Weekly Song - Peace Has Come - Hillsong Worship

I heard this recently on our Christian Radio Station and really enjoyed it - I hope you do too! 

2021 Weekly Photos #38

 Here's a look back at our week: 

Saturday - We took advantage of the fantastic weather to cut down our tree! 

We picked out a tree pretty quickly! 

Darryl did quick work of chopping down the tree (technically sawing it down!) 

The Tree Farm that we go to has a great petting zoo too!  It's always fun to see what new animals they have added each year. 

The finished tree!  We ended the night decorating the tree and watching Home Alone! 

Sunday - We watched our church service from home again this week as Joshua and Nate were both fighting some sickness.  

Monday-Thursday - We had a quiet week really with school all week.  We hit a section with lots of projects and tests which made for long lessons and days.  But we pushed through and accomplished quite a bit!  

Friday - Nate was able to be part of a local parade with his youth group.  They decorated the float on Thursday night and Nate just had a blast.  I'm so happy for him and this outlet that he has because he needs people!  

Waiting for the parade to begin.  It turned out to be a decent night despite a a forecast of rain!  The rain held off right until the end. 

Here they come!!! 

Nate!  He was helping pass out candy along the way with his jingle bell light up necklace and lighted Packers Hat!! 

That's our week! 

Weekly Menu

 Whew.  It's been a week.  Sick Kids. School and more School.  Thankfully the kids are healthy again.  We are still buried in school.  For some reason lessons are taking forever to finish and I feel like we are stuck in molasses right now but we are just taking one lesson at a time and moving forward the best we can.  That has also zapped my cooking creativity so we have eaten a lot of soups and a lot of leftovers lately.  This week will look similar in the fact that meals will be simple! 

Friday:  Leftovers!  Or whatever anyone wants from the freezer or cupboards.  Nate is in a parade so once we get back home, everyone get figure out what to eat.  

Saturday - Nate has a youth activity where he will get to eat.  We are having lunch at my moms so then dinner will be a frozen pizza most likely! 

Sunday - Meatballs and chili cheese dip.  This was planned for last week but with sickness in the house we ended up eating chicken pot pies - true comfort food. 

Monday - Chicken, noodles and veggies 

Tuesday - Chili and corn bread.  

Wednesday -  Tacos and salad

Thursday - French Toast Sticks and Sausage links

Super Simple but yummy food! 

Super 

Weekly Song Francesca Battistelli: "Be Born In Me (MARY)" -

I just love this Christmas Song!  Such a great message. 

Weekly Menu - December

 December is here!  As we wrap up the year, I try to keep it simple, use up what we have on hand, and keep the grocery budget in check while there is so much other spending going on!  Sometimes I feel like December is like a giant sieve - everything just flows right through it and it goes faster and faster!!!  I think this year seems more intense because last year there was nothing going on due to things still being shut down.  I think I kind of liked last December better in the fact that it was more peaceful and easier to focus on what was really important not only for the season itself but even for our family.  Anyway, I'm getting off track since this is my menu post!!!  Here's the plan for the coming week:

Friday - Pork Tenderloin, Baked Beans, Salad, and rolls

Saturday - My mom's for dinner :-) 

Sunday - Joshua and Nate have birthday party after church with pizza for lunch - the bonus is that Darryl and I are also invited!  

Monday - Amish Chicken, Noodles, and broccoli

Tuesday - Chicken Quesadillas, salad, and chips and salsa

Wednesday - We will be "running" - Joshua and Nate have band practice so Nate eats an early dinner as he then stays for AWANA.  Joshua has youth group after band and he gets dinner served there.  I will grab something while waiting for Josh to get done and Darryl gets to eat at home.  

Thursday - Chicken Noodle Soup (Bear Creek dry soup mix - it's pretty good!) and rolls. 

Gulf Shores Alabama - Part 4

 Friday - This was our "relax and enjoy the beach" kind of day.  The weather throughout much of the week  had been a little rainy so we didn't spend as much time on the beach as we might have but we did take advantage of it today! 

We wanted to return to a favorite for lunch so we went back to Shrimp Basket and it did not disappoint.  We also made another stop at the souvenir shops before heading back to our condo and, ultimately, the beach. 

The waves were huge.  Being from Michigan, we enjoy Lake Michigan and often say that it reminds us of being by the ocean.  The waves were quite large on this day and we love large waves  . .. .the power of the waves in the Gulf is over the top - nothing like Lake Michigan.  We did play in the waves for awhile and then we made quite the show trying to get back to shore (we weren't very far out) as the waves totally knocked us both off our feet HA!  We were NOT the only ones that suffered this "fate" but, oh my goodness, that was crazy fun.  We spent most of the rest of our beach time relaxing on the beach verses fighting the waves! 

We just loved this view from our balcony overlooking the gulf.  I could live here in a heartbeat and enjoy that view every day! 

Finally, we ended our day with pizza.  Apparently everyone had the same idea because the first 3 places we called, or tried calling, either had HUGE long waits or didn't even answer the phone.  We finally got through to Janino's Pizza and it did not disappoint.  The pizza was great and so was the salad.  Side story - as we were heading back to the condo after picking up our pizza, we heard something hit our back window.  We got egged.  Yes we did - you just have to love a beach town on a warm Friday night I guess.  

Saturday - Sadly, this was pack up day (but our vacation is not done!).  We started out by loading everything up and hitting the road.  We stopped for Chick-Fil-A breakfast and a few Krispy Kreme Donuts for the road.  

This condo was perfect for us.  We really enjoyed our time here and would come back in an instant.  

Our main stop of our vacation on Saturday was Laurel, Mississippi. 

I love the show "Home Town" which is all done in Laurel.  It's just such a sweet show and the home renovations are realistic and always so well done.  It was super busy on this Saturday with a huge craft show going on but we still enjoyed our wanderings through town.  We started at the General Store - where this is as close to the stars of the show as I got HA!  

This is Ben's workshop that is actually used in filming (but no filming on this date!)  

As we were leaving Laurel we stopped for lunch at an amazing Mexican place before heading to a really cool bridge into Louisiana that crossed over the Mississippi River. 

It was getting dark and rainy so after crossing the bridge, we crossed back over into Mississippi and headed to our final stop for the night which was still about 2 hours away.  We were on a back road through the Delta in the pouring rain and it was d.a.r.k. HA!  We knew we were in swamp land because the frogs crossing the road while were driving were endless and kind of gross! 

We finally arrived at our hotel in Greenville, Mississippi.  After checking in, we went looking for dinner and had our first awful meal HA!  Where was it, you ask?  Sonic.  It was just plain gross - at least the Chocolate Shake was good, right?  Whew!  

Sunday - We had a few adventures planned for today around Greenville as it is quite the historic area. 

We crossed the Mississippi River once again! 

Cotton Fields!

This was an unexpected side trip - we saw the sign for the Plantation so decided to check it out. 

It's kind of cool - but not nearly as big and grand as I think of plantation homes. 

This was another plantation that we actually planned to see.  It is a Bed and Breakfast so we didn't stop and go inside but did check out the outside.  It was a little more grand.  

Our last stop was this Cypress Preserve which was just awesome!  These trees are so cool with their "knobby knee" root system which gives them stability in the swamp lands. 

After exploring, we went into the town and found a little place for lunch.  It was a true "southern cooking" kind of place with mainly "soul food".  I got shrimp and grits and Darryl got some sort of omelet with sausage and greens in it.  Mine was some of the best food I had the whole trip and Darryl said his was great too. 

We then hit the road as we had quite the drive before we would arrive at our hotel for the night.  

Monday - This was just our drive home day.  

Our hotel for the night was actually in Missouri so we finally crossed into Indiana and drove around Chicago. 

We finally drove into Michigan and made a quick pit-stop.  This is the photo I sent to Josh and Nate to let them know we were getting closer!!!  We stopped for a quick dinner before making the final trek home. 

We had an amazing trip.  It was a dream trip - something we had been hoping to do for years but it just never worked out so we are both so thankful that the details and planning all worked out.  

Maybe we will go back for our 25th!! 

2021 Weekly Photos #37

A look back at our week (a little late!) : 

Saturday - Sunday - We had a super quiet weekend.  Saturday was a recovery day from a busy few days with our co-op and a long day on Friday with our last day and Presentation Night.  Sunday was church, choir, football, and Nate had youth group. 

Monday-Tuesday - School and Music Lessons.  None of us wanted to do school but we had to so we did.  

Wednesday - Thanksgiving break started!  Joshua and Nate took part in a service project for our church while I ran some errands and enjoyed a rare few hours with no one in the house but me!  

Thursday - Thanksgiving!

Nate stayed with Nana on Wednesday through Thanksgiving in order to help her prepared all the food.  He really enjoys the whole process.  (And he actually stayed at Nana's through Saturday!) 

This was not a willing participate of photos :-)  

Darryl got called in for turkey duty and had to carve the bird.

Our group!  My mom, her neighbor, Mary, Darryl's Dad, Darryl, Joshua, Nate and ME!  We had a fabulous dinner and lots of fun visiting together.  It was a great day. 

Friday - Today was a grocery shopping, do nothing, go to mom's for leftovers kind of day and it was perfect.