WHAT'S FOR DINNER?

Hello, everyone!  We got some much needed rain today.  It was over rather quickly, but my plants really enjoyed it.  I was able to work in the garden this afternoon.  I thought I would do just a small bit, but was feeling pretty good for a change and got quite a bit done.  It looks so nice.  I am very happy with it and can't wait to show it to you tomorrow.  The marigolds did not do well, but the tomato plants have doubled in size.

Joe and I wanted to get out of the house, so we went to McDonald's for lunch.  There is still no inside seating, so we sat in a long drive-through line.  I thought it would be shorter when we went at 2:30 p.m. but not so.  It was OK because we had no other plans.

I am doing well with cleaning things up.  One task that a lot of people mentioned on the support group was cleaning up your email.  Boy do I need that!  I have thousands of emails I haven't even opened!  As I was looking through it, I found lots of photos of meals that I haven't shown you.  So I thought I would do that tonight.  Here goes.  I must warn you that they are old ones.

On St. Patrick's Day (I told you they were old) I had ham, boiled potatoes, and green beans and carrots.

March 27th I served breaded flounder filets, fries, and a salad.

On to April.  This is from the 5th.  There is a baked chicken thigh, broccoli, and I made some corn bread.

The 10th I had poached salmon, mashed potatoes, and fried zucchini and mushrooms.

The next night I made pierogies and onions.

And on the 12th there was roast pork loin, mashed potatoes and I made a salad.

In May I made vegetable soup that turned out really good.  It's so hot now that I can't even think about making or eating soup.

And then I had baked salmon, zucchini and mushrooms, and corn on the cob.  That corn was the white and yellow kind and so good and sweet.

I haven't taken pictures of my meals in a long time.  It got to be a problem making us wait until I got my camera, set it up so there was enough light, etc.  So much easier to just sit down and eat.  I am trying to figure out what I want to do now, so stay tuned.

And now I have to get going and get to bed so that I can get up for church tomorrow.  I hope you all have a great Sunday.

Until later....

Kathy

WHAT'S HAPPENING AND A GROCERY HAUL

Hello, friends!  I hope you are having a wonderful Friday.  Another week in the books.  And almost another month.  Time is just getting away from me.  It seems I never have time for my blog anymore.  I am so sorry about that.

Yesterday I went to the eye doctor to see about my floaters.  The doctor I had been seeing left the practice so I saw another doctor who just happened to be the surgeon who operated on Joe's cataracts.  My eyes are in great shape except for the floaters.  I found out that they will never go away, but my brain will just learn to cancel them out so that I don't see them anymore.  How awesome are these brains of ours!  But until that time they sure do bother me.

I was able to get out into the yard one day this week and pull up some of the weeds.  Hopefully today I will be able to work a little more and then I will take a picture for you.  The marigolds are not doing so well, but the tomato plants are growing great.  I know I got them in late, but I am hoping to see some flowers soon, and then some little fruit.  It would be great to be able to eat some tomatoes from my back yard.  They always taste so much better than what you can buy in the store.  I have been trying to grow sunflowers, but no luck.  I think I will buy a new package of seeds and try again.  What I had in the house was from last year.

Do any of you do the Fly Lady system for cleaning and decluttering your house?  I have tried it twice in the past.  I do it for a short period of time and then it goes by the wayside.  But this week I started again with a different attitude.  I joined a Fly Lady support group sponsored by Steph, "The Secret Slob", whose YouTube vlog I watch.  I am having more success this time.  Hopefully this is a changing point for me and I will finally get my house straightened up and clean.  Having a support group really does make a difference.

On Wednesday I got another ball of the yarn I am using to make my knitted shawl.  I was almost finished when I ran out.  I know I have enough to finish it now and can't wait until it is finished and I can show it to you.  It is probably the prettiest thing I have ever made.

So that is what has been going on with me.  Now I will show you the grocery haul I got on Friday the 12th.  I can't believe I haven't shown it to you before.  Here goes.  It's a big one.

Frozen French fries, lactose free cheese and confetti sugar cookie dough.  I already baked and ate those cookies.  They were good!

Chicken thighs.  I divided the package and am getting four meals out of it.  Sausage for breakfast, and a ham steak.  The ham made a dinner for us, and then the next day I made ham fried rice for dinner with the left overs.

A pork roast and some ground beef.

I desperately needed paper towels.  This was the only two pack on the shelf.  I don't need 12 rolls of paper towels at one time.  I have no place to store them.  I found a cannister of disposable wipes.  It was the same as I had the last time.  I really wanted Clorox or Lysol, but when there is nothing else, I will take what I can get.  We needed hand soap too.

I tried this new food for Jack.  He likes it, then he doesn't the next day.  He's a picky little thing.  But it's things like chicken and carrots.  Salmon with brown rice and peas.  Sounds good to me.

We haven't had Texas Toast in a long time, so I got a package of that.  I also got some meatballs, pizza crust, and pie crust.  I made an apple pie last week.  It was good, but I used the wrong type of apple and it was juicy.  Very, very, very juicy.  But it was good and the apples didn't go to waste.

I needed all kinds of plastic bags.

I didn't need the strawberries, but I wanted them.  They were dessert for two dinners.  I was completely out of potatoes.  It was one of the things I ordered from the "shop from home" the week before but never got.

I got a package of bagels, a small package of Hawaiian rolls (I love them!) and 18 eggs.

I got flounder, potato salad and macaroni salad for dinner.  I also got some lunchmeat ham for sandwiches.

Joe has been on a milk craze.  Chocolate milk to be exact.  I got both chocolate and white for him and lactose free for me.

And then the snacks: lightly salted chips and Little Debbie donuts.  We needed paper plates too.

Produce:  broccoli, zucchini, bananas, tomatoes and pear and gorgonzola salad.

I treated myself to cashews and candied ginger.  We needed peanut butter and the store brand was $2 cheaper than the name brand.  I tried it and it is just as good.  I also got a pound of lower sodium bacon.  Since I have been using it, the regular bacon tastes so salty now!

Corn on the cob was 6 ears for $2.  So that's what I got.

And finally, I treated myself to an African violet.  I love the way it's bi-colored.  I put it into my African violet pot and so far it's doing really well.

Before I forget, I want to thank you all for your prayers for my friend, Rusty.  He is home from the hospital and doing really well.  Of course he has a way to go, but I am so happy to hear that the doctors are giving him good reports.  Keep those prayers coming.  I will keep you updated on him.

And finally some good news.  My god-daughter, Emi, had a little boy four days ago.  I haven't seen any pictures, but I'm sure he is adorable.

Hope you all have a great day.  I'll be talking to you soon.

Kathy

SUMMER

Well, it actually started yesterday, but this is the first full day.  Do you have any summer plans?  I think it's been hard to plan anything with the way the world has been.

I am hoping to work more in my garden.

Get my house cleaning under control.

Celebrate my sister's birthday.

Go to Lancaster for some food and shopping.  And hopefully meeting up with some friends.

And maybe even getting to the shore.

Let's see how much actually gets done.

I wanted to work in the yard yesterday but it poured rain.  Good for the plants but not so good for working.  I may not have been able to get outside, but at least I got to wear my Ocean City t-shirt.  Good memories and I hope to make more.

I found the old version of YouTube and have been able to upload the beginning of Pastor Ralph's series on Romans.  I have two more to get up to date.  Today we are having a special speaker, Pastor Dan, and are celebrating Resurrection Day.

For my prayer warriors, please pray for my friend Debbie's husband Rusty.  He had a heart attack on Friday and is in the hospital.  It was a little one and he is doing much better.  But prayer is always welcome.  Thanks, friends.

And now I have to get ready for church.  I'll be getting back to you soon.  This past week has been busy -- no time or energy to write.  Or read.  Hopefully I will catch up with you all later today.

Until later...

Kathy

FLAG DAY

Hello, friends!  Happy Sunday and Happy Flag Day.  This is a holiday that has fallen by the wayside it seems.  A lot of people don't know about or celebrate Flag Day.  I have put my flags in my flower pot outside to celebrate.

This is an interesting site I found explaining all about this special day.  https://www.history.com/news/what-is-flag-day

On Thursday I was ready to go out and work in my garden.

But when I looked out, it was pouring.  So much for that idea.  But my plants were looking good!

So instead, I made apple cinnamon muffins.

But I didn't hear the bell go off and they were in the oven too long.  Not quite burned, but rather... uh... brown.  Oh, well.  They are still edible and rather good.

Later that afternoon Joe asked me to take him to Rite Aid.  I couldn't find parking in the handicapped section, so I dropped him off and went to park in the farthest corner from the store.  I saw him come out of the store and look around because he didn't see me.  So I backed up the car around the side of the building and went over to get him.  But when I did, I saw he was laying on the ground with his packages around him and an older lady standing over him asking if he was OK.  I stopped the car and went running over to him.  He had tripped on the step coming out of the building.  The lady and I got him into the car and I brought him home.  Thank the Lord there are no broken bones, but he has skinned his knee and there are abrasions on his elbow.  His hand was cut too, but that seems OK now.  His knee, however, is really bad.  And of course now the bruises are coming out.  Please pray for Joe if you think of it.

On Friday Donna and I went food shopping.  What a haul we both got!  I will show you what I got later this week.  A lot of the money I spent was on trash bags, paper towels, etc.  But it was a big one.  I had a really hard time with it because my feet are so swollen and hurt a lot!  I took my time putting the food away.  

So yesterday was a day where I did a lot of nothing.  Sometimes you just need a day like that.  I was exhausted from the shopping and so was Donna.  She took the day to rest also.

Now it is off to get ready for church.  Hope you a have a good day.

Kathy

BEGINNING THE GARDEN

Hello, friends!  I hope you are having a great day today and keeping cool.  It is so hot here.  Like the weather people on TV say, it's sizzling!

Yesterday I got out in the yard later than I really wanted to.  It was warm.  Very warm.  But I soldiered along and got SOMETHING done.  I always think something is better than nothing.  I pulled one of the chairs from the patio table over because I can no longer stand for more than a few minutes or bend over very well.  I could have sat on the cement floor of the patio but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get back up.

Joe had put the tomatoes and marigolds on the patio table for me.  I'm glad I looked at them today because they were in bad shape.  The first thing I did was clean out my earth box.  My sister bought this for me years ago and I just love it.  It was very overgrown with weeds and other plants that seeded themselves in there.  I should have taken a picture before I began, but I forgot.  When I remembered, I was halfway through.  So it was much worse than what you are seeing.  The good part is that it was so easy to do.

I planted the tomatoes in there and watered them in really well.  Then I added my fairy garden back in.  My poor fairies and mushrooms had been buried in the weeds.  There is enough room so that when they get bigger and I want to add the cages, I can.

Next I moved on to the two flower pots I had there.  Last year I bought a hibiscus, but it didn't make it.  I ended up throwing the entire pink plastic pot out.  I guess I could have saved it and used it for another plant, but I am really working on not hoarding stuff.  The large pot was full of weeds too but again I forgot to take a picture.  Just know that both of them were in pretty bad shape.

It looks as if there are two little marigolds growing in the pot.  I kept them to see what they turn out to be.  Of all the pansies I got from church, only three survived the heat.  I added them and the three marigold plants I bought on Monday.  You can see the one that I dropped is in bad shape, but I think it will recover.  I watered them in really well also.  I found my little bird statue and put that in the pot for decoration.

Along the fence was a bunch of weeds and dead grass.  That got all pulled up and I changed out the garden flag.  The one I had was a bird house with the words "Welcome Friends" on it.  It had been used for so long that it was very faded and torn.  Into the trash it went and I put up this pretty one that I just got from Amazon.  It is burlap and two sided.  The other side will be used in August and September.

See the little cat statue peeking around the fence post?  I got that when my first cat, Fluffy, passed away.  Fluffy was the cat I loved the most.  She was my constant companion when I lived alone and she had many tears shed in her fur when my dad died.  I still miss her and this is my tribute to her.

Although I have eight rosebushes in the yard, they are mostly in need of pruning and so aren't blooming.  I did find these pretty ones though.

Way in the back I found the tiniest little red rose on one of the bushes.  It's about an inch across.  So cute but still so perfect.

I will end with a short little video that I took of the yard.  Hope you enjoy it.

Have a good day everyone!  See you all soon.

Kathy