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.

Sunday bouquet

The peonies are in full bloom, a bit later this spring than usual. They smell heavenly. I hope you have peonies in your garden. ~~Rhonda

menu plan monday ~ may 20, 2013

The iris and peonies look beautiful right now. Here’s the bouquet from Sunday. Love this combination of colors and flowers. My menu is late, but I’m squeaking in. I do better during the entire week if I have a menu in place. Even if we shuffle it or change plans all together. At least we […]

happy 80th, Dad!

This afternoon our family celebrated my Dad’s 80th birthday. It was fun to be together and to honor our Dad. The next-to-the-newest family member freely shared smiles with everyone. The cake was half carrot cake and half chocolate cake. Carrot cake was Dad’s request. Once they started putting candles on the cake, they decided to […]

happy birthday!

Yesterday was our younger son’s birthday and also my Dad’s 80th birthday. Happy birthday to you both! With love from me. ~~Rhonda / ~~Mom

irises and peonies and hostas, oh my!

I haven’t been able to get out much this spring, but managed to today. The irises and peonies are beautiful right now. And the hostas…well, some survived last summer’s drought and are looking great…some didn’t make it. We need to do an inventory to figure out how much and what we lost. I really love […]

a car for dd

Well, the time has come…our youngest daughter is taking driver’s ed and has her driver’s permit. She’s been practicing driving with her Dad and her sisters. How time flies… We didn’t really plan to get a car for her right away, but a great deal came up and we took advantage of it. The car […]

menu plan monday ~ may 13, 2013

I hope you had a good Mother’s Day. We had fun here, with all our children home, with the exception of our younger son’s wife. She’ll be visiting the area at the end of the month. We enjoyed the long weekend with our son home from Seattle. My Dad joined us for dinner and the […]

the twins

Since I’ve been missing in action lately, I thought I’d prime the blog posting pump with a few pictures of the twins. They do add a lot of fun and joy to our lives! Rose Red is a bit taller than Snow White, as you can see. This is just after haircuts. The last time […]

menu plan monday ~ april 29, 2013

The lilacs are blooming. This bouquet has lilacs from starts from my mother’s, from my mother-in-law’s and from my maternal grandmother’s gardens. The fragrance is wonderful. This week, we celebrated our oldest daughter’s birthday, DH had two visitations to attend, I went north to visit with my Dad and sister, then she and her husband […]

menu plan monday ~ april 8, 2013

Spring seems way late this year. And I am way tired of waiting for it. But it is finally really, truly here. This picture of the helleborewas taken April 3, this year. I checked my flickr site and, last year, the same plant at the same stage of bloom was taken March 12. Daffodils that […]