Christmas in July 🎄🌟

Hello Friends

Happy Fri-yay to you...the weekend is here! 💗

It's been a busy week with my Annie and her bf, Kristopher, here. Yesterday we spent the day in a quaint town about an hour &1/2 from us. It's a charming town on Lake Superior. It's got marinas filled with sailboats & fishing boats and cute homes on a hill that have sweet shutters, window boxes of flowers & charming little gardens. My Dad and step Mom rent a place there for some of the summer every year. So we got to catch up with them. And an Uncle that lives about an hour away from there came to meet us all for dinner too. 

We spent the day visiting and catching up, walking around the town, shopping the cute artsy shops, and eating fun food. You can see photos of our adventures at the end of this post.

But earlier in the week when Kris first got here, we did our Christmas in July time. To get in the spirit click below to listen

We listened to music like this all evening. I made a holiday-like meal. And we enjoyed that along with some Christmas sugar cookies. We exchanged some little gifts after dinner and then played fun board games. I loved every minute! :) I think the kids & Matt got a kick out of it too.

                                                

this photo looks like how it felt around here ❤️💚

We enjoyed a meal that consisted of roast chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, mac & cheese, cranberries, vegetable medley, dinner rolls, and sugar cookies with cream cheese icing & holiday sprinkles. 😋

Followed by a few fun little gifts to open:

Here are some photos from our fun excursion and family time yesterday:

Happy Homemaker Monday

Hello and Happy Monday blogging Besties!

Can you believe this month is almost over already?? This summer is moving forward at lightening speed. 🙈 I'm still trying to focus on getting in all the summer things we haven't done yet. And trying not to focus on the fact that it will be August in a matter of days...and August in the northwoods is really pre-Fall. It's getting Fall focused even in the world right now as there are lots of Autumn things in the stores and all the back-to-school stuff too. Fall is my favorite, but I'm determined to try and keep my heart and mind in Summer for right now. ☀️🌸

This past weekend I got some great bonding time with my Annie boo. Matt went to the lake to see his folks, but Annie and I had made some plans and I wanted some quality 1:1 time with her. Her bf, Kristopher, comes to visit this week. And not long after that she heads back to college. So I'm soaking up all the time with her I can. We did some fun shopping, fun food, played cards and watched shows. And of course fun girl talk. I treasure time with her and I'm so grateful this is still home base for her. She will be a junior this year - so I know that time is fleeting too. 

But enough thinking about that sad (but proud) stuff and on to the week ahead...

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

an egg white muffin that has veggies and cheese in it (frozen Costco ones that are really good), iced protein coffee and I will admit to putting chobani pumpkin spice creamer in it...and it was delish! 🎃

ON MY TO DO LIST THIS WEEK:

errands, bring things to my Mom, some groceries, my hair appt, fun outtings with Annie's bf visiting here, going to visit my Dad & step Mom, hospice work

THINKING ABOUT: 

The plans for our Christmas in July day while Kris is visiting. He loves Christmas music like I do, so Annie suggested we do that while he's here visiting. So I'm going to make a simple version of a holiday type meal. And kind of a cheater version of my Gram's cut-out cookie recipe. Just going to use grocery store sugar cookie dough - but make my Gram's cream cheese buttercream and sprinkles for the top. We're going to listen to Christmas music and I will probably color or craft and Annie said she will either color or her & Kris will do a puzzle or work on a lego project she has. :) Not sure if Matt will play along for that part or maybe we will do the music part during the day while he is working. Lol 

I also got some little gifts I'm going to surprise the kids & Matt with that evening. I love Christmas and miss this old tradition I did years ago when Annie was little - so it will be fun to a get a fix before July is over 

🎄❤️💚

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:

feeling God's blessings everywhere & having such gratitude in my ❤️

CURRENTLY READING

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower

 

ON THE TV TODAY:

Jeopardy, Big Brother, AGT, some Hallmark Christmas in July movies I taped, a last episode of Castle Impossible we didn't watch yet, we need to get back to House of Dragon and finish this new season

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

    MONDAY -leftover slow cooker sweet & sour meatballs & veggies

TUESDAY - Christmas in July night: chicken, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, vegetable medley, cranberries, dinner rolls, sugar cookies with Xmas sprinkles

WEDNESDAY - grilling burgers and vegetable kabobs with glaze

THURSDAY -  maybe leftovers or breakfast for dinner?

FRIDAY - out for dinner?

TO RELAX THIS WEEK I WILL:

color to Christmas music (yay!), craft, read

TIPS OR SOMETHING TO SHARE:

 

FROM THE CAMERA:

Last week one of Matt's old high school & college buddies, Dave, was in the area. So we invited him over for dinner. He played football with Matt and was one of his best friends. They hadn't seen each other in 14 years! Dave lives down by Iowa and doesn't come up this way too often...but happened to be coming up for work and so he reached out. It was so fun to meet him and Annie hung out with us all too. We enjoyed hearing all the old stories about Matt. 😊💗 Their line in football was called "the big dogs" line because they were all big and tall dudes. Matt is 6'2" and Dave is 6'3" and another friend on their line was almost 6'5". Matt said it was so fun for him and that it felt like no time had past since he'd last seen Dave. Dave kept making fun of Matt and saying that it wasn't fair that he looked exactly the same and still had all of his hair. 😂 (Dave was pretty bald under his cap)

My hydrangeas and lilies are really popping out now. I love that about this time of year. 

And I love that the lettuces and herbs are spilling over in their pots. The garden is becoming a big jungle and in another week or so we will be able to pick some cucumbers already. And it's been so nice not having more wildfire smoke so the nights have been clear with a pretty moon:

Over the weekend Annie & I also went to our local farmers market. There is a lady there that makes AMAZING sourdough bread & items. We got a loaf of cheddar jalapeno for Matt. And a loaf of cheddar chive (in the pic below). We also got sourdough strawberry rhubarb scones (not pictured). We got a huge lovely tomato, some broccoli, a cuke, some huge fresh basil and some jam. Annie made her favorite caprese sandwich for lunch with the basil, cheddar bread & tomato. She wants to go back to get more goodies next weekend! 

Also, Ruby got all cleaned up at the groomers recently and I love the chicken bandana they put on her! And Bubba was up to his usual craziness this past weekend. The furry babies sure keep us entertained! 

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 those in the recent Seattle shooting.

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

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:

Have a wonderful week ahead my BEAUTIFUL Friends!

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

Cooking Thursday: Gingerbread Overnight Oats and Summery Pinterest

 

Hello beautiful Blogland Besties!

How's things for you this Thursday?

I had some honorary Aunties over for lunch - so that's why I'm getting to this post a little late. We had a great catch up and I served some monte cristo sliders with raspberry preserves, melon, veggie tray and apple cinnamon kringle. 😋

Here's the table all set. I used my blueberry placemats and some new linen summery napkins I had picked up. 

Since I'm talking about food - I thought I would share a few delicious looking dishes from my pinterest. 

I'm still thinking summer things - other then next week we're going to do a Christmas in July time when Annie's bf comes for a visit. She & I have made a plan. He loves Christmas and holiday music like I do. :) So I'm going to make a more holiday-like meal, a Christmas related treat, and we're going to listen to Christmas music and color (or they may do a lego set). Plus, I've already got some little gifts for them and Matt just for fun. So even though it won't be on the 25th of July - I'm still going to have my little "fix" before the end of July. 

But back to summer ideas....

You can find all of these on my pinterest board called "summer" if you click here.

I've always wanted to make this and I'm determined to do it before summer ends.

Annie has been into all things lime - so I may make these before she heads back to school.

this is a recipe for Italian grinder chicken salad - doesn't it look tasty?

my summer board also has all kinds of different red, white, and blue ideas for the season

It also has other summer related things - like summery quotes I've liked.

And of course there are several different Christmas in July ideas. :) 

even a doggy popsicle idea

This is not a pinterest thing - but I saw this on social media and my daughter & I both really liked it. We stretched out a fruit roll up and wrapped it around a coconut popsicle. It makes the fruit roll up a crisp texture and the strawberry flavor with the coconut was really yummy! 

Another fun Christmas in July idea was the overnight oats I made the other day. They were gingerbread flavor and I added some chopped walnut and some chopped apple (not shown in the pic). It was really good and definitely had that molasses gingery flavor. I found the recipe at a site called healthynibblesandbits.com I made it according to the recipe but tweaked a bit of the amounts and also added a little maple syrup and some chia seeds. Here's the recipe:

My hydrangeas are going strong! 

I hope you're still enjoying these summer days. They are so fleeting in the northwoods...so I'm trying to soak it all up before it's gone. (even though Autumn forever has my heart)😉