Happy Homemaker Monday

Happy Monday my Friends 

I hope you had a lovely weekend. We kept cozy here. It's definitely been feeling more like Winter in the air and all the leaves are gone. We've had several days with snowflakes in the air. I can't believe it's November already!! Btw, did you have a fun Halloween friends? I shared all about ours in the previous post and shared pics and even some recipes too, if you'd like to check it out. 

Annie had scrimmages this weekend and even got to play some varsity time! Ad and I went and cheered her on. She was so proud and excited (& nervous). Pretty big deal for only an 8th grader...especially when they only let one other 8th grader get varsity time too. Annie played great and even had an assist on a goal in one of the games! 

She has more scrimmages this week before the real season games start. She'll play JV but we'll have to see if she'll be playing more varsity time again? I need to get her out of school to take her for some appts today pretty soon, so need to get this show on the road! 😊 

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING

A Jimmy Dean frozen sausage egg biscuit roll-up (it was really good!), raspberries, coffee with amaretto cream

RIGHT NOW I AM:

I'm listening to Christmas music. Yes, Christmas music people! It goes too fast for me and it's one of my fave parts of the season. So as soon as Halloween is past I listen to the music. Currently Josh Groban is singing the song from Polar Express. I'm also working on my planner for the week.

🎄 🎶 

AS I LOOK OUTSIDE MY WINDOW

It's gray and just looks cold. Watching Ruby run around in the yard and just chased a bunny. It was snowing earlier, but it stopped now. Supposed to get some snow on and off today. ❄️ 

AS I LOOK AROUND THE HOUSE

It looks tidy and I can hear the hum of the humidifier. I finally got it up and running for the season. It gets so dry with the heat running all the time this time of year. As soon as Ruby's fur starts getting filled with static I know it's time! Lol

ON THIS WEEK'S TO DO LIST:

Usual errands, Annie hockey practices and scrimmages, volleyball banquet, her doctor appointments, helping my Mom, bring FIL a meal, groceries later in the week, home projects, hospice volunteering

 

CURRENTLY READING

The Rules of Love and Grammar by Mary Simses. 

ON THE TV TODAY:

 Holiday baking championship,  Dancing with the Stars, the Resident, The Good Doctor, New Amsterdam, Greys Anatomy, This is Us, Survivor, Bluff City Law, The Rookie, Will & Grace

Catching up on shows I never watched when they first came out - The Crown on Netflix currently and Big Little Lies on HBO 

I also have some, you guessed it, Christmas Hallmark movies taped to watch

 

 

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

MONDAY: leftover homemade pizza from the weekend

TUESDAY: turkey sliders with cranberry, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy & veggies

WEDNESDAY: waffles, bacon, fruit

THURSDAY: maybe grab an easy sub due to hockey?

FRIDAY: out for dinner?

WHAT I AM CREATING AT THE MOMENT

I know my life has overwhelmed me and I've kept putting my projects aside. But I have slowly been getting back to scrapbook catch up and a big project I hope to finally share soon. 💜 

NEW RECIPE I WANT TO TRY THIS WEEK:

I will share banana cake and apple bread recipes 

TIP OF THE WEEK:

FROM THE CAMERA

The other day the bay had it's first glazing over with some ice in the morning and it was snowing so it accumulated on the little bit of ice 

but inside it was nice and cozy

It was a homemade (crust from scratch) kind of night the other night. T

My Girl in the varsity game this weekend. She's in the yellow reaching out her stick to defend an attacking forward on the other team ❤️ 

Late Fall love 

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:



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

Halloween Update and some Recipes

Happy Weekend Friends! 

I thought I would share a bit of our Halloween 2019 and a few fun recipes - for Halloween or Autumn in general. 

If you've been following me for a while now you know that I was one that always went all out for Halloween and many of the holidays. Yep, I'm one of those moms. Lol I used to work months ahead figuring what the kids wanted to be and work on getting their costumes. Our house was the hang out house - friends and family would come and trick or treat from here. I'd make fun themed snacks and cover many of them in fake spiders and bugs. Carve pumpkins, toast seeds. Set up spooky things outside. Hot cider on the stove waiting when they got back from going out searching for treats more than tricks. You get the idea.... If you want to check out some halloween's past around here just click on the halloween word in the right column of my blog layout. 

So it's kind of sad to me that my Aaron is off at college and Annie is just getting past the age of wanting to trick or treat anymore. I had to pick up Annie from her hockey tryouts that night so I missed getting to see my nieces and nephew that were going to stop by. But Annie had a friend from school come home with her and another friend from the neighborhood came by after. She wasn't going to go out but she found an old Dodgeball costume and they went out around the neighborhood. We made it a fun and festive night. Annie and I had carved pumpkins and I had toasted up the seeds. We had them all lit up. I had hot cider on the stove for when they came back. They did their fun candy exchange where they dump everything out and decide who likes which candy bar better and trade. We jammed to music and I made a jack o lantern pizza and we had a great night! 🎃 🍁  I hope you did too! 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! 🎃 

Easy Halloween chocolate bark: in a large bowl melt 3 cups of chocolate chips. I just did mine in the microwave. Do 1 minute to start and stir. Then do 30 second intervals as needed stirring after each time until smooth. Pour onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and spread smooth with an offset spatula. Sprinkle on halloween candy of choice - I did candy corn and pumpkins, kit kats, reeses cups, mini m&m's. Put in fridge for 1/2 hour to set. Then take out and break into pieces. 

My favorite way to do pumpkin seeds - Dry seeds well. Place on cookie sheet and toss with some olive oil, salt, pepper & a little garlic powder. Mix well and spread out. Bake in preheated 325* oven for about 20-30 mins until crispy. 

caramel apple nachos: slice apples and toss in pineapple juice (they won't turn brown then). Arrange on plate. Heat up ice cream caramel and drizzle over top. Sprinkle with mini choc chips, nuts or whatever you like. I used to top this with plastic or gummy worms too 😉 

trick-or-treat

Hot apple cider: pour cider into a pot and set on stove on medium. Sprinkle in a little brown sugar and mix until all dissolved. Put in splash of lemon juice, and some fresh squeezed orange juice. Slice another orange into slices and place whole cloves in them and float on top. Throw a cinnamon stick on the bottom. Heat until good and hot and serve. For grown ups can throw in some butterscotch schnapps for caramel apple cider. 😉 🍎 

the big candy bar debate and trade - it's serious business folks

Annie's favorite pizza right now is cheese and pineapple. So just threw in cheese pizza but topped with pineapple tidbits I made into a jack-o-lantern face design. 🎃 

Happy Homemaker Monday

Hello Friends 
Welcome to Happy Homemaker Monday on a Tuesday. Lol!

 I hope you've been having a great week so far! And that you had a lovely past weekend. It was a good one here. I went out one night with a friend to watch a local production of Chicago and it was really good!! I forgot how much I love the music from that musical. We went out after and had a late night treat and gabbed away. Spent some good quality time with Annie and my Mumsy. And had a great phone pow wow with my Aaron. 

On to another busy week ahead...

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING

grainy whole wheat toast with raspberry jam and coffee with natural sweet creamer

RIGHT NOW I AM:

Listening to Ed Sheeran music and working on my planner. Waiting for the buzzer on the laundry so I can go fold and put away some sheets.

AS I LOOK OUTSIDE MY WINDOW

The sun is shining and it's blue skies. Very chilly today though! We had our first frost on the deck recently and it was a little frosty again this AM. Not many leaves on the trees out my window anymore 😢 

AS I LOOK AROUND THE HOUSE

It looks bright and cheerful and I'm loving every second of my Autumn decorations while I can. Not only is it my favorite season, but the decor fits the colors and feel of my home so well 😊 

ON THIS WEEK'S TO DO LIST:

Errands, groceries, flu shot, Annie has tryouts for hockey, she has her first scrimmage too, help my mom with laundry and jobs, bring food to FIL, home projects, hospice volunteering, have Annie finalize Halloween plans - maybe going to have friends over here or maybe go to a friend's party. I'm going to a party my friend invited me to - so my mom will be holding down the fort with Annie.

 

CURRENTLY READING

The Rules of Love and Grammar by Mary Simses. 

I paused that book because I recently got my fellow blogging friend Billie Jo's book: Afternoon Coffee. She wrote it for her Mom and it's a collection of some of her posts of the past - and as the back of the books states: it's a "heartwarming collection of thoughts celebrating the love of motherhood, family, home and simple living". You can find her blog and read about her book for yourself  by clicking here. I have loved her and her blog forever and I just started reading it but loving it so much already. 💜 

ON THE TV TODAY:

 Halloween baking championship, Halloween Wars, Dancing with the Stars, the Resident, The Good Doctor, New Amsterdam, Greys Anatomy, This is Us, Survivor, Bluff City Law, The Rookie

 

 

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

MONDAY: leftovers

TUESDAY: creamy tomato soup, apple bread(going to bake today), veggies & dip

WEDNESDAY: parmesan chicken, baked potatoes, salad

THURSDAY: easy subs, Halloween snacks, cupcakes 

FRIDAY: homemade pizza, fruit

WHAT I AM CREATING AT THE MOMENT

I know my life has overwhelmed me and I've kept putting my projects aside. But I have slowly been getting back to scrapbook catch up and a big project I hope to finally share soon. 💜 

NEW RECIPE I WANT TO TRY THIS WEEK:

a cook up at the hospice house made the BEST banana crumb cake with old bananas (something different then the usual 🍌 bread). I got the recipe and I need to use up old bananas I have around here. So I will share that recipe this week  

**update: I froze my bananas and didn't make this yet. But I have a bazillion apples to use up and I'm going to bake apple bread today and will share both recipes soon! 

TIP OF THE WEEK:

Been working out a lot lately so this is on my brain. Lol!

FROM THE CAMERA

My Brother recently got a job as kind of a park ranger in our local Canal Park area - just to work while he finishes up some classes online. For this that may not know about him he was a lifer in the military (Army green beret combat medic) and recently retired. But he's getting a degree in emergency medicine management currently. 

There is a maritime museum in our area and he often works in there. This was his view they other morning that he sent me.  Can you see the lighthouse on the end?  Big freighters come in through that canal. It's such a beautiful area. Lake Superior is a gorgeous lake! 

Walks with Ruby are far less pretty with most of the leaves gone. 

Always so sad to see that first peek of the bay with now leaves 😢 

And the walks have been much chillier!!

But the cold weather has been good for baking. 😊 Chocolate chunk, butterscotch chip cookie bars. Yummy! 

And just for getting a case of the cozies! 🌟 

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:


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