It's the last Wednesday of the month and that means it's time for What's Up Wednesday. We had a wonderful month despite our dreary weather.
What I've Been Eating this Month:
Chia "pudding" in almond milk with fresh fruits
Roasted veggies over farro with sourdough rolls
Fruit and granola
tomatoes, cucumber, and an almond butter sandwich
Salad, acorn squash, and roasted potatoes
Pesto pasta with broccoli, roasted veggies and salad
chicken fajita & beef brisket taco
Lots of ice cream from Jeni's!
Quiche and salad
Salmon and pasta with veggies in a lemon/wine sauce
A Greek/rice bowl from Cava
Salad with feta and a veggie burger
Coconut shrimp with veggies
Homemade croissants that Alec made while on April vacation
Stuffed shrimp, roasted potatoes, and veggies
peanut butter cheesecake
Vegetable quiche with veggies
Sweet potatoes, veggies and salad
PB & J on a homemade croissant with butternut squash fries
What I'm Reminiscing About: Well, we officially have one boy that is no longer in his teens! Man those years flew by..
Ian age 13
Around age 14
Age 15
Age 16
Age 18
What I'm Loving: I've only managed it two or perhaps 3 times this week but I have been loving getting to sit on the deck once again to read and soak up some sun.
What We've Been Up To:
watching sunsets
lots of hiking
we went to our local casino to play Bingo as part of a school fundraiser
more hiking
we watched the eclipse
I went to Nashville for a long weekend to meet up with fellow bloggers Tanya, Jennifer, and Marilyn
Alec's last track season started..
Some more hiking..
What I'm Dreading: Nothing right now.
What I'm Working On: I'm working on cleaning the whole house, making a cake/dessert for Ian's birthday, making up graduation invites for Alec's party and pulling together a menu.
Make up of Alec's invitations
What I'm Excited About: It feels like these next few weeks/months until graduation are going to fly right by and I am excited for all the end of year things and "lasts" we'll be experiencing with Alec as well as all the exciting new firsts.
What I'm Watching/Reading: We Were the Lucky Ones (Netflix), Tracker (Paramount+), Resident Alien (Netflix)-- a show I thought I'd hate but ended up enjoying once my husband started watching it. One True Loves (Hulu), Mediterranean Life, P.S. I Love You (how did I miss this movie coming out in 2007? I LOVED it!), Ghostbusters Frozen Empire (at the movies!)
I managed to read 14 books this month! I'll have a review up next Thursday at our very first Share Your Shelf Link up (which I'll talk about more at the end of this post).
What I'm Listening to: Evan played this song in the car yesterday and I just can not get it out of my head.
What I'm Wearing: Still lots of pants and long sleeves with the occasional pair of flip flops thrown in (though you can tell I spent a long weekend in Tennessee mid-month with short sleeves, capri pants, and sundresses thrown in!).
What I'm Doing This Weekend: Celebrating Ian's 20th birthday with the family.
What I'm Looking Forward to Next Month: Alec's senior prom! My husband and I are also celebrating our 23rd wedding anniversary but it will be pretty low key this year as we just can not find a good weekend to get away.
So much goodness going on here! Those crosssaints that Alex made look delicious so glad you are back to your gorgeous hikes. That navy striped sweater is fabulous!
Happy birthday to Ian, and all the senior moments...so many fun things to celebrate! I loved all the senior things and tried to soak them all up while they lasted. I love all of your food and the outfits...you're so great at documenting things. I need to learn to be better about this. I hope you have a great day, my friend and that you get to pull your flip flops out again and read in the sun!
Thank you! Ian didn't really do anything all for his senior year so I didn't have any of those moments to enjoy and it sounds like Evan will be the same way so I'm taking full advantage of all these fun things with Alec. It's looking like my flip flops will stay packed away until next week.
Oh, I'm totally going to try and link up with Share Your Shelf. It will encourage me to get my "end of month" book posts up in a timely fashion! And what a fun trip to Nashville!!! And yes, "dreary" is an excellent word to describe our April weather -- as they're calling for SNOW tonight. Ugh.
The first Thursday of each month? Oh man, that may be difficult but I will try! (Seeing as how I got my March book review out YESTERDAY, it is understandable how this will be a change for me (assuming I can do it for which I will make every effort!)). All the senior activities are exciting- how neat that you are making your own invitations!
Yep, but you are more than welcome to share your March book review! I just finished up the invitations this morning (well, making them anyway. I do still need to actually go through and fill all the information in now).
I mixed up my days and thought next Wednesday was the last Wednesday of the month, but it'll be may haha. You've had quite the month! Good luck with all the grad party prep! Also looking forward to the book reviews :)
Joanne, you had a busy month and I love all of that healthy food you've been eating. As always you look nice in all of your outfits. How exciting that you all will be hosting the book link-up and I'm looking forward to that.
Oh my goodness - I so want to eat at your house!! So much good food. Looks good even in the pictures! And lots of cute outfits too!! Hard to believe it is prom season!
Happy birthday to your son! Enjoy the celebration. I love having adult 'kids'! Your book posting sounds interesting. I will try to link up, going to put it on my calendar. We have porch sitting temperatures but the pollen here is something else and we cover our furniture and roll up the rugs outdoors for the month of April to make the cleanup easier. We're almost ready for morning coffee out there though and I can't wait!
Hi Joanne, loving the look of the meals you've been eating - yum! Happy belated birthday to your son! That deck where you recline to read looks awesome - lucky you! What an outlook! I really love that first sunset photo - it's fabulous! Looks like you've had a fun time in Nashville (I'd love to visit there). Lots of good stuff in this post. Thanks for linking up with #WWWhimsy and hope you enjoy the rest of your week! xo
All of your food looks so good, especially those roasted veggies and the chicken fajita! Here's to more sunny days sitting outside! It's gorgeous here now which is a shame because it's been chilly for most of today. The invitations look fab and happy birthday to Ian! It sounds like you had a great month!
Plenty to celebrate coming up so happy birthday to Ian and happy anniversary to you. Love the bloggers real life link up - I love meeting bloggers in real life ... it's always like catching up with old friends.
What a fun month, Jo. Your meals look delicious and many are the same as what is on our menu at home. I always enjoy photos of the nature surrounding where you live. Isn't it wonderful catching up with blogging friends IRL? Thanks so much for participating in #WBOYC? and have a lovely May. x
What a wonderful month. As always your food pics look so delicious and healthy. Happy birthday to Ian and good luck with all your plans for Alec's graduation! I clicked on the song and even though I have never heard it before I totally get why it sticks to your head! Hahaha! Ruth@playworkeatrepeat
What a fun month and so deliciously busy! Those homemade croissants look fabulous and how cool were your pictures of the eclipse?! Yay for meeting blogging buddies - I bet that was a lot of fun.
Aw, thank you! I both love and hate when he makes croissants; I love it because they are incredible but I hate it because I just cannot resist eating them.
It sounds as if you have a lot going on, Joanne. I must say I especially enjoyed what you do not have going on right now: anything you are dreading. Yea!
When my boys were little and we'd take them out to eat I kept a small bag of toys in the car to grab on our way into any restaurant. That way they would be entertained and a bit quieter while we enjoyed our meal. Now that the boys are older we don't keep a bag of toys handy but we do have few games we use to keep the boys occupied if they start getting bored or squirmy while we're waiting for our food or our check. While there are many phone apps, portable gaming systems and electronic games that could occupy my kids we prefer to use the time together at restaurants to connect with one another and so we tend to play games like: Hangman-- any restaurant that has paper place mats works well for this. We take turns picking a word and drawing our hangman stand then take turns calling out letters and seeing if we can solve the puzzle. Tic Tac Toe-- This works best with pen on paper place mats but we have played making a grid with butter knives ...
Day 3 was Sunday and Maria was leaving early in the morning since she had a long term substitute teaching job she had to get back to on Monday and also wanted to pop in and see her daughter since she was driving right through the town Abby lives in. Tanya and I really wanted to check out The Biltmore Estate and Marilyn reluctantly agreed (in her defense she has been there before and it is SUUUUPER expensive... like $125! for the day). That said we ended up spending over 5 hours there and we still didn't see everything. I mean we saw the whole inside of the house and most of the gardens but while we drove over the village and went inside one of the buildings for a wine tasting we didn't see much else of the village and if we hadn't been lagging in all energy we might have been able to spend even more time exploring. I have zero regrets as I just LOVE architecture and hearing about life during the gilded age. I have had this quintessential American Castle on my "must s...
Do you remember the TGIF lineups on Friday nights? I can remember planning sleepovers and time with friends around TV Show lineups of our favorite shows... or else trying to set the VCR to record our favorite shows if we weren't going to be home. And through the years I had SO MANY favorites! Growing pains aired in 1985 which put me around age 8 and it stayed on the air until I was 15 or so; I'm pretty sure most people in my age group watched mostly for Kirk Cameron and all his antics. I still have a soft spot for family sit-coms! The Facts of Life aired when I was just 2 and stayed on the air until I was 11 so I'm sure the episodes I remember so fondly were either some of the later ones and then reruns shown later on when I was old enough to watch from the beginning. I think everyone would have loved an Edna Garret in their lives. Benson another sitcom that began airing when I was just 2 and was done by the time I was 9 (another one I must have watched mai...
This was our 3rd annual bloggers weekend ( year 1 was Nashville here , year 2 was Louisville here ) and we planned to meet in Asheville, North Carolina. I was the only one flying in... and it was not easy finding flights into Asheville! My first day was spent traveling, as was everyone else's. Jenn texted in the morning that she was sick and had to back out. We were all disappointed. I left for the airport before lunch and landed in Asheville around 6:30 after a long layover in Atlanta. I walked the terminal to get in some extra steps and picked up a really delicious sandwich for a late lunch/ early dinner. Maria had kindly offered to pick me up and we met up with the other ladies at our AirB&B that Marilyn found us by 7. Marilyn and Tanya put out quite a spread and Maria added some goodies too. We started up until 11 or so talking and catching up. The next morning I was up early so I curled up on the couch with my book after getting all ...
It's the second Monday and time for Share Our Lives. The monthly link up where we share snippets of our lives. This month we're talking about our favorite cleaning products. I took photos of cleaning products as I used them and am sharing them in no particular order. I use Dawn dish soap as a stain remover for our laundry. It works particularly well with kitchen oil/ salad dressing stains. I don't, however, use it on our dishes. This (or All Free & Clear) is our usual laundry detergent. We use this in our dishwasher. And this is what we use on our dishes when washing by hand (also what we use on our countertop and table). I use white vinegar for so much-- I water it down to use on our floors in our refillable mop, I add 1 cup to the laundry when I want to remove odors (like with our towels). Cleans windows/glass without streaks, I mix it with salt and use it on weeds.. Baking soda is also used to boost laundry detergent. I sprinkle it in pan...
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
So much goodness going on here! Those crosssaints that Alex made look delicious so glad you are back to your gorgeous hikes. That navy striped sweater is fabulous!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.kathrineeldridge.com
Thank you!
DeleteYour meals look amazing and so colorful as always! PS I Love You is one of my all time FAVES :)
ReplyDeleteI couldn't believe I had never heard of it! I loved the movie.
DeleteHappy birthday to Ian, and all the senior moments...so many fun things to celebrate! I loved all the senior things and tried to soak them all up while they lasted. I love all of your food and the outfits...you're so great at documenting things. I need to learn to be better about this. I hope you have a great day, my friend and that you get to pull your flip flops out again and read in the sun!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Ian didn't really do anything all for his senior year so I didn't have any of those moments to enjoy and it sounds like Evan will be the same way so I'm taking full advantage of all these fun things with Alec. It's looking like my flip flops will stay packed away until next week.
DeleteOh, I'm totally going to try and link up with Share Your Shelf. It will encourage me to get my "end of month" book posts up in a timely fashion! And what a fun trip to Nashville!!! And yes, "dreary" is an excellent word to describe our April weather -- as they're calling for SNOW tonight. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteI hope you do! We are supposed to get some frost and below freezing temps tonight but it looks like it warm up by next week.
DeleteThe first Thursday of each month? Oh man, that may be difficult but I will try! (Seeing as how I got my March book review out YESTERDAY, it is understandable how this will be a change for me (assuming I can do it for which I will make every effort!)). All the senior activities are exciting- how neat that you are making your own invitations!
ReplyDeleteYep, but you are more than welcome to share your March book review! I just finished up the invitations this morning (well, making them anyway. I do still need to actually go through and fill all the information in now).
DeleteI mixed up my days and thought next Wednesday was the last Wednesday of the month, but it'll be may haha. You've had quite the month! Good luck with all the grad party prep! Also looking forward to the book reviews :)
ReplyDeleteOops! I've done that before.
DeleteHappy birthday to Ian and happy anniversary to you! Graduation definitely brings a whole season of change. I'm excited about Share Your Shelf!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I had to search long and hard to find even just those few photos of Ian.
DeleteJoanne, you had a busy month and I love all of that healthy food you've been eating. As always you look nice in all of your outfits. How exciting that you all will be hosting the book link-up and I'm looking forward to that.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteSo much goodness in one post. Love it.
ReplyDeletewww.rsrue.blogspot.com
Thanks!
DeleteOh my goodness - I so want to eat at your house!! So much good food. Looks good even in the pictures! And lots of cute outfits too!! Hard to believe it is prom season!
ReplyDeleteAw, thank you!
DeleteHappy birthday to your son! Enjoy the celebration. I love having adult 'kids'! Your book posting sounds interesting. I will try to link up, going to put it on my calendar. We have porch sitting temperatures but the pollen here is something else and we cover our furniture and roll up the rugs outdoors for the month of April to make the cleanup easier. We're almost ready for morning coffee out there though and I can't wait!
ReplyDeleteThank you! We don't have any pollen... yet! The trees are budded like they want to bloom but it just hasn't warmed up enough.
DeleteAs always, all the food looks delicious! I am looking forward to the link up and hope y'all have good weather to celebrate the birthday this weekend!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteI hope you're still able to celebrate your anniversary because it's definitely a good one,
ReplyDeleteXOOX
Jodie
Thanks!
DeleteThis was such a lovely post! And it feels amazing to have a child out of their teens doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteIt really does!
DeleteHappy birthday to Alec! It's so strange when your children age, and you don't, right? You always have the cutest outfits and the best photos, Joanne!
ReplyDeletehttps://marshainthemiddle.com/
Exactly! LOL.
DeleteHi Joanne, loving the look of the meals you've been eating - yum! Happy belated birthday to your son! That deck where you recline to read looks awesome - lucky you! What an outlook! I really love that first sunset photo - it's fabulous! Looks like you've had a fun time in Nashville (I'd love to visit there). Lots of good stuff in this post. Thanks for linking up with #WWWhimsy and hope you enjoy the rest of your week! xo
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteThat purple sunset is so pretty. I will have to join your book link up...obviously.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I can't wait to see all your fabulous book reviews!
DeleteAll of your food looks so good, especially those roasted veggies and the chicken fajita!
ReplyDeleteHere's to more sunny days sitting outside! It's gorgeous here now which is a shame because it's been chilly for most of today.
The invitations look fab and happy birthday to Ian!
It sounds like you had a great month!
Thank you so much! It was only 45 (F) today so it's still quite cold here.
DeletePlenty to celebrate coming up so happy birthday to Ian and happy anniversary to you. Love the bloggers real life link up - I love meeting bloggers in real life ... it's always like catching up with old friends.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteWhat a great month, Jo, with extremely mouth-watering, healthy meals. I am so glad that you read One for Sorrow. I absolutely love that book!
ReplyDeleteAw, thank you!
DeleteWhat a fun month, Jo. Your meals look delicious and many are the same as what is on our menu at home. I always enjoy photos of the nature surrounding where you live. Isn't it wonderful catching up with blogging friends IRL? Thanks so much for participating in #WBOYC? and have a lovely May. x
ReplyDeleteThank you so much!
DeleteYou take the best food pictures!
ReplyDeleteAw, thank you!
DeleteWhat a wonderful month. As always your food pics look so delicious and healthy. Happy birthday to Ian and good luck with all your plans for Alec's graduation! I clicked on the song and even though I have never heard it before I totally get why it sticks to your head! Hahaha!
ReplyDeleteRuth@playworkeatrepeat
Thank you so much!
DeleteThanks for joining us Joanne and happy birthday celebrations for your son!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteHow fun that you met up with fellow bloggers!
ReplyDeleteThose croissants look amazing. And that sunset!! Enjoy your week, the birthday party, sunsets, and books!
Thank you so much!
DeleteOh that first sunset is absolutely stunning!! All of the shades of purple!
ReplyDeleteI could not believe it' we rarely get sunrises or sunsets that are so vibrant. It reminded me of something I'd see in Florida!
DeleteWow, you've certainly been reading a lot! I look forward to participating in your book linky. Happy belated 20th birthday to Ian! #WWWhimsy
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteWhat a fun month and so deliciously busy! Those homemade croissants look fabulous and how cool were your pictures of the eclipse?! Yay for meeting blogging buddies - I bet that was a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteAw, thank you! I both love and hate when he makes croissants; I love it because they are incredible but I hate it because I just cannot resist eating them.
DeleteIt sounds as if you have a lot going on, Joanne. I must say I especially enjoyed what you do not have going on right now: anything you are dreading. Yea!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
Delete