weekending/Hello Monday

 

Happy Monday, friends! I'm linking up with Holly and Sarah for this weekly blog post. How was your weekend? Mine was really good. Today is the day that all the kids in our area go back to school—it's so hard to believe it's that time already! This day last year was such a strange day for me, the first year in ten years I didn't start school with one or two of my kids. Most of you know that we were a homeschooling family and it was surreal to be finished with that phase in our life. It seems like I wished for those days all too often, then once they started drawing to a close, I was trying to savor them. 

I started down the rabbit hole looking for first day of school pictures of them to share, but instead I'd like to re-share a post I wrote several years ago, when a "first day" didn't go quite as I'd planned. I feel strongly that I should share this today, in the season of it being back to school, in case any of you experience a first day that doesn't go quite like you'd planned. Here's a link for when your morning doesn't go as planned. I know a few of you here are teachers or substitutes and some of you still have school- aged kids at home. If that is you, know that I am praying for and thinking of you and your kids in the coming weeks as you get started in a new year. I am sure some of you are looking forward to a new year, as sure as I know some of you may be starting with a bit of trepidation. We prayed for all of you in our church services yesterday. 

On a lighter note, here's what I did this weekend. My dad was here on Friday and for once, we stayed here. It kept looking like it was about to rain, so I just made us a lunch and we enjoyed being here. I made us some mini tacos in the air fryer, along with black beans and rice. Sandy came to pick him up since she was here in town, then I changed into comfy clothes for the night. I had leftover spaghetti for dinner and watched Purple Hearts on Netflix, thanks to the suggestion of Amy. 

This was really good! Thanks for the recommendation, Amy! Todd worked that night and Graham left for Nashville for the weekend. Jonah was in and out, so it was just me and the pups here all night. I was actually up pretty late, because I wasn't tired early for once. I slept until 6:30 Saturday morning, which is kind of miraculous. I usually never sleep past the five o'clock hour in the mornings. I love to watch movies on Saturday mornings, so I grabbed some coffee and settled in to watch this on Netflix.

Have you read Love & Gelato? I haven't, but I wasn't at all impressed with the movie. I've been dragging my feet about taking the summer décor down—I plan on doing that this week, almost in time to put out the pumpkins. 🤣 I'm kidding...I don't put fall stuff out until September. 

I got dressed, then Mom and Trish came to pick me up. We had a few errands we wanted to run, so we all just did that together. We started at the farthest place, then worked our way back here. We had the best lunch, though! We went to the Olive Garden and had salad, breadsticks and toasted ravioli. My requested stop was my favorite boutique that we were just at last weekend, The Paisley Rooster. I'd seen a black cardigan-type thing and tank top that I couldn't stop thinking about all week, so I went to buy them both. Here's the cardigan-type thing...what are these called? I cannot think of a word for it.

I came home and took a shower so that I could wash my hair. I sat and watched Grey's Anatomy for the rest of the day. Todd went to a housewarming party for one of the deputies he often works with and stayed until about nine thirty. I had Buffalo chicken for dinner and enjoyed a quiet night at home. Graham got back home later that night and his baby girl was happy to see him.

I was at church bright and early Sunday morning because I was singing on praise team this week. Our service was so good yesterday! There was a lot going on in the service, which is something that is very encouraging. All the kids moving up to first grade this week got promoted out of the preschool ministry and into the children's ministry. It's so sweet seeing the stage full of kids, their parents and siblings as our church presents them with big kid Bibles. I love that about our church! We had four baptisms, then we sang a couple of songs. Our pastor preached on Psalm 34, which is one of my favorite chapters in that book. When I got home from church, I ate a sandwich, then watched our worship service on my phone. I almost always do that every week, because I love to hear how it sounds for the online people. That's the part that my husband is in charge of and he does a great job! 

That's always how I get these pictures. Can I be real for a second? I love being on praise team and I love to sing and to help lead in worship, but it's not easy for me. I love doing it, but just because that is so does not mean that it comes natural to me. Maybe that's why I always watch these back, because I like to see what I looked like on stage that day. Our worship pastor is so great at encouraging us not to be stiff and to just stand like a lump on a log, and he always smiles really big cheesy smiles at us to make us smile and laugh...so half the time I look like I'm about to laugh, which is kind of what I look like here. He jumps around and waves his arms and sometimes it just gets me tickled, especially when I stand in the middle of the stage next to him, which happens more often than not. Most people hate that spot, so I usually stand there since I don't mind it that much. But, standing there means I'm seen way more, which is full circle back to where I started. I said all that to say that I am so reserved and introverted—but doing things like this that makes me uncomfortable is so good for me. 

The other horribly awkward thing is that we have people taking our photos every week and sometimes the person doing that gets uncomfortably close to us to do this, which is also very weird. You want to look like you're singing to a crowd, but you're not, so you see my point. It's all strange and almost everyone I know hates seeing themselves on a video or in a photo. Including me! But yesterday I didn't mind how I looked, because I wore the right kind of outfit. I definitely need to stick to certain colors and types of outfits, because we also wear in-ear monitors while we sing and a jacket thing hides the battery pack I keep on the waistband of my pants.

That was probably way longer than it should have been, but I wanted to share a little of real life and why I always get those types of pictures of myself. Call me crazy! 

On a different note, I love seeing my boys love their vehicles. This first one underneath is Noah's and this was taken at the old service station on our town square, McGinnis. Isn't that a great picture? 

I don't know where Jonah was when he took this picture of his, but I think it's a great photo as well. I love seeing them content and enjoying life. For the rest of Sunday, I took a nap, then Jonah went and got us the best cheese pizza from a place on the square—Lost Pizza. Todd worked, Graham went to another nearby town to play disc golf and Jonah hung out with friends after he washed his truck and we had dinner.

This was SO. GOOD. I'll end this with one more picture that Graham's girlfriend sent to me of them this weekend at a fair in Nashville.

I laughed so hard at them after church yesterday. Apparently, Jessi talked Graham into riding a mechanical bull and took a video of it, and to hear him mumble under his breath about that little tidbit had me cracking up. He hates pictures and videos of himself, but I love that he tolerates both from her. It was her idea to get pictures of them at the fair this night and I'm glad she did! A girl after my own heart...it makes me smile just thinking about it. 

How was your weekend? Tell me something good about it, because I always love hearing from you. Thanks for reading my blog, friends! Love to all.