Birthdays and Projects

The Pandemic Summer is almost over! It’s really hot and dry, here in Texas. We are in North Central Texas and we are not close to the coast, or to the hurricanes. That’s something to be thankful for , and we are praying for all of those who have been affected by that tragedy. There are so many things happening around the country….hurricanes, fires, riots, covid and politics. And now the kids are heading back to school. It’s a whole new world out there, for teachers and students. I’m glad I’m no longer teaching. My grandchildren are negotiating these changes and so far, they are doing well.

August was our big month of celebrating birthdays. We went to Kansas, to celebrate my brother’s birthday. His wife has been quite ill and he has been her caretaker for the past year. My sister, my hubby and I, and my niece went for the day and had a great time. I had not seen my brother or sister since January. All of us have been carefully avoiding crowds . So it was fun. We had Mexican food, and tropical decorations…ok..we didn’t quite coordinate on that! LOL My niece had brought a tropical cake.

The birthday boy, Mike!

My husband, Dick, and my sister, Toni.

They have pulled out every blanket and pillow, and multiple toys. Lots of cleanup, but they have so much fun!

I bought this apron at The Merc.

Two weeks later, we celebrated my grandson’s birthday, mine and my granddaughter’s. They came to our house, and we had cake and gifts, and the grandkids had a great time playing together. Love it when my kids can be together with us. My granddaughter got a tea set, and we had a tea party. My daughter, Jessi, and my DIL, Crystal and I were invited to the party. My daughter was the Prostitute, my DIL was the Church Lady, and I was the Socialite. So fun!

Feeling perky!

It was a popular cake!
The birthday ‘kids’..Sherry, Isaac and Libby

Projects…oh, I have many that I need to do. Some of the few that I’ve done lately, include cleaning out and organizing my freezer, cleaning out the medicine and toiletry shelves in my closet, and recovering my breakfast nook chairs. That was a new experience for me. I’m not very good at the corners!! But they look better.

Before
During
After

old chair

New Chair covers.
The messy freezer

New freezer containers
Organized with new containers.

I haven’t felt very well lately, due to lower back and leg pain. The Dr. put me on Steroids for a week, and I’ll start physical therapy tomorrow. The steroids gave me a lot of energy. That helped me get some things done. Yeah for steroids!!!

I hope you are doing ok during this trying time. Actually, I’m becoming a homebody. But I’m tired of cooking all of the time. I usually get take-out for lunch. I need to see my friends!! But we are blessed to have our children and grandchildren fairly close. We are so much better off than so many people!

Have a great day,

Grandma Sherry

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

CHICKEN STUFFING CASSEROLE…A FRIDAY FREEZER MEAL

Who DOESN’T want a good freezer meal to pull out for dinner, in these uncertain times? Check out my recipe for Chicken Stuffing casserole.

Ohhhh!!! Gotta love a good Freezer Meal. I made this casserole yesterday, and had an extra one to put in the freezer. My family loves this recipe. I originally found this recipe in my “Taste of Home Freezer Pleasers Cookbook”. This recipe was originally submitted by Cathy Smith, of Wyoming, Michigan. I highly recommend this cookbook. I find so many good recipes to add to my freezer meals. So here’s the recipe. Enjoy!

The ingredients plus the chicken.

Ingredients:

2 pkg. (6 oz. each) chicken stuffing mix

2 cans (10 3/4 oz. each) condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted

1 c. milk

4 c. cubed cooked chicken

2 c. frozen corn

2 cans (8 oz. each) mushroom stems and pieces, drained

4 cups (16 oz.) shredded cheddar cheese

Grease 2 pans, and heat oven to 350*

Put the prepared stuffing on bottom of pan, Layer chicken on top.

Prepare stuffing mixes according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine soup and milk; set aside. Spread the stuffing into two greased 8 in. square baking dishes. Layer with the chicken, corn, mushrooms, soup mixture and cheese. (Could be one 9 x 13 pan.)

Be sure and label your foil covering.

Cover and freeze one casserole for up to 3 months. Make sure that you write the date and directions on the foil cover. Cover and bake the second casserole at 350* for 30 – 35 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Yummy!

To use frozen casserole: Remove from the freezer 30 minutes before baking. (do not thaw). Bake at 350 for 1 1/2 hours. Uncover; bake 10 – 15 minutes longer or until heated through. Yield: 2 casseroles (6 servings each).

Note: I had one of my casseroles a little thicker, in a ceramic baking dish. It took a little longer to bake. I left the foil on the pan, until the last 15 minutes of baking, and then baked until the cheese was melted.

This was great with a salad, cheese bread, a veggie and brownies for dessert. My family thoroughly enjoyed this!

Enjoy,

Grandma Sherry