Happy Homemaker Monday

Hello my dear Friends!

Happy Monday. ☀️

The sun is shining away this morning here in the northwoods. It's been sunny and lovely for about 4 days now and the snow has melted a ton. It's been wonderful! 

But of course we know where we live and we don't get too excited for Spring yet. In fact, there is a storm system a-brewin' and looks like we may get 6 inches of snow or more in the days ahead. ::sigh:: But I dream on Spring...even if I can't get excited yet. :) 

We had a nice relaxing weekend here and hope you did too. 💗 We did a lot of the usuals and also watched more Olympics and celebrated a yummy and mellow Valentine's Day together. I hope you had your batteries recharged, are getting lots of sunshine too, and are ready to dive into the week ahead...

 

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

coffee and a yogurt with berries

ON MY TO DO LIST THIS WEEK:

running some things to my Mom, errands, deep clean master bath cabinets, work projects, hospice work

THINKING ABOUT: 

how the sunshine streaming in gives me such energy and life as I listen to some praise and worship music

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:

the smell of a rose (as I sniff at one that I got this weekend) ❤️

CURRENTLY READING

The Selected Journals of Emma M. Lion vol. 1 by Beth Brower (there is a whole series but I'm going to see what I think of the first one)  

ON THE TV TODAY:

 the Olympics, Jeopardy, old seasons of big brother & the office, Junk or Jackpot on HGTV, Best Medicine, the Pitt, Miss Scarlet & All Creatures Great and Small on PBS, cooking shows and movies

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

    MONDAY - BLT's on keto bread, fresh veggies & dip

TUESDAY - chicken soup dumplings, veggie spring rolls

WEDNESDAY -  I plan to fast most of the day for Ash Wednesday

THURSDAY - slow cooker chicken fajitas

FRIDAY - ? not sure

TO RELAX THIS WEEK I WILL:

scrapbook, read, watch a movie

TIPS OR SOMETHING TO SHARE:

FROM THE CAMERA:

Still enjoying cozy days here which include some comfort food moments like my Gram's chickie chip casserole (secret ingredient: potato chips) and the recipe is under my recipe tab. Also, coloring on my ipad, doing more watercolor paintings, and when I'm not crafting I am reading my book or Spring dreaming magazines on the couch in my office with a view. I put the tv on in there with some mood music from youtube. I sit on the chaise lounger side of the couch while Ruby takes her nap on the other side. :) 

I have been finding some fun papers and stickers for our travel scrapbook as I catch up on past and current trips we've taken. 

I especially love this set of stickers I found on Etsy of the epic universe park - right down to the butterbeer and the BBQ and mac & cheese cone Matt loved. 

Valentines with my Honey is always the sweetest. We gave each other cards and little gifts - including he got me the cute Yoshi & Toadette plaque. Those are the characters we always choose when we play Mario Party together or with the kids. 😍  He took my out for a sushi lunch date and the restaurant gave me this sweet rose. Then I made my friend Mari's buttery air fryer steak bites for us for dinner (they were phenomenal Mari! That recipe is a keeper!!) And to go with it I made this smashed potato salad (tater tots) that had cukes, pickles, red onion and bacon with an amazing lemony briny dressing. It was so good too!  And then I made us homemade chocolate fondue for 2 for dessert with dippers of course! Doing extra walking miles this week but such a yummy weekend😋 And we snuggled in and watched the Olympics and shows and played some cards and video games. A perfect relaxing weekend with my sweet Hubby. 

This little stinker doesn't like it when I work on my computer and I don't give him enough attention. Lol I just love him though - I mean the cuteness alone. 😉

PRAYER LIST:

 For an end to the conflicts all over the world and anyone living in war & fear. 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 the Olympics to be fun and safe. For Nancy Gutherie to be found 😢

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:

Doing lots of this instead of "doom scrolling" 😊 

Blessings on your week Friends! I'm sharing this with my friend Sandra of Diary of a SAHM for Happy Homemaker Monday.

Happy Homemaker Monday (on a Tuesday)

Hello, happy Tuesday, and Happy September to you Friends!!

🍎📚🍁🌻🧡

Yay, we've begun the "BER" months...the best months of the year in my opinion. I love the Autumn season so much. And it's the season of our wedding anniversary (1st one under our belt very soon!) ❤️ 

And then all the fun holidays also show up under this time frame too. Not to mention the beauty of changing leaves, cooler temps, and cozy hibernation with the ones we love. 

Did you have a lovely weekend? (holiday Labor Day one for my friends in the states) We did and that's why I'm posting late. We were at the lake cottage until last night. We went up and helped Matt's folks out some more. His Dad is healing well from his hip replacement, which is wonderful! And it was actually lovely weather this time so we were in the lake pontooning and swimming! Matt's Mom and I did almost a 2 hour workout in the lake. 💪🏻 It felt great! 

I have been enjoying a lot this summer and fell off from tracking my calories and working out as often. Matt has still been doing great and has kept off his goal weight which was losing 30-35 lbs. I have maintained my initial 12-15 lb weight loss...but I want to lose far more. 

So I made a pact with myself to move every day this month. Even if not always in a miles kind of way (like I did in my workout this AM), even if it just involves toning or yoga or going golfing.  Just doing something that benefits my physical well being in some way every day. And I'm logging all of it. Calories, exercise, water etc. The ways I have always lost weight is when I keep track, hold myself accountable, and do a calorie deficit and maintaining it. The benefits are not only weight loss but my joints and arthritis hurt less; I sleep better; my brain feels better; and I can do all the things I enjoy doing without pain (ie: go on long walks, golf etc). 

Don't get me wrong...I never stop enjoying baking, meal planning, cooking yummy things. Especially with the fun baking season ahead! But I keep track of it all and make sure my calories stay below a certain amount in each day. 

 

 

 

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

hot protein coffee (no more iced for me...yay cozy season!) with 

sugar-free cookie butter flavoring and almond milk, part of a puff built brownie protein bar 

ON MY TO DO LIST THIS WEEK:

dinner with my Mom & step Dad, bank & other errands related to my last name change things (I finally got my license & social security card in my new married name, yay!), get groceries, finish my wedding scrapbook before our anniversary so I can add anniversary page, start prepping for Fall and decorations (Autumn chores of cleaning windows, dryer vent from outside etc), hospice work

THINKING ABOUT: 

Matt's ex-wife's cousin is an art teacher. She had the recent Annunciation school/church shooter (Robert/Robin) in her class many years ago. She posted this on FB and had a lot of incite to share about things. I found it very moving and I think she brings up some great points if you'd like to read...

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:

Sipping hot tea on a chilly day while watching out the window as it rains and leaves swirl in the wind.

CURRENTLY READING

I've decided to finish all the Dream Harbor series before moving on to my other books. I finished another one and I think I only have 2 more to go in the series :) 

ON THE TV TODAY:

 Americas Got Talent, The Office, Big Brother,The Last Kingdom, I think we may both watch the House of Guiness when it comes out later this month (I think on Netflix)

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

    MONDAY -  ate at the lake

TUESDAY -  pickle pizza on whole wheat crust, broccoli slaw

WEDNESDAY - maybe protein pasta with marinara and Italian chicken sausage, veggies

THURSDAY - I think we will do dinner with my Mom & step Dad that we didn't do last week and bring them something 

FRIDAY - maybe out for dinner?

TO RELAX THIS WEEK I WILL:

work on fun projects, go for long walk with Hubby, read

TIPS OR SOMETHING TO SHARE:

I saw this on social media and think I want to try it this season: they steeped a tea bag in their oatmeal. I like to have oatmeal once in a while when it gets cold outside. And I think it would be so neat to add more flavor along with the boiling water into easy oats. For example, steep a chai tea in a an apple cinnamon oatmeal. Or steep earl grey in berry flavored oats and add a little splash of almond milk. Yum! 

FROM THE CAMERA:

Ten Mile Lake (that our cottage sits on) is so clear. The first pic is looking down off the dock about 5-6 ft down. 

Such a lovely day for pontooning. Ruby LOVES the boat and she also loves snuggling with her Mom. ;) 

There's an area on the lake with a sandbar and families love to anchor there as it's shallow and they picnic and have their kiddos swim there etc. You can see the line up of boats there. 

Of course when we got back home Bubba was full of "I missed you" lovies and snuggles. I had made some yummy meals and treats for the weekend...including these banana split cookies that I will share the recipe again this week.  

We stopped in at a furniture store having a Labor Day sale and I got these cute wood mushrooms for Fall. We also purchased a lovely new Amish dining room set that will get delivered in the future. The set we have now was one I bought quickly after my divorce for something new. It was a cheaper set and the chairs haven't held up well at all. It was time to get something sturdy that will last us a long time! 

Still completing our wedding scrapbook. I've been putting in our engagement story, all of the wedding details including our invite and other keepsakes and even our wedding vows. I will share it when it's all done. I plan to take pics of each of our anniversaries and add that page each year. 💝

PRAYER LIST:

 For an end to the conflicts all over the world and anyone living in war & fear. 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 real change to happen to prevent another shooting from ever happening in our schools again. For all the students, faculty and families suffering from the Annunciation shooting. 

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

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:

Sending you my love dear Friends...and wishes for a wonderful rest of your week. 

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