Happy Homemaker Monday

Happy Monday Friends! 💗

I first of all would just like to say how much I enjoy this time with you each week. I've been doing HHM for years and it always brings such joy to my Mondays to catch up with you all. 

Next, can you believe how fast this month is flying already? I can't believe it's mid July! We have lots of things planned for many of the weekends ahead (that's always how summer gets as it's so brief here in the northwoods). I just know I'm going to blink and it will be September. Lol At least that's how it feels these days. 

But what I really wanted to say is that I hope you had a lovely weekend. It was such a nice one here as I got my Annie girl all to myself! She came back from her study abroad after flying home from Paris all by herself, and she got stuck in the Chicago airport due to weather delays and had to stay in the airport all night! I was so worried about her and felt so helpless. But she is such a strong independent young Lady and she handled it beautifully. She had been up so early and with the time difference she ended up being up over 40 hours before she got home!! My poor Baby. And Matt needed to go to the lake to help his Mom with some things. So I got to dote on her and have a fun weekend just hanging out with my Girl and looking at her pics and hearing all about her experiences. We also did some fun shopping, played games, watched shows. It was wonderful for this Momma heart. ❤️😊

Now on to the week ahead...

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

iced coffee - fasting today

ON MY TO DO LIST THIS WEEK:

help Annie with some errands, MD appointment, groceries, yard projects, hang out with my Mom, get ready for Matt's folks to visit us this weekend, hospice work

THINKING ABOUT:  

how much I want to treasure the rest of the summer while I still have it (even though I can't help but let myself think about my favorite season coming soon!) 🎃😉

 

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:

my daughter's laugh 

💗💗💗

CURRENTLY READING

The next book in the Dream Harbor series by Laurie Gilmore called The Cinnamon Bun Bookstore

ON THE TV TODAY:

 Americas Got Talent, Jeopardy, And Just Like That, The Gilded Age, Matt's never seen The Office (I loved that series) so we've started that together, Big Brother,The Last Kingdom, American Pickers

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

    MONDAY - An Annie fave: french toast, breakfast potatoes, fruit (Matt & I will do eggs - higher protein)

TUESDAY - 

WEDNESDAY - 

THURSDAY - 

FRIDAY - ??

*I'm not sure yet about the week as we need groceries. But I may add some new recipes I want to try. One is for a low carb chicken enchiladas dish. And the other is for a slow cooker curry recipe. 

TO RELAX THIS WEEK I WILL:

read, work on projects, do some golfing

TIPS OR SOMETHING TO SHARE:

FROM THE CAMERA:

I wanted to share that the little robin eggs next to our door hatched! Just yesterday actually. Sweet little babies. 😍

Annie was home less than 24 hours and she was already rearranging my furniture. 😂 She didn't mind the tilted chair I did next to the fireplace, but she didn't like that I had the chair next to the hearth and the table on the other side next to the plant stand. Two tables next to each other didn't work for her. So she switched the table next to the hearth - kept the tilted chair to face the couch and put the plant stand behind it. I'm so grateful she helped me avert that crisis. Lol I just love her so much! What can I say, she's her mother's daughter and likes to take charge. 

Part of my doting on Annie...I made her absolute favorite: homemade tomato basil soup along with little french bread grilled cheese sandwiches for dunking. 

The strawberries, flowers, little garden, and fairies are all continuing to thrive :) 

This path on the side of our house is lined with lilies and a few are starting to bloom! At the end of the path is a large hydrangea shrub. 

As you continue to the front of the house there is an even larger hydrangea shrub blooming away. 

And if you turn around and go back down the path to the back of the house it wraps around towards our deck. Our deck is our favorite place to hang out all summer long. Matt and I especially just love lounging on the comfy rocking bench and chair around the firepit. When it's hot and sunny we have an oversized umbrella we open up. At night it has lighting inside. We love to sit there on nice evenings and chat about our days and watch the sunset over the bay. We call it our little bit of paradise and always say how blessed we are to live here. 🙏🏻

The deck is all lined with lilies across the front of it - but as you can see none of them are blooming yet:

Ruby loves it too :) 

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 flooding in Texas and especially for all those affected at Camp Mystic 😢 🙏🏻

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

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:

I pray if you're struggling with anything this week...that you always remember how strong your God is too. 

Blessings to you always friends. And wishing you an amazing week ahead. 

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

Five on Friday: Loving...

Hello Friends!

I see you Friday and welcome! Even though it's cold and windy today and we may get a little bit of snow...we're ready for the weekend over here. Nothing major on the agenda, and that is truly lovely. Still more winter decorations to take down in the house. We already did all of the outside decorations. But this weekend I'll take down the last winter things and we'll tag team some deep cleaning. Then I'll start getting out Spring stuff. Yippeeee! ☀️💐

But I thought I'd do another Five on Friday this week to share at the blog My Creative Life - and you can find her 5 and her blog if you click here.

For my 5 this week I thought I'd share things in my world I'm currently 

LOVING: 

ONE

My northwoods. Its beautiful sunsets. The way I can see grass now with all the melting snow. Seeing more wildlife since temps are getting more mild. It's such a blessing to live here. 

TWO

A favorite snack or breakfast. Vanilla greek yogurt bowl (Dannon Light & fit - only 80 cals and 12 grams of protein) topped with protein pb fit (powdered protein peanut butter) made into a drizzle, apple chunks, and cinnamon. Sometimes sunflower seeds too. 😋

THREE

This image from pinterest I have as my wallpaper on my iphone currently. It just makes me smile. 

FOUR

Researching healthier, but tasty recipes. 😋

FIVE

And it goes without saying - but I will say it. My sweet Hubby and our furry babies. They bring me such joy EVERY SINGLE DAY. God is good. That is all. ❤️

I hope you're loving and enjoying all the blessings in your world my Friends. Have a wonderful weekend!! 

💗💗💗

 

The Best Weekend Ever! Memories in Pictures

 

Hello again Friends. 

As you can imagine - I received about a million photos from friends and family. But I will try to select a MUCH smaller number of them and highlights to share here. No real order as I have some from all over in my phone. So here are purely random moments from the weekend. And when I have the professional ones I will share more then too. 

First of all, as we headed up to the venue we were behind a pumpkin truck - I loved that! Then here are a bunch of pics of our cottage. Then into the main lodge for dinner (wine for me!) and then an evening walk on the moonlit property.

Now a random bit of weekend photo moments:

And they lived happily ever after ❤️

We both feel so abundantly blessed and grateful our hearts are overflowing. 

**If you missed the post before this one - you can go back and read all about our weekend on the previous post. 

Blessings on the rest of your week Friends! 

I plan to be back to normal posting next week. 

xoxo