{ Weekend in Review }

 

It was a good weekend, filled with family moments, homemaking, gardening, reading and some random YouTube videos here and there.

 

Saturday, Curt and I had lunch with my brother and sister in law, at our local Cracker Barrel.  It's been one of my favorite places to eat, since I can remember, although, I will say that I feel the service and the food itself is not like it used to be.  I often feel this way in many restaurants, since Covid, everything seems to have gone downhill food wise.  It's sad!

 

Sunday was a very quiet day, just basically sitting around and relaxing, making a barbecue for dinner for my daughter and her boyfriend, and just doing my usual pottering around the house.  

 

I don't have much to share, so this weekend in review is pretty short, but I didn't want there to be missing blog days.

 

 

My social media break technically ended on Saturday but I have yet to post anything.  I will more than likely do it today, but in the meantime, I went through and unfollowed and removed from my page a bunch of people.  

Some love having a huge count of followers, I prefer to have a select few that I know care about me and my life, and engage with me and my posts, than having hundreds of followers that quite frankly have never once seen one of my Instagram stories, don't ever engage in any way etc.  I think the older I get, the more I am listening to the Holy Spirit and removing from my life people, things, and situations that don't bring me joy.

 

Anyway, it was a good weekend, even if it did feel like it passed so quickly, but that's ok.  Hope your weekend was as good and relaxing as mine.

 

{ Spend the weekend with me }

The sun streams through the windows and the softest of breezes plays amongst the sheer curtains.

 

After a much needed cup of coffee, I get myself ready for the day and start tackling the homemaking chores that await me.  I go into these with a smile on my face, knowing that it's not just about cleaning, or doing laundry, it's about putting my love and my joy into every task at hand.  It's about looking at them through rose colored glasses, not because I hate doing what needs to be done, but because over the years I have come to love every single aspect of being a homemaker.

 

 

♥ Dishes ♥

 

One of the tasks that seems to be never ending.  Is there such a thing as an empty clean sink, for longer than 5 minutes?  If there is, I have yet to come across this elusive thing. 

♥ Laundry ♥  

 

I have come to really enjoy laundry.  I don't know why, but the whole process from sorting the clothes, washing and folding, brings me peace.  

 

Putting them away is another story, I will say that I'm still working on embracing that part of the process, and not looking upon it with such disdain.  Why is this part of the task so annoying?  I don't know, I have never been able to figure that out.  Maybe one day I will look upon it with fresh eyes and a grateful heart, but for now, it will remain the last part of the laundry work, that makes me want to throw my hands up.

♥ Cooking and Baking ♥

 

I don't think I need to say how much this part of homemaking, makes me happy.  I love cooking and baking.  I never used to enjoy the baking part as much, if truth be told.  It took me years for me to even want to do it, especially break making, but I've since found a love for it too.  

 

It's still something that I push myself to excel in, and I still have my flops, but not as many as I used to back in the day.

 

I made some two ingredient bread rolls, which were a huge hit.  I also made a fresh batch of beans for our dinner and for the freezer.  I like having cooked chickpeas, lentils and an assortment of beans, always in the freezer, always on hand for a quick meal or lunch. 

Also made Islak Burgers, which are a Turkish specialty and they were not only a huge hit, but have been requested to go on our favorites list.  Such an easy recipe but so yummy.

 

I will be adding these to my poorly neglected food blog.  I know, I know, it's been left to it's own demise for a while, but I'm hoping to remedy that soon.

 

♥ Setting the house to order ♥  

 

I move slowly around the house, from room to room, picking up things that have been misplaced, replacing things that have gone missing, folding blankets, fluffing up pillows, picking up after the furry babies and things of that sort.

 

There is always something to pick up, tidy or clean up.

♥ Spending time with the Lord ♥ 

 

I'm still doing my daily Bible reading, and usually during the week I get it done early in the morning, but weekends throw that schedule off a bit, because everyone is home and I am usually busy with Curt, we're running errands or working on the yard, or a project indoors.

 

I still make sure to get my daily reading in, but sometimes it doesn't happen until right before bed.  I will say that is not my favorite time to do it, because I'm tired and ready to fall asleep on my feet, but I push through and give that moment to God, after all He deserves it.

 

♥ Random bits and bobs ♥  

 

There are things that I need to do every day, some homemaking tasks are daily, meaning, even if you take a day off to rest, they still need to be done for the home to function effectively.

 

And then there are those that are ever changing, never the same daily, it's just whatever shows up to be tackled is what I do.  Below are just a few pictures of those random bits and bobs around the house, the random things I do mingled in with the must be dones.

I hope you enjoyed spending the weekend with me and seeing a bit of what I do around here.  Not shown are the gym trips, the start of our indoor greenhouse, veggies and flowers, the trip to Walmart, the trip to the game store downtown to exchange a game that wasn't working, the time I took a little nap, the reading I did, and the random games of Wii as a family.

 

It is all part of life and part of my day, even if I don't show it all.

 

I hope you've had a blessed, restful weekend, and I'll see you back in the morning, for the first Happy Homemaking Monday of March 2025.

{ Weekend in review }

SATURDAY::::

 

Started my day with the horrible news that my uncle Tony passed away.  It kind of set the tone for the day, I spent the whole of Saturday on the phone, talking and trying to calm down my stepmom, talked to my oldest brother for 2 and half hours too.  

 

It's so difficult when your family is in another country and so far that you can't just hop on a plane to go and be there.  I mean, I could but the tickets are very expensive, and it's 3 flights and flying for 20 something hours.  

 

It means I have to do my best from far, even if just calling and being there as much as I can as emotional support.

 

 

I also received my blood test results and was absolutely thrilled to see how much everything has improved.  The only issue I had was the high triglycerides, but by dropping those by a whopping 74 points, everything else dropped too.  I'm so thankful to God for this blessing and I'm more than determined now to continue doing what I've been doing.

 

My overall Cholesterol dropped from 191 to 168.

My HDL continues high which is what you want.

My LDL (the bad cholesterol) also dropped to 50.

My Triglycerides went from 168 to 94.

My glucose also dropped.

 

 

SUNDAY::::

 

Gym time with Curt.  I have grown to love working out and look forward to every weekend, when I know I can be there, working on my body, being healthy.

{ Weekend in Review }

I don't have much to share, I had a very quiet weekend, the usual gym time with Curt, and then just time spent at home, doing housework, watching tv, reading, and spending time with the family.

 

Some weekends we are on the go and feel like we didn't get a rest, and some weekends we are homebodies (well most weekends we are homebodies), just doing whatever we wish, no commitments, no place to go, no need to be anywhere.  Those are by far my favorites.

 

Moments spent at home are just the best, aren't they?

 

Read:

Bible - Genesis and Job

Proverbs 18 and 19

 

Watched:

Youtube homemaking vlogs (I'll be sharing some of my newer favorites this coming week)

 

Ate:

Sonic - for the first time in over a year, and it did not go down well.  Never again lol

Shrimp Fajitas

Barbecue burgers and hotdogs (no buns, made a burger and brat bowl which was delicious)

 

 

{ Weekend in Review }

It is just shy of 6pm, and the day is winding down.  Weekends seem to whiz by at turbo speed, lately.  You blink, it's Saturday morning, you blink again and it's Sunday evening. 

It is a glorious end to the weekend though, 80 degrees outside, beautiful blue skies, and I actually feel rested and well on my way to being 100%.  Thank the Lord.

Our greenhouse has been put on hold for the moment, it's almost complete but between us all getting sick and the storms we had come through this past week, we haven't been able to get anything else done.  We also took this weekend to relax because as you may know, when you live in a property with any kind of acreage, there is always and I mean always something to be done, so weekends are busy and oftentimes tiring.

Yesterday morning we took my car to get two new tires mounted.  It didn't take very long at it was very inexpensive which I was thrilled about.  I also got a very good deal on the tires since I got them through my brother at the dealership he works at.

While we waited for my car to be done, we popped over to the little thrift store in town and had a little nosey around.  I actually picked up 3 things, one of which I had been wanting to get for a while.

I have this love for breadboards, and anytime I find a cheap one, I get it.  I also have been wanting some sort of napkin holder and this one was only a dollar and I think fits perfectly with my decor in the dining room.

The last thing I got was a thermal coffee carafe.  It was just 2 dollars and is in new condition, so it came home with me.  I can't wait to get some fresh hot coffee in that carafe, for a cold morning. 

The other thing that we did once we got home, is get the first of the rustic shelves up on the kitchen wall.  There is one more shelf that will go up beneath it, but I need the metal brackets for it.

My idea is to fill the shelves with glass jars and since I want them all to match, I've been collecting my coffee jars for a a while, and will use those for some of my dried goods, chocolate chips etc.  The bottom shelf will have a few more jars too along with canned goods and some decorations as well.

I just love the look of rustic shelves, I like things to look old, dated and from a different time period, so these are not going to be painted at all, and will be left as is.

The only other thing we did this weekend, was go to a local butcher.  If you've been following me for a while, you may remember that when we were stationed in Arizona, we had a local butcher we bought all our meat from.  I would buy 60lbs at a time and stash it in my deep freezer, it would usually last us all month.

We have one or two butcher shops in our area, and my plan is to try them out and see which one is cheaper, and also has the best meat, and then start doing the monthly meat purchase as well.

The one we tried yesterday, we got their Bundlette package, which was $50 and came with:

2 lbs Bratwurst
2 lbs ground beef
3 lbs hamburger patties
2 lbs cubed steaks
4 lb bone in pork chops
1 lb house blend breakfast sausage

I will see how this goes, I'm thinking it will be about a week's worth of meals and honestly, I am not sure if it is worth it.  Obviously meat is always better from the butcher shop, no doubt about it, but if I can find cheaper elsewhere, I'll definitely try it.

But, I'll let you know what we thought of the meat and if we will buy it again or try a different a package.

And that my friends, is basically what my weekend was about.  Oh we did go to lunch with my brother and sister in law and had a good laugh, as we always do when we're together.

I am going to finish off this post, see if there is anything on TV that I want to watch, if not I'll be digging right back into my current book, which is so good, I can't wait to tell you all about it.  I'll tell you that it is definitely not my usual pick of books to read, but it is history centered and that was enough to get my attention.

Anyway, I hope you've all had a wonderful weekend.  I will see you all back here early morning, for our Happy Homemaker Monday :)