Happy Homemaker Monday (on a Tuesday)

Hello and happy September Friends! 🍎🍁

I can't believe we're here!! In our wedding month - yay!! To say we're getting excited, pumped, nervous butterflies ...well all would be an understatement. Lol Matt and I are both so thankful for it all though. And we just continue to say prayers of gratitude for being led to one another and to be blessed to start a new journey hand-in-hand and thrilled for our new beginning ahead. 🙏🏻😊

I hope you had a lovely weekend? We had the lovely long Labor Day holiday weekend here and spent it with Matt's folks up at the lake. That's why I'm not getting to this post until today. It's always so nice to connect with them and it's easy to see how much joy it brings them. His Mom always says holds us close and says how hard it is when we have to leave. But we treasure the time when we're there and we had fun kind of saying goodbye to summer. It gets chilly in the northwoods at night and early mornings now. So we knew it would be the final time of water activities. We went in the lake and swam and we pontooned - but the water is getting awfully cold now! We sat on the dock and caught some sun rays. We played games, went for walks, ate great food, watched movies. Just had a long restful weekend. And now we'll get to see them again soon enough when they drive up for the wedding! Also, they gave us our wedding gifts so they wouldn't have to haul them and one gift was a cornhole set! Lol I'd been telling Matt we should get one. Just one more fun competitive game we can play (& I can beat him at) 😉

*we told people not to get us anything though - we are blessed & need nothing and asked instead they donate to a wonderful cause in our name

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

I had sugar free iced coffee and tiny bit of pumpkin spice granola cereal

ON MY TO DO LIST THIS WEEK:

errands & mail packages, Matt haircut, my hair appointment, I might be doing dinner with a friend, wedding fittings, hospice work 

THINKING ABOUT:  

All things wedding - aaacckkk - it's so close now!! Tomorrow for Wednesday Wonder I may post some wedding sneak peeks - stay tuned!

AS I LOOK AROUND THE HOUSE

It's sunny and I can hear how breezy it is outside. I'm listening to Celtic harp music (very soothing). Bubba is purring beside me. 

CURRENTLY READING

A Day that Changed Everything by Beth Moran (on my kindle)

ON THE TV TODAY:

 Bachelorette, HGTV shows, Big Brother, AGT, Emily in Paris (netflix), we are catching up on the last season of the Good Wife, also still watching Your Honor, and sometimes throw in another episode of The Walking Dead

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

    MONDAY - 

TUESDAY -  blueberry wild rice brats on the grill (so good!) with now bun (less carbs), salad, the last green beans from our garden

WEDNESDAY - beef & broccoli stir fry over cauliflower rice

THURSDAY - errands and might be out for dinner?

FRIDAY -  grilled hot ham & cheese sandwiches with thinly slice apple and fig jam on them, fresh raw veggies & dip

 

TO RELAX THIS WEEK I WILL:

play cornhole (😁), read, work on wedding things

TIPS OR SOMETHING TO SHARE:

Maybe I should make sure Matt has this info too? Lol 

FROM THE CAMERA:

The walks this past weekend were so lovely:

spotting more autumn moments in the northwoods!

The sun felt so good lounging on the dock:

And on the pontoon:

We enjoyed way too many good nibbles including easy apple dumplings I made to go with ice cream. And Matt's Mom made homemade egg rolls and homemade crab rangoon. She fried them and then kept them all warm in the oven. What a wonderful meal that was! 😋

And by last night back home sweet home

PRAYER LIST:

 For an end to the conflicts all over the world and anyone living in war & fear. Specials for the Israeli hostage families and for peace there. 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 His Light and Love to cast out the darkness everywhere and help the world find its way. For blessings on the marriage of Matthew and I coming up soon. And for safe travels and good health for all of our loved ones. 🙏🏻

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:

This household sure intends to do just that! 🌼💛 

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

Snickers Fruit Salad

 

When we went to Matt's lake property over the Labor Day holiday, I made this wonderfully amazing "salad" (ha - more like treat!) to share with his family.  I found it from an influencer I follow on instagram named Catherine Benson. She's a Mom that's really good with organization and home life things. She makes the neatest videos. You can find her at:

_catben_

She shared a video of this salad and I knew I wanted to try it! She listed the recipe too and it looked like it made a lot - so I sort of cut the recipe in half. This is the only pic I took of my salad right after I made it. But gives you the idea. 

Apples, grapes, strawberries, blueberries in yummy fluff....oh and chopped up snickers bars! What's not to love?? 

Here's her recipe:

I hope you give this one a try. It was a hit! 😋 

Happy Homemaker Monday (Tuesday edition)

Hello Friends ☀️ 

Happy Tuesday and officially September! I hope those of you that celebrated Labor Day weekend enjoyed a nice long relaxing one.  We had a lovely one here. Annie & I went out to a bestie's family friend's cabin. They have beautiful sprawling acres with a river running through it. We played in a corn hole tourney, played volleyball, ate great food and had a big campfire well into the late night. So much fun! Then yesterday I had my son and his gf over, along with my Mom and step Dad for a BBQ. The kids and I played badminton and then, after we ate we played board games with my Mom and her hubby too. All and all a restful and very fun weekend. 

We have still had some nice weather but, in the evening especially, you can feel the chill in the air. I've been trading my iced coffee for hot and digging out all of my hot teas too. 😋 But I haven't started doing Fall decorating yet. I've picked up a few new candles and have them out, but in the next week or 2 I will pack the rest of summer away. 

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

         

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

zucchini bread, coffee with amaretto creamer

ON MY TO DO LIST:

rescheduled bday lunch with my Aunt, MD appt, hospice volunteering and work from home, run around with my Mom, work on some deep cleaning and taking down summer decorations

AS I LOOK AROUND THE HOUSE   

the sun is shining in today and I'm already looking around my home and getting ideas where I want to put some of the other new Fall decorations I've picked up

CURRENTLY READING

been doing more crafting projects and less reading lately...

ON THE TV TODAY:

 Big Brother,  HGTV shows, the Chase, netflix shows, All Creatures Great and Small, youtube channels I subscribe to

 

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

Skipped my HF box this week - so none of those meals

MONDAY -  had Labor Day BBQ

TUESDAY - leftovers  - shredded BBQ chicken sandwiches, coleslaw, pasta salad, corn on the cob, melon, apple crisp & ice cream

WEDNESDAY - use last of BBQ chicken to make BBQ chicken english muffin pizzas, salad

THURSDAY - might be out?

FRIDAY - clean out the fridge

 

TO RELAX THIS WEEK I WILL:

start getting out Fall decorations, walk Ruby, hang with a gf, craft

TIPS OR SOMETHING TO SHARE:

FROM THE CAMERA:

Used some garden zucchini to make a bunch of zucchini bread (with chocolate chips of course 😏)

A wonderful girlfriend (& neighbor) used up her garden tomatoes and made surprised me with this amazing tart! It had carmelized onions and fontina cheese and it was AAH-MAZING!

I help at the hospice facility a few days a week and one of them I help with whatever is needed, and right it continues to be with helping catch up on scrapbooking obits for their albums. 

Chilly enough some evenings that I've need a blanket and hot tea to enjoy deck time. 

Annie in the corn hole tourney. The teams were picked by random draw - and there were a lot of teams! It was very fun. 😊 

it was so fun out at the cabin 😎 

my bobcat visitor had a baby with her this time! 

it's apple crisp season (yay) and I made my usual recipe (that I was published in a Mary Engelbreit cookbook for!). You can find it here.

PRAYER LIST:

Praying for peace, unity and healing for our world and our earth. For a complete end to the virus. For all the kids beginning school, that they have a blessed and safe year. For Afghanistan. For so many dealing with natural disasters - earthquakes, floods, hurricanes. For special personal intentions 🙏 

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:

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