Book Review: When They Met Again by Leslie Gould

 

When They Met Again (Letters from Lancaster County): An Amish Friends to Lovers Contemporary Romance Set in Lancaster County by Leslie Gould

A gently humorous just friends romance from Leslie Gould, threaded with heart-deep characters and the timeless traditions of simple Amish life.

It's love at first sight for Adam Slaybaugh, yet while Joanna Grebel finds him attractive and is intrigued when he declares his interest, she's less certain of the potential for a romantic future together. Instead, she proposes they be "just friends," but Adam's not willing to settle for anything less than a romantic relationship. In response, he leaves Lancaster County for Florida, and soon after, Joanna begins courting Jacob Byer--someone she deems a much more suitable match.

When Adam returns to Lancaster County years later to pursue a career in his grandparents' successful home renovation business, he finds Joanna suffering from a broken heart. Misunderstandings and matchmaking schemes begin a tender journey of healing and romance--but is Adam's love enough to finally win Joanna over?

My Review:

Broken hearts and life circumstances abound in When They Meet Again by Leslie Gould.  Sometimes life doesn't go as planned and we can experience a total different romance than expected.

Joanna works hard at her job and thinks she has life all figured out until the unexpected happens out of the blue.  She quickly finds out that life can throw some curves both in the romance department and everyday life.

Very interesting read.  I loved hearing about the grandmas stepping in a little and never giving up hope for a good outcome.

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Gardening and other News 5/29/26

Memorial Weekend means it's time to plant here in our part of Michigan.   We have a lot going on so we have planted a little each day.  The first day in the garden we planted our favorite green bean, white half runner.  The white half runner tastes great and is a great producer.  

We used our new to us seed planter we found at a garage sale for $10.   It was amazing how fast it got the job done!   You can find it on Amazon but we got a great deal!  

                                 

 Then yesterday, we planted the russet potatoes and sweet potatoes in the garden.  He planted the white -I planted the sweet.  The sweet potatoes we planted were called Jet and Beauregard.  I also grew some of my own sweet potato slips and planted those.  

The day before (not a great picture) I planted the tomatoes with the help of granddaughter.  Lots and lots of tomatoes. Probably too many tomatoes.

Today I plan on planting the rattlesnake beans on the teepees I made and the peppers and zucchini.  

All this while they are putting on our roof. It's a good escape from all the noise.  Tomorrow the roof should be finished.  yeah!  

Other news:  

I won a book contest by Dianna Lanser  -4 books total plus beach gear!  I need to enter more contests!

I was able to get 6 photo cards from Walgreens for free.  I made Christmas cards.

I planted flowers at Mom and Dad's grave for Memorial day.

We had the quickest Memorial day picnic on record. We were ate up by mosquitos and had to grill, eat, and run.  We had Off but there were so many attacking us.   

How was your Memorial Day?

**Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden! As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here).  

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Finding Meat deals at the Grocery Store!

I stopped in at Aldi's on Tuesday morning after an appointment. They had some meat marked down 50% too so that was great! I had to have those advantage bars -they are good and not too bad for you. 

Aldi's

3 advance bars -$5.39 each

bananas $.98

Chicken tender loins 3 packs- $3.37, $3.89, and $3.51 (after 50% off)

Whipped topping -$2.49

Hamburger 2 packs of  80/20-$3.91 and $3.88 (after 50% off) 

My total was $41.50

I also found some Meat deals on Flashfood at Meijer

Two roasts for approximately $10 a piece and three thin angus beef NY Strip Steaks for $10.37 for a pound.   So that bill was around $32.00.

Meat deals are hard to find and I try to stock up when I can find them.

We fixed the ice maker line on the fridg (ok he did but I gave him encouragement) -the part was not covered under warranty.  I think they pinched it maybe when they put in the kitchen floor.  Not a big deal really till you want some ice.  Everything is working now.

I think the roofers are coming this morning.  So the more we can save elsewhere the better for us.   The floor and the roof are the two major things we had fixed this Spring....Nothing more till Fall.

When I fed the chickens our scraps this morning I went to the greenhouse and picked a bowlful of lettuce for salad.

We haven't yet planted the main garden...it's been cold still (46 this morning) and we usually try to wait till as close to Memorial day as we can.  Not only does it need to be warmer at night but the soil needs to be warm or what a shock to all those plants!  

**Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden! As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here).  

Be sure to follow me on Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, and more!  You can also sign up for my email list on the top right hand side of the blog.

The Price of Everything and Free things this Week!

I finished the pillowcase for my Mother in Law and sent it off on Wednesday for Mother's day. The cost of mailing everything of course as risen ($34.00 for the large box).  She is worth it though and we are so blessed to have her.

Price of gas rose very close to $5.00 a gallon on Wednesday night here in Michigan...

Anyway, we  had decided to go on Tuesday morning and filled up two cars with $1.00 off a gallon at Meijer.  We saved $30 that day ...it would have been more if we had waited.  We find that the money off gas is the best deal on MPerks.  There are other deals to buy with the mperks but the gas to us is the best deal.

We also bought a lot of the $7 for 7 deals last week.  The apples and corn was our favorite deal...4 corn on the cobs for $1.00 and 2 lbs of apples for $1.00.  By the way, the same deal is running this week.

Free things this week (kind of)

I made a big spring salad with lettuce, green onions, and radishes from my greenhouse.

I also picked some asparagus and chives in the garden.  Not sure what to do with just 5 stems but I was excited!  

We stopped at some M15 sales that were out early on Thursday.  I picked up these egg cartons for free plus a few other things. Egg cartons are running around .74 each so I love it!

We are going out again this morning to see what we can find.   M15 garage sales in Michigan are 67 miles long this first week of May.  Although we have to figure in the price of gas...hopefully we can find something that will make it seem like a deal that we went. 😃

 

**Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden! As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here).  

Be sure to follow me on Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, and more!  You can also sign up for my email list on the top right hand side of the blog.

Finding to a Way to Get it all Done and Make Dinner Everyday?

 

Spring has sprung, the rains have calmed down, and now the outside chores seem overwhelming.  I have a list a mile long to complete outside as well as cleaning house and making dinner (I'm sure everyone has this problem).

Here is a sample of my outdoor work:

Clean up front yard garden 1/2 done

Plant the rest of the Herb ladder

Set up my worm bin I bought for $25 at a sale (seemed like a good deal).

Trim peach tree as well as hydrangea bushes

Plant onion plants-1/2 done

and that list gets added to everyday!

The husband has his own list...I see him running around all the time fixing and cleaning things (I know he is secretly praying that I don't break anything else).

Dinner Everyday? 

Pile on the indoor work of cleaning, laundry, etc. making dinner everyday can be exhausting.  Monday was a cooler day with just greenhouse work, I made lasagna and garlic bread.  Then we had enough to have leftovers on Tuesday.  

With the warm spell on Wednesday and a husband who does a great job on the grill, we had enough dinner for 3 days ..it included hamburgers, hot dogs, and hamburger steak.  I work on the side dishes like salad with lettuce from the green house, cornbread, wilted lettuce, green onions, and baked potatoes.  Today (Friday), we are on our third day.  

I have a great goal for his grilling on Saturday marinated chicken and grilled rosemary pork chops.   I need to get it out of the freezer to thaw today.

Planning as far ahead as we can helps a lot.  Working together is priceless.

**Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden! As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here).  

Be sure to follow me on Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, and more!  You can also sign up for my email list on the top right hand side of the blog.

Gardening with Prayer!

When the floor/wall man called and said he was ready to do our kitchen,  I looked at all my plants and knew the only solution was to move them to the unheated greenhouse.   There was just no other way.  I worried and prayed  the whole time he was here but I seemed to have been blessed with good weather and no frost.  They might have grown faster inside our house but they have survived.

As you go into the greenhouse I have two Greenstalks....one each side of the door.  One is growing lettuce that is just about ready!

On the other side I have one growing herbs, radishes, and green onions.

When we finally get the kitchen back together I will take a picture.  It's so nice.  The floor is level, the walls are paneled, and the house is a mess but it will get back together soon.

Have a wonderful weekend!

**Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden! As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here).  

Be sure to follow me on Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, and more!  You can also sign up for my email list on the top right hand side of the blog.

Renovations and What to do about Dinner!

 

Our kitchen floor is being redone and it's a mess, as most jobs are. My cat Smokie is guarding the work.

People still have to be fed though so here is my struggle so far in that department.

Wednesday:  You think well we will just eat out for 4 days.   So day one I spent $67.00 on hamburgers and fries for everyone from Wendy's (5 people) and oh yeah around $10  for Mcdonald's breakfast for 2 and coffee.  Man you can't keep that up plus it's not good for you!  

We do have a coffee bar set up in living room. 

Day two..  I can go into the kitchen while handy man is not here -so I was up early again trying to get things done -  I defrosted wraps from freezer (refrigerator is in the living room) and scrambled eggs with onion in the microwave (in the kitchen)  put some cheese in them, wrapped them up,  and we have breakfast (wrapped up husband's in aluminum foil for later-he will put some kind of hot sauce on them probably)

I racked my brain about dinner - too cold for grill so I used my crockpot that I set up in the living room. Hamburger stew sounded good...granddaughter loved it!  

Friday:  I made enough wraps for today's breakfast also...so I'll just heat them in the microwave this morning. 

Beans and sausage with some bread sound great.  Just some cans of pinto beans with cut up summer like sausage in it.

Saturday:  I'm thinking lasagna in the crockpot tomorrow but I don't know if I'll have the energy.  We'll see.

It will be all done by Sunday...I'll rejoice in the morning!  

**Thanks so much for helping to support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden! As a Amazon affiliate I earn a small percentage when you purchase items from one of my links (the item doesn't have to be what I have linked here).  

Be sure to follow me on Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, and more!  You can also sign up for my email list on the top right hand side of the blog.