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.

menu plan monday ~ february 1, 2016

The grands were here last weekend. Their parents came to take down the last of the Christmas decorations (yeah!!). Things look a bit bare now, but it is nice to have it all stored away for next year. I worked on more soldered ornaments this past week. These are fun to make. You can find […]

roasted lemon chicken with veggies

This is a new recipe for me. It is very easy to make and turned out delicious. We will be having this again. I started with the chicken recipe at the following link and modified it slightly for my own use. Roasted Lemon Chicken with Potatoes and Rosemary I used boneless, skinless chicken as that […]

the basil is up!

On January 17, Snow White and Rose Red planted basil. Snow White planted hers in a flower pot. It came up yesterday. Rose Red made a planter from an egg carton and planted one seed in each section. Hers came up today. They’ll be here this weekend. It will be fun to see their reactions. […]

menu plan monday ~ january 25, 2016

When it’s very cold (and for me that’s anything under 25°), I feel like time crawls along. Not sure why. But there it is. So the past week or so has been dragging. I’ve looked at the forecast and the weather looks better going forward. Even some 50s on the horizon. I like the sound […]

Christmas diorama ornaments #2

Yesterday, I posted a tutorial for making Christmas diorama ornaments. I’ve made a few more and thought I’d post again with some tips that may be helpful if you want to make some of these ornaments for yourself. For complete instructions on making these ornaments, see the tutorial. Christmas Diorama Ornaments This time I used […]

here, kitty, kitty, kitty

Someone asked me how many cats we have, so I decided to post about them. We love cats. But even with that being the case, we really have too many cats right now. Eight is the current number. And, no, we couldn’t give any one of them up. They love kitty treats. When the bag […]

Christmas ornament diorama tutorial

I saw some cute ornaments on this site – My So Called Crafty Life – and was inspired to make my own version. My thanks to Ashlee for sharing her craft! I think my finished diorama turned out pretty cute. I plan to make more of these. Supply list for the ornament I made. plastic […]

harvest grain bread

This is a recipe DH and I tried this week. It is delicious. Tastes great fresh, makes wonderful toast and very tasty hamburger buns. The loaf slices perfectly for sandwiches. DH baked the bread in a cloche. We used the recipe at this link as the basis for our own recipe. Harvest Grain Bread Harvest […]

menu plan monday ~ january 18, 2016

Every year, about this time, I find these on the kitchen table. While the grands were here this weekend, they made good use of the basil seeds. Rose Red had made a planter from an egg carton and craft supplies. Pa helped her plant it with basil. Snow White planted her seeds in a flower […]

strawberry truffles

Middle Daughter and I made three kinds of truffles for wedding favors at her friend’s wedding. The bride requested Butter Creams, Chocolate Truffles and Strawberry Truffles. This is the first time I’ve made strawberry flavored truffles. Youngest Daughter tasted one of the truffle centers and had a flashback to childhood. When she was three or […]