Bread, Cheeky and Pie...and Pergolas

Good morning, friends! 

Goodness!  It's chilly here again.  With all the rain passing through, it brought with it, a cold front...so tired of the cold!

It's been a busy week around here.  I ran out of bread so did the quick fix and hauled out the ever faithful, bread machine.  I just load it up with all the ingredients, close the lid, and in three hours, we have a wonderful loaf of bread...no fussing back and forth with the proofing.  The machine allows me to just walk away.  Nice!

Breakfast toasting bread...yummy.

And who is this?  Our greatgran, Sloane, being cheeky.

I bought this large stoneware pie plate from the Pioneer Woman collection (10" X 2" and heavy).  I was in Walmart minding my own business when, this pie plate just jumped into my buggy!  Well!  I had no choice but to head to the check-out! lol

And like any good wife...came home and made Larry a pie.

Recipe here...

It's quick and has a custardy feel and taste.  Wonderful served cold.  It's alright served warm but, Wonderful cold!

Hanging my head in shame...at the Walmart, I grabbed up the last two cow sandwich plates!  The pie plate made me do it...lolol

I made lunch out of hamburger meat, noodles, Anaheim pepper, parmesan cheese, tomatoes and an English muffin Larry had made last week, warmed and buttered...so good.  

Re-planting of lavender in the badly, drought abused, soil next to the patio.  Hopefully, it'll take off and grow!  It smells Heavenly and just look at the color of it... 

I've also planted four rose bushes.  You can never have too many!

I was talking with hubby, Larry, the other day about how I hoped I could find a trellis large enough to let the "Rose Peggy Martin" climb on...Larry then set about disappearing for several hours.  I went to look for him out in his workshop and I found him building a pergola for me! Needless to say, I was a happy gardener!!   He loves a good woodworking challenge...did I say I knew that? Lolol...anyway, I was surprised and grateful.  He's the best...and I love him.

Here's the Rose Peggy Martin (odd name) climber.

And Larry also bought me two White Jasmines for the pergola.

Hopefully, everything will grow like intended!  It'll take a little training of the branches...and wire...lol

And...If you use cast iron much, you'll understand this...lol

Hope you all enjoy your week...stay safe and warm or cool, wherever you are.

So, until next time...

Sister Update...Re-planting...Cookies

Good morning, friends...Hope you all are doing well and enjoying your lives.    

We haven't been up to much lately...getting groceries, planting some roses and tomato plants.   Last 

Summer's drought killed almost everything in our yard!  With constant 108F temps and smidgens of rain, and really high water bills...we just gave up!  It's the first time, in all the time we've lived here (49yrs), that we just watered the foundation (prevents it from cracking), not the grass.  The yard was gorgeous and heavy with St Augustine.  I'm just sick...I am seeing sprouts of the St Augustine though...and we've been getting a lot of rain so here's hoping it'll grow back. I fully intend to water it!!  (Hubby is a tiny bit tight...not a lot butttt...and I can't really blame him...water prices here are terrible!) 

 

 

 

 

 This photo of my sister, Ruth, was taken probably in the around 2015.  She's now completed round 5 of the chemo for her colon cancer, and the doctors are saying everything looks very good!  After her round 6 treatment she'll have another PET (lights up tumors like a Christmas tree) scan done to see if it's shrinking.  Please keep remembering her in your prayers.

 

Our little Sloane whispering to God...in the beautiful Bluebonnets. (Yes, mom & dad checked for snakes! lol)

 

 

Sloane doing a bit of shopping with mommy...

 

 

 

 

I placed a Bougainvillea on a tree stump (tree kill by drought!).  It'll at least provide something pretty in the yard to look at.  I've been buying plants and re-planting.

 

 

 

 

Two tomato plants are really taking off! 

 

 

 

New roses planted...look at that parched ground!  Horrible!

Mostly weeds now...

 

 

 

We're traveling down this morning to visit with our daughter, Crystal who is visiting her daughter, Samantha and granddaughter, Sloane.  I got up early and baked some Walnut Chocolate Chip Sugar Cookies.  Really good!  The sugar cookie is pressed into the center of the chocolate chip cookie... I'll post the recipe on my cooking blog. 

Recipe Here

(I want to pause here for a moment...I know that some of you already know who my family members are, by face and name but, my new friends don't.  That's why I do a re-telling of who different people are.  There's nothing much I hate more than trying to figure out how the people in photos belong to different bloggers.   I do this so they don't have to go back in my archives and do a search, if really interested...and for people trying to just read a post, most don't have the time or patience to do that).

 

Our Libby is waiting for a cookie in her PJ's...but she can't have chocolate and besides that, it's too early for cookies! lolol...tell that to Larry! (hubby)

Libby is not happy with me...lol

 

Larry smoked a Tri-Tip...omgoodness!  A seriously tender cut of meat!  And a bit pricey but worth it! 

 

 

 

 

And he made butter beans...yum...

Do any of you hike up the centers of your bacon so the edges don't drip grease onto the glass plate in your microwave?  It works!

 

 

 

Well, I guess that's it for me...Hope you all are safe and happy wherever you are, so until next time... 

Easter 2023, Sloane's First Crawl and Chocolate Pie...

 Good morning friends!

Has it been a week already?  Where is the time going... Easter absolutely flew by.  I wasn't feeling too chipper so Larry and I went to our consecutive "corners", and just piddled away at the day.  Me watching television and him out in his workshop creating something on his humongous laser.  

We didn't get to see our granddaughter, Samantha...greatgran Sloane or her hubby, Everett. With me not feeling so good they had many other stops to make so we made "do" with these photos.  We love them dearly.

Our daughter Crystal and hubby live several hours away so they just got to rest over the weekend.  We celebrate, as a family, most holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving but Easter, Independence Day, Valentines and St Patricks Day, we enjoy phone calls and food, at home.

We could insist that the kids and grandchildren come but as a young mom myself, once...I remember the running around...money spent...time...(although I miss my mom and dad and wish I had a time machine) and miles we traveled to spend time with family we saw all the time anyway...If you can't let loved ones know how you feel about them...traveling 3 hours isn't going to change things.  

Sam, Sloane and Everett

Sloane with her cousins...

I saw this Summer dress in Targets the other day for Sloane...couldn't resist!  It's SO 1950's.

WATCH!!!  I know you want to!lol

Sloane is Crawling now!!!  How fun!  This was her first time...

I made a chocolate pie earlier in the week...didn't last long!

I was cleaning out my greenhouse when a bird flew up in my face!  I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out how it had gotten in there...Well, she'd made a nest and it had four eggs in it!  And yes, she came back to continue her keeping her babies warm.  Hope they hatch and I didn't hurt anything...I just backed out and let things alone.

I finally got Larry to finish out the trim on the bay window in the playroom.  You'd think a year was long enough of my asking?lolol

Pooped him out...lol...he usually takes a half hour "power nap" (he calls them that for effect...lolol...I call them his "pooped" naps!  He still works hard around the house, inside and out.

I'm on the Monk Fruit craze now...It really does taste and act like real sugar!  A, 1:1 ratio!  No after taste!  We are on a smoothie kick right now.  Frozen fruits (I partially thaw them before blending), Heavy cream, fruit juice...I'm even starting to loose a bit of weight...I like that part!

BUT!!!  DO NOT FEED TO YOUR PETS!

Erythritol can kill them!

I bought a Nutri-Ninja blender for $49 at Walmart and it works great.  Comes with two cups so Larry and I can make our smoothies the way we like them.

My Libby the Pug...Goes everywhere I do...This is the bed beside my computer.

Truth right here! Lolol

We once had an employee who would steal our lunches out of the employee break room...wish I'd thought of this...and before you think me mean spirited, I'd had the chat with him more than once!  We paid our employees well...but no one would speak up...so when he stole my lunch, I got a little bent out of shape.  Needless to say, he never stole my lunch again...lol

This is exactly how I feel sometimes...Yes, I've had a good life and wouldn't change anything...but sometimes, age has a way of reminding you of your seasons and how very precious time is.

Use it wisely.

Tell family you love them, Every Day!

So, until next time....

Candy...

 Good morning, friends...Just a short post today.  I hope you all enjoyed your Easter holidays.  It didn't make any difference to Larry and me because, we are retired, and get time off every day. 

 

An update on our little Candy, the Frug...We gave her to a family friend of my granddaughter, Samantha.  I know, I know...just wait...  She has a family, two school age daughters and a hubby and they are in love with her.  Now you older blog buddies understand our reasons for giving her up...the younger ones, may not yet, get it.  We love Miss Candy and tried valiantly to take good and proper care of her.  Larry is almost 76 and I'll be 72 this Summer...Getting up and down constantly... taking out...bringing in, to no avail, while still finding poop in the house......chasing a puppy before she finds that hole in the fence that a half pound pup can squeeze through...feeling like you should have kept playing baseball because you can see the advantage of using all those skill sets...never leaving the house because you're afraid she might be crying her eyes out in her crate...hoping you don't run out of Band-Aids for those puppy bites with those needle sharp teeth...ahhh...while trying to dig those sticks out of her mouth, and the supreme amount of jealously between our two older dogs, Libby and Buddy.  They absolutely refused to succumb to her charms.  

We are sad and feel like old failures...Our reasoning, in the first place, was that should our two older babies...leave us...we'd still have the love of Candy.  I know, may sound silly but we love our pets and know we'd not enjoy living in a home without the love of one...hence, Candy.  Well, we didn't well and truly account for our ages.  When you move on in life, you don't really stop and remember how you feel rolling out of bed in the mornings or the after effects of picking up 25 pound babies...It hits you in places you'd forgotten were there.  You think you can still do the things you did, even five years ago...not so.

Libby the Pug, 9 years old

Buddy the Chi-pin, almost 13.

So... Realizing our limitations, I gave her to a young family whom I know, without a doubt, will grow up with her...and love her.

The house is again clean and back to its old routine but this time, we are grateful for the routine.  And glad knowing Candy will be much happier where she now is.

Hope you all enjoyed Easter...thanked God for loving us enough to send His most loved thing in His universe...His Son...saving us all, simply, from ourselves.

Until next time...

Happy Easter and New Love

 

              Happy Easter to all my sweet Blogging                                       Friends!

              I pray this finds you all well and safe.

 Well, we finally were able to bring our new baby girl home!  What a hoot she is!  Yes, it's been a bit of an adjustment for us all, but I think things are beginning to settle in.  As with any new pup there's the potty-training phase to get through.  She's smart though and as soon as I tell her "It's time to go potty", she does her business and we're back in, spit spot!

She literally eats, potties and sleeps...like any baby does.  She's already stolen our hearts.

Introducing Miss Candy...She's so excited...lol

 

And of course...Our Miss Sloane!  Her mom and Dad took her to Texas Road House,,,her first time to visit.  Of course she's a Rib-Eye kinda' girl so she enjoyed herself.  

Our granddaughter Samantha with our Sloane.

I fried up a lo-carb lunch of chicken tenders rolled in crushed pork skins.  Crunchie and delicious.

Those Cinnamon rolls I made?  Well, of course we couldn't eat them all so I wrapped up most of them and put them in a big baggie and froze them.  Larry (hubby) thawed one out in the microwave and said it tasted "brand new".  First carb for him since his one and only attack several weeks ago.  I believe the bile salts are helping...but he's being careful about his carb intake.

I can't imagine doing all this work!!  But women did it and more without all our modern appliances of today.  Makes me tired just looking at the photo!

Now this looks and sounds Good!  I will be trying this recipe soon!

This is SO TRUE...and it's a price I will always be grateful to pay.

Amen...

Well, I hope you all enjoy and celebrate Easter in your own way.  We'll be babysitting little Sloane on Friday and Monday since her daycare is closed.  We love sitting with her and being amazed at how much she has grown since the last time we've seen her...lolol...even if it's only been a week so...until I post again,