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
I’d better get this post in before Easter is too far behind us. I wanted to post some pictures of the different activities we enjoyed with the twins over the Easter weekend. It’s so much fun to have them nearby.
On Good Friday, the twins came for the day. Their two older aunties took them to an Easter egg hunt next door at the care center where DH’s mother lives. Rose Red calls the care center “the house where all the grandpas and grandmas live.” They took a hyacinth for Great-Ma, as they call her, but she was napping and missed the egg hunt and their visit. They left the flower for her to enjoy later.
Not only did they find some eggs, they received a lot of compliments on their Easter bonnets.
The only fly in the ointment was Rose Red’s jelly bean experience. Not having much exposure to candy in general, she thought the red jelly bean was awful. She asked, “Do I have to eat that?”
Before coming back to our house, they stopped to play in the park.
Rose Red picked some daffodils for Ma before coming in. The stems were all of 3″ long, of course.
But they made a cute bouquet.
That evening, our DDIL came by and we decorated sugar cookies for her to share with her co-workers.
The twins did the sprinkling of cookie decorations and sugars.
The grands went home for the night, but came back on Saturday. They wanted to decorate paper Easter eggs to hang from the ceiling in the kitchen.
After Christmas, we left the clear hooks on the ceiling that had held the snowflakes, so it was easy for Pa to hang the Easter eggs.
Saturday was Easter egg coloring day. Half the eggs were brown and they didn’t take the color as well, but the girls didn’t mind. They pretty much just wanted to dip all the eggs into all the colors.
Sunday afternoon, the girls were here for an egg hunt. The weather was beautiful and the daffodils made good hiding spots.
And we took lots of pictures of the girls in their Easter outfits.
Checking their hats.
A busy, but fun, weekend!
~~Rhonda
Like many other families, I’m sure, we made deviled eggs with the leftover Easter eggs this week.
When I make deviled eggs, I don’t use a recipe. I just throw ingredients together. But I tried to keep track of what I did this evening, so I could share a recipe.
This recipe is for 12 deviled egg halves (6 boiled eggs).
To boil eggs: Put them in a pan of cold water, with an inch or so of water over them. Bring to a boil, stirring (gently!) now and then to keep the yolk in the middle of the egg. Reduce heat and simmer for one minute. Remove from the heat and let set 12 minutes. After the 12 minutes are done, drain the eggs and put them into a bowl of ice water until cooled. I always boil two more eggs than I plan to serve and add those, both the whites and the yolks, to the yolk mixture to make sure I have plenty of filling to over stuff the egg whites.
Peel the boiled eggs. Halve them with a sharp knife and put the yolks into a mixing bowl. Doesn’t have to be a large bowl. And you don’t need a mixer. After the eggs are peeled, decide which of the egg white halves look the least appetizing and add four of those to the yolk mixture.
Add all the ingredients to the egg yolks. Stir and mash with a fork until the mixture is well blended.
Using two spoons, scoop and scrape the mixture onto the egg whites, filling the indentions and covering the tops.
Garnish with a sprig of parsley and/or sprinkle with paprika.
We had the eggs with pecan-crusted salmon, steamed sugar snap peas, and mashed potatoes. Delicous!
The recipe can be changed to suit your own tastes. Try adding any of the following to deviled eggs: crispy bacon, chopped tomato, cilantro, green onion, celery seed, chopped chives, dill, smoked salmon, or shredded cheese, just to mention a few options.
~~Rhonda
I know…it’s really April 2. But I was babysitting the twins yesterday and then got caught up in some genealogy research for my sister’s husband’s side of the family, which made me forget it was Menu Plan Monday. My sister doesn’t have internet access, so I’m having fun working though the generations for her. They knew nothing past her husband’s grandfather on that side of the family and I have found five generations back. The internet is such a great way to begin a genealogy search. But I digress.
Easter weekend was great with the twins here to make it even better. We missed seeing our daughter-in-law who had to work and our older granddaughter who was out of town for the long weekend, visiting a friend. But we did have fun watching the twins enjoy the festivities.
I’m going to put up a post about the weekend, so will quit with the pictures for now. The menu plan for this week is as follows.
Monday
Fridge Food
Tuesday
Baked Salmon
Mashed Potatoes (DD’s favorite)
Steamed Sugar Snap Peas
Spinach and Arugula Salad
Wednesday
Mongolian Beef with Broccoli
Rice
Thursday
Baked Spinach Rigatoni
Rosemary Bread
Steamed Asparagus
Arugula Salad
Friday
Crock Pot Sesame Chicken I’ll make this with bone-in chicken and then remove the meat for supper.
Rice
Garden Salad
Saturday
Homemade Pizza
Sunday
Pork Tenderloin with Pan Sauce
Roasted Carrots
Sauteed Edamame
Smashed Potatoes
Cucumber and Radish Salad
You will find more menus and ideas at Menu Plan Monday.
~~Rhonda