...5.2...Over the Weekend...

...first of all...

...someone turned ONE!!!

...and she loves her little Grandmommy-made toys...

...here she is tentatively touching her cake...

...and then...realizing all the sweet goodness...just for her...she really digs in...

...the kiddos included us in as much of the FUN as they could...they rented a camper on the beach for the party and FaceTimed with us over the weekend...it's so strange to have a One year old Granddaughter we've never met...in person...we see and interact with her long distance all the time...so when we finally do meet face to face...we won't be strangers...

...we started our weekend the BEST way...with waffles...

...picked up the InstaCart order...

...nothing of note...we got about 2 lbs. too many tomatoes for some reason...so we're already planning a pasta dish with those...haha...

...and speaking of too much food...we finally...used up all the 'extra' food the Man got on his shopping trip...we used the last of the leeks and cauliflower to make a soup...

...we just blended that up into a delicious soup...

...and we used this old recipe...

...to make Harvard Beets with the beets...we had eaten the greens long ago...

...we we stripped the bed and got all the sheets out on the line...nothing is better than freshly line dried sheets...

...and then we had a wedding at 4:00...so I made a quick grey scrunchie...because I wanted to wear an ages old grey dress that I have...

...the wedding was beautiful...a happy occasion for sure...

...one thing about being a Pastor's wife...you sure do get to attend lots of weddings and baptisms...and funerals too...it's such a blessing to be witness to such life changing events...

...when we got home...Kitten was sleeping in one of her crazy-stretched-out-on-her-back-positions...she has some funny ones...this one with her arm up over her head resting on the arm of the loveseat I'd not seen before...haha...

...then Sunday...after Church...the weather was gorgeous...and it's time to get all those plants in the ground...

...these are my baby Butternut squash plants...I think there are eleven...there would have been twelve...but I forgot that Kitten bites plants and she destroyed the first one...so I took better care of the rest of them...

...a geranium...a gift from one of our parishioners...I'm going to plant it in the ground...I may dig it up and bring it back inside over the winter...

...and the Man's basil plant...

...this is just a pretty Shamrock plant given to me by a parishioner our first year here...I'm always happy to see it come back every year...and it reminds me of her...

...I pulled out all of the stalks from last years growth of the Tall Red Canna Lilies that grow beside the steps in the back yard...they were already here when we got here...nearly 8 years ago now...and they come back every year...my sweet sissie took some home with her last year too...and I should have told her about this little yearly chore...they grow about 6 or 8 feet tall...and this stalk that's left is kind of like a corn stalk...but in the spring it's pretty easy to just pull them out...and now the new sprouts have room to grow...

...the Bird Feeders are empty...Stephanie posted that it is recommended that we not feed the birds right now to lessen the spread of the avian flu...I should probably take them down for a bit...

...I was chatting with Mom right after I did this...and she says she has a Canna Lily too...but hers is much smaller than this...so I looked it up (of course) and it must just be a different variety...

...while I was 'gardening'...the Man fired up the charcoal grill...

...then I took a little break and used Grandma's Veg-O-Matic...to cut some potatoes into wedges...I'm so glad she had the wedge attachment...I don't use it often...but it's so neat to make perfectly symetrical potato wedges...

...parboiled the potatoes...so you get those nice raggedy edges on the crispy baked ones...

...a generous sprinkling of oregano leaves...

...and lemon and olive oil...and then into the oven...

...and back outside...I got everything planted...like last year...almost under the eaves...in the mulched area at the back of the house...the butternuts (all 2 of them) did fine there last year...

...and there were 12 of them...so hopefully I'll get a few more than 2 Butternuts this year...haha...

...and we may have a few wild blackberries too...I found these blooming at the edge of the woods where I dragged all of the stalks...

...and then the potatoes were done...

...we had our Greek potatoes...and grilled tofu...and Harvard beets and called it a night...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!