It’s Friday once again! And I must ask, did your week fly by like mine did?
Or did your week flow with a more leisurely pace giving you time to bask in the autumn sun?
I ended up working Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday this week. Only Monday was a full day but it sure made the week go by quick. Happily, I still managed to get my walks in this week. Once again, I think I’ll just share 5 things from this week.
ONE: WEIRD WEATHER
Our weather is always a bit up and down and sideways around here. However, I can’t recall the last time I ran the a/c on a Wednesday and by Thursday evening bumped on the heat! In fairness to our lovely Midwest fall weather, at our house, opening the windows isn’t a current option. Hello, hackberry gnats! UGH. What’s a hackberry gnat you ask? A tiny gnat that comes from the hackberry tree. Their super power? They can fit through the window screens and there are millions of them right now.
TWO: A WONDERFUL AND FREE WEDNESDAY
J had no class on Wednesday and oddly enough I wasn’t called into work. Really, probably should’ve bought myself a lottery ticket over that one.
I spent the day bringing all my houseplants inside (again) and reconfiguring the plant stand. A few plants I thought might spend winter indoors just weren’t working. Bye, beautiful begonias! So long lemon balm (see you again in the spring I hope!).
And I also had time to run a few plant-related errands. Dollar Tree for some little rocks to go under the plants requiring more humidity. G thought they were candy! Glad he asked about them before chomping down on handful. More soil to replant a couple asparagus ferns (sorry rolly pollies, you can’t spend winter inside with us). And a trip to Menards to walk through their Christmas aisle before buying the plastic things to go under the plants (drip trays? not sure what we to call them). Did I buy more spring bulbs? No comment. And another perennial? Again, no comment.
THREE: CROCKPOT DELIGHTS AND OTHER THINGS 
Wednesday for dinner we had our French Dip sandwiches using this recipe and oh, they were so good! The recipe is definitely going into the rotation. Funnily enough, this coming Sunday is National French Dip day. Guess we were a bit ahead of things, I didn’t even know the sandwich had its own day. And by the way, they aren’t French at all.
Yesterday, after getting called into work, I scrambled to make my favorite minestrone soup and throw it in the crockpot (minus the pasta which I added after getting home). The only change I make to the recipe linked here is that I use smaller pasta (soup shells) as I think the elbow macaroni is too big. And leave out the beans (picky eaters club around here). You probably can’t convince me there’s a better soup than minestrone.
And this morning, I made a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins from scratch. I’ve not made completely homemade muffins in a while so they hit the spot. I’ll likely share that recipe as my Thanksgiving Tip/Recipe on Monday.
FOUR: NEW TRAIL ROUTE
Not expecting to work yesterday, I walked two trails in the morning. Thankfully, the new one was a short loop. Funny I’d been avoiding it as I worried it would be too long and you know different can be scary. It turned out to be much shorter than my normal trail! And gave way to some very pretty views.
FIVE: TURKEY STEW
Yesterday, at work, I “made” turkey stew with the kids. It’s a group activity/chant: Turkey Stew, Turkey Stew, What should we put in our turkey stew? Then, you ask each kid what they’d like to add. Once they tell you their ingredient, you chop, chop, chop and drop, drop, drop. Then, stir and stir and sip, sip, sip. (We change the words seasonally, so pumpkin stew for October, maybe Christmas soup for next month, etc.)
Not sure I’d really want to sip turkey stew made from the following (from what I can remember): M&M’s, mushrooms, water (interesting, we poured and poured and poured some more for that), turkey, carrots, bread, lollipops, chicken, chocolate, a whole bucket of Halloween candy, milk…I think someone said broccoli. There were things I’ve forgotten and some repeats, of course. However, YUCK, glad that stew isn’t real. Ha!
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Later today, I have to go Bath and Body Works because my replacement candle also arrived broken! I’m just taking this one back to the store instead of messing with online things (I think this particular style of candle must be defective) and exchanging it there, have a few errands to run over that way so I might as well.
Our weekend is oddly open once again and no KC Chiefs game on Sunday either. I’m undecided on how I’ll spend it. Cleaning, baking, finding a new place to hike, planting the new bulbs I just bought all comes to mind. As well as maybe just being a lazy and reading my books or watching a movie.
What are your plans for this weekend?
Nice blog. I love to read it and oh… the photo!
During the weekend, I like to read, chat (app) with a few people, and, like you, do something with plants. I should actually be planting bulbs, but it’s too wet, and the flower bulbs would rot. I’m postponing it for a week. Wasn’t it great, having a day off on Wednesday!
Nice lake on the photo. Could this lake freeze over in the winter, allowing for ice skating? Or does it never freeze there? No idea. I think I need to look up your winter blogs to see how your winters are. Haha.
Liefs
Aritha
Thank you! Those sound like wonderful weekend activities. I wish it would rain a bit here, we really need it! Our winter weather is super varied here in the middle of the US. The lake pictured does partially freeze in the winter depending on the temperatures but never enough for ice skating. I’m not sure I know of any natural lakes where people go ice skating but there are ice skating arenas (two come to mind, one indoors and one outdoors) in town. I think I’ve been ice skating maybe once? And that was years ago! I’m late to appreciating the outdoor appeal of winter (I think I had it as a kid but lost it somewhere). Happy Saturday!