Friday Favorites: Shop Selection Week

 We had a fabulous week filled with delicious foods and beautiful weather.  



After driving Alec to school on Friday I came home and read another chapter in our Harry Potter book aloud to Ian and Evan just before Ian left for 2 hours of driving time with his driving instructor.  

They must have had great faith in Ian's driving ability as they even had him drive through Kelley Square in Worcester.. an intersection I try to avoid at all costs.  A good 6 or so roads converge there and it's always unclear as to who has the right of way.  


Though he did tell me it was recently redone and looks more like this now:


While Ian was gone, Evan and I got all of Evan's schoolwork done-- spelling, cursive, reading/history, & math.  It was a rainy, dreary day so I told him he could play video games when he was done. 

When Ian got home we tackled a bit of his schoolwork as well-- German, math, reading, and science.  We set up a science experiment using potatoes.  Cutting a potato in half and putting each 1/2 in a Ziploc bag with a wet paper towel we'll leave one half in the sun and put one half in the cabinet then check back in a week to see which one sprouts more eyes. 


I picked Alec up and he had brought home a chicken/orzo soup and an apple galette.  


I heated up an roast beef pot pie I had in the freezer and Alec his soup for dinner (though he did add more noodles to it). 

My husband and I planned to head out for a dinner date and some grocery shopping on Saturday night so I spent most of the day Saturday resting.  I did whip up another batch of homemade granola for my fruit and yogurt parfait.


I painted my nails, did my hair, & put on makeup!  It felt so weird to not be wearing yoga pants, sweat pants, or pajamas (but in a good way!).  


We went to the Outback for dinner and by the time we got home from the store I was ready to rest and watch TV again.  We rented A Family Man from Amazon- it was a great movie. 

My husband took Evan to work on Sunday and Ian headed to work with his grandfather so it was just Alec and I at home.  We made up an apple strudel loaf of bread ( got the recipe from The House on Silverado). 





 I spent the rest of my day working on the blog, reading, and even found myself taking a nap before dinner. 

For dinner we heated up some leftover meat sauce we had in the freezer from Evan's birthday party last month and cooked up a box of pasta to go with the salad my husband had prepared. 

Alec was back to virtual schooling/ academics on Monday.  He works out of our dining room while I work at the kitchen table with the other two boys on their schoolwork. 


The other two boys were done by 10 am and Evan and I headed out on a walk before lunch.  We walked for almost an hour and a half and I wasn't even tired or in pain when we got home!  After lunch Ian left to go to work with his grandfather.  They're prepping my father in law's aunt's house for a sale and have been working on the septic. 



Alec and I took a quick trip to the library and then made dinner while working on his homework.  We had cooked up some pulled pork all day in the crock pot and served it with rice pilaf and rice.  I like to make mine a bread bowl and we always serve our meals with a salad.  


Ian was off to work followed by driver's ed. on Tuesday and Alec was back to virtual learning which left just Evan and I at the kitchen table working on school work. 

We cover fewer subjects when Ian isn't around which makes our school day go by even faster.  For dinner Alec recreated a salad he had made in school during culinary rotation last week.  We spent our afternoon cooking up the bacon and chicken, mixing up the lime/cilantro salad dressing, and making some candied pecans. 



The salad

The candied pecans

The salad was delicious and I'll be sharing the recipe soon. We ate our dinner nice and quick and then spend our night in front of the computer as it was shop selection night.  

The Freshman are done touring the different shops so we sat through 3 presentations and then filled out a form with his top 4 shop selections.  He's keeping his fingers crossed for culinary! 

Alec didn't have school on Wednesday. We went through a real quick morning of school work while Alec worked on his Algebra and then we made chocolate/ caramel apples.  They came out amazing this year!  






We finished up just in time for lunch.  I spent the afternoon reading. Ian was working with his grandfather and Evan was watching TV in his room.  I took Alec to karate for the first time in three weeks!  I did sit in the car with the seat reclined the whole time 1/2 watching him and his class and 1/2 reading my book.

My husband heated up some chicken pot pie hands pies my friend had made for us a couple weeks ago.  They were delicious!! We ended our night watching Prince of Persia on Disney+ (well, I bowed out half way through, took a shower, and got all ready for bed as I was starting to fall asleep). 


Alec had school in the building on Thursday and Ian headed off for a full day of work and driver's ed.  After dropping Alec off at school and working on a few subjects with Evan we headed out for another walk.  The weather was so beautifully warm for this time of year-- near 70!   We ran a quick errand or two and then headed home for lunch. 




I picked Alec up from school and then took him for an orthodontic check-up that had been postponed from all the shut downs this summer.  

Since it was just Alec, Evan, and I for dinner we settled on BLT grinders and I heated up some French fries for them and served it with some salad.   The bacon had been leftover from Alec's chicken chopped salad the other day so it was a nice, quick and easy meal. 

How was you week?

Linking Up With: On the Edge, 






Comments

  1. Those lake pictures are just stunning and all of your fall deliciousness has my mouth watering! I know Kelly Square well- my aunt and uncle live right off it! What a small world :)

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  2. I am loving all the fall colors! That intersection crazy!! I would avoid it too! I hope that Alec get culinary. Also, candied pecans are the best. :)

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    1. Haha! Yep, we used to joking call it "death circle" at our house... because it sure is not a square!

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  3. I want candied pecans! The fall lake pictures are perfect for 52 Frames - reflections!

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    1. I must have taken a million photos of reflections this week and had such a hard time selecting which one to use. The lake has been so calm and all these fall colors are just beautiful.

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  4. Oh gosh, that apple strudel bread looks amazing! I have a ton of apples from apple picking, so I need to do something with them!

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    1. It really was amazing and not that hard to make either.

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  5. What does Ian do for work with his grandfather? Whatever it is, how nice to be developing a work ethic and spending time with his grandfather!

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    1. All sorts of things; sometimes he's running the excavator or dump truck, other times he's welding or helping to build parts for the vehicles, often they are working on maintaining the campground his grandfather runs. He helps rake leaves and pine needles, work on the electrical or plumbing, etc.

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  6. I hope I can remain calm when it becomes time for my kids to start driving!! I am already slightly terrified!!! Your nails are gorgeous! I wish I could get mine that long. What do you do to help? You guys have a BEAUTIFUL fall!!!

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    1. I will not be nearly this calm when the other two drive but I have always joked that Ian had driving in his blood. Seriously he was running an excavator at age 11 and driving a dump truck as soon as his feet could reach the pedals. He just seems to intuitively know what he needs to do. My other two... not so much! LOL. I have always had really long nail beds so as long as I keep them painted they look nice and long even when they aren't really beyond the tips of fingers. Plus it didn't hurt that I had two whole weeks of no housework or movement really and so they weren't breaking.

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  7. The fall colors look so pretty in your area and loving how they reflect in the water!

    Will have to check out the apple strudel recipe, I only know the rolled apple strudel and find it a bit time consuming, so I've been putting off making it. Made two other apple deserts in the recent weeks but want to go apple picking again before the end of the season (which is very soon) and still have some to use up in the fridge too.
    The pecans look delicious as well!

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    1. We're hoping to get back to the orchard today as we are running low on apples. We've been making way to many desserts with them but I just can't help myself.

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  8. OH my goodness those candy apples!! I think I need to try to make those this weekend!!

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    1. They really were much easier to make than I thought they would be.

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  9. Your week sounds AMAZING!!! That apple bread looks so delicious!! I haven’t gotten ready in forever! I hope you have a wonderful weekend!!

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  10. Oh those caramel apples look amazing. I want to watch A Family Man. I will have to look how much it is to rent it.

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    1. It wasn't that bad on Amazon but I just saw it show up on Netflix!

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  11. Oh my gosh! That apple strudel loaf looks amazing. I might just have to try to bake something like that this weekend!

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    1. It was so simple to make and a huge hit with the whole family; even my two that don't traditionally eat apple things.

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  12. The baking is so fun for the fall. Your nails look so pretty. The fall foliage is just beautiful. Happy Friday and weekend.

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  13. Your pictures and the food make everything look so wonderful. The perfect picture of fall. I wish you could cook for me. I get so hungry looking at your pictures. :)

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    1. LOL. There isn't much else I can do right now.

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  14. Also? That intersection is a nightmare.LOL

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  15. The food on your blog...YUM! That intersection is a nightmare either way. Your fall leaves are perfection. We should be at peak in a week or so.
    Blessings, Dawn

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    1. Thank you! I think we hit peak as far as colors go; I noticed this week more and more of the trees are bare.

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  16. The Food you make always sounds and looks so delicious! And how good of you that you walked that long. To be active is the best remedy. Enjoy the weekend!

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    1. I think so too. I keep trying to just stretch it out by a bit here and there.

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  17. The view over the lake is beautiful!! I’m glad you’re recovery is going so well! Your meals looked delicious!! Have a great week!

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  18. I love your nail color! And the fall foliage pics! I love this time of year! The candy apples and the apple bread. You guys definitely eat well! Hope you had a great weekend!

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  19. Joanne, you guys are always do such cool things together! All the food looks amazing and hat autumn view over the lake is breathtaking! Thanks for sharing and linking with me.

    Shelbee
    www.shelbeeontheedge.com

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  20. Last year on our vacation, my friend and I kept joking about taking the "1000 piece puzzle" picture. Those lake pictures with the reflections are absolutely beautiful and would make amazing puzzles!

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    1. They would! I should look into getting a few puzzles made; they would make excellent holiday gifts.

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