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Thursday, June 29, 2017

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Cooking Thursday

I'm sharing another oldie with you today.  This is one that Bob and I both grew up on, and it was one of our favorites.  We both still like it, but our kids are not as fond of it.  Heather likes it but not Laura and Andy because of the celery in it.  Laura used to call it "Happy Casserole' in a sarcastic way!
But - if you like celery, you'll like it too!


Happy Casserole
1 onion chopped
1 # ground beef
4 stalks celery
1/2 cup white rice
1 1/2 cup water
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
Brown ground beef and onion, season to taste. Simmer with rice, celery, and water 10-15 minutes; add soups. Place all ingredients in casserole. Sprinkle with cracker crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Monday, June 26, 2017

Things I'm liking...

A few of my friends have done posts about things they are enjoying.  I thought it was a fun idea, so here are some things I like!


This is a new find, and I don't know how widely available these are.  They're oreo crumbs - perfect for making a crust with.  I found them for 99 cents at our local Daily Deals store. They are much less expensive than regular oreo's and no need to crush them!


 This is Schwarzkopf Ultime shampoo, a shampoo I heard about from my friend Linda, of Simply Linda.  My hair is straight and thin, and Linda said this shampoo worked well for her fine hair.  She was right - it does make a difference!


Do you have any stainless steel appliances?  I have several and haven't found anything that cleans it as well as Weiman Stainless Steel Cleaner.  You spray it on, and then wipe it off - it leaves a nice shine!  They make this in wipes also, but I think they smear and the spray doesn't do that.


 This is a book with daily readings.  I've done several studies by Nancy Guthrie and enjoyed them.  These daily devotionals start with Genesis and tell how Jesus consistently fulfilled things written in the Old Testament.



This is Mrs Meyer's Clean Day Multi-Surface Cleaner.  There are different scents available, but I love the basil.  It cleans well and leaves and fresh, lovely scent behind.


This is Bath and Bodyworks Stress relief lotion in eucalyptus tea scent.  I like the lotion itself, but the scent truly is relaxing!


 I recently got this CD; Hymns by Anthem Lights. As the title says, it's hymns!  They are done in medleys and tight harmonies.  I've been listening to it a lot!  If you want to listen to something from the CD, click here.



This isn't something you can buy, but it's something I'm really liking!  Bob had vacation last week and spent it remodeling our main bathroom.  It was a lot of work and he isn't done yet.  This is a picture of our nephew Nick helping him get the new tub hauled into the bathroom.  That thing was heavy and I was really glad Nick came over to help!  I'll be showing you more pictures soon.

That's my list.  What about you?  Anything you really like?

Sunday, June 25, 2017

Construction Continues...

It's time for another update of the construction at my workplace.  This construction has been going on since May of 2016.  It's a long project, but we are in the home stretch!
The first phase was the longest - a whole new addition for rehab residents.  That phase was the least disruptive, as the building we were using wasn't involved.  That section opened in February.
The second phase was the renovation of one wing of the building.  This was noisy and closed off our current Dining room so it caused a few more problems.  This was complete in May and is for our Long Term care residents.
The third phase was started in May and has been the most disruptive.  It's the renovation of the other wing, but also all the offices.  This means everyone is crammed into corners of the facility.  Even the nurses station is being worked on so we are working from a CNA work station. When I have office days I work with the Director of Nursing in her office, and all my books and paper work are in there too - and I feel bad taking up her space!  When I work with the Doctor we have been using any empty resident room we can find!
The last section is going to be rehab and offices.  There will also be a new beauty shop and a chapel.  They tell us it will be finished in a few weeks, but we'll see what happens.
Here's what it's looking like right now.

 Here's the nurses station - lots to be done here yet.


This is a sitting/tv area.


 This is looking down the hall they are working on.  It's looking so fresh and much brighter!



This is our new therapy room.  Its going to be a huge improvement from what we have now.  It's huge - taking the space of what used to be 4 resident rooms.


 There is a bathroom on one end, so people can work on bathing and care with therapy before they go home.



There is also a small kitchen.  This way they can practice cooking with therapy too.



This doesn't look like much but it's exciting to me. This is going to be the room for the doctor, and will also be where I will be working on my paper days.

We are in the final stretch and I can't wait to be completely done!


Thursday, June 22, 2017

Dogs and their people

Here's some fun pictures for you.  An artist took pictures of dog owners and their dogs, then photoshopped them to show them to dressed like their owners. I think you'll enjoy the results!
























Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Cooking Thursday

There seem to be a lot of chicken and rice recipes.  I like this one because it is made in the crock pot, and it has wild rice in it.  I usually make it with chicken breasts; this time I cut the breast into cubes so it would cook quicker.  It's quick to throw together and very tasty!



Herbed Chicken and Wild Rice
1 pkg (6 oz) long grain and wild rice mix
6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon butter
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup water
3 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon

Place rice in 5 quart slow cooker; set aside seasoning packet.  In large skillet, brown chicken in oil and butter. Add to slow cooker.
In small bowl, combine the soup, water, bacon, spices and the contents of the seasoning packet. Pour over top of chicken and rice.
Cover and cook on low for 5 to 6 hours or until chicken juices run clear.

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Monday, June 19, 2017

Birds and Blooms

You may remember that last year Bob was working on a landscaping project on the side of our garage.  He had built a garden gate, put in a walk and was planting flowers.  Here's what it looks like, one year later.


 All of the new plants are growing well.



Here it is from the other side.


At the end of the walkway is a knockout rose.  We've heard good things about this variety, but have never had one.


It's beautiful and has had lots of blooms.  Each flower starts as a dark yellow, but then gets lighter as it opens, ending up this creamy color.  We think we may need to plant more of this rose.



The little birdhouse at the end of the walk was meant to be decorative, but this little wren liked it and has taken it over.


She flies out and scolds us each time we walk down the path, and we have now seen a few little ones poke their heads out of the opening.  We're hoping to see more of them!


And speaking of baby birds, we have some in our back yard too.

This robins nest is sitting on top of a trellis that is against Bob's barn.  There are 3 baby robins in it, that have just hatched in the last 2 days.  We're looking forward to seeing more of them too.

Sunday, June 18, 2017

Weekend review

Hope you all had a nice weekend!

It's been very dry here,  every storm predicted seems to disappear over Lake Michigan or go to the north of us, so we were very happy to have rain Friday night, Saturday and Saturday night.


Friday evening Bob and I went out for supper, then stopped at his Mom and step-dad's to bring a Fathers Day gift over.  After that we went to Laura and Aaron's and picked up the girls.
When we got home, we spent a little time in the yard.  The sun was getting a little low in the sky which provides such a pretty soft light.

 The roses on our arbor are just loaded with flowers.



Here's that pretty light I was talking about!



We picked up some poppy plants at a roadside stand.  They weren't open so we had no idea what color we were getting.  However, they were only 50 cents a pot, so we picked some up.  So far we have this orange, a red, some yellow and some creamy white.  All very pretty!



 While I was admiring flowers, the girls were playing on the swing.



 And Ruby was climbing into the play fort.




These are lilies that Bob ordered from a catalog several years ago.  They were supposed to be carpet lilies - lots of blooms, 8 inches tall.  They are very pretty and do have lots of blooms.  However:


You can see they are much taller than 8 inches!




 After we went inside, Ruby snuggled with her bunny...




Then both girls snuggled with Grandpa!


Hope you all had a nice Father's Day.  We had celebrated with our kids last Sunday, We saw Bob's stepdad on Friday evening, and we had my Dad over for Sunday dinner.  I'm blessed by each of these Dads in my life!

Thursday, June 15, 2017

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Cooking Thursday

When we had our lunch at the park on Sunday, Laura brought something along for dessert that she knew Bob would like.  It's a really old recipe.  When I was in 9th grade, I worked for my science teacher in the summer.  He was starting a Strawberry Farm, and I helped plant and weed the fields.  His wife was very good to us - there were 6 kids working for him.  She made a snack and drink for us every day.  This recipe is one that she made and shared with me way back then.  The name of it is Thank You Squares, named for the Thank You Cherry Pie filling it uses, but Laura's friends started calling them Friendship squares because she made it for their group of friends frequently.  Regardless of the name - they are good!  They are pretty too, so are nice to give away.



Thank You Squares

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon almond flavoring
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 can cherry pie filling (may use another flavor)

Cream together butter, sugar and eggs until light and fluffy.  Stir in almond flavoring, flour and baking powder until well mixed.
Pour into greased 15x10 pan. Cut into 24 squares before baking. Drop 1 tablespoon cherry pie filling in the center of each square. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.  When cool, dust with powdered sugar and store in the refrigerator.

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Monday, June 12, 2017

The most important things in life

What is the most important thing in your life?  I think 99% of people would not say it's any thing, but would be much more likely to say God and family.
The same is true for me.  God has first place in my life, followed by my husband and family.  That means it's important to me that I show and share God with those people that God has blessed me with.  Our kids are now grown, but right now we have the privilege of spending lots of time with Alaina and Ruby.   Aaron and Laura are wonderful parents and work hard to teach the girls and share God with them, but we want to do the same when they are with us.  Here are some of the ways we do that.

We pray!  We pray for them, we pray with them.  It's wonderful to tuck them in at night and pray individually with each one.

We play!  It wouldn't be any fun for kids to just be preached to all the time.  God designed us to feel joy, and we love to see them laugh and have fun.  In those times we talk too, and you never know what is going to come out of their mouths.  Last week Alaina told me "Did you know that God is bigger than the whole universe?  That is really huge!"  It was a good time to talk about how God is in bigger than all of us, but He loves to hear from us and takes care of us.

We love music! We usually listen to Christian music, and the girls, especially Alaina, knows a lot of the songs when she hears them in the car.  We also listen to music at home on our Echo Dot, and Alaina will often ask it to play her a song - usually it's "Alexa, will you play God's not dead?"  (We're getting a little sick of that song)  :)



We read!  Both girls love to read and even if we haven't read earlier in the day, we always read a few stories before bed.  We have a lot of books, quite a few have a Christian theme. This is the latest book I got.  It's The Rhyme Bible Storybook, by LJ Sattgast.  It's all Bible stories in a rhyme form, which makes it fun to read and listen to also, plus the pictures are great, and the girls really like it.


Here's one that's hard.  We watch tv...  or in Alaina's words - "let's watch a show!"  She is now 5 and loves to watch tv. We monitor what shows we let her see, but even the little kids programs can have things that we don't want to expose her too, and it's hard to find shows with any Christian content.



This is something I've been thinking of trying.  It's Pure Flix, a Christian movie resource, that costs $10.99 a month or $99 for a year.  You can try it free for one month - just cancel at 30 days if you don't like it. It's like Netflix, or Hulu but with faith and family content.  Have any of you tried it?  I'm thinking it would be a good thing not only for my girlies, but for Bob and I as well.

These are some of the things we do.  I'd welcome any ideas you might have!