A Celebration and Some Much Needed Rest

 

Well, I've finally recovered from all the birthday celebrations. It's been a fun and busy few days!

Monday my mom, aunt and uncle drove from South Texas to get here in time for my birthday dinner. We had a little time to visit before going to Ted and Alex's house, then we all headed down the road to the party. 

Morgan and Alex had all the food ready and the place looked so colorful and festive. They both worked so hard to make this a special night and it was way more than that. The food was delicious! We had tamales, tacos, beans, queso, homemade salsa, street corn and probably more that I can't remember. 

After dinner we had an ice cream bar, with ice cream and several toppings. But then Alex surprised me with my very own ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins, which is the same cake I used to request every year when I was a kid - Jamocha Almond Fudge. 

The gifts they gave me were all so precious and it truly was the best birthday I've ever had. I have felt loved and so blessed this year. 

🎂

Yesterday I woke up and had zero energy. I felt exhausted and just wanted to do nothing, so I practically did just that. 

I did manage to pick up a salad from Schlotzsky's for lunch, then came home and did more of nothing until early afternoon when I finally got out some cookbooks and made a menu and grocery list for the week to come. I placed a grocery order and we picked it up later that evening.

Oh, and I also managed to fix a crockpot of Lasagna Soup (thanks for the recipe Carrie!) which turned out to be absolutely delicious! But, because I didn't have lasagna noodles in the pantry, I used broken-up spaghetti noodles instead and it turned out to be amazing. This was probably one of the easiest recipes ever and one of the tastiest. 

I did two loads of laundry, put away all the groceries that evening and that was all for the day. Not a total loss, but not overly productive. 

As I was resting during the day, I started to feel that familiar feeling of guilt creep up, the one that says "you should be up doing something!" but I told it to shut up and I kept resting and taking it easy. Sometimes you just need a day to do nothing. 

I also ordered a book from Barnes and Noble and asked David to grab it on the way home, which he did. I mean...this is the life! 😅 hahaha! I rarely do things like that, but it was just that kind of day.

We had just been to B&N the day before and I saw this book in the window and it intrigued me, so when B&N sent me an email with a coupon...well...I had to have it. 

I am always fascinated by stories told in the 50's and this is a mystery, as well, so I'm excited to read it. 

I'll let you know how it goes.

Today I'll have my girls for the day and we will probably end up doing crafts and playing games, which sounds like the perfect way to spend my last day off. 

Tonight will be leftovers of Lasagna Soup and hopefully a good night's rest before work tomorrow, which I'm actually looking forward to. 

Well, I'm off to start the day. I hope you have a good one (productive or not) and I'll see you on the next post.

Until Next Time...

Blessings! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

 

Well, today I'm 60 years old and I woke up feeling great! 

I am thankful to the Lord for giving me 60 years, so far, and I'm looking forward to a new season of life. I know it will be an adventure - as every journey with God has been - but I've got dreams and passions and still a lot to learn and a lot to do, so here's to the next few decades!

Tomorrow may feel like just another Tuesday, but today we celebrate! 😀🎉

Thanks for stopping by today!

Until Next Time...

Blessings!

A Sweet Surprise and I'm Turning 60!

Happy Friday my friends! 

This week I had a sweet surprise when I walked into work on Wednesday. My co-workers had decorated my desk for my upcoming birthday and it was so sweet and thoughtful.  

 I am off on my actual birthday, so this early celebration was just what I needed to get in the birthday mood 🎂

I was having a little trouble accepting the fact that I'm turning 60, but then I saw one of my favorite YouTubers say that she didn't even start her channel until she was 60 (10 years ago) and it really helped change my perspective.

I guess age is what you make of it...at any age, so here I am...almost 60! 🎉🎈🎊

Yesterday I had lunch with one of my best friends, which is always a treat. We always solve all the problems over chips and salsa or queso, which is the best way to solve everything 😀 We try to meet up every other month or so, and end up talking for hours. It's definitely one of my favorite things to do. 

Today I will do all the things that require my attention around the house, such as paying bills, finishing up laundry, deciding what's for dinner and working on my special project Collin has been helping me with. 

I love my days at home and feel so thankful that I have a job with time off to do the things I love doing. I've purposely written "read" and "embroidery" on my Never Ending To-Do List, so that I will take the time to just sit in between everything else. Sometimes you have to pencil in the fun things, so you will take time to actually relax. 

I also made a little vow to myself recently to get back to being creative. I've let that go a lot over the past few months and this week I purposely took about 15 minutes to do some fun journaling during my Bible reading one morning and you know what?...it refreshed my soul in ways I had forgotten. 

I love creating fun, whimsical notebooks, using paper and stickers and visual prompts made from magazines. Just the cutting, gluing and then writing what those pictures make me think about, is basically like therapy in the best way. And being creative is one of the things that feeds my soul. I need to not neglect that part of who I am. 💛

So...hopefully this next week of days will bring calm and peace, as well as more celebrating. I know my kids have planned dinner for me on Monday and we will have a few special guests there, as well. I can't wait! 

I hope you all have the best weekend and hopefully I've inspired you (or just reminded you) to do something that feeds your soul these next few days. It's important. If you do, write about it and inspire the rest of us! That's important too 😀 Tell your stories. 

I love you, my friends!

Until Next Time...

Blessings! 

A Weekend Recap

Good Morning my friends!

I hope you all had a great weekend! Mine was a good mixture of work and relaxation, in just the right amounts. 

Saturday I worked half a day at the library and then rushed home so we could get to our grandson's birthday party at 2:00, where we enjoyed seeing all of our kids and grandkids in one spot. We had yummy cake and lots of hugs and kisses by the time the day was over. 

Sunday we had some errands to do, such as a grocery pick up and putting a "for sale" sign out by the road where our house is for sale. Someone stole the realtor's sign last week, so we bought our own sign (that's actually more visible) and stuck it at the end of the road. Who would steal a realtor sign? What are you going to do with that thing? 

We got some delicious lunch from Texas Roadhouse, which is not too far from us. They had given me a free appetizer as a birthday treat, so we ordered a chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and gravy and a salad, plus the appetizer. When we picked it up and brought it home, we noticed the salad was missing, so poor David had to go back and get it. In the meantime, I split the food between our two plates and waited on him to get back. THEN we had a delicious lunch for a minimal amount of money and it was just enough for the two of us. 

After lunch I decided to make some Rice Krispie Treats. For some reason those just popped into my mind that day, so I ordered all the ingredients with my grocery order and got extra so I could take a pan to Collin and Morgan. I had forgotten how sticky those things are! I didn't use the marshmallow creme, but actually melted the butter and real marshmallows in a pot on the stove. Then poured in the 6 cups of cereal and....oh my goodness! It was a workout to stir those things! But I got it done...twice! and made two pans of them and they were delicious!

While the treats were cooling, David and I decided to rearrange the living room, in order to open up some floor space. When we had family dinner last week, we realized that our current floor space was not enough for all of us and especially because the kids want to play right in the middle of all the grown ups. So instead of leaving space behind the couch for toys, we moved the couch all the way back and stored the toys elsewhere. 

I like the floor space it's given us, but I'll have to get used to the empty look of the other side of the carpet. It definitely makes the room feel more spacious though. 

Here's our little Spider Man, Calem. He's 3 years old today and all boy! He's all about spider man right now, so he had the cutest little party and got lots of spider man toys and pjs to last for a while. I have always loved the dress up phase of childhood. It's so fun to see them using their imaginations as they play. 

Calem is surrounded by girls (he has 4 sisters), so he needs all the super powers he can get 😅 Actually, he's pretty much the star of the show and gets lots of hugs and attention from all the little mommies in the house. 

Well, today is a work day for me. The library is open today and since it's a holiday for others, we might be busy, which is always a good thing. I have found that I love helping people find the books they're looking for and talking about the books they've chosen. I'm still amazed at the older women who come in and take 10 books at a time and read all of them within 3 weeks. AND the fact that they still drive themselves to the library at the age of 92! We have several of those and I just find it a bit scary and fascinating 😅

I hope you have a great day and a productive, calm, cool week. That's a good combination, in my opinion.

Until Next Time...

Blessings! 

The Great British Bake-Off Birthday Party

Well, I'm a day or so late in posting this, but my beautiful daughter-in-love, Alex, had a birthday yesterday and Sunday we had the best party to celebrate her. 

If you know Alex, she's all things color, baking, and gathering with family, so what better way to celebrate her birthday than by putting on a mock British Bake-off contest? It was so much fun and so true to how she operates - she outdid herself with the cooking and decorating.

She fixed a delicious meal of gumbo, potato salad, rice and some of the most delicious breads - homemade of course. Then she asked everyone to bring a dessert and announced that the girls would be the judges, just like the television show.

How fun!

I managed to get pictures of all the yummy things, but can't name them, nevertheless they were all amazing!

 

After we all had our fill of gumbo, we displayed the desserts and the judges took their place at the table.

They were so excited!

Asa started with the tea cakes 😀

The girls would each take a bite and then score the dessert as they saw fit. 

They took their job very seriously. 

In the end, they tallied up the scores and Alex's brother won with the pumpkin dessert in the dutch oven (seen above). It was topped with some maple icing, which I'm sure had something to do with rating it the yummiest dessert on the table. 

Eli won a prize and was declared the winner of the First Annual British Bake-Off of the family. I hope this becomes a tradition because it sure was fun 😀

At the end of the night, we all went home with a plate of dessert and full tummies. 

🍰

Are you a fan of the British Bake-off show? I've only watched a few episodes, but I have a year to catch up and decide what I'm making for next year 😀 I hope I pick a winner! (I better start practicing.)

Until Next Time...

Blessings!