weekending

 

Happy Monday, friends! How was your weekend? I hope that whatever you did, that it was restful and refreshing. 

For the first time in a long time, I had a busy weekend. That's almost always NEVER the case. I'm certainly not complaining about that...it makes me extra grateful for the fact that I have nothing to do on Monday. I need to get caught up again on all the household things that fell by the wayside while I was busy. (When I say things like that, I mean just the messes that I or my hubby make...our sons are all old enough to be on their own for this kind of thing. That doesn't mean they're good at cleaning up after themselves, it just means that they do it and I do not. If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times—I am not their maid!) The weekends are when I don't do a lot of laundry...especially this weekend since I wasn't home much. It also seems like clutter builds up, along with dust and dog hair. I may even mop the floor today...which is a big deal. I can thank TikTok for this. I love to watch cleaning videos to get motivated! 

As usual, Dad and I kicked off our weekend together. It was pretty chilly outside, so I made us grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Is there anything better than Campbell's tomato soup? (I'm asking rhetorically...I'm sure there is, but that kind of my favorite!) He loved the peppermint bark I shared with him for a taste of something sweet afterward. I drank water and he drank coffee.

Did I mention this peppermint bark last week? It's the best I've had! I bought it from Costco last week, but it's white and dark chocolate. I LOVE dark chocolate.

Todd worked that night, so I watched a couple of Hallmark Christmas movies. The movies were good, older ones that I hadn't seen, but I recorded the newer ones over the weekend. One was from last year —Christmas in Evergreen: Bells are Ringing and I watched one more that I can't remember. It must not have been  that good. 

I was up bright and early on Saturday. Seriously—I was dressed by six o'clock. I had to be at a special Christmas music rehearsal at church at 8:30 that morning. I usually watch a movie on Saturdays, but I didn't have the time to finish one, so I read my book instead. I left choir rehearsal a little earlier than its twelve o'clock dismissal and headed to my dad's house to meet him and Trish for the hanging of his outside Christmas lights.

This is a big deal at his house! He lives in the country and has a lot of land, and he loves for the front to be all done in lights all over the place. We do the trees and bushes all over his front property and we create a Christmas tree on his flag pole with strands of multi-color and green lights. Here's a picture from last year:

Just to give you an example, it may not look like much, but it's a lot of lights! My dad is 90, most of you know that...he loves to have these lights to represent Jesus as the Light of the world (John 8:12). He used to do this by himself, but it started small and got bigger and bigger over the years. My sister Trish, my four sons and I started helping around ten years ago, then slowly took over so that Dad wouldn't have to reach high and bend low, and now it's just Trish and I that do this. And here is where I have something to confess to you, as someone who always tries to be as open and honest as possible.

I didn't want to do these lights this year. Or, I at least wanted to scale way back. I told my sister this a few weeks ago, but she refused to stop this tradition. (I'm so glad!) She told me I didn't have to help, but I would NEVER have let her do it alone. The reason I wanted to scale back at the least was because last year kicked me in the tail. It was hotter than ever before, that I remember, I got dehydrated and sunburned and it was just HARD with the two of us. It just put a bad taste in my mouth, so to speak, and I wanted to avoid it this year. Like I said, I would never let her do this alone, so I promised to help. I did have to get there later than her because of the choir rehearsal, but it worked out well, because as soon as I got there, she needed to go in to eat lunch with Dad and Sandy. I wasn't hungry from the big breakfast our worship pastor fed us, so I worked alone while they ate.

She came back out and we joined together and we got mostly finished! I'm meeting her there on Tuesday afternoon to finish the bushes by the road with more net lights (that have to be bought) and to do the Christmas tree on the flag pole. Before I got there, I prayed the whole time it took me to drive and asked the Lord to give me a better attitude and a willing spirit to honor my dad and the Lord in this way. And you know what? The Lord is so faithful, friends. He did all of that and more. The three of us had the BEST time and we laughed ourselves silly as we relived memories. I can't remember exactly when we started helping Dad with this, but here are some pictures to show you from over the years.

That's Jonah with my sunglasses on, but the year was 2013. That would make him and Noah ten, but I'm pretty sure we started helping when Graham was either eleven or twelve...so that would put us at around ten years (or eleven) of this tradition.

I confess to you that I can be selfish sometimes. I also struggle with having a bad attitude sometimes. When I take my eyes off of Jesus, that's what happens. I focus on a situation or bad memory and I let that taint my thoughts and decisions. When I stopped to really pray about all of this, the Lord changed my perspective. Isn't He so sweet? Like I said, the day was really sweet and I can't wait to see the finished result. Also, I called my sister to apologize to her. I'm so glad she persisted, because life is short and this tradition is very sweet. I know I'll miss it someday.

(This picture above is Dad's house yesterday. The leaves were so pretty!)

I came home to shower all the spiders out of my hair (kidding, kidding) and I crashed after that and didn't move for the rest of the night. We got pizza for dinner, I finished my book and started another, and in between pages, I watched the Alabama/ LSU game with my hubby. It wasn't pretty, but like he always says, a win is a win.

(I do not profess AT ALL to be a football fan, but it was fun to watch it with him and I know enough about the game to be just as disappointed/excited as he was.)

That black cherry merlot may have helped me sit still the rest of the night.

I was back at church early this morning to help with the words again, then came home for a bit to eat lunch and relax, then I was back for another rehearsal at four. I didn't want to go back to church for that rehearsal, but I'm really glad I went. It was a good rehearsal and now I finally feel like I'm starting to learn our Christmas music. I appreciate our worship pastor and his wife and team so very much for all of their hard work. It feels good to be getting ready for this kind of thing again, because last year was the year that everything like that was canceled. 

I grabbed some dinner after that and then came home to eat and watch a movie, while Todd and Graham worked. Jonah and Noah were out with friends, so it was just the pups and me once again. I have big plans to clean today and then grocery shop, then tomorrow and Wednesday I am planning to decorate for Christmas! I'll take down all the fall decorations while I clean today so it'll be out of the way in order for me to start tomorrow morning. I can't wait! 

So, how was your weekend? Did you do anything fun and exciting? I'd love to hear from you! Thanks for reading my blog, friends. Love to all! ❤