Hello Monday Featuring The Weekend That Was Beyond Amazing!!!

Well, I don't think I've ever linked up with Holly, who blogs at Pink Lady, and Sarah, who blogs at Sunshine And Books, for "Hello Monday" but I decided that this week was the perfect week to do so. I mainly write this blog to document our family memories and this past weekend was so blissfully normal, but so amazingly perfect, that I want to remember it forever. So read on to see why it was just the best weekend!

 

I have no pictures of Friday night but my friend stopped by, and we talked for almost two hours. And then I got to hug her for the first time in two and a half years!!! Yes, this is the friend who is immunocompromised and has been extremely careful during Covid. She finally got Evusheld, an antibody against Covid (her specific disease means the vaccines don't work for her), and now she can get back to living life a little more normally. I was so thrilled to be able to hug her again!!!

Then, while Dave went to pick up McDonald's for supper, the kids and I did a bunch of yard work in the back yard. They raked all the leaves from our tree while I cut back the peonies and some of the Black Eyed Susans. I LOVE that the kids are at the stage where they can be helpful with yard work.

I was going to watch the first game of the World Series, but I started getting tired at 8pm, so I crawled into bed, read for a bit, and was asleep shortly after 9. I woke up on Saturday morning at 8:40, having gotten 11 1/2 hours of sleep. It was glorious!!!

On Saturday we had a slow morning and I got two loads of laundry hung on the line, which is my own personal version of heaven! Hahaha! Then I chopped up one of the heads of kale in the fridge and made my favourite chickpea-kale soup.

Then I dragged everyone outside to do some yard work. Dave and the kids raked while I cleaned up the flowerbeds.

And we took some time to play in the leaves...

... and to recreate pictures.

Sam and I in 2013.

Sam and I in 2022. 

Left: our back yard before: leaves all over, flowers needing to be deadheaded, pots of annuals to be put away; Right: our back yard after -- everything is cleaned up for winter. Yay!!!

 

Another thing which made this weekend glorious -- I lived in my bunnyhug for 24 hours straight and it was amazing! Hahaha!!!

In the afternoon, the kids had a Jr Youth event to carve pumpkins at church so Rachel put on her Hallowe'en costume. For some reason, she wanted to be a cowgirl this year.

 

While the kids were at church, Dave and I enjoyed a couple of hours of hiking in this amazing forest! It was so gorgeous!

We picked up the kids, chatted with some of the other parents, and then picked up pizza and watched a Hallmark movie!

 

Then we went to the Enchanted Forest put on by one of our cities. Have I mentioned before that I live in a twin city? We live right on the border of the two. So this was put on by the city we don't live in but was a fifteen minute walk away from our house. It was about a twenty minute walk through a forest that was lit up in different ways, sometimes with music, and sometimes without. It was a magical evening.

On Sunday, I woke up and then Rachel and I spent about an hour and a half in the kitchen. She baked chocolate chip cookies while I chopped more kale and processed a bunch of vegetables from our CSA. A lot of veggies and garlic needed to be chopped up and dealt with.

 

I made unstuffed cabbage rolls, which were supposed to be for supper, but in the afternoon, we went to some friends' house for a last minute Hallowe'en party. It was supposed to last just a couple of hours, but clearly no one wanted to leave so we ended up ordering pizza and enjoying drinks and amazing conversation around the fire while the kids played and played and played. It was such a fun evening, and I was so busy enjoying myself, I took no pictures.

I commented to my friends, "It has been such a GREAT weekend and this has been the absolute best, and most fun, way to end it."

It was such a perfect weekend of fun things to do, getting things done around the house, spending time just with Dave, spending time with friends, eating pizza twice (!!!) and relaxing. I really wish every weekend could be like this! I really hope your weekend brought you as much joy as mine did.