Hobby Lobby Made Me Do It

 Hobby Lobby is so close to us that I find myself going there at least once a week. But I am enjoying my Hobby to the fullest. I have been busy and having so much fun sewing as you can see. I made the girls some matching shirts. Instead of buttons, I used snaps on these. Caroline has trouble with buttons and tries to pull the garment opening apart so....the reason for snaps. She can pull these apart but might have help snapping them closed. She will learn. I took the plunge and used the embroidery part of my sewing machine and embroidered a different color heart on each shirt. I don't know why it has taken me 5 yrs to get over my intimidation of this machine but I did and I see more embroidery in my future. LOL. Next, I just need to learn more about transferring designs from my computer to my machine. My machine is a small scale one, 4x4 size embroidery and I'm perfectly fine with  that. 

I made me some items and I love how they turned out. I purchased some Pioneer Woman place mats a while ago and got busy at home and put them up for a while. Well, I brought them with me and made these and they serve my traveling needs perfectly. I will be making more projects with her placemats too. 

I found some material for Dallas. It was on sale 30% off so I said, Why Not! I don't know what I'll make yet. Probably some throw pillows for his bed. 

I have a few more projects I'm fixing to work on too. I'll let you see when they are done. 

I have enjoyed my using my instant pot and air fryer. I have made some pretty good meals in them. I always make a big batch of egg bites for dear hubby to take to work with him. I make about a weeks worth and wrap them. He takes them to work and puts them in the fridge in his office. He can grab and go at work. Makes me feel nice that he has something homemade to eat at work. I also made some for some of the staff and they loved them. They told me I was going to have to make some more. LOL. I think I will make them a sweet treat next.

I made some enchiladas one night and a pasta dish the next. It is easy to make pasta dishes in the instant pot. 

Last night I made a quick meal of fish tacos and a southwest cole slaw. 

One day the weather got so bad, I was actually getting a little worried. I had to run errands that morning to pick up a few groceries and I got back in time. I did not like the look of the clouds and the Noah weather broke in on the radio. I turned on the local news here and saw that we were under severe thunderstorm and a tornado warning. About 10 minutes later a tornado was in rotation 9 miles from us. Me and dear hubby were worried about each other. He told me exactly what to do and where to go if I had to. I started calling my parents and Dakota back home. It would eventually head that way too. After a while the watches and warnings ended, but it thunder stormed the rest of the day. I was looking out the window at one time and literally saw a lightning bolt touch down across the bridge on the interstate. I heard a loud pop. I don't know what it hit, but it didn't sound good. It finally calmed down after the evening. It was over before dear hubby got off work. I'm glad because I prayed him all the way home. 

We had a rough weekend last weekend. They placed a traveling football team on our floor and some scattered on other floors. It was not pleasant to say the least. They literally were up all hrs of the night, going from room to room, elevator and stair wells. Not to mention, loud noise, music, etc. That first night was awful for our friend across the hall because finally around 1 am they went to one room that adjoins his and decided to party there the rest of the night. He got no sleep at all and we all had to be up at 4 am. 

  The next night, we went  to bed around 10 pm, these kids decided they wanted to play football in the hall way. We had enough. Dear hubby jumps out of bed, calls downstairs, however, it was a young girl on night shift and I told him it was unsafe for her to come up here with all these young guys. It was too dangerous. So, she played a good call. She called the coaches room  and told him to come quieten everyone down. Dear hubby went out in the hall and was waiting on the coach to come. He was asking the boys nicely to hold the noise down since we all had to get up again around 4 am. A woman was sitting in the hall way eating cheetos and watching everything. She said she was a parent and chaperone. Are you kidding me? You're supervising these kids making all this chaos and noise at 10 pm at night with no regards to other tenants trying to sleep. Finally the coach appears much much later. They finally get settled in a room somewhere a few hrs later. I got up in the middle of the night and they were still awake and I could hear them. Again at 4 am, still awake. They finally went to bed around 6am. Well, guess what? Coach had to start waking them up around 9 am to check out. HAHAHAHAHAHA. That's what they get. We were so tired and sleepy and throw miserable in there. I prayed and prayed they were leaving. I looked out the hall one time and a young mother and her two very young children were checking out. Made me wonder what kind of night she had because the was closer to their rooms than we were and if we could hear them all the way to ours up the hall, I know she was miserable too. They all left and it was so quiet. Finally, we could sleep. I felt so sorry for house keep though. It took them 8 hrs to clean just this floor and all their rooms. Management was so upset. 

Folks, please learn, know and understand hotel  and motel etiquette. There are quiet hours. People come in from all different places, and for all different reasons. Mostly, to REST and SLEEP. Also, if you wouldn't make that big of a mess in your own home, don't do it else where. Just because that's what "they get paid to do" doesn't mean you have to act like you had no raising and be disrespectful. CLEAN YOUR CRAP UP.  Ok, I'm off my soap box. I  will just say, I can see an RV in our future.  Home away from home and we can have our own space and peace and quiet. 

I have started a new book. I absolutely love Sharon White. She is very traditional in homemaking, homekeeping, marriage and parenting. I plan to get more of her books. 

We had some items delivered at home for the girls. Dakota went and picked them up and Jordan wrapped them for us. To say they were excited is an understatement. Poppie sure does know how to make two little princesses happy. 

Not much longer and we get to hug and kiss and squeeze the tater out of them. And we get to see how our kitchen is coming along. So far so good. 

Well, I have laundry to do, so I'm off. Have a blessed day. 

All Things Wonderful

 I left you last by telling you that our little Caroline was going to have tubes put in her ears and her adenoids taken out. The morning came of her surgery and you can plainly see that she was not happy about it. Later, they had to start giving her the "happy" medicine. She was being so goofy. Afterwards, on the way home, mommy let me facetime her and she was so groggy and talking off the wall. She was going to go get ice cream. 

Lolly, her other grandmother finally got around to trimming her hair. She looks so grown up. She had to take off quite a bit due to sissy cutting her hair. 

They are having so much fun with their Uncle Finn and Lolly. 

I am still playing around with the air fryer and instant pot. Bruscetta tastes really good in the air fryer. I did purchase a whole rotisserie chicken from Kroger and paired it with some fresh cut up vegetables that I sauteed in the instant pot. It turned out delicious. 

I am so excited. I have had this sewing embroidery combination machine for 5 years and have been so intimidated to even learn the embroidery part. I don't know why. So, I contacted a lady at a quilting shop and she offers private classes. So.......She worked with me for 4 hrs and taught me how to use my machine and features. I still need to learn how the computer part of it works. I've got to learn how to transfer images to the machine from computer. We played around a little and I honestly don't know why I was so scared. Then, on the way back, I found another sewing shop and  she offers private classes too. I have a serger that is 25 years old and have never used all the features on it. Well, I have set up another private class and she will teach me how to use all the features on it and come up with cool projects. I don't know why it has taken me all these years to do this. I've missed out on alot of things that I could have been doing. Oh well, looks like I'm fixing to catch up. 

Our kitchen is coming along. Everything is stripped out. Paint is going on the walls and flooring is being put down. There are more pics but they are on dear hubbys phone so I need to get him to send them to my phone so I can post them next time. 

I might get into trouble, but I can't stand it any longer.  I just have to share a few photos with ya'll. He finally got to call home. He chose to call Brylee, (his girl) but that is just fine with me. Not even upset or envious. We are all just glad to hear from him and know that he is ok and doing well. He is having fun actually. This is all right up his alley and what he enjoys doing anyway. The mail situation is not so good. He has only received one letter and it is from dad. We have all wrote at least 3 letters a piece and he has only gotten one. ONE!!!!! We haven't gotten any letters from him as of yet. There are so many parents in the support group that are upset just as much as  we are. At least we know he is ok and doing better than we were thinking. I can rest more easy now. It is getting about time for us to book or reservations for hotel for graduation. I cannot wait to see him and hear all his stories. 

I have uploaded one or two new videos since I have last posted. 

Hotel Cooking and Travel Hacks

Hope you enjoy it.

We Are Making Do

 We are making do here in our hotel. We only have a few weeks left. Then we are homeward bound for a few days. Our kitchen is all gutted out and I keep trying to get someone to get me some pics, but everyone keeps forgetting. I would love to see the progress instead of just hear it everyday. 

I have a few hacks I'd like to share with ya'll. First is how to get more space out of your packing. I have learned how to pack things to create more space and how to plan outfits and fold them properly. In the first pic, I picked out a pair of pants and found multiple shirts to go with them. One pair of pants, 3 shirts, in one bundle. Lay the pants down first, fold each shirt longways in half and lay on top of the pants. Then start at the bottom of the pant leg and roll up into a log. Viola! You can put several bundles into your suitcase this way. Or you can fold an outfit up for everyday this way. Sometimes I roll a pair of pants, the shirt, underwear, bra and socks (if any for that outfit) all in the bundles. Or there is another way.

Packing Cubes. These things are amazing. You can put your bundles or several into one packing cube or you can put like items into one packing cube. I have done both. In one, I have my pj sets. In another I have all my socks. In another, underwear and bras. 

Here is an example of how much these things hold. I have two long sleeve shirts and 7 tshirts in this one cube. The cubes are designed to compress the clothes and make them tight into the cube. This creates more space. I could have packed a pair of jeans and shirt bundle and put them into the cube, but I have so many jeans that these shirts will go with so I just did them this way. 

This is how I fold my jeans and jeggings or leggings if I am not rolling them with a shirt into a bundle. I could put all my blue jeans into a packing cube, but I didn't have one  that size. These things come in all sizes. When they are all packed, you know what is in each one and when you need something, you just grab the cube and put it back instead of shuffling through loose clothes and messing up your suitcase. These keep everything in your suitcase organized. I love them. 

Next, is making the most space in your little refrigerator in your room. I can only shop  for groceries for about two meals at at time. There is a little freezer at the top which I keep a little bag of ice to keep me from going down to the ice machine so much and it all melting before it gets used. Yes, that is alot of jello. When I had Covid, Dallas has bought me a bunch and we put them into the fridge. But when it was time for me to go and I had to clean out the fridge, I brought it with me instead of wasting it. So, at night, if I get a little snacky, I grab one. You have to shop small not just in quantity but size as well. I try to find the smallest size of something I can find. 

This is our little snack drawer and place to hold some non-refrigerator items. 

I have had to learn to get creative with cooking. I watch some videos on air fryer meals and instant pot meals. It is a learning process. I'm getting there. Dear hubby does not say a word, he understands that I have never just relied on these two appliances to make our meals. He's very patient. I would like to add that not all hotels will let you have a set up like this. Some hotels want let you bring appliances in. You will have to check with management. I talked to the manager of the hotel and she gave me her permission since we are a long stay for a while. She is really nice. All the staff are. Of course, Dear hubby has been coming here for three years, so they know him. There is a washer and dryer too downstairs and I can wash a little load at a time, but sometimes I want out, so I will take the laundry to a laundry mat and it doesn't take long at all. They have extra large capacity washers and dryers. You can wash two regular loads just about versus one at home at a time. Housekeeping knows I clean our room, so the only thing they have to do is give us fresh towels and trash bags everyday. 

I took some scraps from the girls ponchos and made them some matching little drawstring bags for play. 

Then it was time for me to make me a little something. 

I'm working on putting up some more videos on YouTube on our channel at Keeper of the Home at 4D Farms. 

We still haven't gotten any letters from Dallas yet, but I guess no news is good news. It's the not knowing that is killing me. I know the first 2 to 3 weeks of Basic is extremely busy and intense, so I also know he is not getting any free time and I know he's probably exhausted. This week they have a 5 mile march to complete. 

 Well, it is time for me to go and find something to do. I try to stay busy doing the same things I would do if I was at home. It helps the time go by faster so we can get back and see our girls. Everyone is saying that me and Poppie is all the girls are talking about. Atleigh has been telling mommy that she want Gmaw. She is missing me. We found out that Caroline has to have tubes put in her ears and her adnoids taken out. She is beginning to have the same issues as Atleigh did as a baby. Atleigh had to do the same thing when she was 2 yrs I think. Not long ago, one of her tubes fell out in my hand when I was carefully cleaning her ears. They are designed to fall out after they have corrected the ear canal. It still freaked me out. Caroline will have surgery next Monday.