Happy Homemaker Monday (6/5/2017)

Happy Monday! Hope everyone is having a fabulous day so far. Mine has been quite busy and I am just now getting to sit down to the computer to write this up and maybe visit some blogs. The past week has been non-stop busy and there is an extra busyness added now that I am starting my Summer tutoring sessions. But it is a good busy so I can't complain. For now I am taking a moment to join in with the lovely Sandra over at "Diary of a Stay at Home Mom" in her Happy Homemaker Monday meme:

THE WEATHER:::
It was sunny this afternoon after raining overnight and early this morning. We got some heavy rain with some thunderstorms overnight, but the weather is absolutely gorgeous right now. It is supposed to be cooler the next couple of days with off and on showers but I won't complain.   

ON MY READING PILE:::
I just finished Christmas in Alaska by Debbie Macomber. (I reserved this like back in November and it just came to my turn from the library even though it is not a new book! LOL). Anyhow, next up on my list is a review book, The Buffer Zone Diet. 

ON MY TV:::

On Friday nights, we typically do pizza and a movie for the kids. This year I would like to try to remember what movies we have watched, so I will be recapping here.

This past Friday night, we watched "Sing." I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. I found the music to be great and it was well done.

On Sunday we had a bonus movie night. Bill was home and it was raining so I borrowed "Secret Life of Pets" to watch. I am glad that I borrowed it versus paying to rent it, because while the first 20 minutes were very funny, the rest of the movie was bad.

We have also been watching Cleveland Indians baseball and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the playoffs.

ON THE MENU FOR THIS WEEK:::

SUNDAY: Italian parmesan chicken, buttered cat shaped noodles and salad
MONDAY: tacos, corn, strawberries
TUESDAY: Cajun chicken, steamed asparagus for Bill, green beans for everyone else, cole slaw

WEDNESDAY: ham, augratin potatoes, green beans

THURSDAY: hot dogs, baked beans, cole slaw

FRIDAY: pizza grilled cheese and fruit

SATURDAY: ??? We might be going to a birthday party for my sister as she turns 21 tomorrow. Not sure yet!

ON MY TO-DO LIST FOR THIS WEEK:::
Monday: Mail b-day card and Rebecca's pen pal letter, return dvd and book to library, pick up papers for camp for Rebecca from her leader since I couldn't get mine to print. Ben to speech and OT, tutor 2 new clients this afternoon, trash and recycling to curb

Tuesday: tutor in the morning, Walmart for cat food?, walk

Wednesday: tutor in the morning, walk

Thursday: library program, tutor in the afternoon

Friday: grocery store, bake a cake for my sister 
Saturday: possibly a birthday cookout for my sister

Sunday: ????

And each day has the daily housework that needs to be done, although I have implemented new Summer chore charts and schedules and the kids have been helping out a lot!

LOOKING AROUND THE HOUSE:::

It looks pretty good. The kitchen has been cleaned up after dinner. There are a few toys out, but since implementing the new chore chart it looks cleaner most of the time!  

FROM THE CAMERA:::

Just because it is Summer, the learning doesn't stop. My kids have Summer workbooks that they are working in this Summer. So even the tutor's kids have to do some learning over Summer.

WHAT I'M WEARING TODAY:::

jean capris and a purple/brown/green/white tank top, brown flip-flops

 

SIMPLE PLEASURE:::

Sunshine and a clean breeze

DEVOTIONAL OR QUOTE:::

So there you have it. A little peek into my life on this Monday evening! Hope everyone has had a great day and let's see what the rest of this week will bring! 

 

Life Would Suck Without You: A Girlfriend Memoir by Jennifer Preuss

BOOK DESCRIPTION::

There are all types of friends. Rich friends. Poor friends. Fair weather friends—and then there are Best Friends—your BFF’s. Meet Jennifer, a wannabe soap opera star, new to LA and waiting tables in Century City. She makes three new friends, and they turn out to be inseparable.

Together they go from one hilarious adventure to another; crashing concerts and movie star bars, lingerie shopping, and laughing about men’s shortcomings, all revealed through the razor-sharp, self-deprecating humor of the author. Life is good, even laugh-out-loud funny, and Jen discovers the real meaning of friendship. But when life throws them a cruel curve ball, which rocks them to their very core . . . is friendship enough?

MY THOUGHTS::

Life Would Suck Without You: A Girlfriend Memoir  is Jennifer Preuss' debut novel. As a debut, it hit the mark in most areas, but had one thing lacking.

First the good things--- Preuss' sense of humor is great. I laughed and was able to follow along with her stories with a smile on my face and a real sense of who she is. I felt like I really got a sense of who she was, as well as who some of her friends were. I really could feel the love and closeness between Preuss, Nikki, Panooch and Cecilia. While my lifestyle seems to be much more reserved than Preuss', I was able to relate to the life issues she faced not only as a married mom, but also a married mom who wants a social life along with her friends. For that Preuss made this book very relatable to women in their 20s and 30s.

I did have one issue with the book though. In my opinion, you could tell that this was Preuss' debut as the writing was choppy and at times the chapters were hard to follow and process. This could just be her style, but I found that it took away from the overall theme of the story. Maybe it was just my preference.....

So, I would say that if you don't mind the style of writing, then this would be a great read as the content is very entertaining and relatable!

DISCLAIMER::

I received a free copy of this book from Kate Tilton Book Blogger's program and the author Jennifer Preuss in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Rebecca's Spring AHG Awards Ceremony

On Wednesday night, Rebecca's AHG troop had their Spring awards ceremony where the girls were awarded their badges and patches that they had earned during this scouting year (since Thanksgiving).

Rebecca earned several patches and badges and 1 service star (which is equal to 10 hours of service).

After the ceremony, we sat through Trail Life USA's awards (they share the space and are sister/brother troops). The evening ended with a small dessert reception. Overall, it was a nice evening to celebrate the girls' achievements!

Memorial Day weekend 2017 memories

Our Memorial Day weekend was very busy. On Saturday night we headed out to our friends' horse farm for dinner and to just hang out. We share a lot of the same qualities and their youngest daughter is Rebecca's BFF. We had a really nice time sitting, chatting and just hanging out. The kids loved seeing their horses (they have 6).

Sunday, we had talked about going to the ice cream festival in Utica like we do every year, but we were out late the night before, Bill woke up with a migraine and it was supposed to rain most of the day. So we decided to just hang out around town. We took the kids to Gambier to eat lunch by the train and then we decided to explore the Brown Family Environmental Center. My sister and brother decided to join us. We took a 3 mile walk, exploring some paths that I didn't even know existed behind the center.

When we left the BFEC, we decided to stop and get ice cream at a local ice cream place. Originally, we were going to go to Dairy Queen, but then decided to go to The Dairy. I had never been there. The kids have been a few times on school field trips. The ice cream was yummy and at under $10 for the whole family, it was definitely economical choice. I had strawberry cheesecake ice cream- definitely not good for the diet, but good tasting! lol

On Monday, Memorial Day, Rebecca walked in our town's parade as part of her American Heritage Girls Troop. My brother Josh also walked with the high school football team, who were walking with the colt football kids.

After the parade, we came home and hung out for a bit before heading out to my parents' house for their annual cookout. We had yummy food for dinner and then the kids got to get soaked with water guns! I ended up getting soaked as well. The kids had a blast and they slept really well when we got home.

It was a great weekend and a good kickoff to summer!

Bill's birthday and a Groot cake

May 25th was Bill's birthday. He had to work most of the day, but I tried to make his evening special.

We went out to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings (birthday guy's choice) and had a yummy dinner. After we came home, we had cake for dessert.

Bill got to open his presents from the kids and I. We got him 2 new pairs of running shorts, 2 new pairs of compression shorts, and 2 new movies- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Logan.

Overall, I think he had a fun 45th birthday!

Books that I read for fun in April and May

Over the last 2.5  years, I have been documenting the books that I read for fun (and not just for review purposes).  I have decided that I need to continue that as reading is important part of how I relax. Books that I read for fun are books that I have not been asked to review and that I have chosen to read, well because I like to read. In 2015, I read a total of 49 books! In 2016, I read 58 books. While I don't have a goal in mind for this year, I will continue reading as it is something that I love to do and I like to document the books that I read.  (Please note that if a book looks interesting to you, you can click on the picture of the book and it should take you to it's page on Amazon.com. I am an associate through them.)

So, I kind of forgot to do this post in April. Life happened, etc. So what that being said, what did I read in April and May? 

Well, I read a diet book and a beach book!

First up, I read The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet book. This was very interesting read to me as it really spoke to how my diet and life is going. I will say that I am not following the information completely, but I did gain some insight into better ways to eat to help fight my carb addiction and the science behind it. It was a very interesting read.

 

I also read Dorothea Benton Frank's new release Same Beach, Next Year. This was a great story and a really good read to start Summer break with. I fell in love with the characters especially Eliza as she becomes a woman who realizes who she really is in the story. Great read.

As we are now on Summer break from school, I hope to have more time to read for pleasure! Let's see what wonderful adventures in books I can get into this summer.

Here are the books I read for fun in:

March 2017

February 2017

January 2017

Books from 2016

Books from 2015

Books from 2014

                                                 Have you read any good books lately?

Any books you would recommend for me to read in 2017?