Category: lifestyle

Doesn’t Everyone Collect Heads???

Everyone DOES collect heads, don’t they????    Or perhaps something just a little fun and kooky??   I love weird things.  My collection of weird things tends to be an ice breaker at parties.  I’m always on the lookout for something fun. Some of my heads, my dad made.  They’ve set outside at the farm for years.  The one on the porch is the one I use to tell people where to find my house….”Look for the head on the porch.”

My collection started about  nine years ago.  My mom was ill, and living in Wichita with my brother and his wife.  I went up to Wichita, and stayed with them in the summer, for 3 or 4 weeks, helping out.  At the end of one of those times, my sister-in-law gave me a gift.  It was a man, holding an umbrella, riding a pig.  I used to collect pigs.  This was perfect!!!   And that began my collection of the weird and of heads.

Later, after my mother had passed away, we siblings were trying to decide what to do with all of the stuff left in mom’s house, sheds, and barn.  She loved to go to auctions.  She was also a teacher.  You know the teacher mentality???   “I might need that some day in my classroom!”   When we cleaned out the shed, we found, in the back, the bottom half of a mannequin.  I said “I need that!”  So…it turned out that my sister got the Fostoria, and I got the bottom half of a mannequin.  But, oh, I love it!   I get lots of comments on this piece.

I enjoy going to the Main Street Arts Festival, in Fort Worth.  We attend every year.  I have a small amount of money to spend.  One year,  my son was graduating from Seminary, and had been preaching in two small churches.  Upon Graduation, he was placed in a larger church, in the city.  I found this little person, that said “Preacher Man Goes to the City”.  Yep..he’s a little weird.  And yep..my son does not want that willed to him.

I have two more heads that I bought at the Art Festival, the following two years.  They are by the same artist.  One is a head on a stick.   (I used to have it in my music room, but my piano students always thought it was looking at them!  LOL)  I also have a boy with a head that is so big, it makes him fall over.

How about you?  Let me know in the comments, if you have a fun collection.  I’ll be posting another one of my collections, in the next few days.

Funeral Potatoes…a Friday Freezer Recipe

 

 

 

For probably 20 years, my family has made Funeral Potatoes for most of our family dinners.  My Aunt Virginia Fairchild used to help with Funeral Dinners at her church, and they always served these potatoes.  Actually, we thought we were kind of the only ones who called them Funeral Potatoes, but it appears that they are popular all over the US.  I just made these today, to take to a group function, as my part of dinner.  They were devoured!   I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like these potatoes, except perhaps my nephews, who don’t like cheese.  I am now in charge of Funeral luncheons at my church, and we serve these often.  The recipe is as follows, and I hope you enjoy them.

Funeral Potatoes

Ingredients:

  • Large pkg. of hash browns….I prefer the O’Brien ones with peppers and onions
  • If no hash browns are available with above additions, add 1/2 c. of diced peppers and onions.
  • 8 oz. Sour Cream
  • 2 sticks of margarine or butter
  • 1 can of cream of chicken soup
  • 1 can of cream of mushroom soup
  • 8 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • Doritos or other crunchy chips

Directions:

  • Heat oven to 375*.  Grease a 9 x 13 pan.   Chop onions and peppers if using those.

Put hash browns into a large bowl.  Add sour cream, cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, cheddar cheese, salt and pepper.

  • Melt one stick of butter and add to bowl.  Stir until well mixed.Spread mixture into greased pan.

  • Melt other stick of butter.  Crush Doritos, (in this case, I used Sour Cream and Cheese chips), and top the mixture in the pan with them.
  • Pour the melted butter over the Doritos.

  • Bake at 375* for about 40 – 45 minutes.

To FREEZE:   Cover unbaked mixture with foil and label.  This can be frozen and kept in the freezer for up to three months.  Thaw.  Bake as indicated above.

CROCKPOT:  Instead of baking in the oven, you could also use the Crockpot.  Spray with vegetable oil, or put a liner in the crockpot.  Put mixture in and cook on high for 2 – 3 hours, or low for 3 – 5 hours.

From the Recipe Files of Sherry Ruddell

Enjoy!   Leave me a comment to let me know how you like this recipe.  Push Like if you enjoyed this post.

Things I’m Loving Right Now!

  • I’m finally going to be home this weekend!
  • Bill, our dog, finally tested negative today, for heartworms!
  • I’ve started being a Mystery Shopper…it’s pretty fun.
  • We’re planting flowers and bushes in our backyard.  It’s a gradual process.
  • Keeping my grandson on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
  • Watching my grandkids soak up life and new experiences.
  • Recently getting to spend time with both sides of the family.
  • Just enjoyed a weekend of playing Euchre with my SIL and BIL.
  • The piano recital of my students was great!
  • Having a day off, with few obligations, and the promise of dinner with my hubby.

I’ve Been Travelling!

I’m sorry I haven’t posted anything for awhile.  I’ve been out of state, travelling for three weekends in a row.  To say I’m ready to be home for awhile is an understatement!   But they were fun weekends.

Three weekends ago, I went to Kansas City to attend my nephew and fiance’s bridal shower.  It was on the same day as the Royal Wedding, so that was the theme of the shower.  The hostesses had made fascinators for all of us to wear.  The shower took place in this fabulous, big ole house in KC.  We had a delightful lunch, watched the fiance open gifts, watched a video of the groom’s take on the whole courtship and future, and ate fancy cake.  So much fun!!!

On Memorial Weekend, I drove to Missouri to my aunt’s house, for our annual Morrow reunion.  My mother was a Morrow, and had three sisters and a brother.  I have multiple cousins and second cousins.  It’s always so much fun to see everyone and catch up.  One of my cousins has wanted, for several years, to have a Pie Day.  This year we did it!   Every meal was basically pies, pies, and more pies.  It was everything from Chicken Pot Pie, to Taco Pie, to Fruit Pies, and everything in-between.  What a fun idea!

This past weekend, we drove to Marland, Oklahoma for another nephew’s wedding….this time on my husband’s side of the family.  We’ve all had reservations, for years, on whether the groom would ever get married.  He finally found a wonderful gal, and I think they will be very happy.  Once again, it was fun to catch up with that side of the family.

We stayed in an AirB&B farmhouse, that was just a few miles from the wedding.  It was a Centennial Farm….it had been in the family over 100 years.  It reminded me of my old farmhouse that I grew up in, in Kansas.  After looking at the books in the house, I deducted that this was the home of a Methodist minister.  There was also a book on the coffee table, that told the tale of the man who had grown up there.  He was a past governor of Oklahoma.  Wow!  It turned out that yes, the daughter is a Methodist Deaconess, and she has been my daughter-in-law’s Spiritual Advisor for over 10 years.  My daughter-in-law is also a Methodist minister.  How weird is that??  It was a fun time at this house.

And now….I’m home for a few weekends.  Maybe I’ll finish getting things planted in my garden.  Maybe I’ll get a few posts written!  Maybe I’ll even relax.

What are you doing, now that school is out and the heat has gone berserk???  Any big plans for the summer?  Leave me a reply and press like if you enjoyed this post.

Grandma Sherry

WHAT???? The Photinias are gone!

Oh my gosh!   The photinias have been cut down and removed.  Fungus attacked the leaves, so we had them cut down.  They were just cut to the ground, not pulled out by the roots.  It has left a major weirdness to our yard.  It looks like a tornado hit our backyard.  I can see neighbor’s houses that I haven’t seen in years.  Sigh.

At first, I thought it was darned ugly.  OK….I still do.  There’s a lot of work to be done.  Then I started thinking about how my shade is gone, and now I have sunlight to work with.  I sit in my lawn chair, and try to envision all of the things I can do with a garden that gets sun.  I’m still awake at midnight, trying to look for ideas online.   We need height variations, and lots of color.  My hubby planted three small crepe myrtle trees.  The fact is, the ground is full of rocks, just below the surface.  Very hard to dig.

 

I’ve been collecting plants, the last several weeks.  Last night, we went to Lowe’s to look at their plants.  My husband finally cut me off….he said “you’re just like a kid in the candy store!  You can’t buy anything else until you get these planted.”     OK…OK…but of course I’m going out of town for Memorial Day weekend.  And hey…I still haven’t found any purple cone flowers.  I NEED those!  I have a vision!

 

How are all of you doing on your gardens??  Do you grow flowers or veggies, or both?

If you liked this article, press Like.  Leave me a comment!