Another July weekend has come to a close. . .or almost. The kids and Tom are watching a 1979 movie, The Love Bug, and I am hearing lots of laughs from upstairs. So good that they like these old classics. We don't have television service but I do have a subscription to Blockbuster -- plenty of movies to choose from all the time :)
We were supposed to have friends in from out-of-town this weekend but Thursday night something came up and they canceled. It would surprise no one that we filled the weekend up anyway! Friday night I attempted this creation:
Mine did NOT turn out like Meg's.
The layers started out pretty good. . . .
But once all six were stacked on one another I had about 60 seconds before they all fell over. And please remember, Meg is a professional photographer. The colors in my cake really were as rich as hers. I served our guests (neighbors who came down for an impromptu dinner) dessert like this:
Hey, everyone said it tasted good and I was over-impressed with how beautiful the colors really were. I didn't take my time and shave the layers to make them flat. . .also maybe if I would have taken time for the icing to set-up between the layers before frosting the outside I may have had more luck. I will *definitely* do this again. . .maybe just next time in cupcake form :)
Saturday morning Thomas finally came home!!! This is a picture from inside his cabin. . .Margaret is sitting on his bed. I love that he had a great time and hasn't stopped talking about Cedar Lake Camp all weekend, but I'm so, so happy he's home too. Our family is again complete.
Isn't this a great shot Tom got of the four of them together at camp?
I wasn't able to go because I had a tennis match. . .which I lost :(
My double's partner, Heidi, did win it all in the women's singles though!!! Yea!!! After I lost my match and my family got home, we went back to watch her in the finals (she played my other good tennis friend Jeanette) and it ended up being a 3-hour match! They had both played earlier in the morning -- Jeanette and I went about 1.5 hours and Heidi's first match was about 2 hours long -- than they were right back at it. They were neck-and-neck, going an entire 3 sets!!!! So exciting. . .and both being my friends it was easy to cheer EVERY good shot -- ha! Later that evening we all went out for appetizers and drinks. . .the first time I've gone out with a group of tennis ladies like that. . .we'll definitely need to do it again.
Between tennis and dinner our family went to see Despicable Me. It was terrible. I know it has gotten good reviews and my sister and her family just *loved* it but it was a waste of our time and money :( Oh well. Win some, lose some.
Today was church, a Mexican lunch, family reading time (I would have *loved* have gotten a picture of all six of us sitting around the living room reading together but knew it would wreck the moment -- hoping to instill this into our schedules more regularly though), and some finishing touches on a bunch of organizing I have been doing upstairs. Last weekend Tom and his dad installed these shelves for me:
This is in the kids' bathroom upstairs. It is just an empty alcove that has always been. . .empty. I found these great bins at Lowe's and bought the last 9 they had on the shelves. My husband wasn't crazy about the blue ones but they work fine. I'm tackling one of my New Year's Goals and we thought this space in the bathroom might be a good storage area for home decor items. Here is the picture I posted in January:
For some reason, I'll show you another:
This is a large bonus room above the garage that started off as my crafting space. Then it became a catch-all for everything. The "bed" is really a futon but it was set up like a bed then because we were probably using it as such then and it is set up the same way now because of the anticipated guests for the next few weekends. Anyway, I am very happy with the results thus far:
Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but a hefty start. The bins stacked along the back wall (by the window) are 10 more, just like the ones in the bathroom. Lowe's re-stocked and I took them all off their hands again. I *love* the size of them. Hopefully we'll get some shelves in here too. The kids helped me go through and sort 10 BINS worth of clothing and we moved that out to the shed. My husband filled up the back of his truck with other items to take to Goodwill. Most of the entire right side of the room are empty bins/baskets/containers. . .I'll find uses for those!!! There are six 18-gal orange bins stacked in the left corner by the window -- those ALL contain pictures and memorabilia. It was very hard for me NOT to go through every single box and sort. . .I just put everything in them and hope to find a cold, wintry week to go through and sort all of those. Almost 4 decades worth of memories. For now my craft stuff is packed away (in those bins under the window) because I simply don't have the time right now to dedicate to it like I used to. I hope to get back to it someday. The part you can't see is just to the left when you walk in -- I created a "wrapping station" where I consolidated all that stuff on a card table. I've had that up for several months and it's worked out well for everyone in the family. It's stocked with everything you need to wrap a gift and walk away. I have a lot of excess furniture in that room that I'm not sure what I want to do with at this point but it's good stuff that I'm not ready to part with either. I told my husband I physically feel better with this task done! I'm ready to continue on :) I found a great new website today, Kuzak's Closet. I think we would become fast friends if she didn't live on the other side of the country!!! I would love to know what she does with what she doesn't sell or give away or throw away. . .or is she just so good she can get them to part with almost everything???
That's our weekend!!! I'm kind of sorry we didn't make it to the lake but we'll be there next weekend for sure. . .and my house wouldn't be ready for our company either so it's all good.
What I took away from our church service today:
God doesn't need our HELP, He needs our FAITH.
We were supposed to have friends in from out-of-town this weekend but Thursday night something came up and they canceled. It would surprise no one that we filled the weekend up anyway! Friday night I attempted this creation:
Mine did NOT turn out like Meg's.
But once all six were stacked on one another I had about 60 seconds before they all fell over. And please remember, Meg is a professional photographer. The colors in my cake really were as rich as hers. I served our guests (neighbors who came down for an impromptu dinner) dessert like this:
Hey, everyone said it tasted good and I was over-impressed with how beautiful the colors really were. I didn't take my time and shave the layers to make them flat. . .also maybe if I would have taken time for the icing to set-up between the layers before frosting the outside I may have had more luck. I will *definitely* do this again. . .maybe just next time in cupcake form :)
Saturday morning Thomas finally came home!!! This is a picture from inside his cabin. . .Margaret is sitting on his bed. I love that he had a great time and hasn't stopped talking about Cedar Lake Camp all weekend, but I'm so, so happy he's home too. Our family is again complete.
Isn't this a great shot Tom got of the four of them together at camp?
I wasn't able to go because I had a tennis match. . .which I lost :(
My double's partner, Heidi, did win it all in the women's singles though!!! Yea!!! After I lost my match and my family got home, we went back to watch her in the finals (she played my other good tennis friend Jeanette) and it ended up being a 3-hour match! They had both played earlier in the morning -- Jeanette and I went about 1.5 hours and Heidi's first match was about 2 hours long -- than they were right back at it. They were neck-and-neck, going an entire 3 sets!!!! So exciting. . .and both being my friends it was easy to cheer EVERY good shot -- ha! Later that evening we all went out for appetizers and drinks. . .the first time I've gone out with a group of tennis ladies like that. . .we'll definitely need to do it again.
Between tennis and dinner our family went to see Despicable Me. It was terrible. I know it has gotten good reviews and my sister and her family just *loved* it but it was a waste of our time and money :( Oh well. Win some, lose some.
Today was church, a Mexican lunch, family reading time (I would have *loved* have gotten a picture of all six of us sitting around the living room reading together but knew it would wreck the moment -- hoping to instill this into our schedules more regularly though), and some finishing touches on a bunch of organizing I have been doing upstairs. Last weekend Tom and his dad installed these shelves for me:
That's our weekend!!! I'm kind of sorry we didn't make it to the lake but we'll be there next weekend for sure. . .and my house wouldn't be ready for our company either so it's all good.
What I took away from our church service today:
God doesn't need our HELP, He needs our FAITH.
Thank you :)
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