Author Archives: ~~Rhonda

Living in a small town, I share my life with my husband Russell (married in 1977), five children (one still at home), and six cats (one indoors, the others outside).

I teach an online class called “The Christmas Notebook” which is about all things holiday prep. The many facets of celebrating Christmas comprises one of my favorite hobbies. Other favorite things include gardening, reading, cooking, and scrapbooking.

last week in pictures / january 22-28

Monday / Lots of cloudy days lately. I got a shot of the 15 seconds of sun I saw that morning. Tuesday / Ski and Winston enjoy their favorite fountain. Wednesday / I ❤ glitter. I ❤ lots of glitter. I’m glad to have it organized and ready to use! Thursday / Clark stands guard […]

menu plan monday ~ january 29, 2018

The past week hurried by. I stayed busy clearing, cleaning and decluttering the craft room. Making good progress! I did skip that on Saturday when I helped DH take down some Christmas decorations. Yes, we do it slowly. No stress involved unless we leave it up way too long! We got everything off the large […]

last week in pictures / january 15-21

Monday / snow and sleet Tuesday / kitty love Wednesday / organizing the craft room / Putz embellishments in bead boxes Thursday / honey-do / I need a storage system for large poster board and cardboard pieces. Friday / Before and After Saturday / Yummy breakfast / Cabbage, spinach and arugula sautéed with bacon Sunday […]

menu plan monday ~ january 22, 2018

It is hard to believe we are heading into the last days of January, 2018. The passing of time always catches me off guard. Life happens a moment at a time. And those moments seem to last forever sometimes. But they keep marching on and suddenly, time has passed! Who’s into minimalism? Living with less? […]

menu plan for the rest of december, plus one

Christmas night, I came down with the headcold/sinus thing that’s going around. Here it is Friday and I feel worse than ever. But I’m staying in bed and being pampered by Rose Red and Snow White who come running if I call. Helpful girls who are quite able to take care of themselves while Ma […]

happy, happy birthday to my beloved

There is one man in all the world who does this for me… Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must […]

chalkboard Christmas tree 2017

Here it is! This year’s chalkboard Christmas tree. You can see the previous five chalkboard trees here: Chalkboard Christmas Trees Our theme for this year is “…not even a mouse…” As in previous years, I googled the internet for images that would fit the theme. I searched < Christmas mice >, printed the images I […]

menu plan monday ~ november 20, 2017

Another busy week. My sister came back this weekend and we got a lot of Christmas prep done. We watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” while we made popcorn and cranberry strings for the living room tree. Ski wanted to check it out. We decorated the candy/cookie tree for the top of the fridge. Genny found […]

menu plan monday ~ november 13, 2017

We had a busy four-day weekend. My sister was here for the entire time, helping with Christmas prep. A friend came over on Saturday and put in hours of help with decorating Christmas trees and hanging snowflakes. She brought two of her helpful kids along to carry and tote and help as they could for […]

three simply-styled putz houses

I listed three new Putz houses to Etsy this week. ChristmasNotebook.etsy.com These houses are in a simpler style than my usual Putz. I’ve had a few requests for less embellished houses and I am always happy to make houses in different styles. These houses were constructed earlier this year and emblellished a week or so […]