new blogger format - not yet please

Just returned from the 6:30 am Senior shop at Walmart.  Not too many people there... had to pick up a new microwave. Ours was really old and yesterday decided to spark a bit.

I think Blogger just tried to change me to the new format today, but I clicked to be reverted back to the old one.

Didn't feel ready to learn the new blogger and hesitant to mess things up when they seem to work fine. Why fix something that isn't broke, right? 

Is there a reason for this change. If there is, I haven't heard it. Anybody out there using the new blogger have any comments. Is it better?

Apparently I have until August before all are converted over. I will take that time... don't need any more frustrations at the moment.

Closing this with a few funnies :

For those of us who knit, crochet, or sew... THIS IS FUNNY... and has happened!

This I could really use... way too many passwords to remember.


And lastly:

Not funny... very real sentiments.


Hugs,
Rian

Hurricanes, red beans, and a funny mistake

what I saw on my weather App

Sunday afternoon:

2 hurricanes heading into our kids areas today. Hurricane Douglas hurdling towards Hawaii at the moment. And Hurricane Hanna coming up through south Texas. Son is on Oahu where he said the sirens just went off. And daughter is in the Hill Country a little north of the Texas coast. Hopefully neither will get the brunt of the storms... both may lessen in intensity by the time they actually arrive where the kids are. But as a mom, I will still wait to hear word from them later this evening. 

*Having written this yesterday afternoon, I have since heard that both hurricanes did little to the areas where the kids live. However, I will say that the picture above looked very ominous to me. My son and his wife live on Oahu in Kailua (where that green dot on the screen is). The island looked very  small to me compared to the size of the hurricane. Anyway, as a typical son, he texted me this morning with the words, "didn't die". *

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Saturday DH made a delicious batch of red beans and rice  - which we had for supper both Saturday and Sunday along with some fresh challah bread and butter. We usually have enough beans for 2 meals and some left over to freeze.
  Then Tuesday I plan to make a big pot of African Chicken Peanut soup - to eat and to freeze. This recipe we came across several years ago and my daughter and I have made it ever since. It uses peanut butter in the soup at the end. Yes, sounds strange, but tastes delicious!

Oh, and I need to tell you of a funny mistake we made in ordering our curb side groceries this past week. DH added some sour cream to the list online... thinking he was ordering a 16oz tub instead of the small 8 oz tub. Well, you should have seen our faces when we pulled this out of the grocery bag.

5 lbs. of sour cream!! Didn't even know they made tubs of sour cream this large. What would anyone ever need 5 lbs of sour cream for.... maybe a restaurant??  Any suggestions - outside of returning it? I hear that you can freeze sour cream (although I've never done it).

That's it for this Monday's post. Life goes on... a little different than it used to be... but we're adjusting.  Things change. My hair is getting long. I can now make a small ponytail. Seems like I will be going back to my ponytail days (or perhaps a long braid like Willie Nelson?). Have you made any adjustments to your normal routine - that you may keep - besides the stay at home, social distancing, and wearing a mask requirements?

Please take care - always - but especially during these unusual times. (My SIL went into the hospital with a broken leg a few weeks ago. Now she has Covid-19) 

Hugs,
Rian

thoughts on a Wednesday...

I had a dear friend who used to give me little 'mission' books... at least that's what I called them. She was more 'religious' than I (although I do consider myself spiritual). This morning I was reading one of her little books and thinking about her (she passed away in 2011 at 86). 

I came across some passages that made me pause. It was referring to the times in our lives when we might be ill - whether with a cold or flu or whatever. And it hinted that perhaps this was a time when God was trying to tell us something... that perhaps it was time to close temporarily for repairs and renovation. Responsibilities can be shared and some things can wait.

Made me think of this pandemic. Perhaps the world needs to stop, close temporarily for repairs and renovation. Time to adjust our priorities, and put the beauty and wonder of life above life style and the world's economy (I know, I know... the economic situation is important and there are so many things to consider).

Don't want to get into any religious, political, or economic discussion. Just wanted to share my thoughts.

******************************************

Sharing my grand daughter's letters during this pandemic:

Since we can't get together these days... (her mom works with Covid patients), we write each other and Skype. It's been fun... although I do miss her hugs.

Little things, yes? But oh, so important...

Pandemic decor... kittens and chicken salad!

In our kitchen we have a coat rack. Now that it is  summer, this is the new kitchen decor!  We don't go anywhere, but out to pickup curb side groceries, but still I wash them every week. No one comes into our house, so I think hanging them here is OK.

Nothing else going on around here. We are enjoying watching Olivia and her 6 kittens romp on the back porch.  Here are a few pics taken from inside the house through my dirty windows. They are not terribly clear... but still.

This little Siamese looking one is the runt

It's impossible to get a pic of her with all 6 kittens... they move around too fast. 

And yes, if we could catch them, we would consider taking them to the Animal Shelter's Adoption room (which we used to do). Now it's too difficult to catch them. And don't say use a hav-a-hart trap as we have one. Over the years the feral cats have learned to avoid them. We only get raccoons and possums in this trap (once a skunk and occasionally a snake).

our back door on occasion

Talking about dirty windows (kitchen door windows never stay clean due to little raccoon paws on the outside). But I actually cleaned my bedroom windows, blinds, and curtains yesterday. I have to admit, it had been a while.


And Friday we had a cooking lesson here. My grandson (21) who lives with us has always said that he would like to learn to cook. We never did anything about this since he was working the night shift (online ordering) at Target for a while and sleeping during the day. But now that he has taken a furlough due to the virus, I told him I was making chicken salad for supper and if he wished to make it with me, that would be fine. He did. Came out great. I make my chicken salad with purple onions, apples, and walnuts (have also used grapes and pecans).

That's it for today. Will leave you with a picture of Ghost when she was tiny...

Have a wonderful Sunday and please stay safe!

Hugs,
Rian

a Tuesday...

I haven't posted in almost a week  - and haven't anything really interesting to say today.  But I saw this on Pinterest and it gave me a good laugh... (at least I hope it's laughable).

There isn't anything new going on around here and I haven't any pretty nature pics to show... wait! there is something new. That little feral cat that we call Olivia that shows up in the back window... 

Remember her?

Well, she showed up yesterday with 6 kittens!  (3 black, 2 black and white, and one little Siamese) No wonder she's always hungry.  They look about 6 weeks old and run very fast when we open the back door. I'll try to get a picture. Right now she's very skittish if we even get close to the door when the kittens are there.

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I did make Chicken Tetrazini the other day. Made enough for supper and to freeze for another day.

a favorite of our grandson

And our Celeste fig tree is producing:

first batch

There is a big difference between Celeste figs and BrownTurkey figs:

Celeste on right, Brown Turkey fig on left

Celeste figs are smaller and sweeter. They are our favorite. We let the wildlife have the Brown Turkey fig  (The Blue Jays especially like them... but so do the box turtles)

I really wish we had some cool lush woody nature areas to walk in... like DJan has in her photos.  I came across this Bitmogi the other day and I remember saying, " I wish..."

Oh well, it looks like I found a few semi-interesting things to talk about. Hope you are all staying well and out of the heat. 

hugs,
Rian 

ctu

Birthdays to remember...

Ghost waiting on her breakfast this morning

Olivia Feral waiting for her breakfast

This week DH and I both hit the big 7- 5!  But with the pandemic, we aren't celebrating... or at least not going out or having family over. Generally we don't make a big do for our birthdays anyway.  Our usual arrangements consist of  going out to dinner with family and then coming back to the house for cake and coffee. 

This year our youngest son, daughter-in-law, and grand daughter showed up at our house masked, with a birthday cake in hand (white chocolate raspberry bundt cake - delicious!).

They looked so cute (grand daughter was wearing a kitty mask). They didn't come in (DIL works as a nurse with Covid patients). But we stood outside (physically distancing) and talked for a few moments (really wanted to hug them but resisted). 

Since we had ordered a birthday cake from Central Market to be picked up this Wednesday, the 3 of us (DH, grandson, and myself) really don't need to eat 2 cakes (and we will if they're there), so we decided to share the one we bought from Central Market with our next door neighbors. It's a strawberry shortcake BD cake made with lots of fresh strawberries and whipped cream. 

These neighbors have come over to check on us during the pandemic asking if we needed anything. And they also called last week to make sure we were alright as they hadn't seen us or our cars out in a while. Told them that we really weren't going anywhere much, so the cars (car and truck) were parked in the driveway behind the fence. But we appreciated them thinking of us.

They are also the ones who we shared the online grocery order mistake when the grocery sent 5 pounds of potatoes instead of .5 pounds (what would I do with 5 pounds of potatoes?)

I'm still reading, crocheting, quilting, making masks, blogging, reading blogs, and thinking about trying to experiment more with yeast rolls (finally got hold of some KA bread flour). Re-arranged my kitchen a bit (moving our old wooden kitchen table on my own wasn't smart - hurt my back - but only a little)

Oh, also playing a Nintentdo Switch game called Animal Crossing. I'm not really a game person - don't even play cards, but am enjoying this. In fact, it's a bit addictive. This first pic is what the game looks like.

Nintendo Switch

Inside my house  on island

Out in my garden on island

It starts out when you move to an island in a tent and gradually build yourself a house, etc.  (I like it because it's all creative survival, not survival of the fittest - no guns, no zombies, etc.).

Anyway, enough trivial info for today. Hope you had a good week. And as always, thanks for coming by to visit. Love you all!

Stay safe! Hugs,
Rian

Yikes!

 This is my new reaction to the the number of Covid cases rising daily in our county. Saturday's new cases was 1105 in Dallas County. Yikes!!

That's it. Beyond that we follow all the regulations; wearing a mask, social/physical distancing, avoiding crowds (actually avoiding anyone not within our house-hold), washing hands, etc. 

And then I try to forget it.

No one needs to set regulations or mandates telling me what should be done to try to curtail a virus. Any mother knows how to keep a sickness from spreading within her family. After talking (zooming) with my pottery group this morning, we basically agreed that apparently common sense is not so common. 

But if we have to live like this for the next 6 months (or more)... then, we need to re-create our lives.

We can live without eating out
(I miss it, but I can cook)
We can live without getting together with family and friends
(I miss this very much, but can Skype, Zoom, text, and phone)
We can live without going to classes 
(online for pottery doesn't work - one needs a kiln)

but...

Can we live without exercise?  
Too hot to walk outside during Texas summers 
AC Malls are closed

Guess we could do indoor exercise? 
Can't imagine it, but possibly...

If this situation continues for the next 6 months or more, do you have any plans on how your daily life must change?

My thought is that the scary part of all this is not so much the virus itself, but that we don't know what tomorrow is going to bring... physically, economically, or any other way. And IMO it always helps to have a plan...

Again, thanks for reading my rambling thoughts. I probably shouldn't share them with you, but sometimes it helps just to get them out of my head. 

Hugs,
Rian

Ghost 

and

me

these days

and neither of us 

like fireworks...

Don't think this is a happy 4th...

Too much going on these days to wish everyone a Happy 4th!

but

I will wish you a safe one!

Hugs, (virtual only)

Rian