Happy Homemaker Monday

Hello Friends!

I hope this Monday has begun beautifully for you. Happy almost April, almost Easter and happy holy week for those that participate. 

I love how April means we are hurdling that much closer to true Spring weather here in the northwoods! Today it's gray, cold, and in the 30's and still quite late winter feeling rather than spring-like. But the Easter forecast looks promising of 40's and ☀️, so here's hoping! 

Did you have a nice weekend? We had such a productive one and it brings me such joy!! My wonderful Hubby helped me tackle a giant job. This house doesn't have a basement. Just a lower level that is our media room. And even though we have a 2 stall garage there is actually not a lot of storage space when you have vehicles in there. We are fortunate with some bigger closets. And the biggest extra storage space/closet we have is in our lower level room. There have been so many decorations, bins of things from my past life with my ex, an old hope chest among many other things in there. We pulled EVERYTHING out. It was a chore as part of it is in a crawl space that is not easy to deal with when you have old joints and arthritis. Lol But we got it all out in the light of day. We sorted it all into stuff to get to my ex, stuff for Goodwill, stuff for the kids, and stuff to re-organize. It was a massive job I have wanted to do for a decade and Matt was an absolute dreamboat and helped me so much and we got it all done! Now there is so much more storage there for his world too. He moved into this house with me 3-4 years ago and packed a lot of his stuff away from his old place.  I have been living here for 20 years now). So it was another win knowing I could give him storage for some of his collections and things now. Plus his office is down on that level too. Now it makes me want to tackle every other closet in this house. I'm going to go through each one by one. Starting actually first with our dining room built-in hutch. I feel positively lighter in my soul getting that done! 😊

We also went to church this weekend and it was Palm Sunday and they read the passion. I love sharing that with Matt who is learning about Catholicism. We have such great discussions after mass like that and he asks such great questions. I just love that man SO much! We also went out for a nice dinner one night and ran a few errands. 

Now on to Easter planning week ahead...

 

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

coffee (fasting)

ON MY TO DO LIST THIS WEEK:

more Goodwill trips, dinner with my Mom and step Dad, errands, groceries, clean out hutch, Easter cleaning and getting ready to host this weekend, hospice work

THINKING ABOUT: 

That even though it's going to be a colder gray week - I was thrilled to see my first robin recently and that I keep hearing geese as they're all flying back for Spring. I know they can't wait for the bay to be rid of ice so they have a lovely landing strip again. :)  

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:

Listening to praise and worship music and devoting quiet time to prayer. 

CURRENTLY READING

 Coming Home to the Comfort Food Cafe by Debbie Johnson (the next book in that series I had been reading)

 

ON THE TV TODAY:

  Jeopardy, old seasons of big brother & the office, the Pitt, Survivor, Outlander, Virgin River, Call the Midwife, The Forsytes, Best Medicine, Shark Tank

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

    MONDAY - dinner at Mom and step Dad's

TUESDAY - leftover creamy potato soup from the weekend, salad

WEDNESDAY -  tacos

THURSDAY - maybe egg bake to use up veggies? and I have some breakfast chicken sausage I could throw in there too

FRIDAY - ? not sure, mostly fasting for Good Friday

*We will be hosting the Easter meal Sunday with our relatives over after Easter mass. I plan to do: 

Appetizers of orange peppers sliced and filled with whipped cream cheese & dill to look like little carrots, deviled eggs, crab dip with veggies & crackers. Main dishes of glazed ham, cheesy potatoes,  green veggie salad with raspberry balsamic dressing, fresh fruit salad, Matt's family recipe spring jello, corn, crudite of pickles and cheese, fresh baked dinner rolls, homemade lemon bars, easy fruit pizza cookies (they are tradition), and a strawberry rhubarb sauce over ice cream for my gluten-free Bro. Also, soda, iced tea and coffee

TO RELAX THIS WEEK I WILL:

read, watch shows with Matt, work on some shutterfly projects

TIPS OR SOMETHING TO SHARE:

Summer thoughts too soon? 😂

FROM THE CAMERA:

Isn't this insane? And there were still several bins that were pulled out not even in the pic yet 🙈 It's crazy how much stuff one accumulates over 20 years. I am not holding on to far less. I keep telling myself it will be easier when we move from this house one day if I get rid of more stuff now! 

More Easter around the house:

Some new recipes I made last week - caprese chicken pasta with balsamic glaze, and filet-o-fish sliders with homemade tarter sauce. Both turned out great and were so tasty! I will share the recipes soon. 😋

PRAYER LIST:

 For an end to the conflicts all over the world and anyone living in war & fear, especially everything going on in the middle east right now. For peace and unity in this country, especially from hate and shootings or violence.  For anyone sick, suffering, in pain, fear, loneliness etc ... that God bring them comfort and peace.  For everyone to have a safe and blessed Easter.

For the Lord's love and peace to fill 2026. ❤️ 

For Christ's Light and Love to cast out the darkness everywhere and help the world find its way to loving our neighbors as ourselves. 🙏🏻

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:

Wishing you a blessed week ahead and a very blessed Easter holiday my Friends. 

I'm sharing this with Sandra of Diary of a SAHM for Happy Homemaker Monday.

Cooking Thursday: Homemade Granola and a Fun Treat

 

Happy Thursday Friends!

I thought I had shared this recipe with you already, but I was looking back and I see that I never did. It's one I'd like to have in my recipe tab so I'm sharing it today, even though I made it a month or 2 ago. 

I think I found this in either a Taste of Home magazine? Or maybe my Country Living magazine where I have a subscription? As I mentioned, I made it a few months ago and I had taken a quick pic of the recipe... so I'm not certain. But it was really good and we used it in our desserts or for breakfast for a few weeks. 

The recipe was for this maple coconut granola. It was an easy and straightforward recipe. I mixed the ingredients, poured them on the sheet pan and baked it half way...took out the pan and added the coconut and then put in to finish baking. Then added in the chocolate chips and craisins when it came out of the oven and cooled a few minutes. I think I used whatever nuts I had on hand (sunflower and pumpkin seeds at the time). Then stored it in an airtight container and it stayed good for weeks. I had also halved this recipe and it still turned out great and lasted us a while. If you're not a coconut person I think you could easily omit it too. 

Here's the recipe:

With the yummy homemade granola we had this apple pie inspired yogurt treat for several nights. I don't remember where I saw inspiration for this recipe I sort of made up - maybe pinterest. I chopped and peeled a large apple and put it in a bowl. I then sprinkled the apple chunks with some cinnamon, ginger, ground clove and nutmeg. I drizzled all with some maple syrup and tossed it. I measured everything with my heart and no set amounts. I would guess a tbsp of syrup, a 1/2 to 1 tsp of cinnamon, and 1/4 tsp each of the rest. Tossed it all together and microwaved it until it was warm and softened. Maybe a minute - every micro is different so check as you go. Then I put the warm cinnamony apples on vanilla greek yogurt and sprinkled on some granola. So good and gave apple pie/apple crisp vibes for less sugar and calories and added protein. It was delish! 

If you try these recipes I sure hope you 

enjoy! 

xoxo

Wednesday Wonder: Spring Fairies

 

Hello Friends and happy mid week to you ☀️

The sun is shining away in the northwoods and my mantra continues to be the same..."melt snow melt" 😂

Our dining room has these built-ins where I keep some extra sets of dishes (chinaware, gravy boats, glasses, Christmas dishes, some linens etc). But I love the cubbies to display some dishes, family pics, and pottery... and of course my maximalist nature of seasonal decorations. Lol

But besides some very Easter-y things, I have also displayed a few fairy decorations in there. I meant to share them more around St. Paddy's Day, as I put them out kind of for that. However, I think they still fit the Spring vibe and all the dreaming I'm doing on planting flowers the fairy pots to come. 🌸

So I thought I'd give you a close up peek on how the fairies are slowly coming back for the season. 

Shhh though....visit quietly as this sweet fairy and her owl are having a nice afternoon nap. And I see another fairy stepped away from her desk where she was enjoying some letter writing. I love her little acorn cup of tea. 

LOVE the little ladybug :) 

I hope you still believe and hold a little fairy magic in your hearts. 😉✨

Blessings always.

xoxo

Happy Homemaker Monday

Happy Monday Friends!

It's sunny but there is a very chilly breeze in my neck of the woods. How is yours? Thankfully a lot of snow has melted. Although, we still have some snowbanks around. We're going to have coolish temps this week...but so it goes for March in the northwoods. 

It was kind of a crazy weekend around here. My Annie had been home on her Spring break but on Friday she either had food poisoning or a bad stomach flu as she became very sick to the point of needing to go to the ER at 4 in the morning. Thankfully they were able to give her meds to help and IV fluids. She has since been slowly getting better and finally on her travels back to FL today. My poor baby Girl. There's nothing worse than feeling helpless to help your kiddo. But I was so grateful for her visit and that we were able to get quality time with her. I miss her already. 

Of course I lysoled and bleached her bedroom and bathroom within an inch of their lives. Lol I actually lysoled all around the house too. And on the warmer day I had the windows open for 2 hours airing everything out. 

Aaron and Jill were up for the weekend for some events in Jill's family but we got a lot of time with them yesterday and had dinner and played games. Aaron was able to spend some time with us Friday (before Annie got sick). Thankfully no one else has gotten sick. 🙏🏻

Now on to the week ahead...

 

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

small bowl of cereal, coffee

ON MY TO DO LIST THIS WEEK:

my dentist appt, groceries, clean out some closets - take to Goodwill, projects, hospice work

THINKING ABOUT: 

How grateful I am for answered prayers that Annie is better. 

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:

the sun streaming in the windows and the ways it makes shadows that Bubba likes to chase

CURRENTLY READING

I still need to go back to Rebecca, but I started jumping into Coming Home to the Comfort Food Cafe by Debbie Johnson (the next book in that series I had been reading)

 

ON THE TV TODAY:

  Jeopardy, old seasons of big brother & the office, the Pitt, Survivor, Outlander, Virgin River, Call the Midwife, The Forsytes, Best Medicine, a Shark Tank taped

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

    MONDAY - dill pickle grilled chicken salad on keto toast, side salad

TUESDAY - slow cooker pork roast with garlic and lemon, roasted veggies with balsamic glaze

WEDNESDAY -  leftovers

THURSDAY - caprese chicken pasta with fresh basil and balsamic glaze

FRIDAY - filet o fish sliders I plan to make, seasoned roasted red potatoes and sweet potatoes, salad

TO RELAX THIS WEEK I WILL:

read, craft, play cards with Matt

TIPS OR SOMETHING TO SHARE:

FROM THE CAMERA:

Ruby got her haircut on St. Paddy's day and alway looks so cute when she is done. We enjoyed some warmer days in the sun this past weekend and now there is no snow left on the deck. Yay! In the third photo spot the Bubba. Lol 

At least Annie was able to finish her puzzle before she got sick! Such a pretty Spring one. Some more Spring moments including Annie did my nails with gel nail polish system and a curing tool I got. Love the Springy pink! I grabbed several different colors so it will be nice to do my own gel mani once in a while. It has definitely held up longer than when I paint my nails with regular polish.

Last week while here, Annie got another piercing in her ears. They're called stacked piercing and it's the little diamond one in between 2 of her other piercings.

Matt refilled the bird feeder this weekend and a pretty cardinal couple came to visit. Also, I saw my first robin!! But I didn't grab a photo. 

That's a true sign of Spring for me though. 

There was an article about stained glass in my new Pioneer Woman magazine for Spring and it mentioned St. John's Abbey in Collegeville MN. I actually had a photo of the stained glass there. My Aunt lives near there and we visited her a few years back and we went to mass at that church. The bottom 2 pics are the ones I took there - the first one being Matt looking up at the window. 

PRAYER LIST:

 For an end to the conflicts all over the world and anyone living in war & fear, especially everything going on in the middle east right now. For peace and unity in this country, especially from hate and shootings or violence.  For anyone sick, suffering, in pain, fear, loneliness etc ... that God bring them comfort and peace.  For Annie's safe travels back to FL. 🙏🏻

For the Lord's love and peace to fill 2026. ❤️ 

For Christ's Light and Love to cast out the darkness everywhere and help the world find its way to loving our neighbors as ourselves. 🙏🏻

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:

Blessings to you always Friends. 

I'm sharing this with Sandra of Diary of a SAHM for Happy Homemaker Monday.