Weekly Wrap Up - Hello 2020!

The weekend was pretty low key.  The husband had to work both days, the girls had jiu-jitsu Saturday morning.  The weather was unseasonably warm and sunny, so I took full advantage of the opportunity to work in my flower beds and vegetable garden.   I was able to clear our all the dead flower stalks and tomato and basil plants and work some ash from the wood stove into the soil.

Sunday morning was church.  Lindsey ran the sound booth for the first service and then Olivia works as a youth intern/leader in second service..  In the evening, the girls ended up babysitting for a family from church.  It's always disconcerting when the mother of the 3 children (ages 8, 5 and 2) asks "Do you think your two girls can handle our three?"  Then when I dropped the girls off the parents said "They've never had you as sitters, so they are going to test you."   If, as a parent you have to give that many disclaimers to the sitters, you may need to  up your parenting/discipline level on a regular basis.  Let's just say Olivia did NOT enjoy the experience at all and Lindsey was stretched a great deal as well.

Lindsey also finished a new wall hanging quilt for my best friend and her husband.  They are dog lovers (with three small dogs of their own), so this will be a cute addition to their decor (I hope).  

Monday, the weather here was unbelievably nice.  It was above 70, so I washed windows, aired out the house and the girls helped me to deep clean the house.    Having teens is a great help around the house.

Tuesday Lindsey and I went to the museum and dropped off her costume.  It was bittersweet, she has truly loved her two years there.  We also ran to the bakery to pick up a cake I ordered, and ran a few errands.  I went to lunch with my gal pal Yvette, and we solved all the worlds problems over a huge plate of nachos...you're welcome world.    For our New Year's Eve celebration we played "Balderdash" had brownies and at midnight shared a toast with some sparkling cider.  We were all asleep by about 12:10.  Wild things we are.

Wednesday was the day I've been planning and waiting for since mid December.  Yes, it was New Year's Day, but it was also the day I'd planned a surprise 50th party for Tom. His birthday is January 2, but since that's a work day for most folks, I did New Year's Day.  I planned it under the guise of it being a New Year's party and he never suspected a thing.  We had a total of 18 people (mixture of family and friends) wedged in our house, and it was so much fun!   I fixed heavy appetizers (meatballs, several hot dips, pinwheels and a cheese ball), and my best friend did a HUGE charcuterie board with the most amazing selection of meats and cheeses.  I never got photos of the food spread though.

Tom never suspected a thing and an hour into the party, when I came out carrying the cake and everyone yelled surprise, he actually cried.  Best thing ever!

Thursday I started to remove the Christmas decorations.  I changed the outside flags to winter scenes, and gathered all the indoor decorations (sans the tree) into one location.  When I started packing stuff back up I actually ended up purging a bunch of old stuff we don't use, and consolidated a lot of my decorative tins.  I love tins, I rarely put them out, but I just hate to get rid of them, sigh.   Anyway, by the time it was all said and done, I had 3 more boxes of stuff to donate, and another bag of clothing as well.     For Tom's birthday dinner I fixed steaks and baked potatoes, then it was off to jiu-jitsu.

Friday was another babysitting day for Lindsey.  I ran errands and then it was home to deconstruct the Christmas tree.  I always hate this part of the holidays.  Putting a tree up is fun, taking it down is drudgery.   After the tree is done, and the furniture back in place, I'll be working on lesson plans for when we get back to school on Monday.  

I hope your New Year has started off great!