weekending/Hello Monday

 

Happy Monday, friends! I'm joining in with Holly and Sarah once again today for this weekly blog post. How was your weekend? Mine was really good. 

I told you last week that one of my sisters who lives near Denver was here in town for work for just a few days, so we got the weekend started on Friday by going to a nearby town in Mississippi for most of the day. She had a very specific reason for going, but I was just there for the ride and to keep her company. I'm so glad we had that time together! It was so good seeing her and just having uninterrupted time together in the car. If you know me at all, and most of you know me really well by now, you know that I love many things, but two of my all time favorites are quality time and really cute small towns. We got started with breakfast at Chick Fil A before leaving town, then I plugged my phone's USB chord into the rental car, and off we went with Waze directing and 90's country on Spotify helping keep us entertained. (You have to love technology and things like Android Auto/Apple Car Play!)

Debi took care of a little business first when we got there, and when that was wrapped up, we headed back into the little town square area of Clarksdale, Mississippi. I'd read a few things about the area before going—of COURSE I did, I'm very type A and a lover of organized plans, but nothing prepared me for how cute the area is now. Or, at least how cute it will be someday. You can tell the town was very run down in years past, but local business are trying to change that. 

There are lots of murals on the sides of buildings, the storefronts are being revamped and streets are being re-paved. 

So cute, right? This is one of the cities within the Mississippi Delta. We have family who lived here, so it's kind of a special place. I was so glad to see them trying to improve it, because as recently as two years ago, the town had a very bad reputation. I know a young lady who moved there for a short while right after she got married and she was dreading the move because of how bad it was known to be. It may still be like that, I'm honestly not sure or familiar enough with it to know different, but it was encouraging to see new life brought to old buildings. 

It reminds me of the show that  Ben and Erin Napier hosted on HGTV—Home Town Takeover. Have you seen this? First off, I love them on their show Home Town, especially her sense of style. I consider my own style to be similar to hers—colorful, eclectic, with things that are packed with memories and special meaning. On Home Town Takeover, they picked a small, once-booming town and slowly started bringing some new life back to it. They picked a few key spots to focus on, hoping it would spread from there. They renovated a beloved and well known house, parts of the main street in the downtown area, they renovated a place that can host a farmer's market and they painted a huge mural on one building. The town of Clarksdale had very similar vibes. 

We had lunch at this cute little restaurant, named Yazoo Pass before driving around. This used to be where the old Woolworth's was located. Here's a picture of what it used to look back way back when.

And what it looks like now. Pretty cool, right? The inside is really charming and Debi immediately recognized what it used to be, when she went there as a little girl.

Such a fun time exploring. Speaking of, we were also intrigued by this old mansion and stopped to take pictures.

This is the historical Cutrer Mansion, built in 1916, where the daughter of Clarksdale's founder lived. Blanche Cutrer often threw extravagant events held in this beautiful home, which attracted the attention of Tom Williams, who later became Tennessee Williams and wrote plays like A Street Car Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie. This home is on the Southern Literary Trail, which now I want to see more of because I'm so intrigued. I've never heard of this until Friday, by the way and now I'm about to be chasing a rabbit trail finding more authors with homes nearby who are on the map. On the brief search I just did, I already found Harper Lee's home on this trail...see what I mean? 

Speaking of small towns that I love, our little town made it into Southern Living! I'm including this link in case you'd like to check it out for a different perspective. 

Anyway, I said all of that to say that we had a really nice day together. I spent the evening watching a really cute Hallmark movie, Love in the Limelight. I loved the entire story line and the main characters in the movie are married, which just adds good chemistry to the movie. Todd worked and everyone else was in and out. I had yummy leftovers for dinner and went to bed pretty early.

On Saturday morning, I was up early enough to watch a show on Netflix, then I went out for a brief while with my mom and sisters. We went to a little boutique that we love, then we had lunch and called it an early day. For dinner that night, we met them at one of my favorite places that I mentioned here a couple of weeks ago, Jim's Grille. We were home again right after that and I FINALLY finished the book I was reading. It was good, don't get me wrong, it just went on and on. There's a second book, but I doubt I'll continue reading the series. I'll share about my August books at the end of the month, so check back! The 31st falls on a Wednesday this month, so I will share this month's books on that day. 

I was up early again on Sunday, even though I didn't have to be at church early this week, and watched what may be my newest favorite Hallmark movie.

I love the Hallmark Fall movies every bit as much as their Christmas movies...did you know that the fall ones are just as big a deal as the Christmas ones? I know, I know...some of you may shake your head at my love of Hallmark movies, but they're clean! There are some that are not good, don't get me wrong, but for the most part, they're clean and easy to watch. I've noticed that a lot of them are becoming more "inclusive" which in some ways is great, but in the way of how God defines traditional marriage, it's not so great. I hate that the higher ups in this corporation are pushing that agenda more here, but I just don't watch the movies I disagree with and I watch all the others. And, even if I don't watch them all and agree with them all, they're still the cleanest movies around right now, so at least there's that. I'm excited and intrigued about their new movies that start later this month, the Mahogany line. They look really good and I'm excited to see one. I like that they've changed up some of the story lines. I've been noticing that they're not all the same like they once were. In some ways, like I said, they've upped their game. 

Church was really good, as always, particularly the worship. I went to the grocery store right after church so that I could get my shopping done for the week, then I came home to eat a little lunch. I'm going into work today for four hours, so I'm trying to be creative in how I spend time, like with grocery shopping and blogging. I don't plan on changing up the frequency of  blog posts—a couple of you asked me that and I will still be writing here everyday, unless otherwise planned in advance, like when I'm out of town. I'm just having to be more mindful of my time, which is not a bad thing. I'm writing this post on Sunday morning, for instance, before I go get dressed for church. I came back later to edit some of it, like about church, then I scheduled it to post after midnight this morning, as usual and in case you ever wondered how I do things here. 😉 

After I did all of the after church things, I got comfy and took a nap. Later on for dinner, when Todd had gone into work, I finished my leftovers from last night's dinner (beef tenderloin kabobs, veggies and sautéed mushrooms) and started watching Chesapeake Shores on Hallmark Movies Now. I started the show years ago when it first came out, but I eventually had to stop watching when we got rid of cable. I added a streaming channel last night so that I can watch this show and I'll probably end up keeping it after the 7 day free trial. It's only $6 a month. Have I mentioned how much I love having Sunday afternoons free now? I do. I'm still loving Wednesday night rehearsals.

So, how was your weekend? Tell me something good! I'd love to hear from you today. Thanks for reading my blog, friends! Love to all.