2021 Weekly Photos #35

 I did not get my normal photo post up on Saturday but I wanted to still get it posted!  It was a busy weekend!  Here's a look back at a week ago!!

Saturday - A quiet day at home to get some projects done!

Sunday - Church, Football and youth group! 

Monday - Josh and Nate had haircuts.  This was my view . . ..I was kicked packed in a super comfy chair and may have even had a little time of "just resting my eyes" HA! 

Tuesday - It was a beautiful day so while piano lessons were happening, I took a little stroll and enjoyed the beauty of fall. 

Wednesday and Thursday - We did a lot of school :-) 

Friday - Our Co-Op ! 

Nate loves his Grateful Hearts class.  

It was another fun, busy week! 

Weekly Worship - TobyMac - Lights Shine Bright ft. Hollyn

A week or so ago this song played on our way to our Friday Co-Op and it was great!  It is not my normal genre of music but it's a great Friday Morning song and the message is fabulous too! 

Weekly Menu

 Last week I mentioned that I tried the curbside pickup for the first time.  I can say that there are pro's and con's to the whole system.  It is not something I would use often but it is good for in a pinch or when things are busy. 

Pro's: 

• It's a great way to control your budget since you can see exactly what you are spending before you spend it
• It's fast and easy once you know the system/how to search for items
• It's great to just park and pick up - saves so much time
• You don't pick up extra food not on your list
• You can add things to your list up until the day you are picking up your order

Cons:

• If  the item says it is out of stock on line, you can't add it "just in case" it gets restocked
• If the item says it IS in stock so you think you are getting - but it goes out of stock, you have no idea until it doesn't show up in your order
• Substitutions -- I put "no substitutions" because I didn't want my shopper adding something more expensive instead of what I picked.  
• Expiration dates - The gallon of milk I got expired 2 days later. 
• If you remember things you need after mid-night - you can't add them
• Missed items - my shopper missed quite a few things.  I know she missed them because I needed them and went back into the store to get them . .. they were all stocked.
• You don't know what isn't purchased until you get home AND try to make dinner HA!  I couldn't find a way to see what was not purchased on line but knew quite a bit was missed because my total was $40.00 less then expected. 

So, really, it was ok.  I did have to go back to the store the same day and finish my shopping.  It did change my dinner plans because I had planned chicken for dinner and did not get my chicken; I switched to baked tacos and realized I also did not get taco seasoning.  (I did have enchilada sauce in the cupboard though and ultimately made the best enchiladas I've ever made AND did it on a total whim HA!) I think if I ordered again I would say "ok" to substitutions but put notes on anything specific that I wanted to make sure they didn't substitute something weird. 

Now, after all of that - here's the plan for the coming week. 

Friday - I have a scrapbooking retreat I'm heading to (but it is local so I get to sleep at home!) so I'll be eating there.  The three males in the family will get take out of their choice. 

Saturday - I'll be, again, scrapbooking but the plan is for the the guys to head to my mom's for dinner still :-) 

Sunday - I'm back home :-)  There is still scrapbooking but, since it IS local, I've decided to head to church with the family and attend choir.  We enjoy our church :-)  Plus Football.  Anyway, lunch is Grammy's Swiss Steak (not my grammy - just the name of the recipe HA), Mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans

Monday - Chick-Fa-Lay Nuggets and French Fries

Tuesday - Chili 5 Way (Spaghetti, Cheese, Sour Cream, Onions, and Fritos) 

Wednesday - BBQ Cups and Fries

Thursday - Crispy Orange Beef and Broccoli with baked rice

Zach Williams - Heaven Help Me (lyrics)

2021 Weekly Photos #34

 Welcome to another week!   

Saturday - Today was "Josh's Day" which is something we do for the kids birthdays.  They get to pick lunch and dinner out and two activities.  

We started with lunch at Five Guys.  Amazing hamburgers and fries!! 

Josh's first stop was Dave and Busters.  This was something new for us.  It got mixed reviews - it was fun but Josh said it went to fast for the price.  (Which I would just say it was expensive HA!) 

Josh won the jackpot twice on the big wheel. 

Josh's second stop was Skyzone - which is an old favorite.  An hour and half of jumping wears everyone out! 

Dinner was supposed to be Pizza Ranch but when we got there it was closed for dining due to being short staffed.  So, Josh had a back up - Mexican food!  It was super yummy (and I actually was craving Mexican since it was his original first choice HA!) 

Sunday - We started our day with church and choir practice and ended with Halloween Festivities! 

Nate started out by going to his youth group for a trunk or treat.  Our plan was to return before the event ended and get shots of him in "action" but . .. unbeknownst to us a storm hit and they had to end the event early!!  UUGG!  So, no photos in action but he told us he had lots of fun for the first hour. 

While Nate enjoyed his activity, we enjoyed a treat from Biggby! (Thanks to my brother Kel who put the idea in my head HA!) 

After Nate's youth group activity, he went Trick-or Treating!  He loved it.  He and I walked it all while Josh and Darryl walked for a bit and then went back for the vehicle and followed us around. 

Monday - I let my kids sleep in HA!  We kinda needed a day after our weekend.  They had some school work to do while I cleaned and did grocery shopping.  I also started cleaning up the yard for winter. 

The pots are cleaned out and the decor is put away! 

Tuesday - Music lessons and school kept us busy all day! 

Wednesday - I had a dentist appointment for a cleaning.  We did school all day too :-)  We've also been enjoying some walks for "PE". 

We enjoyed the neighbors leaves for some fun photos (And my kids may or may not have laid down in the road for the leaves HA!) 

It took a long time for our leaves to start to change -- I even was sure that the leaves would fall and never change BUT last week we got our cold night temps and we finally saw some color!  Then, we had snow flakes on Tuesday so all of these leaves might be covered up soon! 

Thursday - We had a quiet day at home trying to wrap up school for the week! 

Friday - Co-Op Fun all day :-) 

Josh working on his Dotz painting in art class. 

Nate in Grateful Hearts.  A missionary spoke in class today.  Nate just loves this class so much! 

Nate's Grateful Hearts class collected "Treasure's for Troops" - he's pictured with his sign and lots of things he picked out to donate. 

Nate also enjoys gym class - especially 9 square.  He's all the way to the left in the corner. 

So, that was oru week!  It was fun and busy.  

Weekly Menu

 November!!!  Just like that.  After super busy months of September and October, I feel like things are finally slowing down.  It feels good!  I realized on Sunday last week that I never shared my Menu last week . .. yet I know I wrote it in a post . .. but the post wasn't there so I'm not sure what happened.  I know I wrote it because it was different then what was on my month calendar because of things I bought the previous week we didn't eat!!  I have no idea what happened!!!  Oh well :-)  I also did something new this week . .. .  .I was trying to figure out when to shop and . . .. I did a curbside pick up order (WHAT??)  It was great for sticking to a budget and for not buying anything extra!!  I wouldn't do it every week but it sure is nice when one is busy! 

Here's the plan for the coming week:

Friday - Dinner in.  Some weeks I will cook and some weeks we'll order in and this week we will order in!

Saturday - Back to our normal routine of dinner at my mom's! 

Sunday - Stuffed Shells, Salad and Garlic Bread

Monday - Chicken Pot Pie Crescent Bread and Salad

Tuesday - Slow Cooker Zuppa Tuscana and French Bread

Wednesday - Leftovers

Thursday - Baked Tacos and chips and salsa

Gulf Shores Alabama Trip - Part 1

 Darryl and I had the opportunity at the end of September to take a trip for our 20th Anniversary.  It's been in the works for awhile (like years actually) so the fact that we could actually leave for a week on a real vacation was a big deal . .. without the kids!  We talked about alot of the places from Maine to Colorado but ultimately our hearts are with the beach so we headed South to the Gulf! 

Day 1 - Our trip really started on Friday evening when we picked up our rental car, came home, and loaded up!  On Saturday morning we got up, got ready and hit the road.  Our plan was to stop a few hours down the road for coffee.  That was not as easy as it sounds!  We got off at an exit that had a Starbucks.  We noticed a local coffee shop so decided to try that . .. but the line was around the building!  We drove to the Starbucks and figured out why the other coffee shop was so busy . . .because it was closed HA!  So we ended up just driving across the street to Speedway and getting coffee.  It was good and that's all that matters. 

My GPS was set to "no Toll Roads" which sent us across this amazing bridge in Kentucky.  

We stopped for lunch at Skyline Chili - one of those rare treats since they aren't in the North really.  We also picked up Donuts from a shop next door but . . .they ended up not being very good.  

The rest of our trip was uneventful.  We stopped outside of Nashville at the same hotel we stayed at previously.  We had picked out a Mexican restaurant to eat at just down the road from the hotel but quickly discovered that we weren't in the best area (When we stayed there before we arrived at about 11:00 at night and left first thing the next morning and never noticed the area - just the hotel was band new and nice!).  So, we did not eat at the Mexican place and instead drove to a little nicer area and got dinner at Panda Express.  Once back at the hotel we kinda crashed - it had been a long day! 

Day 2 (Sunday) - We slept in a little before hitting in the road.  Breakfast at the hotel was awful. Once again we aimed for Starbucks.  This time we were successful and got some wonderful coffees before hitting the road. 

Finally getting into Alabama!  I don't remember where we ate lunch but I promise you it wasn't McDonald's !!  I told Darryl that I didn't want to eat at McDonald's the whole 10 days and he stuck to that the whole time!  

We stopped at this great rest area with a space ship and history markers.  We passed it last time we were driving down but actually stopped this time!  

And . .. the beach!  This is the view out our window of the condo.  It was just beautiful.  The weather was perfect. We unloaded and headed to dinner.  We knew we wanted Seafood so we stopped at a place just down the road for where we were staying.  It wasn't too busy and the food was pretty good.  In the end, it ended up being our least favorite but that doesn't mean it wasn't tasty!  Fresh fish and shrimp is always good!!  

Finally - we settled into our condo for the night looking forward to a very restful and relaxing vacation!