What's Up Wednesday ~ November 2021

Here we are at the end of my favorite month!  It is time to wrap up and head into December, so here is this month's edition of What's Up Wednesday.  

Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving.  I am thankful for anyone who reads along on my weekly posts.

What we're eating this week..............

This is a hard week to predict what we will be eating.  Other than the Thanksgiving meal on Thursday, I don't have any meals planned, other than eating out at our favorite Mexican restaurant and pizza restaurant.

However, I did actually cook 4 times last week, so here are some meals I cooked last week:

Chicken Fajita Bake - I served this over rice with chips

Grilled chicken and Mix and Match Mama's pumpkin pasta

Poppy Seed Chicken with carrots and green beans

BBQ Chicken sheet tray with veggies

What I'm reminiscing about..........

I celebrated my birthday this month.  Thankful for 51 years of life!  My husband and daughter decorated the kitchen based from an episode of The Office.

My parents with me at our lunch date.  

What I'm loving............

I have been loving all the fall colors!  These pictures were all taken in my neighborhood.

What we've been up to...........

It has been a busy season at work with Christmas and end of the year budget spending.  It is rewarding to give back to the hospital community.  My daughter helped last week by assembling 400 cookies we ordered to deliver to staff at the local children's hospital. 

What I'm dreading...........

Just one thing coming up in December, but trusting the Lord will see me through.

What I'm working on..............

Christmas decorating!  It all started with a candle. I decorated our home last week, with the exception of decorating our tree.  I like to put up our tree right after my birthday, but will wait until Thanksgiving to decorate it.  My youngest helped me put out exterior lights last weekend.  I will share pictures on a later post.

What I'm excited about................

My college girl came home last night!  The 4 of us haven't been at home together since July, so I am looking forward to this holiday week/weekend.

What I'm watching/reading.............

Last week, Tanya mentioned a daily Thanksgiving devotion by Paul Tripp & it has been such a good reading plan on the Bible app. I even wrote a verse from one day on my mirror in my bedroom which was a good reminder for me.

I am also watching The Voice, Hallmark movies (I really enjoyed Next Stop Christmas!) and this week will watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade!

What I'm listening to..............

I am listening to Christmas music!!  My favorite is the Gwen Stefani Christmas album, so listen to that one if you haven't already.  I am also listening to some favorite podcasts....a few regulars and a few new ones:

Jesus Over Everything by Lisa Whittle

The Big Boo Cast

Office Ladies

Something to Celebrate

The Bestie Breakdown

The Open Door Sisterhood

Don't Mom Alone

The Naked Marriage

What I'm wearing...............

I go into the office two days a week.  I wear a dress one day usually and days I do drop-offs at the hospital, I wear pants with a long sleeve shirt or sweater.

I did purchase a new sweater for my birthday.

What I'm doing this weekend..............

Honsestly, no plans, and I'm not mad about it,  but I do have plenty of little clean up projects to do at home.

What I'm looking forward to next month............

Like most of us, I am looking forward to all things Christmas!  The music, movies, food, decorations, and time with family.  Thankfully, 90% of my Christmas shopping is done!

What else is new............

When we moved in our house almost 5 years ago, there was carpet on the stairs.  Over that time, they have become stained with spills of coffee and just worn.  Last week, as a birthday gift, we had the carpet removed and stained wood put on them and it looks so much better!

May you find space and time to be thankful this week and let that override all the hardships in this life.  

 

Tuesday Talk ~ Camping

 Any campers out there?  I am talking today about camping and recapping my weekend at the same time.  Any guesses to what I did last weekend?  

A little backstory to my camping experience.....as a child, we had a pull behind camper and took a few long vacations.  I particularly remember a trip we took out west for a few weeks.  We also took a trip to the northeast another summer.  Fast forward to I married Avery and he loves camping...tent camping.  I admit, I had never tent camped before meeting him.  We went tent camping and he has taken our girls tent camping too.  I even went tent camping once during each of my pregnancies!  When our youngest was about 2, we bought a travel trailer.  It was perfect for our little family.  We had a little kitchen with a cooktop, sink and microwave.  We had a queen size bed and the girls had bunk beds.  We also had a shower and toilet, so it had all the necessesities we needed (including heat and air).  We got rid of it right before we moved to South America. Most of my old camping pictures are cropped in a scrapbook, but here are a few random pictures from our camper days when the girls were little....

One of my favorites....Brook reading Avery's bible and her bible study art work on the wall :).

The girls with playdough at the kitchen table.

We loved taking friends with us and this was a friend who went camping with us and there was apparently a dance party outside this night, ha!  I posted this because this is the only that shows some of our camper from the outside in the background of this photo.  

Since that time, I haven't camped....until this past weekend.  We have a Sprinter van that is used for work and would like to convert this at some point in the future to a camper van.  In the meantime, my husband had done a few modifications so we can sleep in it.  That brings us to the weekend.  My youngest daughter had a retreat with church, so my husband and I found this place, just 2 hours from home, to camp.

So we camped, just like the old SNL skit says, ".....in a van, down by the river."  We found some places to eat dinner, so we didn't cook outside, except for our breakfast.  It was quite a cold weekend, but we survived.

Dinner view Saturday night

Hope you all have a great day!

Friday Favorites ~ November 12, 2021 / Birthday Edition

Happy Friday friends!  The week has gone by fast for me with it being birthday week!  Today I am sharing some favorites from the week and my birthday yesterday.

I love how the day before my birthday it seems like I turned the corner on the street in our neighborhood and the fall colors just popped.  I have loved seeing all the fall colors the past few days in our city!

I am a fan of The Office, so that inspired the decor for my birthday.  My husband had the sign made and he and my daughter decorated for me after I had gone to bed Wednesday night.

This is what I woke up to Thursday morning to celebrate my birthday!

My youngest was out of school, so she and I did a little birthday shopping at Kendra Scott, Sephora and Altar'd State....getting all the birthday goodies!  The two places I had in mind to eat were closed, so I regrouped and still managed to eat well.  My parents met us for lunch at a Mexican restaurant.

I went by Starbucks for my free drink and then picked up a piece of cheesecake for dessert at a local shop.

I came home and found a bouquet of flowers from a sweet friend out of town.

Earlier in the week, I had dinner with my big sister.  She lives about 45 minutes aways, but we don't get to see each other very often, so it was a fun night.

I also had lunch with a friend on my birthday eve.

In addition to time with family and friends celebrating with good food, I was able to Facetime with my oldest daughter, spoke on the phone with a good friend from Colombia, received messages from my dear friends in Australia, Belgium and then Facebook messages from many others.  This communication these days makes a person feel loved.  We all need a day like that and I am thankful.

I treated myself to a new vacuum. This is adulting.  I am quite excited and it is fun to have a birthday that comes at a time with lots of sales :).

I am thankful for another year of life, blog friends who read this and also thankful for all the Veterans who were also honored yesterday.  

Enjoy your weekend!

 

Friday Favorites ~ November 5, 2021

 Happy Friday!  Here are a few highlights from this week...and a sprinkiling of the last few weeks

In honor of the most recent holiday, this memory popped up of my girls.  This made me laught so much because this is still their personalities when it is after dark....one an early bird and one a night owl!

Last week, my in-laws passed through town and we ate dinner in the building in the distance and had this great view!

With the change from fall to winter temperatures this week, switching out my sheets to my holiday flannel sheets was a favorite!  

I have missed the past few weeks of bible study due to traveling, but going back this week was good.  Beforehand, there was music on the square.  I had actually gone out to eat by myself, listened to live music, and then went to bible study.  It was a good night.

Now I am looking forward to a weekend at home that includes some organizing and early birthday shopping.

Enjoy your weekend!

Currently ~ November 2021

 Today I am linking up with Anne for the Currently series.  Today we are talking about what we are currently appreciating, getting, making, sharing, and wearing.

Appreciating 

I am appreciating this time of year.  I am appreciating the people in my life.  I am appreciating the gift of giving back through my job.  It is a busy time, but so rewarding to work for a non-profit.  We give back to the local children's hospitals and also a few others in our state.  This has made me so mindful of appreciating having healthy children.

Getting

I am getting ready for Christmas!  I have begun my online Christmas shopping.  Now, I need to keep track of everything.  That will be my weekend goal....make a list and check it twice!

Making

In addition to making a list...I am trying to make dinner this week.  This week on the menu is chili over Halloween themed pasta, grillled chicken with onions and carrots, and pizza pork chops.  The past few weeks it seems I have only cooked once a week due to travel and events.

Sharing

I am trying to share more encouragement with people and cheer one another on in this life.  After spending the majority of my adult life as a travel agent, I am sharing travel tips with friends often as they ask.

Wearing

The weather is cooling off for sure around here, so the wardrobe has been transitioned to long sleeve shirts and sweaters.  I am pairing shirts with cardigans since at this point, I haven't brought out any heavy jackets.  And of course, I am wearing my boots now almost every day!  In addition to my favorite grey boots, I have brown and black boots and some booties.  

Thanks for reading along and enjoy your Wednesday!

Weekend Wrap-Up ~ November 1, 2021

 Oh hey y'all...It is November!!!  Turn those calendars!  It is my favorite month for all the reasons I have listed many times....cooler weather, a mindset of thankfulness, holiday decorating, Christmas music, lots of sales, good food, and my birthday!  Here is my screensaver for the month....

This past weekend was another good one spent at home.  Saturday, we got a new roof on our house! The noise and mess started early Saturday....like before the sun came up!

Before....

During....

And after!  

I got caught up on a few Hallmark Christmas movies.  At the rate of 3 coming on each weekend, it will take me the week at least to get through the new ones.

This was just a funny meme I saw this week :).  Can you relate too??

Saturday, while the mess was going on at home, my daughter and I did a little shopping.  Normally, I have what I call boot season, November 1-May 1st each year.  This year, I pulled out my favorite boots on Saturday, a few days early.  I still love these boots almost 6 years later.  

Sunday, we went to church and indulged in pizza afterwards from our favorite local place.  For Halloween, we went to some friends' house.  Brook was Marta from the movie "Knives Out" and I was Deb from "Napoleon Dynamite".

The older girls didn't do much trick-or-treating, but it was fun to see all the houses and people into it all.

Since we weren't home for dinner on Halloween, we will be having our Halloween pasta tonight.  I will serve chili over the pasta for our dinner.  

That's all for our weekend!  Now for another full week of work.  I am already looking forward to next weekend.  

Linking up with Heather