Good Mor-nin' America How Are You...

Good Monday morning all! Hope you have some fun plans to celebrate our nation's birthday this week. The weather here has certainly screamed summer lately and looks like we'll have more of the same all week long. 

Linking up today with Holly and Sarah for their Hello Monday blog hop. I'm going all the way back into last week with my recap so you might want to grab your coffee and get comfy. 

I spent all of last week at daughter2's house as she was recovering from some minor surgery and couldn't do any lifting. She's 100% fine so no worries, but I think I know now why all moms my age have aching backs.  

High chairs and bathtubs and car seats and baby carriers. So.much.lifting. It's got to leave a mark. I carried the baby in the baby seat to and from the car whenever we went out, and also into and out of any shops or restaurants we visited. I know I did that when mine were babies but I don't remember them being quite so ridiculously heavy and awkward. 

My daughter might say the awkward part is just me, but whatever. She quite often is managing the baby seat with one hand and wrangling a 2-year old with the other. I don't feel like a weakling, but this week kind of makes me wonder.  

All my grandchildren have wonderful dispositions, but our little Sugar just might be the happiest baby on the planet. I could eat her up with a spoon.

She's a beauty like her momma. 

It was nice to have a low key week with my girl. Her hubs was traveling for work so once the babies were in bed we hunkered down and watched the entire new season of America's Sweethearts-The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. It's on Netflix now, but there were several seasons prior on another network that had a slightly different format. 

This new version is a bit more documentary style, and we loved it. When we finished that we moved on to Spring Baking Championship. She and I both love to bake and while The Great British Baking Show is our favorite we like these seasonal baking shows too. 

We tried to plan a little outing every day. There was gelato one afternoon- 

And of course there was a teensy bit of shopping because there's the cutest children's shop very near her home that I like to visit whenever I'm in town. They have a beach trip later this summer so I bought the kiddos something beachy. 

Hubs did not go with me this time because the little brown dog also had a minor surgical procedure this week and he needed to manage that. 

Such a handsome fella. 

I got home from Tennessee late Friday afternoon, unpacked, then hubs and I went out for Mexican food. We caught up on the week over margaritas and chips and salsa. Honestly this could be my meal when we go for Mexican. 

Saturday I did all the things that needed doing after a week away. 

Maybe not all, but many many. I did get all the laundry done and put away, made a menu for the coming holiday week, then hit the grocery store. Saturday morning is not my favorite time to shop and it was as zoo-ey as I expected.  

Question-do you shop just once a week? I don't know how people pull that off. I feel like the produce doesn't last the way I'd like it to so I usually shop twice a week. 

After lunch we went 'back to town' as we say here, because I had an Amazon return and discovered I could do that at Staples without any wrapping or label printing. Easy peasy. We need to replace some of our flameless candles so made a quick stop at Hobby Lobby to see if they had the size needed, but no. Amazon it is. Again. 

I've ordered about ten smallish things from Amazon in the past three days, one at a time though. Oops. I wonder if anyone looks at the orders and asks why this woman can't get it together to make a single order? They've managed to consolidate it into less than ten deliveries so kudos to Amazon. 

Anyway, since we were in town we decided to pop in Lowes for something, and saw they had their chest freezers on sale so we bought one. I have two refrigerators, both with drawer style freezers, but there's just not enough space in either one to store much of anything. They deliver which meant that was pretty easy peasy too.

When we got home I spent the rest of the afternoon in the kitchen. Our basil plant was out of control so I made pesto to have for dinner. 

The smell of fresh basil is heavenly. 

I had some basil infused olive oil and used that instead of regular which was delicious. My daughter1's in-laws brought over a big bag of home grown cucumbers while I was away so I made a pesto chicken dish for dinner with a cucumber-tomato salad on the side. 

We thought about going into town after dinner to an event at the local brewery, but the temperature was still something like the surface of the sun so we opted instead to sit on the deck and listen to our own music. Such a relaxing way to end the day. 

Sunday was spent at home as we had a delivery window we needed to be available for. We watched a movie and I baked a quiche to put in my freezer for breakfast later this week when we have people in the house. 

A college friend gave me this recipe and it's never-fail and so so good. I use whatever veggies I have and this one is bacon, spinach and red pepper. With cheese of course. 

It was still ninety degrees at 7 PM so we wrapped up the day with a float in the lake. Looking forward to fireworks from this very spot in just a few days. God bless America! 

Visit Holly and Sarah to read more weekend recaps and add your own.