what we bought. The perishables had already been away.

We tried the box of Belgian butter cookies, and they were delicious!

The box only weighed 3.5 ounces and the cookies were not much thicker than a potato chip

But they are very flavorful and I do recommend them if you want a small butt yummy dessert

OK now more about some of the shopping I did over the last week.

My daughter told me about a Walmart on her side of town. She stopped there on her way to work and she said they had Christmas marked down to 90%.

I was already up and dressed, and I wasn’t busy so I drove over there.

I didn’t buy much, but I did buy these gingerbread house kits

We are hoping to have a family Valentine party and decorate gingerbread houses like a Valentine village
I also found a few toys that were 90% off.. My grandkids are pretty much too old for all of these, but I got them thinking about putting them in the shoeboxes for next Christmas or any other need for toys that might come up

I didn’t take any photos, but I also shopped at Hobby lobby. My daughter wanted the New Year’s decorations that were marked down 90% off.

pretty much since 2020, I have done the majority of my shopping online, I’ve done Walmart pick up. I’ve done Walmart delivery and I really enjoyed Kroger delivery. Sadly, for Oklahoma, Kroger is going to stop their delivery service for Oklahoma at the end of January

So I may have to go back to more grocery shopping in person. What I discovered during all of this shopping though was, I don’t really like shopping anymore.

While we shopped at Aldi, I did look at their produce, and I was pleased with how nice most of it looked.

So I may go in there and get my produce once a week and then maybe do Walmart pick up for the rest of the stuff.

I don’t know. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I have been cooking and that fridge and freezer inventory I did earlier this month have certainly been useful.

One night I made fajitas with cooked roast beef strips from the freezer

Those turned out so good! There was enough here for two meals

Another day I made goulash with some cooked hamburger from the freezer And I used up a can of tomatoes that we opened by mistake and had to be put in the fridge for a few days.

This meal also made enough for two days

That’s all the news I have

hope you are all having a very good week

❤️ Rhonda

some planning, cleaning and sewing

2026-01-08T20:06:35.759-06:00

hello everyone

yesterday I cleaned And organized our two refrigerators. I threw away a few old leftovers, but it mostly just needed cleaned up and organized

And of course, I never remember to take the before picture, but here are after pictures

There is a lot of empty space in both of these refrigerators but I’m not rushing to the store.

We really don’t need much but we do need eggs.

I’ve needed to plan out meals for awhile. So yesterday, I just sat at this little table and worked on a list of main dishes to cook.

At the top of the list is a Monday through Sunday plan that another homemaker said works for her family but after looking at what I picked out, her exact plan won’t work for us.

I do like Taco Tuesday and Pizza Friday. I’m still thinking about it but I think a chicken day and an oven baked casserole day would suit us. We like burgers too.

If we have leftovers, we tend to eat them the following day so I don’t know if set plan like this would really work for us anyway.

I printed off about a dozen recipes I’d like to make soon. They are all from sites that mostly have weight watcher type recipes, I just like they are a little lower calorie and all the ones I printed mostly use groceries we usually have. When I cook them, if they are good, I’ll share a link for them.
After I cleaned the fridge, I wrote a list of produce we have. This in on the fridge by our freezer inventory and calendar. Hopefully it will help me use use them all up and not forget them.

I took a photo with my phone of what I cooked for supper but it doesn’t seem to be in my photos on my iPad yet.

I did use some of the fresh broccoli and leftover rice from New Year’s Day in a baked chicken and rice casserole for supper tonight.

It wasn’t fancy, but it tasted really good.

in the sewing room, I did some more work on those strip quilt squares.

My daughter bakes and sells sourdough bread.

She didn’t learn that for me, she picked it all up on the Internet and she does a great job with it.

She has a giant bowl that she wanted a cloth cover for it, like the ones that I made a while back for my KitchenAid mixer.

I think she lets big batches of sourdough rest in this giant bowl for a while before she forms them into loaves.

I told her I had some really cute chicken fabric that I thought would make a cute cover, but she wanted a plain one. So I sewed one up today out of this neutral fabric below.

I don’t have a bowl that big at my house so I can’t take a good photo. I’m sure she will take a photo and I’ll share it later.

One of the things I was hoping to do in 2026 was so more. We are only eight days in, but so far I have been in the sewing room every day except one.

We’ve had unusual weather since Christmas. It was very warm on Christmas Day and then it got cold.

Today we woke up to warm temperatures and a lot of rain

Then the wind blew hard all day.

I had thought about going to a few other thrift stores today, but I did not want to be out in the wind.

So I did 3 more loads of laundry and sewed and cooked and watched at little Youtube.

Home is my favorite place to be anyway!

I hope you all have had a good day

Thank you everyone that has been leaving such sweet comments

❤️Rhonda

Tuesday - breakfast and a few errands

2026-01-06T20:31:50.800-06:00

Hello everyone

We had a slow morning getting around. I baked a Dutch Baby for our breakfast and it was delicious!

My husband got new hearing aids from the VA today. They are rather fancy with lots of parts. I hope they will help his tinnitus, we’ve been told they do help some tinnitus cases.

No photos but I went to Hobby Lobby for some yarn for my mother.

I also browsed Ollie’s, it’s a few doors down from HL.

As I drove around town, this is our current gas price per gallon at multiple stations.

I live in Oklahoma, oil country- and in general, the cost of living here is lower than average

But not for home insurance, we have some of the highest home insurance because of wind, fire, tornadoes etc.

After I visited my mother, I went to 2 thrift stores. One had all Christmas things 75%off
I bought the snowmen for our current winter themed tree.
These are all Hallmark ornaments and have the nicest details on all of them.

I don’t think I’ll hang them on a tree but will set them as a little village.

They are very detailed front and back. The bank even has a safe upstairs.

At the 2nd one, I found this pretty blouse for me. I’ve actually been wanting a pink checked blouse.

This is a screen shot of another pink checked blouse that I saved 4 years ago.

Now I have one! And I’m ready for spring.

I rarely do that many errands in one day and I’m rather tired tonight.

hope you all have had a good day

❤️Rhonda

not too exciting …….

2026-01-05T14:05:58.154-06:00

I’m hoping to blog almost daily and I’ve been somewhat busy but it’s not too interesting written down,

but here goes

Saturday, we had a big pile of laundry. A little dog was our houseguest last week so we had a bit more laundry than usual.

I’m pretty particular about sorting laundry ( and nobody is going to change my mind on this).

So I sorted and got it started.

8 loads later, it was all done. Our bed was made with clean sheets and blankets and all the laundry was put away.

I made a big salad and peeled a pound of carrots, the carrots are for snacking or will be cooked with a meal.
At supper time, my husband went to Chipotle and got a build your own bundle.

It was delicious and we’ve been eating it ever since.

In the sewing room, I’ve been working on strip quilt blocks. I want to make 2 matching quilts for our guest room with 2 twin beds.

I finished 1 quilt top in 2025. I hope to sew all the blocks for the second quilt and then fully finish both quilts, maybe this month.

We will see.

❤️ Rhonda

2 big meals and a crazy shopping event

2026-01-02T18:21:23.693-06:00

Hello

To start off the year, we cooked our traditional meal Black Eyed Peas, rice, cabbage, ham, and cornbread.

There were seven of us here to eat

Today, I made breakfast for 5 as 3 grands slept over.

15 year old Elizabeth spent most of her time here working on a little scrapbook project for a friends birthday.

we weren’t sure how to put the pages together in a book and I had read online that Hobby Lobby’s Christmas clearance went to 90% off this morning.

so we went to Hobby lobby in hopes of finding something to bind the pages together or to get a small photo album to put the pages in.

They opened at 9 AM

We got there at 11 AM

I think all these serious clearance shoppers got there at 9 AM.

I kind of glanced at what was left in the Christmas aisles, there was not much left and a good bit of what was there was broken.

The lady at the front of this line had at least three carts of Christmas clearance.

By the time we checked out, she had been loading her purchases into her little car for a while. And apparently all of her purchases would not fit in her car as she was pushing one of the shopping carts still full of her clearance purchases back into Hobby lobby. We guess she was going to try to leave them there while she went home and unloaded her car.

That’s a lot of shopping!

All we bought was one Purse size photo album.

And if I ever think I need 90% off Hobby lobby Christmas Clearance, I will plan ahead and get there at 9 AM.

But I probably will not ever go there again to Hobby lobby on January 2, the day they traditionally mark everything 90% off

So, did any of y’all go out bargain shopping?

If you did, I hope you found what you wanted

I don’t think I needed a single thing on the Christmas markdowns anyway.

❤️Rhonda

first day of 2026

2026-01-01T12:42:15.013-06:00

hello everyone

Don’t we all want to be more organized in 2026?

When I cleaned out the junk pantry two days ago, I found these paper sheets that I bought at Dollar tree.

I separated them and put each one on a piece of pretty paper. I also put our freezer inventory On some pretty paper.

Then, I used magnets to hold them to the refrigerator

This should help keep appointments and groceries on hand at the front of my mind, planning ahead to make the best use of time and groceries we already have

I used part of the paper. I cut off when I mounted the calendars and wrote out my grocery list.

I needed to do three errands yesterday and I stopped at Aldi to purchase groceries.

Kroger is going to stop delivering to Oklahoma and I am really going to miss it.

But I plan on using up the groceries we have and hopefully having some low spend grocery months for the first several in 2026.

New Year’s Eve is not a good time to go shopping. I got there about 3 o’clock in the afternoon.

So many of the shelves were practically empty, it looked like that store had been shopped hard!

there was one young man running a register, and I did not see any other workers in the store.

I mostly got what was on my list. I had to substitute the type of lettuce I wanted and I added cherries and strawberries because grandchildren will be here and they really like them. They were a good price too.

Our New Year’s Day tradition is to eat Black Eyed Peas, pork, cabbage and cornbread. My husband is going to smoke a spiral ham that I got on sale From Kroger for $.99 a pound. He also made some pimento cheese stuffed jalapeño poppers to smoke while he smokes the ham. He’s never made them before and he didn’t have a recipe. I imagine they will be very good

❤️Rhonda

last day of 2025

2025-12-31T08:07:53.670-06:00

good morning everyone

Today I have a few errands to go on.

Then to celebrate, we will watch a live stream from the Clay Cooper theater in Branson to bring in the new year.

Tuesday, I did some house cleaning. And this pantry I call our junk pantry was just disorganized as could be.

Of course, I did not take it before Photo. I really need to do better at that.

But above is the after picture

Earlier this year, I put two small boxes in the bottom of the junk pantry

One was for keeping throw away plastic and one was for keeping cans

I pulled out the plastic containers to stack it So it would fit in the box better

It’s just amazing how many plastic food containers we bring home.

And this is certainly not every container, sometimes I didn’t wash them. Sometimes we have used them for other things.

The clear square one is from tiny tomatoes.

I think it will be especially good to plant more tomato seeds in. It already has drainage holes in the bottom.

in Oklahoma, it will be time to start gardening seeds in the house pretty soon.

I think starting the seeds in the house is my favorite part of gardening.

Happy New Year’s Eve everyone

❤️ Rhonda

Goodbye 2025

2025-12-29T18:00:25.523-06:00

Hello friends,

I’m ready to turn the page from 2025 to 2026.

Actually, the last several years have been hard for our family but I’m hopeful 2026 will be better.

but we will see, right?

I’m planning for a more productive year ahead in several ways.

We didn’t have very elaborate Christmas decorations out this month and I packed away all the Christmas things today and

left up this 4 foot tree and put out mostly snow themed decorations.

on the tv are screensavers from Youtube- there are so many there to choose from.

This is the little New Years boy that was bought at a thrift store years ago but it’s really special to me because it looks like so much our grandson JJ.

But the ceramic boy was here long before JJ.

This may not be very readable and it’s just a rough draft so far.

In 2026, I hope to declutter, organize and clean every space in our home.

Our home is not overly cluttered but every space needs some attention.

I’ll try to take photos and show my progress.

If you’re reading this, thank you for sticking with me.

❤️Rhonda

Orange Peel craft

2025-11-19T10:05:34.036-06:00

I peeled a 3 pound bag of little oranges for quick snacks.

The oranges went in the fridge and I had a pile of orange peels that smelled so good.

I was wondering if I should do something with them. 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

The day before, I saw an idea to cut the peels with a little star cookie cutter,

then let them dry on your radiator and then string them into garland for Christmas decorating.

It sounded very nice but I don’t have a tiny star cookie cutter or a radiator——-yes, I’m sure they could dry in the oven or just naturally——-

but I’m was still thinking.

anyway, later in the day, the first thing I see on facebook is this reel

https://www.facebook.com/hodgesfarmtexascooking/videos/813382301307963/

She had a pile of orange peels torn into small pieces and she strung them on a wire to make a little wreath.

That sounded very easy so that’s what I did.

I used a length of wire from my craft supplies and tore the peels into random shapes, all roughly the size of quarters.

Then I strung them on the wire.

That’s what I used and had left from 3 pounds of oranges.

No wire? You can also string them with a needle and any kind of string or twine.

I put a ribbon bow on mine and hung it on our junk pantry door in between 2 aprons.

❤️Rhonda

[Autosaved] catching up and groceries

2025-11-14T12:08:24.536-06:00

hello everyone

I called my dentist office first thing Monday morning and they said to come in at 9:50 AM.

They were able to re-glue my crown back on and everything is fine.

It was both painless and cost free.

I started this post several days ago and now Friday, I’m just getting back to it.

You bloggers that post daily, I applaud you!

Between having spare time to sit and technical issues, I don’t know if I’ll ever be a daily blogger.

but on with news and doings

Tuesday was Veterans Day and we went to our 5th grade grandson’s school for a very sweet and patriotic program.

My husband is 5ft11. I think Jackson is growing about an inch this school year.

I’m wondering how tall he will end up.

This weeks Kroger grocery delivery- I think it was about $72 total

I think everything was either on sale or had a good digital coupon except the canned cherries.
2 bags of tomatoes, 3 pounds delicious green grapes, 4 packages lunch meat, 2 fresh salsa that were B1G1 and 2 cottage cheese
5 pounds butter $2.99 each and that’s as cheap as I’ve seen any butter in 2025

milk, tortillas, tart cherries for a pie
Grandchildren’s favorite bars, Kroger corn chips were way less than name brand

the breads and pies were on flash markdown or I wouldn’t of bought them.

Our daughter has been married 18 years.

They registered and received a very nice set of pottery dishes that they’ve used exclusively ever since.

Those dishes have really dwindled done to where they just need more dishes

She asked me if I thought white dishes could be found at thrift stores, mainly bowls and plates.

I had time to stop at Goodwill yesterday and found all these.

They had so many!

you can’t see all of it in the photo, but I bought a vintage 8 inch Pyrex pie plate for our kitchen.

The finish is a bit faded but I don’t care.

It just shows this pie plate was used and enjoyed by a family in the past.

TIP for stickers- Those stickers were perforated and very difficult to pull off.

So I put all the dishes in a sink of hot soapy water and left them to soak while I did an errand.

When I came back, the stickers were falling off on their own.

I had time to go to a second thrift store but didn’t buy anything.

Both stores seemed to be packed with merchandise. I won’t say prices were great

but I think shopping at most any thrift store should have good inventories.

Hope you all have a good weekend

❤️ Rhonda

Monday new week to do list

2025-11-10T08:43:31.562-06:00

good morning everyone

I’m dressed and ready to go to a dentist appointment.

A crown came off Saturday so I’ve been eating carefully since then.

I called my dentist and they told me come at 9:50.

I’m very thankful they could see me this soon.

Now it’s time to get busy doing stuff!

❤️ Rhonda

The rest of Thursday’s cooking, boys and slime and maybe other stuff

2025-11-08T10:16:11.581-06:00

Hello everyone

I peeled and cut up vegetables to use in chili, taco filling and cooked ground beef.

I did the carrots to cook for a future side dish.

The bell peppers and red onion are for salad or whatever.
I cooked 3 pounds of beef for taco filling and 3 pounds of seasoned cooked beef.

All went in the freezer for future meals.

I was way wrong in how many onions I would use.

there is only one jar of onions in the photo but I put 2 jars in the fridge.

They will keep a while but I need to plan some onion-heavy meals this month.
3 pounds of beef went into a big pot of chili along with a pound of cooked pintos.
Lots of dishes were washed after the cooking
This is ground beef from Kroger that I bought for $11.97 3 pound tube or about $4 a pound.

I was very happy with it. It smells and tastes right and put off very little water/fat when cooked.

I froze the rest of it plain

I’ve never done it this way but I sliced each tube into about 1/2 pound sections and 12 hamburger patties.

I put the tray in the freezer and will bag them up when frozen.
3 of the grandchildren ate supper with us Friday. I made a batch of our favorite buns, mixing the dough in a bread machine and baking them in the oven.

SLIME !

this is still a popular craze I guess

This is recipe we mostly followed.

https://kidsactivityzone.com/fluffy-slime/

We made one recipe split between 2 bowls.

Their mother provided the glue. Other ingredients were shaving cream, baking soda, optional food coloring and a little borax mixed with water.

Many recipes call for contact solution which is not an ingredient we have. Borax in water works great.

These boys are 5th and 7th graders. Not shown, but their 10th grade sister came and played with some slime too and she had as much fun as they did.

❤️Rhonda

very productive day

2025-11-06T20:19:13.986-06:00

Hello everyone

I’m pretty happy with how much I accomplished today.

As scheduled, Kroger delivered my order.

They put it all right by front door. Isn’t that great?

There were no substitutions and no unfilled items so I was especially thankful.

Below is what $164 will get you in Oklahoma right now.
15 pounds of ground beef, 3 1/2 pounds cheese, 3 pounds sausage,

2 pounds hot dogs, 1 package lunchmeat and a container of salsa.
Complete Non essentials

The chips were 4 /$10, I think the brown sugars were $2 each and the white sugars were 2/$5,

sodas and 2 packages of snacks my husband requested
Bell peppers, onions, carrots and spinach
Orange juice and milk - I really appreciate Kroger guarantees at least 10 days of fresh with dairy products - This milk is dated 12 days out and I pretty certain it will last even longer than that.
and 2 strings of tree lights.

Not shown -3 dozen eggs and a freebie bag of potato patties - they were already put away
I filled up our morning pill boxes for a month - a few prescription pills and a few vitamins
I worked out our November budget and paid a few bills. It feels good to have it planned out and not have to think about it anymore

If you have any older elementary -middle school age children in your life, you’ve likely heard about 6 7

Well, I know it’s just a craze and mostly nonsense. But I am 67 years old so now when I hear 6 7, I’ll think they are talking about how special I am 🤭

Are any of y’all 67?

Our granddaughter Cora is 7. Last night at dinner she said “we aren’t allowed to say six seven unless we are counting”.

Her dad asked her what it meant and she said she didn’t know.

So I think it means the children are annoying their teachers with their 6 7.

But this will pass…….

I also cooked up 9 pounds of that ground beef today and cleaned up all the dishes.

The pictures are still downloading from my phone to my ipad so hopefully I’ll blog about those tomorrow.

Hope you all have had a great day

❤️ Rhonda

I think my posting issues are fixed

2025-11-05T19:38:41.785-06:00

I’m sorry for the crazy posts this week and thank you all for your help and kind words.

I’ll just get back to the homemaking and daily life posts I like to

Our 5+ year old Bosch dishwasher quit working a few weeks ago.

We don’t think it was repairable so we just took it. I have just been washing dishes by hand.

There are normally just 2 of us here and we really don’t use that many things.

We have been rinsing everything after we use them and I usually wash everything from the entire day after our evening meal.

I prefer to let everything air dry.

Towel drying dishes is not allowed in commercial food establishments as it can spread bacteria so I’m happy to air dry.

We already had this little metal shelf and it just fits in the dishwasher hole. I keep the dishpan and drainer, gloves and brushes on it when not in use.

They are sort of out of sight but still very easy to access.

I think my favorite part of this washing method is when I put away the dry dishes. It is much easier on my slightly cranky back and my husband’s very cranky back to move the dishes from counter height than to get them out of a low dishwasher.

Kroger is supposed to deliver my order tomorrow morning.

One of their specials is 80/20 ground beef for $3.99.

Have yall priced beef lately? It seems to of really jumped up in price.

I hope the 15 pounds I ordered come.

I plan on cooking part of for taco filling and part of it for chili, all to put in the freezer for easy future meals.

We like lots of beans in our chili so I put a pound of pintos to soak and will cook them in a crock pot first thing tomorrow morning.

Hope you are all fine

Good night everyone

❤️ Rhonda

One More time

2025-11-04T16:48:16.778-06:00

One more post today to see if I can get this blog post format how I want it

photo is just an unedited snapshot of our supper tonight

❤️Rhonda

so far it looks promising!

2025-11-04T15:22:00.003-06:00

hello everyone, I've been updating settings and changing settings. We will see how this one posts, but I don't feel like I'm making any progress getting my blog to look like it used to. One thing I've done around my home to get ready for next year, I cut the spent flowers off of the zinnia's from our backyard. I let them dry in a box for a few days, and then I will store them in a Ziploc bag and replant the seeds next year. A single dried zinnia seems to have at least 100 or more seeds inside. We grow these in our backyard and most people never see them, but the monarch butterflies and the bees just love them. Saving ZINNIA seeds is so Thrifty! I'll be able to share zinnia seeds next spring and plant mine just as thick as I want to. I am no expert on indeterminate and determinate and heirloom or organic type seeds. I just know I have been planting and enjoying this batch of flowers for years. ❤Rhonda

another test

2025-11-04T00:12:00.002-06:00

just a test post I put 8 spaces between theses sentences as I wrote this post Do any of them show up?

Trying Chrome…..

2025-11-03T18:08:00.006-06:00

This is the view from our front door right now. Our Christmas light man hung the lights back up today. Christmas is two months away, but we think the lights are festive so we will have ours lit from dusk to Dawn until he takes them down sometime after the first of the year. I'm trying this blog post using Chrome on my phone. I used to blog on my iPad with whatever browser comes with iPad. Melanie suggested I try chrome. Theoretically it should work perfectly since chrome and blogger are the same company, Google. We will see. I can already tell I think it's going to run all this text together into one paragraph. I would really like to blog. I like visiting with you all, and I think blogging keeps me more active as a homemaker. So let's see how this test post works ❤ Rhonda

Hello 👋🏻

2025-10-26T09:38:00.004-05:00

good morning!

those are a double batch of energy I made as requested by a grandson to take in his school lunches. He won't eat all 5 pounds by himslef. His family members also pack lunches .

i'm still here and I'm fine. I still don't get as much done as I used to, but I'm trying to get busier. Doesn't our new weather forecast look so pleasant? It warm and dry for several months now. We had a lot of rain over the weekend and I'm very much looking forward to what I call Thrifty weather -when we really dont need to run the air conditioner or heater. I'm having issues making posts to my blog. I can't seem to use the app I used to for posting. I'm doing this one directly to my blog with blogger but it won't allow some photos I want to post and it runs all my text together. If you are a blogger, please tell me how you make new posts. Pretty Please, I really need advice ❤ Rhonda