Housewife, 54

 Well now, Easter is past and spring is trying harder to push through the gloom of winter, but still very little water....  so not a typical Spring at all! Our Easter had elements of tradition and elements that were new.  It was a good day.  We started off earlier in the week by making decisions with D-i-L about who was going to do what, and where.  This took some managing as they have friends that were going to be alone for the holiday and wanted to do something together to make it special for their kids.  This made the group too big for us to have everyone for a sit-down meal and all-day stay at our house (altogether there would be 7 adults and 5 kids ages 7 and under).  so we decided to do an Egg Hunt here at Grandma & Grandpa's, and add appetizers so that there would be time to make a dinner without the kids getting too hungry.  We also decided against our tradition of hunting the decorated hard-boiled eggs and then making those eggs into ...

 Spring is going to be late. If it ever arrives.   I have my doubts.  As usual, I think we will go from light winter into blazing hot summer. Last year I had made a seed starting shelf in my basement and as usual, I got really leggy plants that got too tall for the shelves before it was warm enough to put them outside - even in the solar shed.  So this year I have made the change to get a heater for the shed.  So far, it is working quite well.  I have quite a few plants growing out there and the heater is keeping the temperature above freezing, even on the lowest setting.  I have also come to find that when the ambient temperature of the shed gets higher, this heater will shut itself off.  Good thing, as I often forget that the sun in shining and it could get really warm in there!  So far the sun and the weather have not snuck up on  me enough that I have forgotten to open up the shed if we get that one really warm day. the window s...

 My Grandma Marie made wonderful dinner rolls.  As so many women of her era, she didn't have a written recipe, so when she began to have trouble kneading the dough, the thought of no more Grandma's rolls was ... well unthinkable!  So her daughter, my Aunt Marge made rolls with her one day,  measured everything, and took notes as to when and how Grandma assembled the rolls.  Thanks to her daughter, my cousin Sherri, I have had this recipe for many years and I can finally turn out a decent pan of rolls or a couple of loaves of bread. I have other bread recipes, and even another recipe for dinner rolls that a friend shared with me from HER mother, but so often I come back to this recipe for Grandma Marie's rolls.  For years it was too dry, sometimes wouldn't rise well, and was only good when fresh out of the oven as it got stale almost by the next day!  I've had lots of help in figuring out how the dough should look and feel to get a good loaf, and a tip ...