Hello, January! A weekend recap.

 

Happy Tuesday, friends! I hope you've enjoyed all of the holiday celebrations and the extra family time that this season has brought to you. I know I have! I am off work today since the church is closed, but I'll start back tomorrow. I'm excited! I may go up there today for a bit; I want to take down all of the Christmas decorations and rearrange a bit. Todd is coming with me to help, as usual! I love having him so involved. He was in the bookstore with me on Sunday for a bit and we were trying to figure out a plan for rearranging things once the tree is down. I bought two chairs for the bookstore last week, and I'm looking forward to putting them to use! I can't wait to show you what it looks like after I've redone things a bit. 

Since it's the "start" of the week, I thought I'd give a recap of the weekend.

I did some more light cleaning on Friday before Dad came over for our weekly date, and admired this hutch with the bourbon bottles on top once again. I can't believe I've never done this before! It's the perfect surface for his fancy bottles, and he loves it as well. I think it's the fact that he can easily see them all, without having to stoop down to get them from under a cabinet. 

Before Dad got there, I spent the morning playing around on Canva. I watched a couple of videos on how to maneuver the site, and I made some graphics to use on my blog this year. I'll share one at the bottom of this post for you to use for tomorrow's first Currently link party of 2024, so stay tuned!

I had planned to get out with Dad on Friday, because I do think he enjoys that so much, but it was freezing cold that day. I like to stay in with him when it's cold, because he has a hard time warming back up. I heated up the soup I'd made earlier in the week for our lunch, then we just sat and caught up and laughed together. Doesn't he look great?  

I was home alone all three weekend nights! I didn't mind it; I enjoyed leftovers on two of the nights, and on Saturday I ordered takeout for Noah and me. 

I got this book for Christmas, and I loved reading it from cover to cover this weekend! I found lots of things I'm going to try soon. I love Ree's cookbooks because not only are they filled with yummy recipes, they're full of family photos that she takes. Before everyone knew her as she is now, she was a blogger just like you and me. I've read her there for years and years, and she's been my favorite ever since. I feel like we lived similar lives; we each had four kids that were all around the same age, we love Jesus and our family, and we homeschooled. I'd love to make the trip to Oklahoma to see her shops in town and the ranch. Maybe I should make that a goal this year! 

I got out for just a little while on Saturday and met up with my sister for lunch. After that I went across the street to our HomeGoods. I walked out with a bottle of flavored coffee syrup and a new spoon rest. When I got back home, everyone was watching football. It was one of those days when Graham and Jonah hung out together in Jonah's room. I loved hearing their laughter travel downstairs, and they were like that all day. Todd left for work, Noah got home from work, and that just continued. The younger two were giving Graham a hard time about a girl that was coming in town for the weekend to hang out. After dinner, Noah left town for the rest of the weekend, and made it back home on Monday afternoon. 

We went to church on Sunday, Graham and his friend came here and hung out with me, Todd went to ride his bike and then to work a shift, and I stayed cozy inside. I talked on the phone a couple of times, I watched Friends, and I went to bed around ten thirty. I couldn't hang once again; this is no surprise, because rarely do I ever stay up so late! I did it all the time when our sons were younger; some years we'd go to friends' houses to hang out, sometimes they'd have people over here, and sometimes we would invite our friends over. I've just gotten used to a lower key night, and I kind of love it each year. 

I always love New Year's day! I spend the time writing in a new calendar, and getting blog posts planned out in advance. I keep a notebook for this, and also in that notebook I keep track of prompts for Currently and books I read each year. I also always spend time getting started in a new Bible reading plan! I am reading through it again this year in chronological order. I really missed reading chronologically last year, so I'm excited to start back. This will be my tenth or eleventh time through! My goal is usually to read through the Bible each year. I didn't do that in 2023 because I felt like I wouldn't be able to keep up with working full time, but I did keep reading the Bible. As I always say, I need to have a plan for accountability purposes. When I don't have a plan, I fall behind, or I don't read at all. 

For the rest of Monday, my people watched football. I'm nervous for them! I'm writing this on Monday morning, so the big game has yet to start, but Alabama and Michigan played. I'm hoping they pull off another win! 

How did you spend your weekend? I'd love to hear about yours! I'll see you back here tomorrow for Currently, and here's the new graphic I made for us to use, should you want to join me in using it on your own blog. If not, no big deal! Don't forget to link back to me and to visit and comment on the other blogs. We'll be sharing what we're currently loving, looking forward to, resolving, doing to stay cozy this month, and cooking. I can't wait to read your posts tomorrow! I'll open the link at midnight on Wednesday. Here's the graphic.

Thanks for reading my blog, friends! Love to all.