weekending & prime purchases from July

 

Happy Monday, friends! I'm linking up with Holly,  Sarah, and Tanya for today's blog post. How was your weekend? Mine was great and full!

I forgot to mention on Friday that my mom cut my hair last Thursday. If you didn't know this, she's been cutting my hair since I was a little girl, and she does a great job! I normally go somewhere for this and will do that again, but my hair really needed to be trimmed before I get it colored next week. After I got home from Mom's, I showered and styled it as usual, and I already like it so much better! Mom does something magical with hair that nobody else can ever do with mine. Isn't that funny? Here are pictures starting with the before and three after pics. Also, this will be my first Amazon purchase that I loved from July. Click on the picture and you'll be taken to Amazon in a new window. Know that I was super impressed with this dress, so much so that I immediately ordered another one in navy blue. 

And here it is in navy blue. Also, here is the link for my glasses that are readers. They come in a five pack! Lastly, from this picture above, this is the lipstick I have on, which is my new favorite. 

It already curls so much better than before she gave me a good trim. She also trimmed the long layers that I have, and she made it blunt across the back, since it always grows into a V shape. I know you're reading this today, Mom, so thank you! I've already told you, but I'll say it again—I love it so much! She also cuts Jonah's hair, and she cut Drew's on Saturday over the weekend. I'm pretty sure Noah is going to ask her to do his when he's ready for one as well. Mom is gifted with many different talents! 

Even though I always talk about how hot and humid it is here, we've not had as hot a summer as we've had in past years. That being said, our flowers on the deck in the backyard still look so great! We've not even had to water them much, because we had so much rain at the beginning of the summer. We had to start watering again last week, though, and Todd did that as he watered the freshly laid sod he just put in the backyard on Sunday. We've been able to sod with partial palettes given to him by a friend who works a few doors down from his shop. Isn't that nice that he gives us this? Anyway, here are the flowers that we have out back. Who knew begonias would do so well in this spot under the trees? They've thrived all summer long!

This below is a plant that Bill gave to us, and I don't know what it is. It seems almost like it's a type of plant that's similar to a cactus, because the leaves feel and look like the ones on that type of plant or it could be a succulent. They flower like this and at the end of summer, we set them aside and will ignore them for the remainder of the year and until the spring, and all of a sudden, they'll start turning green again. I love the flowers that are hardy enough to wait on God to take care of them! 

We bought some lemongrass at the beginning of summer to help ward off mosquitos, and these three pots that we have out there have done so well. I love how tall and wispy they are!

While I was gone on Saturday, I came home to a pressure washed deck, that had been repaired and rearranged. Todd and Jonah did a great job on this, and I was so surprised.

Todd replaced two of the boards that had bowed up on the deck, and he removed a bench and some lattice work that was on the left side of the deck, if you're standing looking out at our fence at the back of our yard. We loved the bench, but we discovered that it didn't quite work for us anymore, so he unscrewed it all and repurposed it for the repairs. Bill is coming to pick up the lattice work that he made when we built the deck during the (not so) great lockdown of 2020. 

On a totally different note, this little girl does not know the meaning of privacy. This is her watching every move I make! 

Dad came over on Friday. We had tuna sandwiches for lunch, then we stayed here at my house again. I had made plans to run a couple of errands with him, but the rain made my head hurt and I didn't want him to get wet as we were out. I snuck a picture of him as he prayed over our food. 

I love him and his prayers. We also listened to my choir sing at church again, a song Dad knows and loves, and I shared my sermon notes from the last Sunday when my friend AJ preached.

He enjoyed this part of the day, which I also loved, especially knowing he enjoyed it as much as he did. After Dad left, Todd came home early, and we enjoyed Vietnamese food again on a date night. There's a place about 20 minutes away that has pho that he loves, and I order the vermicelli bowl. We also always get spring rolls with peanut sauce.

It was delicious! I went out with Mom on Saturday for a few errands—I put gas in my car, I returned an Amazon order to Whole Foods, then we had lunch, went to Ulta, and ended at Home Goods. It was a good day! I was looking for something specific at Home Goods, but all I found and came home with is a new 18 month planner that I love. After Todd and Jonah finished the yard, he showered and went to work for the night. I watched the newest episode of The Summer I Turned Pretty (Have I mentioned I can't stand season 2?), and earlier that morning I watched this on Netflix, which was fantastic. 

In case you forgot, I read this book recently and loved it. This movie was very close to the book and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute. I went to bed early so that I could be at church bright and early, and I anticipated being hot, so I wore this dress and my comfy sandals, because I knew I'd be walking or on my feet a lot. (More about that later this week.)

That's my new pink planner in my arm. It's a Rae Dunn one, but I love the layout and thickness of pages. After church, I picked up our groceries for the week, came and put them away, then took a nap. I have had the issue of waking up in the middle of the night lately, so it's catching up to me. It was a great weekend! 

Onto the Prime purchases portion... 

I bought an exciting purchase of new toilet brushes for all the bathrooms. I also bought this new toilet bowl cleaner.

And lastly, I bought some new cream colored pillow covers to replace what had been torn. (Click the picture.) I like neutral pillow covers because I can use them in all the seasons. 

How was your weekend? I'd love to hear about something that was great for you! And what you primed and loved lately? Share the love, please! I hope to see you back here tomorrow, I've already got this week of blog posts already written and waiting to publish. Thanks for reading my blog, friends! Love to all.