Friday, June 30, 2023
It's time to link up with Andrea and Erika for Friday Favorites!
First up is cooking! I am having fun cooking for a family of four (Mason just got a job that usually goes from 3 to 9 or 10 so I am leaving a plate in the fridge), but I have enjoyed cooking dinner for over a month.
Here is what we have had this week:
Sunday night - entree salad with grilled chicken and Cheese Gal dressing
Monday night - no power - Qdoba
Tuesday night - Mix and Match Mama's bacon tomato pasta, roasted green beans (frozen thin - Jack's fave), Texas Toast
Wednesday night- new Japanese barbecue marinated chicken, roasted broccoli, cauliflower rice and taught Jack how to make Hawaiian ham and swiss sliders
Thursday night - everyone on their own (Jack with friend, Mason at King's Island Amusement park, Tom leftovers and ham and cheese sandwich, Amy out)
Sunday we tried to take our friends Scott and Jessica (there are two Scotts and two Jessicas in my life so you hear those names a lot!) to lunch by boat.
The boat wouldn't start and after an hour we determined we needed a new battery but it wasn't going to happen that day.
So, we drove like peasants (just kidding - we have a peasant boat, too) to Cunningham's on the River.
A favorite is time with friends even when it doesn't go according to plan!
In the parking lot on the way in, we saw a woman crumple and fall to the ground and she took forever to get up. I was seriously worried about her. She had someone with her and tons of people rushed to help.
On the way out, I dropped my phone - hard.
I thought surely my phone was damaged, but this baby really works. I am glad I had two more in the package. If you don't have this on your phone, you need it!
This is a lifesaver favorite!
Sunday night entree salad:
My kids went with a group of friends to see Spider Man in the late afternoon. When the movie was close to ending, we received word of a tornado watch and then the tornado sirens started going off. I texted to tell them to stay at the theater but the one not driving called and told me they were almost home. Thankfully they made it home and ate dinner. Then, Mason had plans to go stay with a friend and left after the storm had stopped - ish.
Jack and I watched a show and the power flickered a few times. Then, it completely went out. I didn't realize another storm was coming, but this one did some serious damage to our area. A house was completely destroyed by a giant old tree. Two other giant trees took down power lines. We lost power around 8:20 Sunday evening.
Jack played guitar while we watched the rain continue to come down.
Then, it hailed!
It's good to be a candle hoarder when this happens. When we went to sleep, we didn't want to leave candles burning, so I was glad to have these cool lantern things.
I bought mine from a local boutique, but I have also ordered some for gifts. I couldn't believe how long the little water activated lights kept working. They are still going strong. You fill the plastic luminary with water up to the half way point and drop the little floating "candle" in the water.
I slept ok and it was still pretty cool in the house. Monday morning I headed straight to Starbucks for two venti brewed coffees and I used my own stuff at home to doctor it up. Thank goodness that Starbucks had power! Most of the local businesses were fine except one gas station.
Monday was gorgeous. Mason came home and the kids played games (board games) in the house and Ernie and I stayed outside all day. I did run some errands, too.
I bought Ernie a baby pool in case the power was out for a long time.
Jack went to work and Mason, Tom, Ernie and I walked around the elementary school behind our house and it was damaged, too.
Tom and Mason mowed.
Mason and I went and picked up Qdoba.
Then we lit the mini Solo Stove for s'mores.
Monday night it was very hard to sleep. I moved to the basement couch because it was so hot on the main floor. Around 3 am, I went back to my bed and was in and out of sleep. At 5:00 a.m. something in the air changed and I realized the power was back! I slept so well from 5-6! Ha!
Now came the work to get my life back together. I tossed the contents of the fridge. Ouch! I checked the freezer stuff - most was still frozen solid. I did laundry, ran the dishwasher, placed a replacement grocery order and went to Kroger for some more urgent needs. Tuesday was just a day of re-setting. I was grateful and thankful, though!
It did motivate me to clean the fridge and a couple of other areas on my list, which is also a favorite.
I was so happy to be able to cook again!
Some more favorites...
I would not totally replace my beach towels with Turkish towels. I like the fluffy nature of a traditional towel for laying out in the sun. The Turkish towel was great for wrapping myself in at the pool party last weekend, though. I love that it folds up small for travel or for space saving. I love that it takes up less space in the washer. But your girl wants a fluffy towel. My favorites are Tommy Bahama from Costco.
I am a fan of Lume, but I ordered the wrong scents. I really like the cream and rubbing cream on my pits is better than I thought. The smell goes away after a bit, but this really does work for me. I put on regular deoderant the other day and smelled myself stinking. Anyone like Lume? What scent should I get next?
I picked up this cute summery necklace in Target a few weeks ago.
This is really good! Do you also love the chopped salad kits?
I love the rain water scent. You would think I had had enough of the rain from last week and weekend!
This is really good! It's a big trend right now and with good reason. I marinated my chicken in it and then also served it with more sauce.
Here's what it looked like:
I check out cookbooks from the library and this one is great! I read cookbooks like novels.
Ok, Jennifer, I couldn't finish, but I got close. I skimmed the last 8 chapters or so and read the ending. It was a cute story, great location, good food descriptions, but the dialogue really bugged me. I didn't like the dialogue between the teenager and the mom especially. It moved slowly, too, and I guess I wanted more to happen. This will make 4ish books in June for me, I think. Happy Place by Emily Henry, Our Italian Summer by Jennifer Probst, The Party Crasher by Sophie Kinsella, and The Temporary Roomie by Sarah Adams, The Party Crasher has been my favorite.
Up next is one of these. I am thinking Flying Solo. It is by the author of Evvie Drake Starts Over.
Reading is really so personal. We might be in different states of mind and have very different opinions from others. I wasn't wowed by Happy Place but I have heard others say they couldn't put it down.
What were your favorites this week? I hope you had many!
Amy
No comments:
Post a Comment