Wordless Wednesday

 

Happy Homemaker Monday

Happy Monday Friends! ☀️ 

I hope all is looking like lovely July days where you are. It has felt like summertime fun around here and I've been soaking up every minute. It feels like it's all flying by so quickly already and there is a lot on my summer bucket list yet. But I crossed off more this past weekend. 😊 

We went out on a date night - just Matt & I on Friday night in an area called Canal Park close to where we live. It was a lovely summer night and we had a yummy dinner and then walked around by the lighthouses and lift bridge, watching sailboats and just the beautiful sunset that night. 

Saturday we went out with our bestie couple friends again and Annie came too! We went out for a fun dinner and some mini golf and topped it off with an ice cream outing after that. The girls bet the guys and it was quite the rivalry. The guy that owns the mini golf was laughing at us, as we were getting pretty into it. Sorry to say the guys won (they had to average a 3rd score of their 2 to make it fair since there were 3 of us gals). But it was still a blast!

Then yesterday after running errands with Matt - our besties came over again and we went out on the pontoon all afternoon, along with my Annie boo also. Then came back and had pizza and sat around the fire all evening chatting & making s'mores. Does a summer weekend get more perfect than that? I'm so grateful for this blog to be a kind of journal to look back on it all.  I'm also enjoying blogging more and plan to continue more new posts each week! 😍

I hope you all had an equally fun and beautiful summer weekend. 💛💛💛

 

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

berry granola cereal with fresh peaches on top, coffee with vanilla almond milk creamer

ON MY TO DO LIST THIS WEEK:

errands, chiropractor visits, trying to work on a night out with our bestie couple & another bestie couple as they also want to meet Matt, need to call pest control about some kind of bees or hornets that I think built a nest under our deck, outside trimming of shrubs and projects, get oil changed, meeting an Auntie for lunch and walk in a local rose garden park, hospice work, help Matt move into his new house

THINKING ABOUT:  

How much I appreciate that my sweet guy understood the need for our relationship to grow in a healthy way, and for the sake of my Annie, and bought his own house in town here. He moves in this week and I'm just praying that all goes smoothly. It will be kind of fun...and a challenge in some ways...living between 2 homes, but I think it's going to be wonderful for our relationship to continue to be in a state of "courting" yet. Growing in our knowledge and love of one another before living together full time. I sure love the guy and look forward to all that is yet to be! And also looking forward to knocking lots of fun things off our bucket lists - together. ♥️ 

CURRENTLY READING

 Marigolds for Malice by Bailey Cattrell  - hope to finish it this week, as I recently picked up some new reads that look really good too! 

ON THE TV TODAY:

 Grace & Frankie on netflix, Becoming Elizabeth,  America's Got Talent, Big Brother, HGTV shows

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

    MONDAY -  leftovers from the weekend and a big salad

TUESDAY - 

WEDNESDAY - 

THURSDAY - 

FRIDAY - 

*need to get some groceries and figure out the menu yet this week. Will clean out fridge and look at what's in freezer to thaw and do some grilling.

TO RELAX THIS WEEK I WILL:

read outside, do AM devotional time out amongst the birdsong, get out for a walk with Matt to take a break from a busy moving week

TIPS OR SOMETHING TO SHARE:

Good summertime knowledge. Lol 😉 

FROM THE CAMERA:

PRAYER LIST:

 For healing in so much of our world - especially where peace, love, and unity is needed. 🙏 

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:

May you be so blessed my Friends and much love to you this week. I'm linking with Sandra of Diary of a SAHM for Happy Homemaker Monday.

Bacon Cheeseburger Bake

Happy Thursday Friends! Yes, I'm here again. Lol I am working to carve out more time and focus for blogland each week and love sharing with you all here. 

I promised I would share this really yummy cheeseburger bake that I made last weekend. It was a keto recipe I found on pinterest. Matt isn't strict keto anymore...but he still kind of follows some of the guidelines as a rule. And his folks have been following this a bit too. So I thought this would be a perfect recipe to share up at the lake and it was SO GOOD!! It'd be great as a brunch recipe for a group because it's rich. Or even for a dinner with a side salad. I forgot to take pics making it and of the final result hot when first served. But got a quick shot of the leftovers we brought home. You can find other recipes like it on my pinterest here. I followed the recipe - other than a couple of tweaks I list below, along with the recipe. We topped pieces with some sriracha mayo and some dill pickle slices - just liked you'd have on a cheeseburger. It would be great even topped with ketchup and mustard! I was surprised how delish it was and Matt and his folks all called the recipe a keeper and loved it too! 

I made a couple of changes to this recipe in that I added some worcestershire sauce to the meat mixture, and to the egg mixture, as well as a little bit of onion powder and garlic powder to the egg mixture. This is the way I usually add flavor to my burgers before I grill them too.

Enjoy! 😋 

 

Wordless Wednesday

 

Happy Homemaker Monday

Hello Friends and happy new week to you ☀️ 

I hope you've been enjoying some lazy summer days and lots of sunshine and relaxation. I've been loving summer this year and embracing these lovely days. Today has been a mix of some rain/storms and then sun. Mother Nature seems moody today!

How was your weekend? It was a fun and relaxing one here. Last Friday I reconnected with an old friend from the neighborhood where I grew up.... she was an old grade school bestie. She lives in TX now but was up visiting, and her Mom wanted us all to get together. So I met up with her, and her folks, her hubby and one of her sons. It was a really fun blast from the past. 😊 

And then Matt and I had a date night out with my bestie and her hubby. I used to do lots of couples time with them and sure missed that these past years. They loved Matt and it was SO FUN!! We went out to dinner and then watched rescheduled fireworks in our area (it had been rainy on the 4th). It was just one of those perfect summer date nights. We talked about all the fun date nights we plan to have more regularly. 🤩

We also made a quick run overnight to Matt's cabin. His Mom is a retired English and drama teacher and she organizes a production for the community center in their area every summer. One of her former students is an amazing drummer and has a throwback "big band" style band. The production this year was themed around Frank Sinatra and they had the most amazing Frank sounding singer! I'll include a video clip below. And then we hung out with his folks enjoying the lake and playing games and visiting. I want summer weekends like these never to end! 

 I'm definitely recharged and ready to dive into the new week ahead...

 

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

just some iced coffee with coffee cake flavored oatmilk creamer this morning 😋 

ON MY TO DO LIST THIS WEEK:

errands, chiropractor visits, coffee with a friend, movie with my SIL, more blog posts, home projects, date night with friends, hospice work

THINKING ABOUT:  

How blessed I am to feel so content in my personal life. 💝

Of course my heart hurts for so much crazy that is going on in the world. I worry, pray daily, and take action in all the ways I'm able.  

But I can't help feeling such joy, personally, when I look back at years past that were the worst of my life. I'm proud of how far I have come in my healing. I'm looking forward to lots of summer plans yet ahead - and I do it with a heart filled with gratitude for entering this chapter of answered prayers. ♥️ 

Also been thinking about how I want to start doing more regular blogging time besides just Mondays - so I'm going to plan on recipe Thursdays again and go from there to hopefully add additional days. 

** I have a really yummy recipe that turned out so well this past weekend, that I will share on Thursday 😋 

CURRENTLY READING

 Marigolds for Malice by Bailey Cattrell 

ON THE TV TODAY:

 Grace & Frankie on netflix, Becoming Elizabeth,  America's Got Talent, Big Brother, movies taped

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

    MONDAY -  finally got groceries last week - so finally making tacos! Lol

TUESDAY - taco salad leftovers, watermelon

WEDNESDAY - turkey caprese sandwiches with fresh mozz, spinach, tomatoes, & pesto, chips, veggies and dip

THURSDAY - maybe pancakes, breakfast potatoes, bacon, fruit?

or maybe grill something?

FRIDAY - might be out for dinner?

TO RELAX THIS WEEK I WILL:

read, do yoga, walk Ruby, maybe a pontoon ride

TIPS OR SOMETHING TO SHARE:

💛💛💛

FROM THE CAMERA:

It was so fun to catch up with a friend from the "old neighborhood" 

date night with friends was so fun ending with catching fireworks sitting out on a lovely night

The property Matt owns on Ten Mile Lake feels like home already too me, and reminds me of where my Grandma lived and how special that place always was to me growing up. 

The Sinatra show Matt's Mom put on was so great! And Matt entered me into a drawing for this amazing CD collection and I won! 🌟  I love his folks already and we had such a great time.  Here's a video so you can have a peek at how talented they all were:

I made this keto friendly cheeseburger bake and it was SO YUMMY! I will post it later this week.

PRAYER LIST:

For healing for my Mom's back issues. For healing in so much of our world - especially where peace and unity is needed. 🙏 

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:

Wishing you perfect summer days Friends. I'm linking with Sandra of Diary of a SAHM for Happy Homemaker Monday.