Monday, November 9, 2020

How was your weekend? I am linking up today with Heather, Tanya, etc. right here. Our weather has been in the mid-70s for the last several days and that is a rare treat here in Louisville, KY!

You will not believe this…I did not use my car last Wednesday or Thursday! I taught all day, took my 11 a.m. walk with my boy Ernie, and then at the end of the day I went out to the patio to enjoy our gorgeous weather and read or if we are totally honest, mess around on my phone a bit, too! I got up to go make empty nester dinners for two around 5 both days. Wednesday we had breakfast for dinner and Thursday we had burrito bowls. Boom! I guess I do not need to go out every single day. I am growing, you all!

I will say that the early dark does affect me, too, and maybe I felt it more important to get some sunshine than to run around. I need to go back outside after dinner while it is still mild and turn on my twinkle lights. That is a goal for next week! The shortest day of the year is December 20 and after that each day will get longer. This is what I am telling myself to stay positive.

Exciting blog news… your girl Amy paid $25 to have a search box at the bottom of this little amateur blog. Will you try it out and let me know if it works and what you think? Type in a key word of something I have talked about in the past like “apple cider sangria”. Sorry it took so long. If I had known it was only $25 I would have done it sooner. I.am.slow.sometimes.

So, that was a lot of words before we even got to the weekend.

Friday I worked and my hub was off – he has vacation days to burn or he will lose them because of 2020 and not doing much, plus he felt like it was wrong to take off when he was needed and when things were so new and scary in March-May. He still got up at 4:30 to go to the gym which woke me up. I have a hard time going back to sleep once I am awake and the old bladder wakes me up, too. Oh well.

I talked Tom into a patio lunch really close by because I only had a bit over an hour.

We had really good salads with balsamic.

And, I had a half of a veggie sandwich with homemade chips.

After I finished teaching for the day I had a Kroger pick up. I am really liking ordering a pick up for Thursday or Friday and then not worrying about groceries on the weekend. I hope I can keep this up because it is working really well.

Friday night it was finally my turn for birthday dinner! We went to dinner in September for one friend and in October for the other and November was my pick. We tried a new to us Italian restaurant with a massive patio.

The night was perfect. I had a sangria.

We had focacia, a really good orange bibb lettuce salad and I ordered eggplant parmiagana.

It was really nice!

My one friend gave me this snakeskin clutch/cross body and this bracelet. Love!

And, my other friend gave me this clutch and these leather earrings! Love them! They both know what I like!

And, what a good idea. My friend made this card for me from our photo at the last dinner. I guess she just got one card made and I honestly did not know you could do that.

I forgot to tell you that the electrician finished on Thursday so now we have Master bath lights.

I did some reading on Saturday. Everyone needs to read this book. I am reading it even though mine have started college. We are using many of these ideas/philosophies. Read this even if your kids are young. It will change your life. It is just like when people told me I could not take my kids to Disney for less than $5000. That is a lie. We did five days at Disney for $1400. No one missed out on a thing and we had an awesome trip.

Saturday afternoon just Tom and I got out on the river. We brought snacks/sandwiches and just tooled around and then floated. We have never been able to keep the boat going past October. This will be our last weekend and then we will have to winterize it and say good-bye to boating season 2020. It has been a great year for boating.

So many boats were out. This is another little restaurant where boats can park.

We bought this used boat 6 years ago and have really made the most of it I think. It has brought us a lot of joy.

We got home around 5:00 and I started Carolina Charm blog lasagna soup. She said this is now her preferred way to enjoy lasagna!

It is so good! Tom really liked it. It involves broth, beef or sausage (I used sausage), fire roasted tomatoes, tomato paste, onion, garlic, spices, and then you top with a ricotta and parmesan mixture. I mixed mine in to the soup.

Sunday morning I had my coffee and just a bit left of this book. I gave up. It is really annoying. I liked it for awhile but with twenty pages left and more games being played and misunderstandings I just said no more. Did anyone else read it?

Next up is this! I am sad to end the trilogy but I am excited to see how it wraps up.

Sunday morning I did my Thanksgiving decor and Tom and I cleaned more thoroughly than we had in a while.

Then, it was time for maybe our last boating outing of 2020. 2020 has been rough but the weather and the river have been really good to us. My sis told me about these Truly black cans that are all lemon flavored. Original lemon, strawberry lemon, mango lemon, and black cherry. These have more flavor than the white can Truly and they are my new favorite!

The fall colors against the river are really pretty. I have said before that I kinda like fall boating more than summer?

We parked at Captainś Quarters. We split a seafood platter because this will probably be the last time we will go here this year.

And, we ended our day watching the sun go down.

It was a good one. We have one more weekend before our boys move back in!

What was the highlight of your weekend? I would love to hear it in the comments!

Amy

26 thoughts on “Hello Monday!”

  1. You got some great gifts from your besties – so sweet!!! I am so happy you have a search box, just yesterday Andrea and I were talking about your apple cider sangria (because I tell everyone who will listen about it) and I went to your blog and just kept scrolling through until I could find your recent post and then did a screenshot to send her. The search box will be great!
    xo,
    Kellyann

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    1. I did! I really should take a class on learning WordPress. Maybe I can just watch a YouTube video. There’s just so much to learn and then they change things on me. The search box has been functional since Friday so it should have been possible to enter it yesterday but if you didn’t know it was there? Have a great day!

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  2. I want to read the Debt Free Degree so bad! Did you find it at the library? I listen to Anthony O. On YouTube and love his teaching. Also, that sunset, so beautiful. Louisville has the best sunsets! Have a great Monday 😊

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  3. Hi Amy! I tried to search for your Disney trip; have you ever blogged about going to Disney on a budget? I may have missed it but didn’t see it in the first few posts that the search button brought up. I would love to hear about this. Not that we’ll be going to Disney anytime soon with the pandemic, but our kids are still young (7 and 4) so we’re thinking of saving up to go in the next 2-3 years. I too always heard it’s ~$5k to go and when you mentioned y’all went for way less my ears perked up. Thank you!

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    1. No – it was 14 years ago so definitely pre-blog. Also so many things have changed since then. I read a book from the library but my main tips were – we drove and also saw some things along the way and way back. My kids were 5 and we did 4 park days and that was enough. We should not have wasted $ on park hopper – one park per day was enough. Stay in a budget prop – newer is what matters more and you won’t be in your room much. We brought water bottles and our own breakfast and snack food. We ate at off times and split. We didn’t do any character breakfasts or any sit down meals bc that wasn’t why we were there! Plus I have boys and they didn’t care about that. My friend has a brother who owns Wicked Mouse Travel and helps people with Disney. I hope this helps! We had a great time and did not miss a thing!

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  4. Fall boating sounds so much better than summer boating! Scott wants to get a boat at our next stop.

    Will your boys be back until the second semester begins? I heard a lot of schools weren’t allowing in-person classes after Thanksgiving?

    Love that brown clutch!

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    1. I hate being hot so I guess that is why I like it. I also like less boats out! You should! Maybe you will end up in Louisville!
      I love the clutch, too – thank you! I hope I will have places to take it!
      Yes, boys come home Nov 20 and stay home til Jan 6 and then second semester is condensed. No spring break and done end of April.

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  5. I LOVE your new clutches…& the card is a sweet idea. Your friends are so thoughtful . I just picked up the first book of the EH trilogy. I had heard of it until the third one came out. So now I have to catch up 😂 the highlight of my weekend was the gorgeous weather! Perfection. Have a great week 😀

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    1. Thank you! It was! The books go quickly. They will be nice to read when it gets colder bc she describes St. John. The weather was just amazing and then yesterday was even warmer I think! I read outside at lunch and then from 3-almost 6!

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      1. Yes! Today is supposed to be so nice again. It’s amazing. If I don’t start the first book this month, I may just read all three in January. I’m sure I will love them. I hope to read Christmas books in December . Do you follow EH on Instagram? I love her stories. She shows you around Nantucket, beacon hill, talks about her writing process, etc.

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  6. Thank your for the search button! You have published some really nice recipes, and this will make it so much easier to find them!
    Your friends are so sweet! Very nice presents!
    I can’t believe your boys will be home soon! What happened with the months!? I love it that you’re talking about the winter solstice! It gives me hope for sure!
    Weekend was great with one day in cabin and one day in the city – the weekend feels so much longer when you do a lot of different things!

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    1. You are welcome! I wish I had organzied tabs but oh well. Yes, they were so nice! That sounds like a great weekend for you! I once heard to divide your weekend in 5 parts and do something in each part – Friday night, Saturday day, Saturday night, Sunday day, and Sunday evening!

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      1. That’s a great idea! I have an old-school-calendar (I know) and I will mark next weekend like that! See if I can fill all five of them…

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  7. What wonderful weather for a weekend! I was so happy to put up my tree and Christmas decorations! Our weather has turned COLD! Today was 30 deg when I woke up at 6:30am. I am going to go get dressed and go for a 4 mile walk. And No, I do not usually put up my Christmas tree this early in the month but I was soooooo sad about Biden getting elected and how no one is questioning any wrong doing in voting fraud yet that is ALL THE MEDIA AND LIBERALS have talked about against Trump for the last 4 years – among alot of other stuff. Our country is a mess. Sad sad sad. So that made me happier. Seeing my tree up! and we will be at our beach house for thanksgiving so no need for thanksgiving decorating here. Ok off to start my Monday!

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    1. It really was and today is, too! I put up my tree the Wednesday before Thanksgiving last year and it made me so happy coming home from Thanksgiving to Christmas already done like magic! I know- we have big problems and I am worried about the economy and more.

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  9. What a beautiful sunset on the water. I too had a few days where my car wasn’t used; in fact my husband was just remarking that it’s been nearly a year since my last oil change! That’s how infrequently my car has been used this year.

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    1. Thank you! It is kind of weird not to go out but our pace has really slowed since March i think – which isn’t all bad. Wow – I did get my oil changed this summer.

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  10. The weather was just wonderful and we spent as much time outside as possible. Golfing, grilling etc. my sister-in-law introduced me to the Truly Lemonade this summer and I love it! I’ll be looking for that Elin Hilderbrand trilogy. I really like her books and haven’t read those.

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