Happy Saturday and late Friday Felicities

Just a quick hello before getting out for a bit this cool Saturday morning. We actually saw a few snowflakes yesterday. Nothing stuck unfortunately. :-) I'm such a cold-weather person. But, it's pretty cold outside so that is just as good! Nothing big on the agenda today. I'm going out with some girlfriends this evening for a late celebration of my birthday and another friend's. We're going to Smokey Bones (BBQ) - I've never been there, but it sounds yummy. I think we'll probably just eat and then go get coffee or something. Anyway, today we're going to take some stuff to Goodwill, did some vacuuming this morning and picked up a bunch of Noelle's toys, and just general straightening. My sister also gave me some scrapbooking money last week for my birthday and I'm hoping for a quick stop at the scrapbook store. I've got my eye on an album for the new baby. I realized about 2 weeks ago that I had given NO thought to getting an album for her ... and I call myself a scrapper. :-)

Anyway, I've done a pretty good job this week with my checklist. Noelle's suitcase is packed as of yesterday and my bag is ready for the hospital with the exception of grabbing the toothbrushes and bathroom stuff. I also made a MASSIVE grocery store run to Aldi's and Sam's and the cabinets and my new Christmas freezer are stocked. Travis also specifically asked for a turkey since we didn't have one down here for Christmas and that sounded good to him, so I bought one. That will be one of my few projects for this week. Cook it and having him carve it up and then freeze the meat for cassarole and soups. That is one of the things that I've really learned this year with working on how to simplify my life - one of the crucial things to help me not be stressed is to have a good meal planning system. I've now been doing my once a month meal planning for probably 2 years now, and this year saw some fine-tuning and polishing of my system. Two things that I did that helped was instituting Friday Night Pizza Night and always making something in my crockpot on Wednesday. Not major things, but they made such a difference - not having to come up with something to make on Friday night when I'm tired and Travis is tired and I just don't feel like making anything for dinner. Pizza is quick and easy to whip out and Travis and Noelle would eat it 3 times a week if I'd make it, so there are never complaints. :-) Then there is my crockpot-Wednesday plan - Wednesday is Bible study day and then Travis does tutoring after he gets off work at our church. It's also Awana night and my sister's family always stops by to hang out here for about 30-45 minutes before they have to be at Awana. It never worked for me to try to get dinner put together when we have everyone drop in and if I remember to get my act together and have something already in process in my crockpot, it makes it easier.

Next week my Bible study starts back up. We're working through The Patriarchs by Beth Moore, and I'm already feeling some jabs in my spirit where I think the Lord may be working on me. I think it will be a good study and I'm looking forward to it.

Here are my late Friday Felicities and hope you all have a wonderful weekend. :-)


Things that make you happy. From the mind of Nattie Rose.

Noelle let me put a barrette in her hair 2 days in a row!!!

Dinner out with girlfriends.

Full cupboards.

Getting scrapbook pages done!

Sitting with Noelle, looking at said scrapbook pages.

Checking things off my list.

Late Christmas cards that are a surprise to get.

Genesis.

Colored pens.

Cheetos.