To do list and home things from last week

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

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