Weekly Menu

This week includes a visit with my brothers!  I'm super excited even if we are all together for only two days!  It's been like 4-5 years since we've all been in one room :-) 

Friday - My brothers all arrive today. Dinner will be a quick homemade pizza and salad 

Saturday - Sunday - My brothers, mom and I are hanging out and doing stuff - like getting coffee and breakfast treats at Sozo's, going out to dinner, playing games and cooking steaks on the grill.  My young guys have a birthday party to head to in the later afternoon and Darryl will be on his own and then they will all  join us for Steaks on Sunday. 

Monday - Pork Tenderloin in Creamy Mushroom Sauce and Pasta Dinner and Cheesecake Factory Brown Bred

Tuesday - Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Soup and Rolss

Wednesday - Tonight youth group resumes.  They get served dinner.  Darryl and I are on our own.  Darryl usually has leftovers and I usually grab a sub or something while I wait in town for the guys to be done at youth group. 

Thursday - Sticky BBQ-Glazed Pork Tenderloin, Diced Fried Potatoes, Corn and Crescent Rolls

I really love as we slip into Fall and I can cook more recipes that warm up the house and make it smell amazing while we do school.  It also makes me want to search out some new recipes to try (which I have several this week).  

Weary Traveler

 I've shared the link to the song Weary Traveler more than once (and will again at the end of this post) and I do so because the song speaks to me so much . 

Isn't it easy to get weary?  I don't mean tired; I mean soul weary.  Where things weigh you down; you get trapped in the craziness of life and responsibilities.  You get discouraged by jobs and finances and expectations.  It can all be overbearing at times, can't it? 

As I'm facing another school year, I feel that weariness begin to creep in already because I know what homeschool takes; what it requires.  Don't get me wrong - I love homeschooling my guys.  I'm so thankful for the opportunity and privilage to do so despite the sacrifices we have to make to have it happen.  That doesn't mean it doesn't make me weary.  

Is being weary a bad thing?  I don't believe it is.  I actually believe it is the opposite.  (See, this is not a negitive post!) I think being weary is a good thing; it causes us to focus on God and what he supplies. 

Matthew West - How Good of God (Lyrics)

A new Matthew West song is always a good thing! 

Our Week in Photos

 Summer is officially winding down as this is our last week without school.  We, again, are enjoying this last peaceful week before things start to pick up and life gets busy.  I joked recently that Nate has a busier social calendar then I do . .. and I wasn't joking!!!  Here's a look back at our week: 

On Saturday my mom and I headed out to meet friends.  Our friend Dee (in the front seat) married David recently, who owns an apple orchard.  We met our other friend Candy to see the orchard, get a great tour and have lunch.  It was such a fun day catching up with long time friends! 

On Sunday, after church, our family headed to my father-in-laws to celebrate his birthday with the rest of the family.  It was a nice visit and we got some good pictures.  He's 82 and we are thankful he enjoys celebrating :-) 

Darryl, his sister Kelly and their dad

Darryl's dad with the grand kids, and great grand kids.  

Monday was a hot and stormy day!  

I didn't think to snap a photo of the sky but a friend did - the sky was angry and brought along some huge wind gusts!  Thankfully we were fine and never lost power but . . .

There were trees down on Main Street (photo taken from Facebook) and lots of other people without power with tons of tree damage! 

Weekly Menu - and just like that it is the "end" of summer

 It is Labor Day weekend!  Whew!  Craziness.  I always take a deep breath as we pass Labor Day because (most years) September - December go by in a blink of an eye (or two shakes of a lambs tail HA).  

Friday - Waffles, Sausage/Bacon, and eggs . .. and maybe some grits if I feel like making them.  (A little "Waffle House" at home) 

Saturday -   We are heading to my mom's for our normal Saturday night dinner 

Sunday - \Chicken Crescent Braid and Salad.  I can have the braid filling made ahead of time making this an easy meal to pull together after church. 

Monday - Labor Day!  We are having a cook out at my mom's to celebrate today! 

Tuesday - Tacos -  a super easy meal for a super busy day!   

Wednesday - Pasta Carbanara, French bread, and salad

Thursday - Chili Five Ways!  (With Spaghetti, cheese, onion, sour cream  . .. and well, I guess that's 4 ways HA!)  Tonight is the opening night of football so "football food" seems fitting! 

What We are Eating - Lunch version

 This time of year, as I gear up for school starting, I look for lunch ideas that I can pull together quickly for myself.  I have the standards for my guys - pizza, nuggets, PB and J, etc.  But I need sometime different :-)  This is one that I tried this past week. 

This idea came from a Bento Box Lunch idea from Pinterest along with some really great Ham and bacon Pinwheels.  After making this on Monday I did change it up slightly on Tuesday for the rest of the week.  The dip is made from Greek Yogurt and Cream cheese.  Here's the truth - no matter how many times I try Greek yogurt in any form I don't like the result.  So I used Ranch Dressing for my veggie dip the rest of the week.  I also added in some carrots with the cucumbers.  I love the Everything Bagel chips - a great taste and great flavor!  The fruit I have with lunch varies - this is Monday with an Apple, Tuesday I had watermelon.  I have grapes to use too so a great variety for this week ! 

The cream cheese pinwheels are great!  I love that there is no tortilla - the ham is the wrap (just like a pickle or onion wrap) and that there is bacon!  I used the already cooked bacon strips and they worked perfectly.  The longer they sit in the fridge the better so they are great for make ahead lunches!  You can find the recipe for the Cream Cheese Pinwheels over at 730 Sage Street. 

This lunch is going in my rotation because it is filling (lots of protein) and easy to put together at lunch time since everything is already made.  Also, I tend to eat the same thing all week for my lunch so this is easy to prep in advance and have everything on hand, cut, and ready to eat! 

Gulf Shores Vacation Part 2

 Here's the rest of the story!  :-) 

Remember that one of the reasons we planned this trip was for my 50th birthday so I planned the day with things I wanted to do! 

If you know me at all, you know that I love a really good breakfast.  I would almost rather go out for breakfast then out for dinner.  I picked Sunliner Diner for breakfast.  Darryl and I had eaten lunch at the diner before but this was the first time for my guys.  My breakfast was very yummy!  

After getting our fill at the diner, we headed to the Mini Gulf Course.  It was a bit hot and there were little lizards keeping us company but we still had lots of fun.  

The family selfie on my birthday! !

Of course, I also went down to the beach and read my book for an hour (or maybe two!!)  The beach is my favorite place to be, as I'm sure I have mentioned once or twice! 

I did not want to cook on my birthday (that's the best gift ever!) so we ordered pizza and salad for dinner.  We enjoyed eating out on the balcony - because, well, we are at the beach after all! 

Nate made sure to get a photo of my since I'm 50 now. 

After dinner we headed down to the beach to find ghost crabs.  It's kinda cool because these little guys kind of freeze in the light so you can catch them.  Don't worry, when we were done, we let them go! 

Finally, we ended the night with my favorite dessert - Key Lime Pie from LuLu's.  It's just amazing and such a treat!  I really loved my birthday and hope we get to do it again!  

On Thursday, we started our day like we always do - the balcony and the pool.  We had pretty near perfect weather the entire week.  Clear blue skies and lots of sunshine! 

Our big adventure today was going to the pier.  It's pretty neat to watch the people out there fishing and see what the catch.  There are also sharks swimming below trying to steal the catch before it gets reeled  in and sometimes they do!  It's cool to see them jump out of the water too!  We also saw some dolphins. swimming out a little further.   Oh, and before this we ate at Lambert's Cafe again - the home of the throwed rolls.  

We were HOT after being out on the pier for a few hours so we headed to get ice cream at Matt's Ice Cream.  The servings were big and the icea cream was good!  

Once we got back to the condo, I headed down to the beach and enjoyed putting my feet in the sand :-) 

Our last day, Friday.  What a great week!  When I'm on vacation I really try to enjoy every moment and make it last.  I can honestly say that this vacation was perfect.  Because we chose to do just one thing each day, to hang around the condo, to use the pool, etc, the days seemed to be long and relaxing in a great way.  It was such a laid back trip and we loved it. 

Our big excursion today was the fort. Fort Morgan is another historical park where we get a chance to walk on the same ground as so many soldiers before us.  It's always kind of somber to walk the halls.  

We are still working on our selfies - my arms just aren't long enough HA!  I need to let Nate take them all - he does much better! 

We enjoyed a late lunch at Shrimp Basket since that is our favorite place to eat.  

Saturday morning we were up early, packed and ready to head out by 10:00 because we had big plans! 

See!  Nate does much better :-)  Our last selfie on the balcony!  We hope to go back to this same condo next year. 

You may or may not know but there was a footbook league that started in the spring and there just so happened to be a game in Birmingham Alabama on Saturday.  We surprised the guys (before vacation) with tickets for this game.  It is technically kind of on the way home so we planned our day around the game. 

It was really a fun time.  We cheered for the team from Texas since my brother and his family live there.  It was hot because we chose the side in the sun (if we ever do this again we know to sit on the other side where there is shade HA!)  BUT the seats were super comfortable and the food was good! 

That is the end of my photos!  Once the game was done, we headed for just north of Nashville for the night.  On Sunday, we got up, ate breakfast and hit the road for the long drive home.  We really worked to not take too much time on our stops and got home pretty close to planned which was nice.  

It is always hard to see vacation end but we sure had an amazing time!