Hello Monday: A Pretty Perfect Weekend

Last year I marked November here in blog world by documenting almost every weekend for "Hello Monday" with Holly, who blogs at Pink Lady, and Sarah, who blogs at Sunshine And Books. I decided that would be a fun way to celebrate November again this year.

After a month of extremely busy, but mostly fun, weekends in October, I was really craving a solid two days at home and some time to get things done. And this past weekend provided all of that, and more.

On Friday night, Rachel was at a belated Halloween party and her school was having a pizza fundraiser. So Dave, Sam, and I ate pizza. Mine was a Mediterranean one and it was so good. Then we picked Rachel up from her party and we all got flu shots. Unfortunately, one family member fainted after their shot so we ended up hanging around the pharmacy for an extra 45 minutes until the pharmacist was assured that they were okay. (We really think it was a combination of fear of needles and not enough protein throughout the day that caused the fainting but were very reassured by the pharmacist's care and attention.)

After my flu shot, I crawled into bed and started reading The Fourth Wing. I got sucked in and read for a few hours. Then I woke up on Saturday and continued reading with coffee-hot chocolate and twinkle lights. Dave took Sam to badminton and Rachel to Religious School at the synagogue and I dealt with some emails and talked to a friend on the phone.

I had a quick lunch and then washed the paint off Rachel's pumpkin, and with Dave and Rachel's help, I cut it all up, steamed, and mashed it. I also cleaned off our stove top and the side of the fridge. We now have a ton of pumpkin for pumpkin muffins and pumpkin pasta! Yum!

I drove Rachel to her dance class and did a short walk to pick up a few things for supper. After dance, Rachel and I stopped at our friends' house to get a tour of their basement construction project, drop off some things we had borrowed from them, and pick up a fall jacket for Sam that they were giving us.

While Dave drove Rachel to her second round of dance, and picked up a new shower head I'd ordered for us, I baked Applesauce Jumbles (the first of this year!), and, with Sam's help, roasted a spaghetti squash and baked meatballs for supper. After supper I iced the Applesauce Jumbles and crawled into bed early to finish my book. Thanks to a full day, and the flu shot, I was exhausted.

Yesterday morning, Rachel, Dave, and I raked all the leaves on our front lawn to the curb so the city can collect them this week. It felt so good to have that done!

We went to church for the first time in a month and, during Sunday School, Dave and I had a conversation with various people about the whole situation in Israel-Gaza. It was a good conversation but we were both exhausted after it. I ended up talking through most of the service with a friend who is going back to work tomorrow after fighting breast cancer since the summer of 2022. Please say some extra prayers for strength for her. Sometimes, the personal connections at church are more meaningful to me than the service.

We came home and had lunch. Sam boiled eggs, cut them up, and made egg salad for lunch. I used an old lemon and old blueberries and made lemon blueberry muffins. I even got fancy and made a glaze for them. Then I ran some errands in our neighbourhood, including returning a book to a friend who lives around the corner (and catching up with her, of course) and delivering a piece of mail which was accidentally delivered to our house.

Rachel decided to make a cake for the family of the friend I had seen earlier, so after it was baked, we went back to her house to deliver it. And while it was baking, we got Rachel's dance costumes from last week hand washed! Yay! I hate hand washing dance costumes.

I was going to make Stuffed Acorn Squash for supper, but once the squash was cut, we realized it was pretty small. So I baked it and we decided to make sloppy joes for supper instead, since the veggie ground round was already thawed. Along with the baked squash, it was a cozy meal, and I'll have to make it more this winter.

After supper, we pulled out our holiday pajamas, ate Applesauce Jumbles, drank cranberry tea, and watched our first Hallmark holiday movie of the year. Ironically, it was a Christmasy/Channukah themed movie and it was more about friendship than romance. (It was "Never Been Chris'd", if you're interested).

Then I folded two loads of laundry and wrote this blog post.

It was so good to have a weekend of dealing with some things which had been hanging over my head -- getting Sam a jacket, using some of our CSA veggies, returning items to friends, getting some baking done, getting back to church, and having some much needed downtime. I feel so much more rested and ready for another week of work.

How was your weekend?