the weekend and some other happenings for this week

Happy Monday!  It's raining and cold here today, which is kinda awesome, I won't lie.  Except for the rain part...I don't mind it, but it's a pain to deal with when you have dogs. 

It was a really fun weekend!  I thought I'd share about the few things that made it that way, and a little of what my week is going to look like, and why I'm so excited to get to Kroger. 

This isn't weekend related, but who loves a clean home to start off the weekend with?  I do.  I am really strange in the sense that I like to clean two times every week, on Friday mornings and on Mondays.  I love starting off the weekend with a clean slate on Friday, and I like to put everything back in order on Monday.  This is a random picture I sent to Drew when I spent some time in his room last week, cleaning it. 

Disclaimer: I hardly ever clean my kids' bedrooms.  They are all plenty old enough to be able to do this, and I am not their maid.  They make the mess= they clean the mess.  I ever had THEM do some cleaning, vacuuming, and laundry for me yesterday while I was away at choir practice.  It's good for them to know how to do this!  So moms of little ones~teach your kids now to do this for themselves.  Now that I've said that, I'll tell you that I did this for Drew because he is hardly ever home anymore.  Between school, studying, his new afternoon job, and doing things with friends on the weekends, I knew he would appreciate Jonah and I doing this for him last week.  And he did.  All we did was dust, straighten up a few things on his desk, moved a chair and some little benches around, and vacuumed.  It took very little time, but it was something I was happy to do for him.

I did the same thing for Graham when he was taking all those classes to be on the sheriff's department back at the beginning of this year.  He was never home during that time either, so I would do this same thing for him every once in a while.  As for the other bedroom, well, Jonah lives in it, so end of story.

On Friday, my mom came and picked me up, and she and I went to a holiday market thing in Memphis, to walk around and browse all the lovely things inside.  I got some ideas for gifts I want to give this year, so I'm glad we went.  I love looking at stuff like they had at this market.  After that, we had lunch, then ran into Academy and Target.  It has been AGES since I've browsed Target, but we looked at everything, I think.  It was a fun day.  That night, Todd, all the boys, Rachel, and me went to our favorite sushi place for dinner.

After dinner, we came home and  Todd made this for us.

 
Yes ma'am.  First fire of the season, with the purpose to warm us up (and not drive out wasps).  Isn't it beautiful and cozy?  I love a good fire.  This was after Todd tried to kill us all by not opening up the damper first.  We had to open up the front and back doors for ten minutes to get the smoke out of the room.  (I'm cracking up as I'm writing that...he NEVER does that!) 

On Saturday, we were out the door at nine thirty, and headed to my dad's house out in the country.  Every year we do all of his outside Christmas lights for him, and I think this marks about the tenth year we've been doing this.  He used to be able to help us more, but nowadays, he just tells us what to do and drives around on his riding mower to bring us things and to check on us.  We have this down pat by now.  Trish and Drew always do the deck lights, I do the bushes and trees by the road, Jonah and Noah do the trees in the turn around part of his drive, and around the lake, and by then Drew joins in with them to help, then we all kinda help each other do the bush lights by his house and a few of the trees by their bedroom window.  It sounds like a lot, and it is, but with all of us, it only takes about two or two and a half hours. 

He saves us major time by having all the extension cords laid out and the lights at the bases of all the trees, and the week before, he and Trish do the flagpole Christmas tree.  If you're local to me and a friend I trust, reach out to me for his address, and drive out to see it all after Thanksgiving night.  It is always beautiful!  He likes to put out these thousands of lights to represent Jesus as the Light of the world.  That is always his prayer, and he prayed those very words just Saturday. 

After all the lights have been done, Sandy has a huge and delicious lunch ready for us. 

It is always so much fun, and this year, I was delighted that it was so cold.  It made it feel more festive.

After lunch, we all came back home, and for the rest of the day, this was me.

I was FREEZING.  I had on these fuzzy boots, knee length socks, a long john shirt, a sweatshirt, and the hoodie pulled up around my face.  I also had a heater blowing on me.  We agreed that it was finally time to turn on the heat.  We like to see how long we can go without doing that. 

That night, we went on a double date with my best friend and her sweet hubby.  LOOK WHAT HE BOUGHT FOR US.

YES!  We will have a day soon when we do this all day long and maybe make some goodies to enjoy.  We went to The Butcher Shop for dinner, which is a yummy steakhouse that has been around for ages.  We had so much fun together. 

It's blurry!  We were turning to get a good angle and laughing all the while.  We were trying to get the chickens in the background.  The sign said, "Save the chickens, eat more cow."  I thought it was funny. 

We're nerds, we know. 

Yesterday was full of church and choir practice, which is always enlightening.  We're getting ready for our Christmas night of praise on December 2.  If you're local to me, I'd love to have you!  It'll start at six thirty, and there will be all kinds of beautiful songs to sing with us. 

So, I thought I'd share a funny story.  I love peppermint flavored chapstick, and I bought some on Friday at Target.  I had one a while ago, but Callie ate it!  I'm rolling my eyes.  Callie is our "special" German shepherd.  I put the new one on the table by where I sit in my chair, and y'all, I saw bits of plastic yesterday afternoon, on the floor around me, and noticed that once again, she ate my chapstick. 

This dog is so weird.  She is literally scared of her own shadow, and she prefers only the peppermint flavored chapstick. 

I'm excited about my grocery trip today, because I used the Kroger clicklist for the first time!  I know, you're probably rolling your eyes at me, but I really have no good reason to use this.  I'm perfectly capable of walking in and doing my own shopping, but for some reason, I am just not feeling it this week.  It was wonderful to sit and "grocery shop" last night, from the comfort of my cozy chair and pajamas.  I will be going to pick up said groceries today between nine and ten. 

Praise! 

I'm also doing the rest of the laundry today, cleaning the downstairs, and catching up on chronological bible reading and scripture writing.  I always get behind on the weekend, don't ask why.  The rest of the week is planned out as well, with one of my best friends coming over for lunch and a much needed time to catch up on all the things on Wednesday.  I can't wait to see her, it's been too long.  We're also getting an estimate for new windows, I'm planning out dinners and when I can see my in-love's again, and then on Friday, I'm going out of town for just one night with some friends from choir.  We're going to Mobile, Alabama to see a Christmas spectacular.  I know the week will fly by, like it always does. 

I love this time of year.  There is always so much to look forward to, and I have some fun things coming up in the weeks ahead.  Well, I need to get started on this day, so I'll stop here.  Thanks for reading!  Love to all.