Can't Think Of A Title

 I honestly can not think of a title for this post. 🙄 

The past few weeks have been busy and I have just had writers block. Cough it up to Menopause which is getting stronger by the way. I had no idea it causes so many issues. The new problem is irritability and not depression but just getting into my own feelings. I don't know how to explain it. I can handle anything else but this I guess. I am having to go through it naturally because the medication I take for RA cancels out the hormone replacement medication. The hormone replacement medication makes RA worse. So I'm kind of stuck. I am dealing with it the best I can I guess right now. 

Oh well, where did I leave off at? OK. It was Dakotas week and we got to spend time with the girls again. I got to get Atleigh ready for school and drop her off in the mornings then come back and play with Caroline and do school everyday. Dakota would go pick up Atliegh from school in the afternoon. He likes seeing all his old teachers he use to give trouble to when he was there. Lol 😆 

When Atleigh gets to our house, they feed the cows together  and probably licked a few minerals, and then we help with homework. 

How does this even happen? I put all the time, energy, and love into them for them to just be his best friend. 🤨😏

I did a little experiment and froze some potatoes whole and vacuum sealed them. Thawed them out and sliced them and baked them. They turned out perfect and didn't take as long to bake. Yummy.

Atleigh said she wanted to learn how to write in cursive. She saw her Daddys and Uncle Dallas' papers from Kindergarten in cursive and was intrigued. Not bad for her first try. My boys had some pretty handwriting.

Sometimes you just have to sit at the table with the little ones. ❤️❤️

The time came for them to go to Mommy's for the week so me and dear hubby spent this week getting projects done. 

It was time to close and clean up the fireplace for the spring. 

The weather was nice for a few days so I needed to prune alot of our rose bushes and clean them up. New life always makes me happy. 

Dear hubby got busy doing what he loves and that's taking care of our lawn and getting the garden ready for spring planting. 😀 

Dallas has decided he wants to try to grow a garden, so Dad went and tilled the garden spot for him too. It was a joy to see his mommas garden come back to life. It meant alot to him. That middle row still needs to be cleaned out but Dallas will get it.  Now he has a whole garden to play in. 

Dad and Dakota have been working on the fencing around that pasture for rotating the cows in the spring. 

I had a few extra hands that week. We needed to do some spring cleaning and dear hubby steam cleaned the carpets for me. It hurts my arms and back so bad, so he helped me out. 

Then I had our handy man add a few shelves for me on this case to turn it into a book shelf for the kids room. Now all of their books are in one place. 

This week was also Dr. Suess Read Around The World Week. Their Lolly sure is creative and I'm so glad ahe helped her dress up every day. ❤️ 

One day we had really bad weather, strong winds and tornado warnings. 🌪School was out this day because it was so bad. All my family was scattered in different places and power outages were already happening. Lolly sent me a pic of all of them so I would know they were ok. Sirens were going off and she grabbed them and put them all including her in the tub.  I was at home alone and got in a safe place as well. After everything calmed down we all checked in on one another. My momma and daddy was in their storm shelter as well. 

One day I took the opportunity to go help Dallas and Brylee go through Nannys pantries in her home canned goods. We were saddened when we saw that alot of the jars had lost their seals and the food had spoiled. We had to empty out alot of jars and it broke my heart because I of all people know how hard she worked to can those.  We did the best we could and donated alot of jars. I have no room for anymore. I got to keep alot and shared with my momma and daddy. 

Then the dreaded time came when dear hubby's work called. So we asked the girls mommy if the girls could spend one more night with us before we had to go. I went and picked them up from Lollys and brought them home. We got to play and they helped me put all their books on their bookshelves. They love it.  We got to watch a movie and eat popcorn that night. 

I had to take them home the next morning because they were going somewhere. 

We spent the rest of the time packing, cleaning out our vehicles, batten down the hatches, locking up and saying goodbye to everyone. Atleigh was already sending us her pouty face. It is so hard. But she knows we want be gone long this time and we will get to come home a few days before the next place we have to go to. Then I will be coming back and forth so I can plant the garden as best as I can and they can spend some time with me. 

We get to talk to them everyday and that helps. They still get to go to the house and feed the cows and play and jump around in front of the cameras being goofy so we can see them. 

We arrived at our destination and got settled. I had to venture out and go grocery shopping after I got a meal plan together. It is simple meals for instant pot and air fryer. You can do alot with those two things. 

My sweetheart loves for me to make him some egg bites so he can take them to work with him. He has even shared some before with his co-workers. 😁

I whip them up and fix them first in the instant pot then transfer them over to the air fryer to give them that little crunch. Then I bag them up and he has enough to last for a week.

I even made a little sweet treat one night. 

When I did my meal planning, I knew I only had so much space to store groceries in a small refrigerator so I had to plan carefully. I tried to use what I had on hand first and plan around that. I tried to get as many meals out of a few things as I could.  

The pack of tilapia I bought had 4 fillets so I got two meals out of those. I bought one head of cabbage and got two different Cole slabs out of that. One Mexican and one southern. The pack of chicken I bought had 8 tenderloins in it so I got two meals out of that,  one I haven't cooked yet. 

Squash, Zucchini and baked tilapia:

Chicken fajitas and Mexican street corn:

Fish tacos and southern coleslaw:

I have a few chicken tenderloins and Brussel sprouts left. That will be our next meal. 

I have some onions and peppers left so I will start my next menu planning from there. I miss going to my freezer or pantry and grabbing something home canned. But there are still ways to beat these awful prices on groceries we are faced with. It's important that we learn how to shop wisely and economically. I have so many videos on our channel about how I meal plan by shopping my pantries, freezer and refrigerator first and how to shop wisely to get the most for my money. Well, my husband's hard earned money. You can catch our channel at Keeper of the Home at 4D Farms.  

While I was out one day I picked up a few herb plants to use when I cook. They kind of brighten and freshen up my room too. 

Sometimes I go down and have my afternoon coffee by this pool. The weather here is about 10 to 15 degrees hotter than home. 

I am using this time to get alot of projects done that I can. I brought alot with me to work on. This is one. I started this 4 yrs ago and got stuck. Grandmother was going to help me finish it but she got sick and passed on us. I have just now gotten it back out and going to learn how to finish it. I will let you see when I'm done. It may be a while but I will. 

Dear hubby is off today so we slept in and going to rest and later go to dinner. 

Tomorrow is a new day to a new week especially now that the time changes. I am so excited to start longer evening hours. 🤗 

Hope everyone enjoys their day today and we will see you next week. 

Sick Or Not

 Sick or not, the world still turns without you and you'd better hang on. Last night we got out and got to enjoy seeing our granddaughter in her school pageant. She did not place but her class had 17 contestants.  She was so beautiful.  She did so awesome. She spotted all of us and her daddy and the waving and blowing kisses started. 😘 

We made it home and crashed. My throat was hurting and we were coughing. 

The weather was crazy that day too. We went from 70 degrees and tornadoes spotted to 50s that night. The next morning it was in the 30s and spitting snow. No wonder everyone is sick. 

Sick or not, people still need to be fed. I have breakfast covered for the next few weeks. All this and breakfast burritos. I portioned everything out and put in ziploc bags and we can heat and go when we want breakfast.  

If you want to know where I got the dough recipe,  Google, 5 Minute No Knead Artisan Bread. This dough is literally mixed in 5 minutes,  resting and fermenting for 2 to 8 hrs, then refrigerated. No fuss. You have ready made dough on hand at a moments notice to make fresh bread or literally anything, including desserts for supper. It is not just for Artisan loaves. 

The girls came for a few hours yesterday and we played for a bit before mommy came to pick them up. Sometimes you just gotta play baby dolls. 👶 

I will finish the rest of the week cleaning and getting ready for next week with Caroline and school runs with Atleigh. 

Gonna be a busy week. 

See ya'll next week. 

Weekly Ramblings

 Sorry I didn't get to post last week. 

We were busy all week with granddaughters. School runs, and the other one home with me everyday entertaining each other. 😁

They had been sick all week, but we were trying to hang in there. They coughed their heads off and we went through boxes of kleenexes but at least they weren't running any fever. 

I guess Poppie makes her feel better than I do. Nothing like poppie snuggles, and warm echinachea tea with honey for your cold and throat.

When she tells you how to fix her hair for school, you try your best. ❤️👸 yes Princess.

Caroline was not feeling good a few days. 

Me: Let Gmaw get something to eat and we can do whatever you want. 

Caroline: Can you hurry and eat so we can read books?

Well, we're off to read 

100 books. Starting with book 1. ❤️❤️

I love teaching phonics. 

She is getting better spelling and writing her name. ❤️❤️ we have done letters and numbers this week.

We had to keep Atleigh home from school one day because they lost sleep the night before coughing all night. So we read more books. 

I have been working on Psalm 23 teaching it to the girls and they are doing great. 

We celebrated my daddys 79th birthday. 

My sweet daddy is 79 today. We are so blessed to have him in our lives. He is also our dear Poppa ❤️. Happy birthday to you today. We love you.

Friday night came and we wanted to take them out to eat for Valentines since they wouldn't be here for Valentines day. 

When we got back, we got ready to watch a movie and eat popcorn. They spent the night. 

The next morning, they were kind of irritable because of their colds so.....

What do you do when it's dreary and cold outside, every body is sick and irritable? You make Valentines cookies. Couldn't take pics of us because we were in our pj's and bed head hair. 😴 but 55 cookies made and decorated. These were for her class Valentines party. 

We all took a very long nap and daddy came to get them. He had been on call all week and weekend. 

I missed church Sunday morning because: 

The girls loved on us so much this weekend, they gave us their awful colds. 😖 We are too old for this. Oh well, maybe they feel better. 😏

This week is nothing but resting and trying to get better I guess. Dear hubby and I have been running a low grade fever and coughing. I get little spurts of energy and try to do something and then I start feeling bad. Eventually I will get my house clean. Lol. 

Maybe next week will get back to normal. We will see.