Happy Homemaker Monday

Happy Monday to you Friends😊

It seems like we are flying with lightening speed through yet another month! This past weekend we celebrated some birthdays. My son's was last week and my Dad's is this week. My son came up to stay with us this weekend (his partner Jill was out of town with friends). So we celebrated both bdays together this past weekend. To me, their birthdays are always a sign of how late into summer we are - and how close September is coming. 

It has been such a dry summer so we are also already seeing moments of leaves changing color around our area. And the geese have been flying over, or gathering on the bay, in abundance. More signs of Autumn in the air. 🍁

I have the windows open today as it's only in the high 60's and partly overcast with a nice breeze. It feels heavenly! I was cleaning up from our birthday party fun from the weekend this morning. And doing my morning workout. Now that my back is feeling better I've been back to it (gently). And it sure feels wonderful to feel back to myself. And I know many kiddos started back to school this week. Including my Annie away at college. I think the local public schools here start right after Labor Day as well. So there is that back-to-school feeling in the stores and everywhere now too. I just sent Annie a fun goodie box to wish her a happy new school year and to send a few cute things for her new apartment. I always loved this time of year as a kiddo myself and I still embrace that  fresh start feeling in everyday life. I've been organizing some things in my bathroom and office. And the next job I will tackle will be our pantry cabinets in the kitchen. I guess that's my version of jumping into the start of a new season. 🍎❤️

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

 

I fasted this AM and just had iced coffee

ON MY TO DO LIST THIS WEEK:

errands, run things to my Mom & help her with Fall decorations, lunch and walking with a friend, groceries, cleaning projects, hospice work

THINKING ABOUT: 

how fun it was to catch up with my Aaron and how I hope Annie has an amazing school year ahead

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:

sitting outside on the rocking glider with a cool breeze reading my book and hearing geese fly over

CURRENTLY READING

I still need to finish my latest book but not sure what I'm going to dive into next?

 

ON THE TV TODAY:

Big Brother, Ted Lasso, I am watching Sanditon I never watched it when it was on PBS, we may start Widows Bay in the future? we still need to go back and finish this season of House of the Dragon though too

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

    MONDAY - french onion soup and leftover pasta salad & veggies from the weekend

TUESDAY - fried eggs with chili crunch on toast or protein pancakes, berries

WEDNESDAY - slow cooker honey garlic chicken (new recipe) with jasmine rice, green beans from the garden & broccoli

THURSDAY - sesame ginger chicken crumbles over cauliflower rice, veggie spring rolls

FRIDAY - out for dinner or leftovers

TO RELAX THIS WEEK I WILL:

work on holiday projects, read 

TIPS OR SOMETHING TO SHARE:

 

FROM THE CAMERA:

It's been fun picking things out of our little garden to add to our dishes. The green beans are really coming in and we have had several meals with them as our side dish already. I pick a handful like this almost every couple of days. One night we had a yummy garlic & herb pork roast and with it some zucchini & the garden green beans sauteed with garlic and oregano from our garden too. Also, roasted potatoes that included rosemary from our garden. Love that part of this time of year. :)💚

We set the table for our birthday celebration and my Dad and step Mom came over. We started with some appetizers and then Matt grilled steaks, burgers, & corn on the cob... and we had veggie pasta salad, and melon too.

the card I got for my Dad (gnomes always remind me of him)

I made Ghiradelli brownies for Aaron and I made these apple dessert bars for my Dad. I made a short bread crust and baked it a little, then apples I tossed with sugar and cinnamon etc on top of that... and then I added a streusel topping and baked the bars until they were done. I topped them off with salted caramel sauce before serving. They were a hit! I will share the recipe in the future.

I follow a gal on social media that makes the best overnight oats recipes and she recently made a peach cobbler one - so I made that today to have tomorrow. They look &smell so good! I will share that recipe in the future too. Basically I cut up a peach and sauteed it in a tiny bit of butter with a tsp of maple syrup, vanilla, and cinnamon & nutmeg. And the oats have vanilla protein powder, milk, greek yogurt, chia seeds & a tiny bit of maple syrup, cinnamon & nutmeg too. 😋 Tomorrow I will stir it up and top with a little bit of granola or crushed graham cracker.

pretty late summer on the bay:

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 a friend that recently went through a break up :(

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:

I wish for you many of those wonderful unexpected moments my Friends. 

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

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 Friends and Happy Monday 😊

Are you in the heat of summer right now too? It's been in the 90's here the past couple of days and we have a few more hot days ahead. We don't get too many days in the 90's in the northwoods...so I think they always feel extra warm to us. Plus, they typically come with quite a bit of humidity. So I was doing all of my outside chores nice and early. And my workout - as I have been increasing the time I spend in my workouts each day...so I work up a good sweat!  So I wanted to get it in before it got too warm.  

I sure give a round of applause to the person that invented air conditioning!! Lol 

We had a fun weekend at the lake. Matt's Mom used to be part of putting on a production there each year. Though she's not as involved anymore, she still has a connection to an artist that brings his group up to perform now in the park each summer. He is from her old home town and he was one of her students when she was a teacher there. He has a "big band" type band he is the lead of - and also an 80's band. This year the 80's band came to perform and they were awesome!! So fun and brought back such fun memories of my youth. I'm biased, of course, but I think the 80's were the best!! 💗

We also had fun hanging with Matt's folks and did some chores around the property. As well as playing cards in the a/c, watched an Avengers movie, and spent one whole afternoon swimming in the lake (we didn't want to get out!) It was so nice on such a hot day. 

Now I've been back home and catching up with Annie and chores around the house. So it's on to the week ahead....

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

ice protein coffee

ON MY TO DO LIST THIS WEEK:

groceries, errands, my MD appt, yard work (when the weather cools down), hospice work

THINKING ABOUT: 

How I'm treasuring the time with my Annie while she's still here this summer. I'm so grateful to get quality time with her. 💗

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:

golfing with my Hubby 😊

CURRENTLY READING

Nothing new at the moment

 

ON THE TV TODAY:

Jeopardy, Big Brother, AGT - need to catch up on some other shows too

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

    MONDAY - 

TUESDAY -

WEDNESDAY - 

THURSDAY -  

FRIDAY -

*not sure about the menu this week - we need groceries but want to check in with Matt & Annie about things they may want for this week (& will bring some things to my Mom too)

TO RELAX THIS WEEK I WILL:

hopefully read, work on projects

TIPS OR SOMETHING TO SHARE:

 

FROM THE CAMERA:

We had so much fun at the 80's concert in the park with Matt's folks. People came over in their boats and pontoons (as the park is on the lake) and would listen from the water too. 

I had to wear my "sincerely yours, the breakfast club" t-shirt 😉

some of the hot weekend we hung out in the a/c at the cabin and I was coloring on my ipad - I guess I had Christmas in July thoughts going on. Lol

Ruby thought we were going on the pontoon and ran right onto it. We had to coax her off and tell her it was too hot for a ride that day. 

But we loved swimming in the lake and this family of ducks floated on by :) 

Some moments back at home:

Matt & I like to still date one another, even during the day while he's working at home (he's been extra busy these past few weeks). So we often send one another a sweet text, or a pic, or something funny. So I had sent him some love along with this pic the other day. He is the sweetest most hard working Honey. So so grateful for him! ❤️

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 healing for my Mom. For my step Dad fighting pneumonia.

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:

I love this because I love scrapbooking and paper ephemera and tangible memory things. It's hard for me to get rid of things. I'm such a sentimental softie I guess. Do you like those things too?

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

Have a blessed week!