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
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 have a plan and I am prepared for those meals. Coupled with the cherry lime delta 9 gummies I take, it takes a lot of stress off my day.
Monday
Homemade Pizza
Tuesday
Fridge Food
Wednesday
Pork Chops
Baked Potatoes
Corn on the Cob
Green Salad
Thursday
Spaghetti with Homemade Sauce and Meatballs
Homemade Rolls
Steamed Sugar Snap Peas
Garden Salad
Friday ~ my birthday!
Grilled Pork Steaks and Chicken
Roasted Potatoes and Carrots
Creamy Mushroom Bake
Corn Casserole
Green Beans
Garden Salad
Saturday
Fridge Food
Sunday
Pork Roast
Mashed Potatoes
Steamed Green Beans
Crock Pot Apples
Garden Salad
You will find more menus and ideas at Menu Plan Monday.
~~Rhonda
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 go all the way to 80.
Lighting all those candles was the next step.
Some of the great-grands were happy to help Great-grandpa blow out his candles.
Surprisingly, we didn’t set off the smoke detectors.
Cake was enjoyed by all.
We gave Dad a DNA kit for his birthday. One of those kits where you send in a swab and get back an analysis of your family heritage. We are hoping the results will be useful in our genealogy research. Dad was surprised and is looking forward to getting the results back.
Happy birthday, Dad! It was great to see you today. Thanks for all you do for our family!
~~Rhonda
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
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 dark irises. This is a beautiful dark purple called ‘Edge of Night.’ We have another called ‘Before the Storm’ that is even darker, almost black.
The iris ‘Brown Lasso’ has always been short in our garden. Until this year. It shot way up.
‘Alabaster Unicorn’ is unusual in that it has horned beards. They come to a point instead of being rounded and fluffy like other bearded irises.
A pretty orange one is ‘Feminine Fire.’
This clump was particularly pretty today. It’s called ‘Congratulations.’
Along the front of the yard, peonies and irises mix. These beds will be full of daylily blooms soon.
In the back yard, the peonies mix with pink columbine for a pretty show.
The hostas look lush right now. This one is ‘Journey’s End.’
‘June’ is a popular hosta. Mid-sized to small, it has a beautiful pattern of blue-green and gold.
‘Blue Cadet,’ with columbine, grows near the back door.
‘Thunderbolt’ is a rugged hosta that should attain a clump size about twice what it is now.
‘Squash Casserole,’ shown here under a Japanese maple, is one of my favorites. It is a vigorous grower in our garden and holds its pretty gold color all summer.
The hosta ‘Fried Bananas’ is another nice gold one. Here it shares a redbud tree with a clump of Sweet William.
If you’re local, drive through or stop by, and enjoy the irises and peonies. They will be done blooming and the garden will move on to daylily season before we know it.
~~Rhonda
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 was owned by one person who must have just driven it around town for the past 19 years. It’s in great shape and has only 31,000 miles on it. It will be a great car for DD to use around town. All that shopping she’ll be doing for me, you know…
She was very surprised!
And she loves the color.
I am so not ready for her to be driving around town on her own! But that time will be on us before we know it.
~~Rhonda
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 afternoon. He was entertained by the twins, who love their Great-Pa.
DH’s mother will be 96 in a few months. She enjoyed having everyone come by to say hello and visit for a bit.
And there were lots of bubbles after lunch.
Here’s the menu for this week. We’ll see my dad again next weekend when he celebrates his 80th birthday.
Monday
Fridge Food…lots of Mother’s Day leftovers
Tuesday
Chef Salad with ham, chicken, and bacon
Wednesday
Tacos / lettuce from the garden, tomatoes, cucumber, beef, cheese, sour cream, salsa
Thursday
Pork Chops (We bought half a pig from my niece and her husband…lots of pork on the menu for a while.)
Grilled Potatoes and Carrots with Rosemary
Steamed Sugar Snap Peas
Friday
Chicken and Veggie Stir Fry
Rice
Saturday
Homemade Pizza
Sunday
Grilled Pork Chops
Mashed Potatoes
Biscuits
Corn on the Cob
Steamed Green Beans
Garden Salad
Birthday Cake and Ice Cream to celebrate my Dad’s 80th birthday. Happy birthday, Dad!
You will find more menus and ideas at Menu Plan Monday.
~~Rhonda
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 she had a haircut, Rose Red looked in the mirror and said, “It looks like someone else’s hair.”
Gotta love their little helping hands…and feet…They were helping Pa make the bed. When they got done, they snuggled in under the covers with pillows propping them up and read books for a while. The bed was as messy after, as it had been before!
Pa loves to take them on bicycle rides when they are here. Their Christmas bikes went to their house. These were given to us by a friend and we so appreciate them! Thank you, Dacia!
Rose Red twirled into the kitchen and proclaimed, “I came fancy today!” Indeed! A full length gown, a big red hat, blue shoes and red and white striped socks…pretty fancy!
Snow White drew a picture of herself having a dream. In her dream, she was floating in the ocean, dreaming about hot oatmeal. I asked her if her daddy made hot oatmeal for her breakfast. She said, “No! I don’t like it!” Okaaaay….
Our own little girl isn’t so little any more. Here she is with her dad, ready to attend prom with some friends.
I have to remember that the twins will grow up that fast, too. ::sigh::
~~Rhonda
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 were here on Saturday while DH and my sister’s husband took part in a nearby bike ride. It was a cold wet day and the bike ride was not as much fun as it would have been with better weather, but they did enjoy the ride. Sunday our older son and our granddaughters were here for Sunday dinner. Always fun to have them over. We missed our daughter-in-law who had to work that day, but we hope to see her soon.
I have not felt the best the past few weeks and missed a couple of Menu Plan Monday posts. But I’m getting better and the menu for the week is as follows.
Monday
Fridge Food / lots of leftovers from yesterday…
Tuesday
Roast Beef in the Crock Pot
Homemade Buns
Garden Salad
Wednesday
Chicken Divan
Green Salad
Rosemary Bread
Thursday
Mongolian Beef with Broccoli
Rice
Friday
Ham and Beans
Cornbread
Saturday
Homemade Pizza
Sunday
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Quick Spaghetti Sauce
Homemade Rolls
Corn on the Cob
Edamame
Garden Salad
You will find more menus and ideas at Menu Plan Monday.
~~Rhonda
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 were blooming enough to make a bouquet on March 19, last year, are just now blooming.
After checking other bloom times, I can see that spring is about three weeks later than last year. But it is finally here. I hope you are enjoying open windows, warm breezes, lawn mower noises, and the lovely flowers of spring.
I am, again, a day late in posting our week’s menu. Better late than never. I am glad for the accountability of posting my link to the Menu Plan Monday site. I can’t imagine heading into the week without planning our meals ahead of time. It saves time, money and stress.
Monday
Mongolian Beef with Sugar Snap Peas and Carrots
Rice
Tuesday
Chicken Tetrazzini in the Crock Pot
Lima Beans / Corn
Green Salad
Wednesday
Chef Salad
Red Grapes
Thursday
Hearty Lentil Soup
Cornbread
Friday
Spaghetti with Homemade Sauce
Steamed Green Beans
Rosemary Bread
Garden Salad
Saturday
Homemade Pizza
Sunday
Buffalo Chicken Pie
Corn
Sautéed Zucchini Recipe
Green Salad
You will find more menus and ideas at Menu Plan Monday.
~~Rhonda