Weekly Worship - Phil Wickham ~ Song In My Soul (Lyrics) ft. Hollyn

Enjoy!  :-)

2020 Weekly Photos #33

This has been a long week.  It has been super hot and humid.  Our cranky AC unit doesn't work when it gets hot so we had to hang a blanket to keep the living room end of the house cool and that is where we hung out all. week. long.  The dining room and kitchen were HOT HOT HOT!  Uuugg.  I read, played on my ipad, and worked on the computer. 

Here's a look back at our long week:

Saturday - a total do nothing day.  We had dinner at my mom's otherwise we hung out and did nothing HA!

Sunday - After lunch Darryl and I looked at each other and said, "Lets go to the lake" so we did.  We enjoyed an amazing 3 hours at our favorite beach - the place that is truly my home - Lake Michigan in Muskegon.  We both said, "Why don't we do this more!"

Monday - This is the day that by noon I hung the blanket.  The house was almost suffocating by that point.

Tuesday - My mom came over for dinner - good thing it was a crock pot meal because I wasn't cooking!

Wednesday - At 7:15 the contractor called and said, "I"m on my way!" and by 11:00 we had a new, working garage door :-)

Thursday - On Wednesday night, a friend from the campground sent me a message and said, "Do you all want to swim at the pool on Thursday?" YES!  It was amazing!!

Friday - We were going to go to a meet and greet with our co-op group but it was pouring rain and then my fridge was supposed to get delivered but . . .it was pouring rain.  So we ended up with a day of nothing!

Weekly Menu

Are you ready?  My fridge is . .. .. . .here!!! Well - almost. . .. it will hopefully be delivered this afternoon!

After 5 long weeks I can finally plan.  PLUS it's only supposed to be in the 70's this week so I can cook!!!!!

I think I'm most excited about planning better lunches.  Oh, and having a freezer upstairs again :-)  I normally move food for the week from the deep freezer downstairs to the freezer upstairs at the beginning of the week so it is all handy but now I have to remember to go downstairs every morning and get out what is needed for dinner.  Needless to say, some nights we have spaghetti or mac and cheese because I forget HA!  It will also be nice to have easy access to drinks - digging in  a cooler full of ice (which I'm very thankful for) is not fun!

So, what's the plan for the coming week.  Drum roll please.  . . . .

Friday - We will do our weekly eat out tonight.  It's hard to break tradition :-)

Saturday - Dinner at my moms.

Sunday - It is Darryl's dad's 80th birthday (on Monday) so the family is getting together for dinner.

Monday - Marinated chicken, amish noodles and a veggie

Tuesday - Stuffed Shells, Green beans and garlic knots

Wednesday - Chicken Legs, Mac and Cheese, and a veggie

Thursday - Simple Chicken and Snow Pea Stir fry, Rice, and Garlic Knots

So, truth be told - I kept it easy . .. because of a few hot weeks my cupboards and freezer were pretty full so I'm trying to use some things up :- )

August Goal Recap

Here's a look back at what I accomplished in the month of August.  As a side note, I think I need to start tracking the things that get done that AREN'T on the list!  There are things that come up along the way that need to be done and sometimes impact the rest of my plan.  Maybe I'll try to track that in September . .. maybe :-)

1. Scrapbooking - I've refocused on my scrapbooking goals after being all over the place for a few months.  1) Order the rest of 2019 photos.  That's the only year I'm focused on when it comes to ordering photos.  2) Scrapbook 2019.  My desk is currently clean and I am organized and ready to go.  I'd like to get all of April and May 2019 scrapbooked this month.  3) Finish up my niece's graduation book and get it mailed to her.  1) I ordered the rest of 2019 photos 2) I did NOT get much scrapbooking time in - just enough for a page or two 3) My nieces book is still not done - still waiting on some letters. 

2. Reading - I wish my kids loved to read as much as I do.  I tried.  I really did.  They only read at this point because they are required too :-)  BUT I love to read so read is what I will do.  I have a two fold goal this month 1) Read for fun.  Every day.  Preferably outside if the weather allows. 2) Read my "self-help" books on my list.  I don't like the word "self-help" but I'm not sure what else to call them :-)  I have a goal of reading 4 of those in August. 1) I read for fun.  Alot.  2) "Self help" books aren't as fun to read HA!  I didn't get a single one read! 

3. Cleaning - It's time to get back on track.  My original plan was a 20 day a month cleaning plan.  I'm back to this concept - a room at a time.  I'm also really working toward simplicity.  We live in a small house and each room works for multiple purposes often so keeping a simplicity through the house is key as is organization. My goal is August is to revisit some rooms I worked on the first half the year and just do a quick redo of those rooms.  That would include the master, the dining room, and the living room.  Once those are done, the fourth room (one a week!) is the kitchen.  This one needs little more work to just go through all the cupboards again and clean some things out. My mom gave me an anniversary gift and dusted and vacuumed for me HA!  I was so not motivated this month so not much got done.  

4. Family - Josh needs some running shoes.  I've "heard" there is a running club he can join through out on-line group so I want him prepared for that adventure.  We have a day trip planned to New Buffalo to visit the beach.  We always camp in South Haven in August but we aren't camping this year due to COVID - I'd like to take a day trip to South Haven and do the things we normally do  such as go Blueberry picking (for like 20 minutes because I actually hate it HA), go to the beach and order our favorite Italian Food. We had a great time at New Buffalo but did not make it to South Haven.  

5.  Homeschool - I wrote my goals HERE.  The August goal is to just make sure we are ready for school to start.  This includes cleaning out the boys desks, making sure they have any needed supplies, and making sure we have the items for their goals. I got both boys desks cleaned out and picked up the supplies that were needed. 

6. Holiday Journal - I've kinda let this slide this year because, well, it's been different.  I do need to focus on Halloween, Birthdays, Thanksgiving and Christmas now though and start working on my plans.

7. The Basement - I really do see light at the end of this tunnel.  To think, when we bought the house we didn't need the basement HA!  I'm cutting this into more manageable pieces, though.  For August my one main goal is to reorganize the toy room in the basement.  I have new shelf that fits the space better.  I need to hang Nate's race track, clean out some of the toys, move the big shelf to the other side of the basement and maybe add some more of the floor panels so it's more comfortable for the kids.  Secondary to that is to clean out the area at the base of the stairs. Darryl and I worked together!  I switched the shelves out and cleaned up the playroom side.  I cleaned up the stuff at the bottom of the stairs and we did some cleaning in the main portion of the basement.  Still a lot of work to do to get it where I want it but I feel like we made a lot of progress

8. Piano - 1) Get the piano tuned.  I have the name of the tuner, I just have to schedule it.  2) The boys need to get back into practice.  I'm hopeful their teacher will teach this fall so that they can pick up their lessons again. 3) I need to work on a song. 1) Did not get it tuned - it's on the plan for September since I won't be paying for piano lessons this fall (their teacher is waiting until January) 2) We will pick up "at home lessons" in September 3) Didn't even touch the piano this month

9. Photography - I still have a goal of figuring out my new lens more. I ordered a photography book that I am waiting for that I hope will help me out! 

10. Spiritual - Two things - 1) Read my daily devotional.  2) Do my weekly Bible Study that ladies from church are doing together via Facebook.  1) Nope 2) I have done some of the Bible study but am not keeping up! 

11. Misc Goals - 1) Gather our cameras/video cameras and make sure they are all charged, work, etc.  2) Continue to work in the yard depending on the weather.  I've even thought about planting my Sunflower seeds now - then they will be in full bloom by the end of September!!  3) Organize our beach bags 4) Set up the new shelves in the garage and start organizing things better 5) Hang my new flag; get a new flag pole for the front of the house and have Darryl hang it 6) Fill the holes in the yard 7) Clean out both vehicles 1) Still working on this 2) It's been way to hot to do much in the yard! 3) The beach bags are organized!  4) We are waiting for our garage door to get fixed which will hopfully be soon - as soon as our contractor can fit it in!  5) The Flag is hung! 6) The holes are not filled HA!  7) Both vehicles are not cleaned!  (again - way too hot outside!) 

What We are Eating Wednesday - The Recipe for a perfect picnic!

First up is my broken record. 

 My refrigerator is still not here (holding out hope for Friday!) AND we are in the middle of another heat wave so I am not doing much cooking especially of anything new!  

So, instead I thought I would share how I created a perfect picnic when we went to New Buffalo!  

My original picnic plan included lots of things to make in advance and put in a fridge that didn't arrive HA!  So, instead I went to the store and started looking around at what would pack well and take little prep time.  Too often. I am a self proclaimed over planner.  I put a lot of work into things because I want too but I also know that sometimes I create a lot of work!  Well, this most recent picnic was the easiest one to put together and it was the most tasty!  

So what did we have?  Well, let me tell you! 

Wraps:  Simple tortilla shells, lunch meat, cheese, cream cheese, lettuce, and green onions. 

I personally do not like sandwiches.  The simple lunch box, two slices of bread sandwiches are enough to make me gag HA!  What I do love are those ham/onion wraps so I made it into a roll-up using a tortilla, cream cheese, and a green onion (yum!).  Now, I know not everyone likes what I do so that's why I added lettuce and cheese.  Oh, and mustard.  I did not pre-make the sandwiches  - just took all the fixin's and everyone got to create what they wanted. 

Fruit:  I bought a fruit tray at the store with strawberries, pineapple, and watermelon along with our favorite cream cheese fruit dip.  I also threw in some apples to slice up IF we needed more fruit (which we didn't).  To help save on mess, I spent a little extra and bought the individual pack of the fruit dip so each person had their own.  

Chips:  This time I bought tortilla chips and salsa.  I also found an amazing Mexican dip that I haven't found since!  It was the perfect combination with the wraps. 

Crackers:  I bought crackers, cheese, and salami.  I knew this was "extra" but wanted to make sure that no one went hungry and knew that this would fill people up if needed.  Josh and Darryl actually used the little salami pieces on their wraps.  

Cookies:  Just store bought cookies.  Nothing fancy :-) 

As you can read, everything was pre-made and easy to pack.  This is a picnic combination that  I want to remember! 

What I've Been Reading

I can happily say that I've enjoyed reading quite a bit in August.  It's been a hot summer so sitting in the air, in a comfy chair, enjoying a good book was high on my list of things to do!

This is the Bride Ships series by Jody Hedlund.  I picked up book one on a deal for less then a $1.00 and it was fabulous.  I really loved the story and the history.  Jody Hedlund was a new author to me and I'd rank her along side Tracie Peterson.  The books took me away and I didn't want to put them down.  Book 4 release tomorrow and I actually pre-ordered it so it will show up on my Kindle automatically. 

This is another one I picked up for less then $1.00 . . .. but it was not my favorite.  I found it hard to read and I struggled to follow the story line at times.  I did finish it but I won't be picking up the other books in the series.

Ok, these two books by Charles Martin rank up as two of the best books I've read in a long time.  The stories are real, heartfelt, and really, kind of raw - full of emotion.  I found myself fighting for the main characters throughout both stories.  I want to read more by Charles Martin because his writing style is so different than anyone else I read.

This book is what I'm currently reading as I'm writing this post.  This his historical fiction that takes place during the time the Nazi's are gathering the jew's from Amsterdam/Netherlands.  It is well written and I really hate putting it down.  One thing that usually annoys me in a book is that each chapter is telling the story of different people (about 4-5 people) and it goes back and forth from present day to the 1940's to tell the story.  It took me a bit to piece it together but as I gathered more information throughout the book, it made it easier to keep the characters and connections straight. If you enjoy history as well as story that follow real life, this is a good one to pick up and read.

Recipe Organization (And some Thirty-One too!)

Over the years I've had various recipe organization ideas and all have worked well but my current format has worked the best!

First, I used a Rolodex.  Yes, you read that right.  It was pretty cool, really, but I had to type and print all of the recipes on those little cards.  It took a lot of work.

Next, I used 3 ring binders.  This was great because I could just print recipes, hole punch them and put them in the binder.  This was great except I took the weekly recipes out and wouldn't put them back until I had almost all the recipes out and had to reorganize them . .. .again.

Now, I use this file system.

This is a file box from Thirty-One that I picked up several years ago.  I created a file for each of my recipe categories (Beef, Pork, Soups, Slow Cooker, etc.) and now, I just pull out what I need and refile it when I'm done - easy peasy!  I keep the blue file in the front so, if I'm in a rush, I can put recipes in there that need to be filed so that they don't get lost. I'm considering purchasing another one of the files to use with organizing my scrapbooking things.

My friend, Cindy, sells Thirty-One products so if you are looking for something new, check out her site HERE.

I recently picked up a couple new items that I just love.

This is the Round Utility Tote and it is just amazing.  I love that it actually sits on my shoulder and the straps make it just long enough to carry on your shoulder.  It opens wide and holds alot - it is currently holding all of our beach snacks :-) 

 I also picked up this cute little bag as a special - I love it because it has a clip to hook it inside another bag, it has a zipper pouch that is perfect for holding my little camera, money, and my phone when we go to the beach and it has the zippered outside pocket that is great for things like chap-stick.  I searched the site and couldn't find it but maybe I was missing it! 

I also picked up a Fresh Market Thermal and the Small Utility Tote in the same pattern as the small pouch above.  They are both perfect for hauling to the beach. 

And, no, this is not a sales pitch.  I personally like to see what other people are using for organizing so I thought I'd share what I'm using too!