This was a nice, variety-filled weekend. Got some things accomplished and had some fun, so, win-win.
Saturday-
- Me + Asher- to early swim practice (7 am) at the farther-away pool, so we left home by 6:30. Forgot my phone at home (grrrr……), so my laptop I brought along to do things on while I waited in the car was useless, because I had no internet. (Planned to connect to my phone’s hotspot…). Updated my journal and read a book instead!
- Ivan + Ethan- also out the door early. Ethan had to work 7-11 a.m.
- Home from swim, spent a couple hours starting to organize the volunteer list for Asher’s swim team’s 1st upcoming home swim meet in October. Yes, I agreed to be the Volunteer Coordinator for one. more. season. And then I SWEAR I am done for real this time.
- Picked up E from work, quick shower, and we all headed to Ethan’s 2 pm soccer game ~50 minutes away. Got slightly lost- address was bad. Finally made it. Good game and my parents met up with us! (Game was relatively near their house.)
- Post- game, went to an earlier dinner at a Brewhaus nearby. Got pizza and beer and it was really, really good. Greatly enjoyed a relaxed dinner chatting with my parents for a while.
- Drove home. Brought my mom home to stay with us for a few days!
- Spent too long browsing Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video and HBO Max. (OMG the movie overwhelm is so real….. so many options and it is so confusing. Can we plz bring back Blockbsuter?) Finally settled on a movie called Soccer Mom on Netflix from 2008. It was cute and funny and unrealistic and perfectly enjoyable. lol!
Sunday-
- Up early (again)- Ethan worked again from 7-11. My mom and I dropped him off and just went for a little drive! It was a pretty morning. Circled back to go through McDonald’s drive thru to see Ethan at the window. Haha! So cute. 🙂
- Ran into grocery store for a few things. Bought these pumpkins!
- Spent some more time fiddling around with swim meet planning- had to draft a team email and some other stuff.
- Puttered around the house for a long time with mom. Dragged out all the fall/ Halloween decorations.
- I sorted through the boxes and my mom completed the nagging task I’ve been avoiding, which was to take down Asher’s new bedroom curtains and IRON THEM. They came with deep wrinkles, but I ignored that and hung them up anyway. And now it had been annoying me for months. I commented recently to Asher about the wrinkles, and he said, “That seems like a “Grandma Task”. To which I replied, “You know, you’re right. That does seem like a Grandma Task.” 😆 (In case this seems weird, I swear, she likes helping with random stuff when she comes to visit….)
- Ivan and Ethan headed off around noon for another soccer game. Operation “Make the House Look Like Fall/ Halloween” continued for me.
- I put up quite a bit, but reserved some favorite decorations for when both boys can help finish up.
Sneak peak of some lighted decor (inside):
- ~2 pm: Went to gym for Legs and Abs workout. Got a teeny bit off my schedule the last couple of days- work was busy Thursday/Friday. But I jumped right back up on the saddle and will not derail my plan due to a slight detour off the path!
- 4 pm: Asher had an intown soccer game. My mom and I went to that. After a couple recent rough games, they WON and Asher played well, scoring 2 goals. He was all smiles. Apparently he is ALL IN now that he’s back to soccer. Whatever floats his boat!
- WEIRD cold front moved in right at the end of the game- check this out! Was blue sky and sunshine, and suddenly these dark clouds rolled in, and fast. It was creepy!!! Fortunately the game was ending. It didn’t really storm, just sort of brought much cooler temps and wind.
- Got home and made a home cooked, all from scratch dinner. Made a chicken parm + fettucine alfredo + green beans. Turned out delicious! Actually had a nice sit down dinner at the table for the first time in a while, with all 4 of us + my mom.
- Ended the night watching the Packers vs Tampa Bay (recorded, bc they played at same time as Asher did….). And staying up too late, but it was a great game!
- Missing from the weekend- cleaning out my inbox, organizing my calendar, getting “life” set up for this week…. oh well….
No school this Friday, so at least it’s a short week. (Well, for the boys.)
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful that one of my best blog friends Coco had an amazing day at the Berlin marathon yesterday!! She crushed it. So proud of her!
GRATEFUL KAE 
We had that same thing with dark scary clouds on the left side of our kitchen window and happy blue skies on the right on Sunday night. It was creepy!
I have withstood the temptation to put out Halloween decorations until next weekend when it is officially October, but I can’t wait! I love the orange glow with your lights!
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I usually wait until it’s officially October too for Halloween stuff! But Asher has a soccer tournament next weekend, so I figured it’s always good to just bite the bullet and get things done when I have an open window of time. 🙂
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You inspired me to buy some Halloween decorations. I’m going to buy one thing/year. So today I bought some indoor spider lights at Target. I figure I can hang them above the windows above our couch. We have a tricky house to decorate because we have plantation shutters and Will loves to open and close them. But he can’t open/close the ones above the couch so that should be a good spot for them.
Our moms are very similar. My mom would be thrilled to iron some curtains. She loves to help out! When she came to visit me when I had Paul, she happily cleaned our oven – like scrubbed it like crazy! She is a total work horse and loves to find a way to help out, especially now that she is finally retired. My dad likes having projects to do around the house, too.
The weather was weird here this weekend, too. Super strong winds blew in both afternoons. The weather kept us indoors on Saturday afternoon since it was spitting rain but yesterday afternoon it was windy but sunny so we still got outside.
I love that you guys visited Ethan at McD’s!!!
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First time commenter here 🙂 I’ve been enjoying reading your blog for a few months now, and thought I’d finally start commenting. My boys are just a bit younger than yours- 9 & 12. The decision fatigue on streaming services is REAL! By the time we figure out what to watch, the night is practically over. What I started doing recently is using my Trello App to keep a list of movies we want to watch with the boys. One of those nights we spent hours looking through possibilities, I kept a list of the names and what streaming service in a Trello list. ,Now, we just reference that list instead of endless scrolling and it’s definitely helped! You have motivated me to get down my Halloween decorations this week!
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Thanks for deciding to comment! This is such a smart suggestion! I actually was wondering if I could somehow just see the whole entire list of movies online or something and thought maybe we could go through and jot down titles that we’re interested in on a list to keep. (But, they do change them out periodically, I guess…). I get extra overwhelmed by all the lists/categories that are sort of sub-categories- like instead of just “family movies”, there’s “feel good movies” or “movies to make you laugh” or “sports hero movies” etc. . Then I’m never sure if I’m seeing all of the larger category (family or kids, for example)… and then there is usually overlap between some categories… Omg!! Haha!! I feel the easiest thing is when I have a movie in mind I want to watch, and then I can just search on the tv to see which service(s) has it. But that’s not always possible…
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My husband and I were just talking this morning about the days of when if you didn’t like what was playing on the handful of TV stations…you just shut off the TV because there was no other option! I do miss those days – or of everyone coordinating to watch the same special episode of a favourite show. Thursday night lineups just…don’t really matter much now.
I do almost nothing for decor outside of Christmas, but I DID put up my pumpkin covers on the mini lights on our mantle. We’ll also buy some pumpkins and that’s it. I almost bought a sign that said BOO the other day, but decided to “store it at the store” instead…
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Just realized I posted in your previous post. Hahaha… thanks for the shout out. I feel very well supported by my blog friends.
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What a nice weekend with having your mom around! I miss that .
I can’t believe you have SIX boxes of Halloween decorations. I am clearly a minimalist, when it comes to decorations…. but I’d like to get a few key pieces that I’ll enjoy for years to come.
And no shame buying pumpkins at the supermarket – I usually buy mine at Trader Joe’s.
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Um, I have a small pumpkin thing made with… some kind of dried something-or-other that my (now ex) MIL made for me. That’s it. So you’re waaay ahead of me in the decor game! (I stink – terribly – at decorating, as I’ve mentioned before… that’s not to say that I don’t appreciate it, just that I, well, can’t do it so I don’t even try! Hence the blank walls, 5.5 years into my lease…;>)
I cannot believe the back and forth and the soccer games and the driving and the waiting and, oh yeah, the *living a life* that you packed into one weekend. Wow. You astonish me!
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