• Cooking,  Holidays

    2 Ways to Dye Deviled Eggs

    My dad is from a large family.  Several times a year we get together to celebrate holidays or other events.  Easter is one of those occasions.  Since my grandparents passed away, we have gathered in lots of different places.  For several years we had Easter in a room at the community center, but now we have it at one of my aunt’s church.  One of the items that my family likes me to bring is deviled eggs.  Last year, for fun, my daughter and I dyed the eggs for our deviled eggs. They turned out pretty cute and were easy to dye.  This year we decided to try something new. …

  • Organizing

    Organizing my Daughter’s Bedroom

    My daughter has a really small bedroom (8’8″ x 10’4″) so keeping it organized has always been a problem.  When she was younger, of course I did the organizing and purging when she was not at home.  As she got older, I wanted her to take more of a responsibility for her room.  I have tried all kinds of ways to get her to clean and organize over the years, but nothing really worked.  She is very sentimental and never wants to get rid of anything.  She had way too much stuff to keep organized in that small room.  While I was working full-time, her room got out of control…

  • How I Save Money at Kroger
    Savings

    How I Save Money at Kroger

    Kroger is one of my go to places to save money on groceries right now.  I love that there are so many ways to save money there.  There are free items, digital coupons, paper coupons, weekly sales, and fuel points.  There may be more, but right now these are the main ways I save money at Kroger.  We have one of the largest Kroger Marketplaces, when it was built, they said it was the largest Kroger in the world.  There have been larger ones built since then.  A Kroger Marketplace is unlike any other store we had around here.  Not only is it a grocery store, but it has a…

  • Cooking

    Simple Tuna Salad

    We were trying to decide what to have for lunch on Saturday, my daughter was in the kitchen and came in the living room with the package of tuna.  She asked if we could make tuna fish sandwiches.  I looked at my husband and he agreed.  I know it is supposed to be called tuna salad, but growing up we called it tuna fish and that is what I still tend to say, so of course that is what my kids say as well.  LOL  It is hard to break old habits, but I will try to use the correct terminology here. I never liked the  cans of tuna and trying…

  • Deco Mesh Wreath
    Crafts

    Deco Mesh Wreath

    I finally finished my first deco mesh wreath.  I have wanted to learn how to make one for quite some time.  I have been collecting some supplies for the last year or so, but had not done anything else.  Last month I finally decided that I really wanted to make one, so I started researching how to make one.  I ended up watching a lot of Facebook live videos.  Everyone seems to do the wreaths differently, there are some similarities, but everyone puts their own spin on them.  I had a 14″ wire wreath frame that I purchased at Dollar Tree and I had some white pipe cleaners left over…

  • Cooking

    Quick and Easy Tamale Casserole

    I like quick and easy recipes because I am not good about meal planning and if I make a plan, we will end up having to go somewhere instead or I get caught up working and don’t have time to do what I had planned.  I came up with this recipe one night when I needed something to take to a church potluck that I forgot about.  I looked through my cabinets for ideas and decided to try making a tamale casserole.  I use canned tamales which of course aren’t as good as the real homemade ones, but work in a pinch.  My family love this and it is an…

  • Life and Family,  Travel

    Spring Break Without the Crowds

    Last year for Spring Break we decided at the last minute to return to a resort we had stayed at a few years ago over Thanksgiving.  We spent a fun and relaxing week there.  It is just outside Crossville, TN.  It is a tourist area centered around lakes and golf courses.  Of course, summer is the high tourist time so not everything was available during our visit, but we found plenty to keep us busy.  At least as busy as we wanted to be.  We tend to enjoy low-key vacations where we can just hang out and spend time together.  Our resort had an indoor swimming pool which is always…

  • Cooking

    Sweet Rice

    I don’t know if this is true or not, but I remember having sweet rice every Sunday morning growing up.  This is the only kind of rice my mom cooked.  It was good, but by the time I left home, I never wanted rice for breakfast.  We spent a lot of time with my parents when we were first married and the boys were young, so we still had rice quite often.  As the boys got older and more involved in sports and other things, we spent less whole weekends with them.  We still eat Sunday lunch there most weeks unless something else is going on or someone is sick. …

  • Clean and Organize a Little at a Time
    Life and Family,  Organizing

    Clean and Organize a Little at a Time

    Since I have been home for the last month, I have spent a lot of time cleaning and organizing the kitchen. Usually it just starts with something simple like cleaning the sink which morphs into cleaning the drain rack. Then I notice the cabinet under it needs cleaning, then I moved the toaster, then the microwave, etc… I did a deep clean on that area and then rearranged the way they were on the cabinet. I love it, angling the microwave made it easier to use and it looks so much better. I never would have thought of it if I hadn’t moved everything around to clean. This post contains…

  • Corn Casserole
    Cooking

    The Perfect Corn Casserole

    My husband loves corn casserole, but I had trouble finding a recipe that we both liked.  I have made a lot of different ones over the last few years with different levels of success.   At Thanksgiving I made one for a family get together.  We had one at lunch for my dad’s side of the family and one that evening for John’s side of the family.  I found a slow cooker recipe and thought that would be perfect since I wouldn’t be home to cook that afternoon.  Before we left for the first event, I dumped it in the slow cooker.  It barely fit, but it did, and we left. …