Monday, July 31, 2017

The weekend that has me giving Mother Nature a high five...

Mother Nature is totally getting a high five from me.

The end of July... & we had our AC off & the windows open & we stayed outside as much as possible.  How is this happening? I have no idea but I am so thrilled it fell on Saturday & Sunday.

If we had these nice days, like on a Monday (UGH) or any other day that requires you to be jailed stuck at work from sun up to sun down, its just not as much fun.  But that we could enjoy the beautiful weather?  Thank you Mother Nature.

I did my grocery shopping on the way home from work so I didnt have to bother with it during the weekend... & after getting everything put up, I kicked off my weekend in the spot I knew I was going to be in for most of my days.



Saturday, I hated it, but the hubs had to work. It's always bad enough he works so hard Monday - Friday, but to have to do it on a Saturday, much less a BEAUTIFUL Saturday... ugh, I just felt so bad for him.

He asked what I did with my time because usually when he's gone, I am productive with cleaning or organizing or doing something that I can always do better when I can crank up the tunes & handle myself.

This time, my productivity involved a purchase I got from Pampered Chef over 10 years ago - I think its more like 13 or 14 years ago - The Ulitimate Mandolin. I have had it in the bottom of a cabinet & just never figured out how to use it....

but when I got this zucchini from work, I knew I had to do something with it....



So I pulled it out & headed to YouTube & figured it out - after about an hour of finding videos & playing around - I got it figured out!!!! YAHOOOOO



I had seen earlier in the day that Nicole Norderman had put out her new album, so I pulled up Spotify (LOVE SPOTIFY) & made some homemade zucchini bread for the first time in my life...

& made my house smell delicious...



... I feel like a zucchini bread pro now.

I even took the recipe that called for vegetable oil & I switched out apple sauce for it.

I know for some people, that's nothing... for me? I felt like I should be on Iron Chef.



When the hubs got home, he was skeptical.  & then tasted the first bite... & needless to say, one of the loaves was gone by the end of Saturday night.

& guilty, I am just as responsible of it disappearing!!

After all that carb fest, I knew i had to work out.
I am still so torn if I want to train for the half marathon in October ( I HAVE to make up my mind today.... UGH.... decisions)... but I knew I wanted to work out in the beautiful air.

So I ended up bringing my laptop, my 21 Day Fix DVD & my equipment out in the enclosed room so I could feel the fresh air blowing on me... it was wonderful.

Harvey Dent even approved. My coach.


The rest of my day did end like I expected... sitting outside & doing a lot of reading.

I actually finished my book, gave Bruno a bath & took a shower myself & went straight back out to my outside chair again & trying to figure out which book to start next.



I just didnt want the day to end ... it was just too beautiful

But days do end, even when we dont want them too....

& then it was time to get up & get ready for church.

An exciting day too... MSM is back in the game.

Human Foosball up in the house

& it was so fun because they had a guy that goes around & makes pancakes right there for companies & parties & it was a pancake feast...



It was great having small group with the girls & having our first small group as 8TH GRADERS!!! YAHOOOOO... big time stuff!

After church, Ricky drove down to meet me for lunch... & then another trip to Pet Smart for more Bruno food... & then I ran over to Michael's for some crafty things I needed after Hobby Lobby's paint pens totally let me down.  (Whole other story... which basically is summed up by saying, DONT BUY PAINT PENS FROM HOBBY LOBBY!!!!... I bought 5 different pens - 3 of them were dried up & 2 of them, the tips exploded out on me, in the middle of a project ruining it.)

I came home & started on a project for my nephew for his first day of preschool ....



& then we took advantage of the pretty Sunday to work on Zoe's hair cut - which it takes 2 of us to hold down the littlest of the dogs. Harvey always sits & stares & wonders if we're hurting her. You'd think we were cutting her eye balls out the way she acts.  We were asked to no longer bring her back to the groomer because the way she acts... so thats why we have to do her ourselves. Our dogs are little divas. Totally.

I did another little bit of food prep for the week...

& then it was time to get depressed that the weekend was over as quickly as it began.

But I'm grateful for it... & the beautiful blessing it was.

How was your weekend?

Did you get a July heat break?

Do you love zucchini bread?

21 comments:

  1. We had pretty epic weather this weekend as well! That is the largest zucchini I have ever seen lol - made good use of it though! xo, Biana -BlovedBoston

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  2. I LOVE that the humidity levels have dropped recently! And I hope my electric bill will be much nicer next time -- jaw-dropping for last month with those horrible days. Your zucchini bread reminded me that I have some frozen grated zucchini in the freezer ... I need to make some bread with it. I try not to make it often because of how quickly it disappears (mostly by me).

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  3. That zucchini! Oh my goodness it's huge lol! I love me some zucchini bread too!

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  4. That's a huge zucchini! The zucchini bread sounds delicious. I haven't had that in forever. We had a bit of a rainy Friday and Saturday but I did spend a lot of time catching up on reading and listening to music, just inside unfortunately.

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  5. awesome! right now Toronto is going through some kind of heat wave but what I want to know is..where was this weather when I was in Prince Edward County?!

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  6. WOW! No that's A zucchini! So glad you had beautiful weather, we did here too and I wish I could bottle up these days! Wishing you a marvelous Monday!

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  7. This weather has been amazing! I don't mind the warm sun and a little heat but I could definitely do without the humidity. We had a giant zucchini too and ended up making muffins, several dozen of them lol. Beautifully Candid

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  8. We too have some really nice weather this weekend, it was so fantastic. And I love love love sleeping with the windows open. That is the biggest zucchini I have ever seen.

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  9. Just remember what I said about that mandolin! And the only reason I'm preaching about it is because it's so easy to do! I'm giving Mother Nature a high five from here in Louisiana, too! My hair is totally living this weather!

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  10. Congratulations on making zucchini bread! It's one of my favorites. And seeing your lovely bread, makes me want to make some too! :D I am insanely jealous of your super nice weather. It's been hot here, not humid or gross, but my air conditioning still needed to run. Mandolin's make me nervous. One of my friends sliced her thumb (I think) really badly and needed stitches. Errrr ... she may have had a glass of wine or two before attempting to use it so .... :D

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  11. Sounds like a great weekend!! It was a bit cooler here too, but my tolerance is lower, so we didn't turn off the AC or anything. I also didn't read... at all... but I did work on some fun projects. :) I want a mandolin slicer so much!! Good for you making healthy zucchini bread! :) XO - Alexandra

    Simply Alexandra: My Favorite Things

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  12. OMG that zucchini bread looks amazing! My neighbor actually brought some over last week, and it was delicious. I love your spot outside - what great weather for it!

    Meg, Borrowed Heaven

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  13. That zucchini was crazy! You put it to good use though. I have one of those mandolins & I've used it a lot, but last year when I was doing the Hello Fresh meals & had all these veggies to chop, I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT IT. Sheesh.

    It really was a gorgeous weekend. Mike & I drove around some yesterday afternoon just enjoying the pretty.

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  14. This weekend was perfect weather! We slept with the windows open and it was GLORIOUS!
    Zucchini bread is so dang delicious. Your looks perfect!
    The groomers told you not to bring your dog back?? What?!! That's ridiculous. (Although when Ly gets her nails clipped she SCREAMS bloody murder. Lol. It's funny because I know she's absolutely fine and she's being a diva.)

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  15. Yay for lovely weather! For us it went from 105 to 90, and even that felt glorious. ;) LOVE that photo of you with the zucchini! Haha. Also, I haven't had zucchini bread in forever, and now you make me want to make some and pretend it's fall! :)

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  16. Our July heat broke from 96 degrees most days to 88 degrees. A real cold spell. AND Tropical Storm Emily made landfall. It has been raining ALL DAY! Glad you had such a glorious weekend!

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  17. My goodness, look at that zucchini!!! Zucchini bread sounds so good, hand a slice over here please! Our weather dropped to the upper 80's lower 90's for the last few days so I guess I should be thankful? Ummm not quite. It was still hot as crap lol. Come on fall for me please!!!!

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  18. That human fooseball looks so cool. I love that. Way to go on the bread. I saw that on your IG and want to make it with my zucchini. I am so jealous of the good weather. It is hot here.

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  19. I freaking no love your green slippers!

    We had exceptional weather here too.

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  20. Girl that zucchini is HUGE. IS it bad that I don't like zucchini? Yikes!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm sure your break was amazing. It sure does look like it turned out yummy

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  21. Sigh.... I LOVE just how much you love to read; and that you have that really cozy place in your house to read. :)

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