Hello, hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season! I’ve been busy over here with musical concerts, graduations, fun get-togethers with family and friends, and trying to squeeze in all the other have-to’s along the way.
I’ve worked a lot more this week than I planned. (If you would please pray for the families of two of my co-workers that are cousins, as one’s brother passed away unexpectedly last Friday)
However, Christmas break is officially here after work today, just a short 1-4 day for me.
Our holiday weekend plans include:
The symphony tonight (I cannot wait, super excited for this!)
A baking day with J tomorrow (our annual making of chocolate covered pretzels plus we’re trying out a pizza snack mix
I’ll probably get up early tomorrow for some last-minute shopping (or I’ll do it Christmas Eve morning)
The Christmas Eve candlelight service on Sunday night (J’s brass ensemble band plays some of the music!)
Christmas morning with just our family to open gifts (unknown if my bil/sil plan to come for breakfast, need to find out)
Christmas dinner at my brother’s house (he’s making spaghetti and I’m in charge of dessert, Thanksgiving repeat with chocolate and apple, I’ll probably take a few cookies as well)
Not sure I’ll be on here again until after the holiday so I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas full of love and happiness!
December is here at last or perhaps suddenly. Feels more like suddenly this year doesn’t it? We have lots on our December calendar and I’m excited for it.
However, first I think I’ll take a minute to look back at the whirlwind last week of November. Isn’t it weird how sometimes a week with nothing special on the calendar can speed by as fast as one that’s super busy?
MONDAY AND TUESDAY
Nothing too exciting happened on Monday except my usual grocery store trip. I guess I’m officially a “regular” as that’s how the lunchmeat counter manager referred to me. “I’m seeing all my regulars today.” HA. It’s true though, I typically shop on Mondays and get the same things from that counter.
Tuesday, J had his class and I took a snowy hike through some of the nature center trails. You can see the post about that here.
I worked for just a few hours on Tuesday afternoon. It was definitely a bit more chilly in the late afternoon on the playground than it had been on the nature center trails. And so muddy! Ugh. However, I still enjoyed seeing the kids. J didn’t have his evening class so our evening was fairly relaxed, I mostly read in my book and watched a bit of TV.
WEDNESDAY
With lots of sunshine and warmer weather, I opted to drive out to a nature center on the east side of town and do a bit of walking. I didn’t take my boots so mostly stayed on the paved trails. I had the best time seeing a new (to me) bird as well as some eagles flying over head! The eagle picture turned out blurry but here’s my new tiny bird friend:
Golden-crowned kinglet
A bit of real life: Unfortunately, the evening ended on a bit of a sour note as J and I came home starving from his class and my husband had not even bothered to start dinner. He’d been home a decent amount of time, saying “I didn’t know what you wanted.” I’d written two options on our menu board. My temper flared a bit as I made dinner (loudly) but everyone was fed. I ended up making sausage, orzo, & broccoli.
Maybe I’d come home in a bit of worse mood as I’d finished reading Holly by Stephen King and found myself quite disappointed in it.
Life and dinners go on…
red-bellied woodpecker
THURSDAY
Yesterday, I went hiking at the closer nature center trails again. Wore my boots and was glad I did as a lot of the snow melted into slippery leaves and mud.
So strange to see how the weather and trails can change in a matter of two days. This is the same spot 2 days apart:
I also finally managed to get to the library and pick up my on hold books (as well as return my overdue ones). Also picked up a few new cookbooks, not sure if I’ve mentioned it but the library is such a great place to grab cookbooks to preview. In my current collection, I have Trisha Yearwood’s cookbook as well as one by Chrissy Teigen plus a couple random ones.
Not from a cookbook but last night we made these banana pancakes for dinner. Whatever you’re planning for your next meal, change it and make these instead! So good. We added mini chocolate chips to ours. They really didn’t even need syrup. Next time, I think I’d like to add blueberries instead of the chocolate chips.
Ended my November watching, not a Christmas movie but an old dateline special about Jonestown. Why? And then, I turned on the football game but fell asleep.
Our Weekend Plans
And now it’s December! Ours is a bit busier than normal but after a few years of quiet holidays, I’m excited about it.
Prior to this post, I took a moment to enjoy a cup of hazelnut coffee as the Keurig is plugged in for the holiday season. It only comes out for hunting season/Christmas, the rest of the year is the regular coffee maker coffee which I also had a cup of earlier in the morning.
And read the first day of Simply Christmas, a favorite devotional for this month. While it’s geared to moms with younger children, I still find wisdom in the pages.
Tonight we have J’s college Christmas concert to attend. Tomorrow, our first of the month dinner/game night with friends. We’ve not had a proper game night in a while so I do hope we actually play a few games tomorrow. And then, Sunday night is the Chiefs game. Between all that fun, I am hoping to get the rest of the house decorated for Christmas, maybe do a bit of shopping or baking, and taking some time to enjoy the start of the Christmas season.
If the sun shines, you know I’ll be out taking a walk with my camera soaking it in while I can. I’ve told myself every time I can be out walking and enjoying the sunshine in the next few months, I’m going to do it.
I’m having a bit of a red, green, and black Friday over here. Shopping or not, it’s still red Friday for the Chiefs game on Sunday. Of course, all my Chiefs gear is in the wash so I’m wearing a red Grinch t-shirt. Bit of a green Friday happening as well since I have no intention of leaving the house today & have added a green cardigan with a Christmas tree design to my ensemble since it’s chilly in here. Finally, I am doing a bit of online black Friday bargaining. Mostly, it involves streaming deals.
However, I thought I’d take a quick break from not really doing much to share about my week.
Monday and Tuesday
The weather was fairly nice to start the week. I worked on Monday and Tuesday both. Though I only worked in the afternoon on Tuesday, it felt like a full day. Those kids were a bit crazy! It was nice that I was able to enjoy afternoon birthday celebrations both days. However, can I just suggest…IF you want to make your child’s birthday treat (it’s fine and allowed at our school) and make some sort of bars/cake/rice krispie treats, PLEASE cut them into pieces before bringing them to school. Couldn’t really help the teacher with the kids during the celebration as I was cutting the birthday treats into 20 servings. Anyway, did I mention Tuesday was a crazy day at my work? The main teacher actually sent me a text later that night thanking me for my help. A super nice thing to do.
Pre-Thanksgiving (AKA Wednesday)
Wednesday was a pretty easy day as none of us had anywhere we needed to be. Such a change from the days of traveling to Oklahoma! Maybe that’s why I had the itch to go somewhere later in the afternoon so hopped in the car to brave Target. I did actually need a few items there plus wanted to look for the flavored whipped creams I’d read about somewhere (salted caramel sounded like a great addition to my apple pie but alas they were out of it).
I took some time before going into the craziness of Target to stop at a different local nature center and quickly walk just their short (.25 mile, I think) paved trail. Didn’t bring my camera so these photos I’m sharing are all from my phone. Since it was a bright sunny day, I had on my sunglasses and forgot to switch back to regular glasses before setting off into the woods. Oops! I definitely need to go back there with my good camera and without my sunglasses.
One last thing to mention about my hike, I really think taking the walk before going into a crowded store helped me be a bit less stressed. I don’t do crowds well and I really think having some time in nature prior to the crowded indoor excursion helped.
Thanksgiving
Did I forget to take any pictures at all? I did indeed! Even the photo of my cranberry relish in progress was from Wednesday.
It was such a nice and relaxing day! I can’t remember the last time we’ve had such a nice Thanksgiving in these parts. My brother’s dinner wasn’t until 4 so I had all day to make my pies. Had a wonderful dinner and visit with my 3 brothers and two of my nieces and their families. And political talk was at a minimum barely happening at all (I’m beyond thankful for that one!). G took the car (we all rode together) to go feed a friend’s cat and took J with him around 7ish so dropped J off at home. J’s not the most social so we try to respect that. The rest of us stayed and visited until almost 11!
Today
Today’s weather was slightly different when I woke up this morning. A feels like temperature of 18 degrees! What? It’s 35 now but not supposed to get any warmer and they’re still calling for snow (just a dusting) overnight.
My plans for today were to start decorating for Christmas but all I’ve managed so far is to take down the fall decor and add in a few Christmas bathroom towels. Oh, and I pulled out my Christmas sweaters and a few warm sweatshirts, putting away the shorts finally.
My plans for the rest of the weekend are fairly open, finish decorating for Christmas (hopefully), G’s offered to get me a McRib since our McD’s has them right now (I’ll probably be disappointed but I still want one), and hopefully watch maybe a Christmas movie plus the Chiefs game on Sunday. Nothing too exciting which is fine as our December is shaping up to be a busy one (with all good stuff though)!
What color is your Friday? Big plans for the rest of the weekend?
First thing is I really need to work on my blog titles. Can you believe another week’s gone by? What happened in your week? Here’s a glimpse into mine.
CATNAP NEEDED
I’m going to start with this morning’s adventure. I thought it would be going to get my haircut but no, this little cat had other plans:
Let her outside early because she was fussing. Few minutes later heard a ruckus, opened the door and thought I saw her over toward the neighbor’s house. Didn’t worry too much, figured things had worked themselves out (sometimes other little cats come to play and they don’t always play nice). Later in the morning, went to let her back inside as it was quite chilly and glance to the side and….she’s up in the elm tree that sits between our house and the neighbors. SIGH.
Husband had trimmed some branches over the summer (something about them falling and hitting our roof if a good wind happened). And now, the cat struggled to get down the tree. So picture me (sorry no actual footage for you), bright and early on a Saturday morning, outside in a sweatshirt and pajama bottoms giving a pep talk to get the cat back down the tree. Husband is off hunting and I really thought I was going to have to find someone with a ladder to help us. However, she managed and is now tucked into our bed in front of the heater.
AROUND THE FRONT YARD
J slept through his Thursday classes so I missed out on my morning walk, unless you count Menards where I had a few errands. It’s a big store but walking through the artificial Christmas trees is not quite as relaxing as walking in the wooded areas. Thought I’d make it up on Friday but was called into work. I was glad to go though as I had things to drop off for a teacher gift basket. Here’s a few images I took on Thursday afternoon just to have a moment with my camera at least.
Pansies are enduring through the crazy up and down temperatures. Full view of the hanging basket is not quite as pretty.
A couple images from the flower garden around the basket. The late stage of the coneflower is very striking to me.
And the very end of the brown-eyed Susans. I admit, I did cut quite a few of them down a bit this year (had to as I needed to reach the bee balm that I also cut down due to disease). They’ll be back next year I’m sure.
IN THE BACKYARD
Not our tree but I just love this sweet gum tree that belongs to the neighbor. The leaves seem much smaller this year, probably because of the drought.
Thursday was a fairly quiet day and while I had lots I needed to do, I didn’t do much of it.
CAKE
This cake, I’ve made it for so many years now. And it seldom comes out perfect. Actually, I don’t know that it’s ever come out perfect. There is a certain beauty to an imperfect homemade cake, I think.
J had a nice birthday, I think. Birthdays are different in those young adult times. He had class still so we didn’t do much other than the standard dinner, presents, and cake with the four of us. He seemed to like his gifts, a lightweight zip up hoodie (strange weather, he needed something lightweight), a box of “full price” cheez its, peppermint lifesavers and a large Three Musketeers bar. Of course, his large present was the symphony tickets for all of us later in December.
(Monday and Tuesday of this week are a bit of a blur, I think I was probably running around doing pre-birthday things for J.)
THIS WEEKEND
Last night, I was too tired to do much of anything and opted to watch a movie. Just in case you don’t know, Fast X has a sequel. I was not happy about that though I did actually enjoy the movie (I’ve never sat and watched 1-9 of the Fast and Furious movies so don’t ask why I opted to watch the 10th installment). Jason Momoa should play a villian in all movies, he was a great villain in this!
After the cat drama this morning, I still managed to go get my haircut and then, came down here to finish this post. I’m feeling the pull to clean, bake, and decorate for Christmas though I’m not “allowed” to decorate until after Thanksgiving. I’ll probably spend the afternoon cleaning out the fridge, putting together the Mexican lasagna that I didn’t make yesterday, and reading in my book. Or maybe I’ll go for a walk as the weather is supposed to be nice today before taking a cold turn moving forward into the holiday week.
A post 2 days in a row? What? Yesterday, I had some photos that I didn’t get a chance to edit and include in my post. So, when Aritha from Moments, frozen in time wondered about how my day went…I thought well, what a great idea for a post. A Monday follow up post if you will.
My morning was a bit hectic once I arrived a work. To say the kids were a bit crazy might be understating it. Were they crazier than seeing a dragonfly in November?
Maybe. I worked in the classroom that’s a bit more rough around the edges and had forgot what the time change does to young kids. Overtired. Off their routine. And off their routine at school with having different teachers in the classroom. We opted to go outside a bit early yesterday.
Let those kids run off a bit of the crazy. And run they did! Of course, you’d think that would lead to good naps at rest time? Yes. Uh, no. SIGH.
Robin
However, we made it through the insane afternoon of kids not sleeping. And, then it was time for me to race home to get J to his class. Imagine a chorus of sweet preschool voices: Bye, Ms. Jean!!! (about 8 times in a row)
White throated sparrow
Once home, I quickly switched out my “green bean” dress for a shorts and a tee-shirt, packed a few snacks, and away J and I went to his class. It’s at a different college, a solid 30 minutes from here. I usually just read my book, eat a snack, and wait in the car for his hour class.
Once his class was over, we drove home, now in the dark! He shared with me the titles of a few of the pieces they’ll play at the December concert. And we both marveled at how my husband says he’s never seen The Nightmare Before Christmas. Speaking of nightmares, I also saw 2 of these spiders on my walk Sunday. (Look away if spiders scare you!)
Rapid wolf spider
Finally, we arrived home. My husband opted to heat up some brisket (he smoked one on Sunday) and make corn on the cob. I just ate a quick sandwich. Then, next up on my list, the grocery store. They do a deal where you get a gas discount equivalent to the points the Chiefs score so I didn’t want to miss out on my 21 cents off a gallon of gas.
Of course, with the high prices, I bought a lot less than usual. We’re going to have some freezer/pantry cleanout meals in the coming weeks. Once, home with the groceries put away, I watched a bit of TV, stated I was not going to bed at 8:30 at night and made it until about 9:15. (Oh, I might or might not have had a small bowl of ice cream with nutella on top after getting home from the store).
And today, I’m moving a bit like this:
Of course, I need to get moving a bit faster as I’m working once again today, and have yet to hop in the shower. (This morning I went to vote, then on a nice long walk at the nature center after dropping J off for his class closer to home).
I thought I’d spend this morning checking out the last farmer’s market of the season or doing a little shopping. However, I just wasn’t in the mood.
The day was kind of dreary and cold (though not cold like last week) and just felt right for staying at home.
The cleaning bug was biting a bit this morning so I decided to do a bit of computer work until that passed! Actually, I did a bit of digital cleaning. My email inbox was overflowing. So, it was time for the delete button. And I cleared out another email account I used for a few things…oh my, I’m glad those emails were digital and not paper! So many. I need to get better about deleting things after I read them.
As you can see from the photos, my supervisor opted for a slow Saturday as well.
Even the digital world was in the slow mood as I took these photos this morning and then, they didn’t show up in a shareable form until 6:30 tonight.
I spent the rest of the afternoon doing nothing but a bit of TV watching (Loki, college football) and reading my current book (Tides of Fireby James Rollins) along with doing the never ending laundry.
We just finished up a lazy (super lazy for me as I didn’t cook!) dinner of homemade waffles and bacon. And I came down here to switch the laundry, finish up this post, and contact Bath and Body Works customer service. My order arrived with a broken candle. However, I now have a replacement candle on the way!
No plans for tonight and I’m perfectly okay with that. Hope you’ve had a wonderful Saturday whether it’s been busy or slow.
Disclosure: With the exception of the first photo, I took all the photos in this post during a walk yesterday morning. Yes, it was freezing out but I bundled up and it felt great to be out walking again.
I love this little sign and its message. A good reminder when Christmas tries to upstage our moments of thankfulness this month.
That said, I do like Christmas and if you are putting up your Christmas tree today, no judgement here. I just don’t like to rush it too much as I have a kiddo with a birthday in a couple weeks and then, my own birthday in early December.
I guess I’ll back track for a minute and talk about…
Our Halloween
The moon at about 9:30 yesterday morning!
It was cold and windy on Halloween so I felt for the kids. And I was glad I bought Halloween candy we all like here. We have lots leftover! Both boys still had college classes to attend. G decided at the last minute to skip his plans and just stay home (he’d already gone to a Halloween party over the weekend).
I did have a few good Halloween scares: First I couldn’t find my car keys anywhere! Had to take the husband’s spare keys. Thankfully, I found them later in my sunglasses case (a trick?). And these geese, if you are walking alone on the trail and can’t see the water. A solo goose landing sounds like a small boat launching!
Finally, I also slipped a bit on one of the bridges while on my walk. Thankfully, it was at the end and I didn’t fall but it was slippery on the bridges! Probably because there was frost on the ground!
After my morning walk, I didn’t do much except catch up on some tv watching. For Halloween night, my husband and I had taco soup but the boys had other things. Everyone’s schedule being different makes dinner times on Tuesdays (and Thursdays) a bit chaotic.
And I was super brave watching Five Nights At Freddy’s. I enjoyed it! It had a surprisingly interesting story and wasn’t overly scary. Plus who couldn’t love the Chuck E. Cheese from the ’80’s type nostalgia! Fun fact: G used to be terrified of those kinds of characters! Wouldn’t even go in the room where they were “singing”. Actually, you could forget about being anywhere near any type of mascot type character with him.
Today
The sun is shining but it is still super cold! It was in the 30’s the last time I checked but I woke up to 23 degrees. I’ve switched out the indoor Halloween decor for Thanksgiving themed items but the outdoor stuff is going to stay for a bit longer.
Later tonight, J has his first college band concert so hopefully, the weather warms up a bit this afternoon. I’m excited to go to it but also a little worried about the parking situation. Making my husband drive so he’ll get to deal with that, ha!
Plans For The Weekend
We’re supposed to go out to dinner with friends on Friday night. I’m thinking it’s going to be nice enough this weekend for some more yard “work” on Saturday. I already miss being out there watering my plants and checking on the garden. Watering indoor plants just isn’t the same for me. I need to repot a plant (if it survived the cold) that had to go back outside because it was full of pill bugs (Or do you call them rolly pollies like me?), oops. And I’m debating making some sort of special breakfast for our early morning Chiefs game viewing on Sunday.
Thoughts About The Rest Of November
It’s hunting season around here which means my husband will be in and out of town. He’ll come home of course for J’s birthday on the 15th. J’s wanting to go to the symphony so I think that’s going to be his birthday present, tickets for a December concert. Our Thanksgiving plans aren’t set yet and that’s okay. I do miss going to Oklahoma each year but being home is nice as well. And of course, I do think of Christmas a bit just like everyone else.
I just read this article and it really resonated. I think the prompt within the article could easily apply to any holiday: What brings you joy during the holidays? Definitely going to be thinking on that in the coming weeks.
Well, I’ve rambled on enough here and now it’s time to do something that definitely doesn’t bring me joy…pay the bills. (However, I am grateful we can indeed pay our bills and afford the things they bring us like electricity).
What’s on your mind as the new month and holiday season approaches?
Hey, another 2 posts week! Hooray. Thought I’d just do this post in the Five on Friday style.
ONE: RAIN DELAY
I barely got a quick walk in on Tuesday morning before the rain started. We finally had a few days of decent rainfall. It rained all day on Tuesday and Wednesday. Much needed. Speaking of delays, I am sharing this picture I didn’t get a chance to share in my Monday post. It’s just a random zinnia picture from our yard and I really like it. Maybe you’ll like it as well.
TWO: HAPPY LITTLE SURPRISES
Am I channeling Bob Ross? Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday were work days for me. It’s nice being home more. However, it’s such a joy to go into work and see the kids as well. Tuesday was just a few hours in the pre-primary classroom, just slightly crazy because of the rainy day. And thankfully, we did get to go outside for a few minutes while I was there.
Wednesday, I worked in the kitchen. Ugh, not my thing. At home or at work. I’d even given one of my shifts away to another sub who was in need of more hours. However, upon arrival, I learned that they’d fixed the dishwasher. It’d been broken for a long time. If you’ve worked in any sort of commercial kitchen, you’ll relate to the “joy” of the three part handwashing sinks…wash, rinse, sanitize. Kills the hands. So hooray for commercial sanitizing dishwashers that are quick and efficient!
The regular cook had left the two of us who were supposed to be in there the most a little gift as well! These lemon wafer cookies might be my new favorites!
And of course, spending some time in the primary classroom areas was such a joy. The kids asking me: when was I going to be back in their classroom made my day. Along with the hugs, overhearing little conversations (and on occasion stepping away from my kitchen duties to offer a bit of input–no, you should not hide from your teacher! ).
THREE: OUTDOOR CHORES
Another surprise yesterday, my husband had a day off work. We mainly did outdoor things. And frankly, I prefer to bring my plants in for the season when he’s not home. There is not such a thing as too many plants is there? Funny, I never used to be a plant person as far as indoors. However, I can’t bear to let my plants go for the winter. Especially the clearance bargains I “rescued” from the garden center.
The weather people predict a hard freeze for us over the weekend so I spent all day yesterday (thankfully, it was a warm day with the rain leaving) bringing in my plants. Did you know that if you vacation your houseplants outside over the summer, they grow?!
This monstera (a bargain from Sam’s Club two years ago, husband says it’s the worst $8 he ever spent) is getting so big…not sure if you can see the top of the rocking chair back there. Basically, this thing is halfway covering the window in height.
I also made this little pot of begonias for our bedroom. The ladies at one of my favorite flower stores told me they would keep over the winter. Worth a try. I neglected them all summer, never even taking them out of their garden center containers. And they just continued to bloom.
I also harvested up the rest of our garden “bounty” ha. More herb drying in my future.
FOUR: INDOOR DECOR
I woke up to a quiet dark house so I plugged in my little ghost lights.
My leaf lights finally gave out and I’ve struggled to find new ones so this year for fun, I hung up the little ghost lights. We’ve had these since the boys were little. Usually, I put them around the window frame but was in the mood for something different. Also, lit my pumpkin clove candle for a bit. And yes, it smells as good as you think it might.
Here’s my fun basket filler found at Target that doesn’t really work because I didn’t buy enough but I still like it.
FIVE: WEEKEND PLANS
So, I bought bulbs a couple weeks ago. And while I was in Menards, our yard grew! Oops. Does that happen to anyone else?
My weekend plans include:
watching a Halloween movie (or two), the boys think it’s funny that I’d like to see Five Nights At Freddy’s. I’ve been told “it’s a generational thing” and I’m not sure how to take that.
Finding homes for all the plants I moved indoors yesterday
Visiting some of the last Farmer’s Markets of the season. Last week I went to one a bit further out and had the best honey lavender latte, hoping the mobile coffee place is there again. Might be worth the drive!
Planting 114 flower bulbs (maybe not that many but that’s apparently how many I bought) if it’s not raining
Cheering on the Chiefs!
We still aren’t sure if we’re going to a bonfire tomorrow night, thinking my husband isn’t overly enthused. Do you have any fun weekend plans?
Just thought I’d do a random chit chat type post today and just throw in a hodgepodge of pictures to go along with it.
It’s been a bit of an odd week where there were a few days where I wasn’t even sure what day it actually was. J didn’t have classes on Tuesday so I think that’s what threw me off a bit. And I’ve never managed to get it right. Just realized today that this is not the last week of October. Geez. Do you ever get the days and weeks mixed up? Please tell me I’m not alone in doing this.
I’ll also blame the stores. Had some errands to run and felt like Rip Van Winkle. Wondering if I slept through Halloween and Thanksgiving because it’s Christmas!
MONDAY and TUESDAY
Monday, I ended up not working. A bit of a communication mix up. While I didn’t mind not working, the lack of communication frustrated me a bit. Tuesday was walking day (I shared photos from my walk here) We did not have enough players for our Bunco night so four of us went out for dinner instead.
It was okay, the company was nice but the food was just average. And with the price of dining out/food lately, that was a bit disappointing. I did get a complimentary drink with my dinner since they were out of my first choice of an adult “beverage.” So not all bad.
WEDNESDAY and THURSDAY
Wednesday, I didn’t do much of anything. Posted here, watched the season finale of Daryl Dixon. Have you been watching it? I’m not sure what to make of the episode…The last episodes of Fear the Walking Dead start on Sunday so I’ll be watching that now. Don’t even ask me to explain how I can’t do scary but love the zombie shows. Oh, I forgot I did make this apple cake minus the custard sauce (too many egg yolks for me, melted ice cream works fine) though it turned out a bit dry. My husband and the boys weren’t big fans. It’s not super sweet so I’ve just ate it for breakfast the past two days.
Thursday, I went on another walk in the morning. Worked in the afternoon. And in the evening a friend and I went to see the Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour movie. Really enjoyed it. Not a big Swiftie but she is super talented and I’d go to that movie again. Wow, I imagine it was a spectacular live show. My friend and I did wonder if at the live show the time between sets might have been a bit longer. After the movie, we stood in the parking lot visiting for a bit. Then, at home, J wanted to talk. Not about anything serious. However, I feel like if your older kid wants to share things with you, you listen even if the pillow is begging for your attention as well.
FRIDAY (TODAY)
I’m calling it Frittata Friday instead of red Friday because somehow all my Chiefs gear is in the wash. SIGH. At least I’ll have a shirt ready for Sunday. Actually, I was proud of the frittata as we used the last of a bag of mini peppers which means I managed to not let it go bad. We had a pepper popper pizza (recipe off the bag) for lunch one day, pepper steak for dinner another night, and then the frittata for lunch. Oh, I should probably share that I use this recipe for my frittata base. We don’t care for potatoes in our frittatas so leave them out.
And after running to the store earlier, it seems like prices went up again? And how about a sale on Halloween candy? I had to run to the store because I’m making ranch chicken enchiladas using the slow cooker for dinner tonight and had somehow picked up a Hidden Valley Ranch “Dill” dip mix instead of the original stuff. Thought that probably wouldn’t work so went and picked up the right mix plus some yellow rice (forgot it on Monday), chips, and salsa to round out our meal. Curious to see how it turns out.
WEEKEND PLANS
Tonight after J and I return from his class (he goes to class, I sit in a sunny/shady spot in the car and read), I’ll probably not do much. TV viewing I imagine, the new episode of Loki is out so I’ll watch that and maybe a not too scary Halloween movie.
Now that I know it’s not the last week of the month, our weekend is open as our friends won’t be hosting a bonfire until next weekend. Tomorrow morning I’ll visit the local farmer’s markets in search of some good bread, maybe do some more yard work and work on getting more plants ready to transition inside.
Sunday’s the Chiefs game in the afternoon and then, depending on whether J wants to drive himself to band practice or not, a Target trip in the evening.
A pretty low-key weekend on our horizon and I’m okay with that. Do you have exciting weekend plans?
Just thought I’d share a little about our trip to Nashville the next few days. Seems like a good way to procrastinate cleaning the house get back into a routine of blogging.
We left early Thursday morning, too early for me and not early enough for my husband. Have you seen that meme floating around (can’t find it) that says there are two types of people, the ones who pack the night before and the ones who try to sneak in another load of laundry the morning of the trip? And that they marry each other. Very relatable. For the record, I’m the “another load of laundry” person. Nashville is about a solid 8 hour drive from here.
We left about 8 a.m. and made good time. Stopped at The Sweet Spot in St. Louis so my husband could get some fried croissants and I could get a couple cannoli. We enjoyed our treats for the next couple of days as well. It threw us off our planned route but was well worth it.
We then, stopped for lunch at a Dairy Queen somewhere east of St. Louis in Illinois though I think we’d passed by east St. Louis by then. It wasn’t a very scenic drive through that area of Illinois. A random bathroom break brought us to our fun stop in Metropolis, IL. Shared a few pictures last Monday so maybe just one today.
Last Stop Before Our Destination
We actually spent a bit more time there than intended. Mostly because I was wearing a Chiefs shirt and you know, KC fans are everywhere. We ran into a woman (not literally) who used to live in the KC area and she was a talker though her stories were quite interesting. She told us how her supervisor had run her over (he was drunk) causing back injuries when she was doing road work on a local state highway back in the early 90’s. And that she’d helped in getting the law about the fines for hitting construction workers made. She was there when former President Clinton signed it into law.
I wish I’d have thought to ask her for her name. I could find nothing regarding what she said during a few google searches on the way home but I don’t disbelieve her stories either.
Nashville Arrival
I wish I could tell you we hit the ground running and did lots of fun exciting things when we arrived. We did not. Even the photo above is from the following day. We checked into our hotel which was a nice Marriott in a business district–we’re not hip downtown staying kind of people. Plus, honestly, we were too cheap to pay the downtown hotel parking rates. We checked into our hotel later in the afternoon and then, went to eat at…wait for it…Arby’s. Yes, that’s how exciting we are over here.
For the record, I don’t like Arby’s and it apparently doesn’t matter if it’s in a different state. Still don’t like it. Of course, I should have got the chicken but tried roast beef as I knew we’d likely be having hot chicken in Nashville and didn’t want to ruin my appetite for it.
Don’t worry, we did do more exciting things than go to Arby’s on our trip. I’ll share about our first full day in my next post.
