Happy Homemaker Monday

Hello dear Friends of my heart!

First of all I need to sing out 🎵🎶 Happy Birthday to You🎵🎶 to my sweet Annie boo!! I can't believe this little Pumpkin (& the baby of our family) is 20 years old today. Please hold me. 😢 I need time to slow down!!

But I'm so proud of this young amazing woman and all that she is working towards. I'm especially proud of the wonderful kind, smart, sweet, genuine human she has become. I pray God's blessings over her everyday. 🎂🎉

Did you have a good weekend Friends? Did you celebrate Mother's Day? 

We had a multiple celebration here this weekend. We had my kiddos over and Jill (my son's partner - Annie's bf is in FL), and my Mom and step Dad over. We celebrated Annie's birthday and my step Dad's birthday (his is the 13th) and Mother's Day. 

Matt BBQ'd burgers and I made sides and the cake Annie requested so we had cake and ice cream as well. It was so wonderful having the kiddos around all weekend to play games and visit and catch up on their lives. And to honor my Mom & step Dad too. And of course I'm so happy my Annie is home for the summer! 💗

I had a lovely Mother's Day too and felt so loved and spoiled. Matt and the kids gave me the most beautiful and touching cards (they always make me cry) and gifts. And the sun came out later in the day and we sat out on the deck and soaked it up. And just a little after we came back in the house some baby bears were running around in our back yard! (pics below) 

It was a great weekend as we also went out to dinner one night with Annie, went to church Saturday evening, and then the wonderful family time. It doesn't get better. And now it looks like warm weather is finally going to be in our forecast and I can feel summer in the air.

 Life is good!🙏🏻

 

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

iced protein coffee

ON MY TO DO LIST THIS WEEK:

spectrum here again as still having some modem or cable lines issues, hospice meeting for education updates, folks coming to give estimates for bathroom reno we are going to do, hang out with my Annie :) 

errands, hospice work

THINKING ABOUT: 

how close it's getting to where I can go pick out flowers and what I want to plant in my little veggie garden - yay!! 

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:

When my daughter likes to pamper me - like she did this weekend when she did a gel polish job on my nails with a curing light. They turned out so cute...and she used a little tool to make those little summer oranges!

CURRENTLY READING

I received a fun romance book for Mother's Day from Aaron's sweet Jill and I'm excited to dive into that next!

 

But in between I've been reading

The Waiting Place by Eileen Button as well. I just read a chapter a day as almost extra devotional time. It's a group of essays and it's great food for thought and uplifting.

 

ON THE TV TODAY:

  Jeopardy, old seasons of big brother & the office,  Survivor, Outlander,   Ghosts,  Love on the Spectrum (need to finish it)

Matt and I need to go back and finish The Last Kingdom series

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

    MONDAY - leftovers (spending part of the day with Annie but she's doing her bday tonight with her dad)

TUESDAY - cardamom french toast (Annie fave) and fruit, bacon

WEDNESDAY -  pasta, garlic bread, salad (another Annie fave)

THURSDAY - maybe leftovers?

FRIDAY - out for dinner?

TO RELAX THIS WEEK I WILL:

read in the sun, hang with Annie, craft

TIPS OR SOMETHING TO SHARE:

*This is the company that I was talking about when I shared that I had Matt's wedding ring made with materials I picked out. His was made with Koa wood (sacred to Hawaii a place Matt loves so much), and fishing line and gold to match my ring. 

The company started because a husband and wife started it after they did something unique for his wedding band to represent his likes and they got so many comments from people they knew they were on to something. So they decided to start their own company so others could have what they wanted too. You could have car parts, typewriter parts, deer antler - almost anything you can think of that would represent your partner you can pick. They have women's rings too and standard designs not just men's. And you can pick the metal materials too. 

FROM THE CAMERA:

Scenes from a family celebration. There isn't pics of my son because he doesn't always cooperate about them. Lol

My kids always pick out what cake they want me to make. Annie picked a homemade lime cake (I used real lime juice and zest so I added a little food coloring to make it more green) and homemade strawberry buttercream icing. It turned out really well and everyone loved it. It was really tasty. (I'm always so happy when it turns out! Lol) 

I had found a "hello twenty" sign in rose gold and planned the cake decorations around it. Annie collects sonny angel figures and I put a birthday one on the cake and a gold "20" along with spring flowers and butterflies. She told me she loved it so much and was the prettiest cake ever - so I know I did my job well. :) 💗

cake and vanilla bean ice cream (does it get better?😋)

I hope all of her wishes come true! 

And then some baby bears came and played on our hill. I had just been saying to Matt that I was surprised we hadn't seen bear visitors yet. Lol

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 Matt's knee. For my in-law's safe travels as they head to the lake from AZ.

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:

Have and amazing week ahead Friends!

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

Cooking Thursday: Pesto Sausage & Orzo Skillet

 

Hello Friends!

I hope you're having a wonderful Friday Eve! Yay for the weekend ahead. I think the weather is supposed to be pretty decent here in the northwoods too. I sure hope so for the sake of a lovely Mother's Day. 

And I'm so excited as our dear Annie is supposed to roll in from college today. Yippeee!! My momma heart is doing a jig of joy. 😊💗

Today I thought I'd share this skillet I kind of made up after seeing some things that were similar on different places in social media. 

It's a pretty straight forward dish and has pesto and some caprese flavors involved. 

Here are the ingredients I used:

1 pack of caprese flavor chicken sausages

a handful of cherry tomatoes (sliced in half)

half of an onion

3 garlic cloves

a carton of chicken stock

1/2 of a small box of orzo (although next time I'd use only about 1/4 of the box or so)

3 big TBSP of pesto

parmesan cheese to taste

I think this is really more of a method and feel free to use the ingredients you prefer (Italian sausage, chicken, different veggies etc) But I started by heating up a big skillet to medium high with some olive oil. I added onion, and the sausages and sauteed a few minutes. Then I added in the garlic and tomatoes and cooked until the tomatoes started to soften up. While you're getting this going fill up a sauce pan with chicken stock and bring to a boil. Then throw in your orzo and cook to package instructions and when done drain and set aside as you continue cooking.

Once everything was getting nice and browned I deglazed the pan with just a little bit of chicken stock. Feel free to do a little wine here instead - whatever you like. I think cooking should be open too interpretation and it should be fun to experiment and play around. 

Once that had reduced a bit and all the flavors were melding I threw in some pesto and some sprinkle parm cheese and mixed it all together.

Then I took the cooked orzo that was set aside and stirred it into the skillet.

 

I drizzled ours with some balsamic glaze and then sprinkled on a bit more parm. We had it with a nice green salad and it was delish! 

Have a wonderful weekend ahead dear Friends. For those Moms that will be celebrating - Happy Mother's Day blessings to you. And for those that struggle with that day, please know you are seen and loved. 😍

It's going to be a busy one once Annie rolls in. I will make the visits to you all as soon as i'm able. 

Enjoy!

xoxo

Flower Power

 

Hello lovely Friends!

Are flowers a love language for you? 🌸

They sure are for me - in any form. 😍

Giving bouquets, receiving bouquets, picking wildflowers, digging in the dirt and planting pots, using flower paper ephemera in scrapbooking & projects, and having things decorated with flowers ...ie:  iphone case, antique pottery in my home, blankets - well you get the idea. 

So today I thought I'd share some recent flower moments in my northwoods world :) 

But first I need to share this adorable moment from an absolute joy in my life: my baby Girl turned 19. And she chose DQ ice cream cake this year. And it was so good. 😋

Now back to flowers. I weeded out all my lilies the other day. Always a taxing project. I get down on all 4's with a kneeler pad and pull out all the old growth from last year. You can see the brown straw-like pile in the background. It's such satisfying work when it's all done! 

Also, our rhubarb we planted last year is coming up. And the peonies too (but I forgot to grab a pic of that)

I've very slowly begun to accumulate flowers - but haven't gotten out my pots yet. Matt was so sweet to get me my hanging baskets for the front and back. (the front of the house ones I put in big pots by the door) 

It's supposed to be colder and rain in the days ahead. So I think I'll wait to grab more plants - but I did acquire a strawberry plant, some lemon balm, lemon thyme, and oregano. Plus, sweet Jill got me a pansy for Mother's Day. Next up will be getting the pots out of the garage and shed and plan out what kinds of flowers I'll want to get this year, and where I'd like to plant them. That's a big part of Spring fun along with actually digging in the dirt! Also, the daffodils finally bloomed so I made a sweet bouquet of them along with the lemon balm. 

Some of our solar lanterns are out now and I recently grabbed this sweet sunflower one. And the dear fairy folk have started to show up now that it's back to gardening season...so we'll have to wait and see where they end up. 

One of the gifts from my son this year was this sweet shortbread mold and I just LOVE it!! I can't wait to bake with it. 

And for my Mom and her "basket of sunshine" Mother's Day gift I put together - I had made this little framed decoration with an antique flower pin. I used a scrapbook paper background, some felt, hot glue and a pretty frame. She LOVED it which is more of that love language stuff I was talking about. 💛

Do you garden? Love flowers? What's blooming around you right now? 

🌱💚🌸