Happy Homemaker Monday

Hi Friends! 

I'm doing a later afternoon version of HHM today. Been busy with my Annie-girl today since school is out. My Aaron is back to working for the summer for his Dad. But I'm also late posting because we're having some issues computer-wise around here. One, because service has been iffy around our area recently (it was out for almost 9 hours yesterday!) and two, because of just some issues I'm specifically having with my computer. Going to have tech guys look at it tomorrow. I think my email may be changing soon too. Stay tuned I guess. So hopefully I'll get this HHM completed and linked today.

 Other than service and computer frustrations it was a nice quiet weekend around here. Very little sports and Annie was at a friend's cabin for a night and Aaron was out with his friends. We didn't feel like going out so we had a nice date night at home. We have a couple we often go out with but both theirs, and our lives, have been so busy with our kiddos' activities we haven't been able to connect in a while. Hope we'll get more fun time with them this summer in between the crazy! :P We didn't get the dock or pontoon in this weekend but hopefully next weekend - maybe just in time for Father's Day.  ;) 

And I, of course, have to mention my wonderful visit with the lovely Jean of the blog sonotorganized! I'm so thankful she reached out to me that'd she be vacationing in my area and sacrificed some of the time to set up a breakfast date with me! It was so fun to meet and learn more about each other and our families...over some yummy pancakes. ;)  We gabbed for a couple of hours that flew by. I love that now I'll have a face and voice to go with her posts now. We took a selfie that I'll post with pics under from the camera below. Thanks again Jean! It was so wonderful to get that time with you and hope you truly enjoyed your vacation in my neck of the northwoods. xo

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

Cloudy and cooler currently - upper 50's. Might hit 60's Looks like rain rolling in tonight. Then pretty nice and 70's and 80's rest of the week

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

toast and some iced coffee

RIGHT NOW I AM:

Listening to my daughter play music outside as she has a friend over and they're jumping on the trampoline

AS I LOOK OUTSIDE MY WINDOW

Our yard looks so nice since the hubby cut it this weekend and filled in more areas that needed dirt and grass seed. I added some LED (purely solar) tiki torch kind of lights by the deck now too. All of my flower pots are doing well and it just really looks like summer out there. I love it!

AS I LOOK AROUND THE HOUSE:

I see Ruby playing with her squeak toy and laying on her back holding it just like my little baby ;) 

ON THIS WEEK'S TO DO LIST:

Annie's practices and several soccer games. Errands. MIL and FIL things. Helping my Mom and doing fun day with her too. I'm happy to report I have the office/craft room and closet almost completely gone through, cleaned and organized. Yay! It's going to make working on my craft projects so much easier. 

 

CURRENTLY READING:

Just starting Whispering in French, then some Janet Evanovich books lined up and I pre-ordered a new Debbie Macomber book

ON THE TV TODAY:

  America's Got Talent, American Pickers, Cooking shows, Bering Sea Gold, some movies taped

 

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

MONDAY: leftover slow cooker sweet & sour meatballs over rice

TUESDAY:tacos (since I didn't make them last week) and I'm going to make myself a good old fashioned taco salad with doritos and french dressing 

WEDNESDAY: easy night (soccer)

THURSDAY: parmesan chicken, corn on the cob (fresh!), pasta side dish, watermelon, salted caramel brownies for dessert

FRIDAY: leftovers or out for dinner?

SOMETHING INTERESTING I WATCHED 

I have a treadmill and walk with Ruby for weekly exercise. As well as some workout DVD's. But I love that youtube has so many wonderful exercise videos that I can pool from for workouts too. And I can even focus on specific body parts to target. One youtube channel I like on  there is Popsugar you can find by clicking here. There's a lot of variety to the videos they offer and I like that if I want to just target working my arms - there are brief 10 minute videos just for that. No more excuses as anyone can fit in a 10 to 15 minute workout of some kind - right? :P

WHAT I AM CREATING AT THE MOMENT

Going to work on some crafting projects (involving canvas), scrapbook stuff. And the next room I'll be tackling soon is the kitchen. Going through every cabinet - scrubbing, decluttering and organizing!

NEW RECIPE I WANT TO TRY THIS WEEK:

nothing new this week - maybe a grilling recipe on the weekend?

TIP OF THE WEEK:

FROM THE CAMERA:

   

    

View from my living room window on a sunny day - and some of my flower pots that bring me sunshine 

The Jean and Carrie selfie ;) 

ooh- la - la 

 

Speaking of selfies - I may have been having too much fun playing with the filters on instagram the other day for pics I was sending a girlfriend of mine. Sometimes I'm a dork that way.  Don't judge me ;) 

Annie's last day of school last week. I spent part of the day with her class. One of our stops that day involved one of her teacher's homes that has chickens! Then back at school they had a really sweet slide show to music for the kids. She had a great year and it felt like it flew by to me! She will officially be a 7th grader this coming school year. ::sniff::  Our baby is all grown up

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:

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

Happy Homemaker Monday

Hello Friends! 

Happy Monday to you. ;)  Sorry I missed last week's HHM - but I was busy enjoying tMemorial Day with my family and didn't spend much time on the computer. We are in the final crunch of the end of school activities...as well as still really busy in sports. I'm actually looking forward to school ending and life slowing down. Also, to fun times with my kiddos around home, as well as some fun summer activities. Slowing down will also mean getting back on a more regular routine with ,my blogging. Thank you so much for your visits here an lovely comments. It always means the world to me. 

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and all is well in your world. We had a nice weekend around home (no sports travel for this one - whew!)...and also a nice outing with my Dad and step Mom. They were wintering in AZ this year and are back now. We had fun catching up with them and going out for a bite. 

I'm excited to share, as well, that a fellow blogland friend - Jean of the blog sonotorganized.com (she also frequents HHM) had been in touch with me. She let me know she will be in my neck of the northwoods this coming week and asked if maybe we could connect for a cup of coffee and meet in actual person.  I said OF COURSE! Yay!! I'm so excited to think I'm going to actually sit down and talk with someone from blogland in human form. Stay tuned and I'll share those adventures in the future. Looking forward to seeing you soon Jean! ;) 

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

Sunny with some clouds and low 70's today. Might have a few cooler days this week (upper 50's to low 60's). Looks like mostly sun though - with a chance of rain on Wednesday.

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

bowl of frosted flakes with banana slices on top and iced vanilla coffee

RIGHT NOW I AM:

Listening to Joshua Bell radio and enjoying the breeze through the window. Working on my planner and schedule for the week. Making out graduation cards for several kiddos we know graduating this year

AS I LOOK OUTSIDE MY WINDOW

I see our grass needs to be mowed. Had lots of rain recently and we've been busy or gone quite a bit. Need to get our Aaron on that job. ;) I can hear my windchimes sing in the wind now and then. There are lots of ripples on the bay with how breezy it is. My hanging baskets of flowers are dancing too

AS I LOOK AROUND THE HOUSE:

bright and sunny right now - but still needs some tidying and a few more chores accompished. Ruby is running around playing with her squeaky toy ;) 

ON THIS WEEK'S TO DO LIST:

Lots going on this week - dentist appointment, belated lunch date with an Auntie, soccer practices and 2 soccer games, summer hockey practice, groceries, meeting with Jean ;) , last days of school for kiddos and I'm going to activities with Annie's class their last day, visit MIL, food for FIL, get the rest of the flowers for my Mom and for my in-law's house, home projects 

 

CURRENTLY READING:

Finally going to get back to books and dive into Whispering in French and then some Janet Evanovich books I have on my ipad that I haven't read yet.

 

ON THE TV TODAY:

  America's Got Talent, American Pickers, Cooking shows, Bering Sea Gold, some movies taped

 

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

MONDAY: leftovers from the weekend

TUESDAY: BLT's, chips, veggies & dip

WEDNESDAY: tacos and fixings

THURSDAY: lemon blueberry pancakes, sausage, fruit

FRIDAY: need a new grill so if we get it this weekend will grill something - maybe chicken? Or "hobo" dinner packets

SOMETHING INTERESTING I WATCHED 

I don't have anything too exciting to share here - but I did finally watch the rest of Little Women from PBS that I had taped. It was so good! And I thought it was cool that one of the main characters (Jo) was played by Maya Hawk. She's the child of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawk. I just find things like that interesting. She did a great job and I can definitely see both of her parents in her. 

WHAT I AM CREATING AT THE MOMENT

Working on a closet by my craft room/office and getting those spaces all in order so I can continue back on my scrapbooking projects, as well as some other things in the works

NEW RECIPE I WANT TO TRY THIS WEEK:

Not sure about anything new this week?? Maybe a dessert this weekend

TIP OF THE WEEK:

For Memorial weekend I made a really fun sandwich. We like those hawaiian buns to make sandwiches with because they're kind of sweet. And I often use them to make sliders of some kind too. We sometimes buy the big round loaf to have with spinach dip too. But last week I got the big round loaf and cut it into thirds crosswise and made a big triple layer stacked sub sandwich with turkey, provolone, ham, cheddar, lettuce and tomato, and mayo and mustard. It was so yummy and we had wedges of it here and there all weekend. Here some pics I took to show you:

Yummy and easy way to make a big sub sandwich for a party or picnic :P

FROM THE CAMERA:

Summer has come to the bay - as well as in all the shrubs and flowers around our home ;) 

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:

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