This Unusual Spring

Welcome to the fourth month of Covid 19!! What a Spring! This has been such a different year. I am just now, with mask on, starting to have a few piano students return to my house. I gave a few on Zoom. Mostly, I’ve missed my students. Four of them are Seniors, so I won’t see them much.

I feel so sad for the Seniors. They had such a weird ending to their high school years. And five of them also graduated, at the same time, from the Community College. So cool! But not much in the way of celebrating. I have nine seniors that I’m sending cards and gift cards to. I’m so impressed with these students and how hard they’ve worked!! What would I REALLY like to do??? Give them all a big hug!

What has everyone been doing during their Covid 19 time? I’ve organized a bit, here and there. My friends have joked that we need to tour each others’ closets, when this is all over. I’ve done a lot of cooking and eating. Still kept my Grandson, Isaac, three days a week, during this time. His mom worked from home. He didn’t go to his other babysitter. We’ve pretty much stayed in, except to pick up things from a store or two. Yes, Dick has still gone bike riding, swimming when he can, and golfing. Hasn’t slowed him down much. He bought the extended time use of Zoom, and seems to have been in charge of lots of meetings and get-togethers on Zoom. He just went back to work last week.

Looking good.
Cucumber gone wild!

I have done some gardening. In my Casket Above Ground Planter…yes, it looked like that, when Dick was making it….I planted some plants. I also planted one cucumber plant and one watermelon plant. Remind me NEVER to do that again! That cucumber plant has taken over the world. I finally bought a tomato cage to wind it up in.

Another thing I’ve done, is sit and look at different store sights, on my computer. Yes, I decided to start wearing some dresses, and I’ve kind of gotten carried away, buying some from Penney’s and Steinmart. You can see a few here. With my last order from Penney’s, they somehow included three tee shirts. I didn’t order those. Anyway, the photo of the polka dot shirt, with the jean skirt, is one of those shirts.

Isaac came this week, and had watched Toy Story 4. He wanted to make Forky. So we found the materials needed, and today we made Forky. He loved it. We are also working on a construction paper flag. I’m teaching him the” Pledge of Allegiance”, and all about the flag. Sunday is Flag Day. We will all stand and salute the flag, before dinner. Looking for our flag attire.

Forky from Toy Story 4

It’s been such a hard week and a half, with the senseless death of George Floyd, and the fallout from that event. So many protests around the country. I believe peaceful protests are great, and I’m happy to say that Ft. Worth protestors, for the most part, have been peaceful. But I am appalled by the looting and destroying of property. There are a lot of young people, fighting for their cause, and they’ve been cooped up with Covid 19, not getting out, and needing to have a cause. I don’t know why some think the looting is going to help matters. Good grief. It will be a surprise if we don’t have a lot more positive cases of Covid 19.

It’s getting SO DARNED HOT! I miss playing Bunko, Poker, going to church and seeing my friends, strolling around the stores,going to the casinos and hugs. But, we shall move forward and get past this. Everyone stay safe. Stay cool. Stay in. Try a new recipe. Get a new hobby. Remember to love yourself and others.

Love,

Grandma Sherry

MEXICAN VEGETARIAN CASSEROLE…A FRIDAY FREEZER MEAL!

I’m excited to share this recipe with you. This is a yummy recipe that my family loves…especially my daughter, who isn’t a fan of a lot of meats. This is also a good recipe to use right now, when grocery supplies are low, and people aren’t wanting to go to the store. Is the Corona … Continue reading “MEXICAN VEGETARIAN CASSEROLE…A FRIDAY FREEZER MEAL!”

Yummy!

I’m excited to share this recipe with you. This is a yummy recipe that my family loves…especially my daughter, who isn’t a fan of a lot of meats. This is also a good recipe to use right now, when grocery supplies are low, and people aren’t wanting to go to the store. Is the Corona Virus taking its toll on you and your pantry? I had everything for this recipe, in my pantry or refrigerator, except for the bunch of green onions. I purchased that. I’m not sure of the origin of this recipe, because I typed it up for my files. I will tell you that this is not my original recipe.

This recipe says to spoon into a greased 13 x 9 inch baking dish. I decided to use two 8×8 pans. One of the pans, we had for dinner. The other one went to the freezer. Be sure and label the recipe name, the date, and instructions for baking. It’s so nice to be able to pull out a meal from the freezer, when you have a busy day planned. I usually thaw mine over night. I covered mine with foil, for the first 30 minutes, and then removed the foil so the cheese could melt nicely. Enjoy!

Ingredients…plus the rice was cooking.

MEXICAN VEGETARIAN CASSEROLE

1 c. uncooked rice

1 – 15 1/4 oz. can whole kernel corn, drained

1 – 15 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 – 10 oz. can tomatoes and green chiles (Rotel or store brand)

1 – 8 oz. Carton sour cream (you can use low fat but not fat free)

1 – 8 oz. jar picante sauce

2 c. (8oz) shredded Cheddar Cheese

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Cook rice according to directions. You should have about 2 1/2 c.. Cool slightly. Combine rice with above ingredients in a large bowl. Spoon into a lightly greased 13 x 9 inch baking dish or two 8 x 8 inch pans.

One for tonight, one for the freezer.

Sprinkle with:

1 bunch green onions, chopped

1 – 2 1/4 oz. can sliced ripe olives

1 – 8 oz. pkg. Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

Bake one at 350* for 50 minutes.

TO FREEZE: Cover the pan with foil. Label with the recipe title, the date, and cooking instructions.

TO COOK FROM FROZEN: Remove from freezer and thaw overnight. Bake as noted above. I sometimes add extra minutes to the cooking time. Remove the foil for the last 10 minutes of cooking.

It’s hard to mess up this recipe. The last time I made it, I started putting in all of the ingredients and got carried away. I put the green onions and sliced ripe olives in with the rest of the ingredients. Then I looked at the recipe for the topping, and went OOPS! So I dug out a bit of green onions and a few olives, and put them on top. I also added some whole ripe olives, and then the cheese. It all tasted good.

Leave me a comment to let me know how you liked this recipe. Subscribe to my blog.

Have a great day!

Grandma Sherry

What’s New at Nana School?

Nana School had school picture day! What else has been happening? Check out here!

Here we are, in week four,of the Corona Virus “Shelter in Place” mandate. I’m in Texas, so you may be in week seven or eight. Four weeks is enough to drive people a bit batty. We’re being very careful about trying to stay home, most of the time. Thankfully, we can still go out for walks or biking. I don’t know how many young families are coping with trying to homeschool the kids, through Zoom or otherwise, and also working at home, as adults. My daughter is working at home, and we are watching her three year old, Isaac, three days a week.

Isaac and I have “Nana School”. He’s at that age where he’s like a little sponge….just soaking up everything he can. Luckily, he still takes naps, right after lunch. I don’t know how much longer that will last. He likes to cook, play with cars and puzzles, and be silly. Last week, he heard somewhere that some kids get “school pictures” made. He wanted to get his school picture made. LOL So, he came all dressed up, and I dressed up. We did school photos.

Isaac, the cool dude.
Even Bill, the dog, posed for this photo.
Isaac and his teacher, Nana.

We’ve been working on learning the alphabet and making little words. He’s learning to count to 20. Those numbers between 10 and 20 are tricky. Once you get to 20, it’s Easy-Peasy! He uses the counting bears to count the numbers, and also makes patterns with them.

Using Scrabble letters to make words.
Number puzzles. Never mind the dirty table!

Today, we did some Science. I brought out Dick’s shell collection, a book about shells, and a magnifying glass and glasses. Isaac sorted, listened for the ocean, and just enjoyed seeing them. We compared some to others. It turned out to be a great experience.

The scientist, observing the shells.
Learning about shells.

Otherwise, in the house, we’re getting ready to paint some of the hallways, and eventually our bedroom. We seem to have a lot of time to work on things. Dick has been taping the edges. We have really high ceilings in places, and I worry about him on the ladder.

Oh my! What a job.

What are you doing to entertain the little people in your house? What about the rest of your families? Leave me a comment either below or to the side of the post, where it says Comments. I need to approve it, usually, and then it’ll show up.

Stay safe. Stay home. Stay sober. Enjoy the down time. Are you organizing, or are you past that? I have a lot to declutter yet.

Grandma Sherry

JUST CALL ME SUCKER!

I AM A SUCKER! Read on to find out why this happened. Oh my!

OK….I’ll get to that part in a bit. I am totally humiliated by the idiotic thing I did. Never let me go shopping again, in a port of call!

We’ve had a good January and February. I’ve done some organizing, and am STILL organizing. We had a Super Bowl party at our house, enjoyed our grandkids, celebrated our anniversary, and went on a cruise.

ORGANIZING…I threw out 3/4 of my tupperware type of containers. Then I bought some new ones, with matching lids. The problem with my containers, is my daughter and family come over for dinner, and then they take home food in one of my containers. Somewhere along the way, things disappear. So now I have less things and everything has lids. Woohoo!

Cleaning out and getting in new stuff.

This week, I watched “Jamie’s Journey”, on You Tube, and admired her clear plastic bins that she had for her refrigerator. I thought that could be a big improvement for mine, so I ordered a set. When my husband saw the box, he said “where are you going to put them? The refrigerator is full of food!” Silly man. I cleaned out the fridge, and organized things in my containers. You can’t see them very well, in the photo, but it’s so much nicer.

We had the Super Bowl party at our house, and I won $80. Woohoo! Had several young teenagers here, plus Isaac. Good game and ads, but we felt the half-time show was pretty risque. Suddenly, during half time, I looked up and it appeared we had our own half-time show! My daughter was riding the tricycle. My word!

Our half-time show!

We used to live in Toledo, OH, for 14 years. About 16 years ago, we moved to Texas. But we still keep in touch with the fun group we used to hang out with. When we lived in Toledo, our “gang” took a cruise together. We celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary on that cruise. Last week, we toured again, and Dick and I celebrated our 44th Anniversary. We had so much fun! We miss having a fun group like this to hang out with.

My good win, in the casino!

Well….here’s my Sucker Moment on the cruise. I went down the main shopping street in Nassau. There was a gal, standing outside of a store, with a sample of a skin care pad. I took one, and she lured me into the store to try out a cream to fix the bags under my eyes. She put on some nice cream, and then the pressure started to have me buy it. It was ONLY $1,000! WHAT??? No way. Well, she could make a deal with me….(she whispered this)…she had a pkg. that had a torn area in the celephane covering. She could sell that to me for $130. So…SUCKER…SUCKER…SUCKER…I bought it.

Oh my gosh! What was I thinking? It doesn’t look like the same stuff, though it’s in a pretty container. When we returned home, I looked up the company and the reviews. Everyone said that it was a big fraud and it wasn’t the same thing that they thought they were paying for. So I say unto you…don’t let them sucker you into the store! DON’T BUY IT!

Have a good week. Let me know what time, if any, that YOU got suckered into something.

Toodles,

Grandma Sherry

Signs of Fall!

Fall is finally here. Yeah! Watch out for monsters. We’ve had quite the couple of weeks here. My poor hubby has been sicker than a dog. When they did an endoscopy, earlier, to see if he had acid reflux, they also did a biopsy of the stomach lining. I guess that’s routine. Anyway, they found bacteria in the stomach lining. He was given three big drugs to take. As soon as he started taking them, he had the chills, a fever, headache, his hair hurt, and he felt like a truck had run over him. Actually, I thought he had the flu at the same time. He was on the meds for 10 days, and in bed,most of that time. Now he’s done with the meds, but is still pretty tired. The flu??? I don’t know. They’ll test him again, in two weeks or so, to see if the bacteria is gone.

Painting a monster. Scary!

Meanwhile, my grandson painted a monster. I thought it was really cute. He’s getting in the Halloween spirit. He’s going to be Jake the Pirate for Halloween. Today, he brought his pumpkin pail to practice trick or treating.

Chocolate pumpkin bread with cream cheese. Yummy!

This weather makes me want to cook. I made some Chocolate Pumpkin Bread….pumpkin bread with chocolate chips in it. It tastes fabulous with some cream cheese. I made two loaves, planning on freezing one. But I ended up taking the extra one over to the neighbor…he’s been on strike at GM.

My fun blouse.

Trying to figure out how to dress for Fall. Of course, so far, it starts out cool and by afternoon, it gets a lot warmer. Yesterday, I needed to go to Arlington for business. So I pulled out a blouse that I bought, earlier in the year. I hadn’t worn it much, but I love the sleeves. I ordered it from Zulily. I ordered three things, at the time. The other two items I finally gave to the church garage sale. Because…of course…I waited too long to send them back to Zulily. Story of my life!

Remember when I was so excited to get my new LG Dishwasher??? When my SIL, Nathan, was over the other night, I told him it wasn’t drying very whoopy. He opened the dishwasher, and the water hadn’t drained out. The soap was still in the little door. AAAAGGGHHH!!! Nathan pulled out the drain thingy, and nothing happened. Finally, he put his hand down in there, and there was a COFFEE FILTER in there!! WHAT?? How did that happen? Anyway, since then, it has worked fine. But I’ve had nightmares, all night long, about slimy soap and clogged drains.

How is your Fall going? Is your weather getting cooler? I see some areas of the country are getting snow. Wow. Have a good week.

Grandma Sherry