One Season to the Next....

 Hello friends. I hope you are having a good weekend. Today was a nice day. After a much needed slow morning the hubs and I went to have a lunch date and do our weekly drive. It has become a weekly thing we are doing now. I remember when our children were little and when we first got married, we used to drive some back roads and go get ice cream on Sundays after church. As time goes, schedules get busy and life changes. When my hubby became a pastor and the children got older Sundays became harder to do those drives. I sure miss them. Now, me and the hubby drive around on back roads and in neighborhoods just looking at different landscaping. We see such beautiful flowers and trees. It has been nice to do this over the last few weeks since my activity has been limited, and it is a nice way to get out and spend some time together. 

Speaking of landscaping and etc. We have been slowly doing tiny simple projects outside. We as in my husband currently 😆. We have a gas lamp post that had seen better days due to the 8 years of weather. We spruced it up when we bought our home 8 years ago, but it needed some sprucing again. We decided to switch out the lamp with a solar lamp. It will save us $13-15 a month in gas cost and the inconvenience of lighting it all the time after windy days. 

The hubs after he finished installing it. He sent a picture to our family chat! :) 

Here it is in the daytime! It is so pretty lit and even during the day. We love it. He also painted a fresh coat of paint on the pole. 

We had an address number sign that was attached but it was looking pretty rough as well. We replaced it with a new on that I found off Esty. 

I am so thankful he did it and it looks so much better. Our neighborhood is entering that stage of getting older. The homes are all about 23-28 years old. So, not terribly old but this is where things are beginning to need upkeep regularly at this stage to keep things up. Our home ia 25 years old as of this year. We had replaced the roof three years after we purchased, install a new fence, buy a new dishwasher and put up gutters. We have had to cut down HUGE 65-foot trees ($$$$) for safety reasons as well. THIS YEAR we had to purchase a new air condition unit. Ohhhh, and we had to get all new flooring 5 years ago. We have only lived here 8 years. Wow, thinking of all that makes me realize we have done more than I thought. This isn't counting small little replacements. 

I thought I would share the little upgrade. Mainly for my memories. :) 

As I mentioned last week I have been doing my menu planning on Friday. I thought I would share our menu for next week.

I will be taking a break tomorrow from posting here. I hope to spend the day besides writing my own posts catching up visiting with the blogs I visit. :) 

Come visit Monday for the Pantry $5 Challenge post hosted by Mrs. Patsi at The Working Pantry, then on Tuesday I will be sharing all about my Tea Room experience I had on Friday!

With Love, 

Chrissy Townsend

Hello friends! Today is the LAST DAY for the daily photo challenge. Today's theme was OUR CHOICE. I shared yesterday that I was going to a Tea Room today. This was my first super long outing in a very long time. My body is feeling it and I am super exhausted. I am going to share my photo for today's challenge and then share all the wonderful pictures and experiences for another time. It is deserving of its own post. 

Thanks so much for those that joined me along this month for the daily photo challenge. 

With Love,

Chrissy T

Hello friends. 💮 I skipped yesterday's theme and posting as I just needed a break.

We are close to the end though!! Today's photo theme is SHAPES. Kind of a "different" theme.... hey, I will go with it. I really didn't know what to take a photo of to be honest I guess this is when creativity comes in. I am not sure how creative these are 😆 but for the sake of doing the challenge here we go.

A good old circle and rectangle decor. These are in in my breakfast area. I got all this for $10 TOGETHER at a moving sale a couple years ago.

I picked up this little square frame at Goodwill last year for $1. I liked the little frame but I also loved the saying as I was going through a time where my faith needed this reminder. 

All different shapes when it comes to these tomatoes we were given. 

We are all done with this challenge after tomorrow. I will share September photo challenge list that I personally made (not off Pinterest) mid-August. 

Tomorrow is Choose Your Own Theme!! I am looking forward to that because TOMORROW I am going to a TEA ROOM with our Assistant Pastor's Wife (she is also my friend and mentor) and I am tickled pink!!!! Oh, I can't wait. I am looking forward to sharing pictures and the experience. 

I enjoyed an article today by the The Gospel Coalition for Women. It was so encouraging and thought I would share it to anyone interested. I was in prayer today about many things. I received my weekly email from them with this article. This article was perfect timing and what I needed today. Check it out here. 

Here is a quote from it... "This is why our daily repetitions matter. The recapitulation in Scripture teaches us that these “agains” are purposeful. When we forgive again, instruct again, show up again, pray again, we’re not trapped in futility, failure, or regression. Instead, these moments are tangible reminders that we’re living between redemption accomplished and restoration promised."

Until later,

Chrissy T

Hello everyone. Today's photo challenge is the color BLUE which so happens to be my favorite color. I wear a lot of dark and navy blue. I decorate with a lot of blue and white. I am always drawn to blue. ALWAYS. From bedding, shirts, decor, pillows, notebooks, and so on. I love blue. I will say I like more darker hues such as dark blue, navy, royal blue and just plain blue. I am not a huge fan of brighter hues. 

Here are my photos I took today of items around my home that show my love for blue. As you can tell by the pictures below that Blue and White are a combo I love. I actually have a navy shirt on today! My next favorite color is green and yes, the darker hues.

I use this last plate as a spoon rest for my cooking. It is beside my stovetop. 

 Hello everyone. Today I am sharing my items for Mrs. Patsi's $5 dollar pantry challenge on Mondays. Please check out the information here if you are interested and how this challenge works.

We are to spend $5 on items that we ACTUALLY use and would like to stock up on.  The cost should be no more than $5 (not including tax) AND it should be separate purchases from our main grocery hauls. These purchases are to be intentional in stocking your pantry and separate from your weekly meal plan. Also, they cannot be items from your personal garden. It has to be things you actually purchase. 

I am looking ahead to fall for my stock up purchases. So, I am looking for items we use a lot in the fall/winter months. 

I chose to grab cream soups because in the fall I make a lot of recipes and dishes that call for cream of soups. I like to keep them on hand for the fall and upcoming holidays. I understand a lot may not like using them, but it works for our family. I got them for 1.00 each. I could have gotten them for .89 each for the regular cream of soups, but I like to use lower sodium or less fat ones which cost a little more. These are still less than the name brands and taste similar. 

Today's theme for the photo challenge is CLOUDS. To be honest, we had very little clouds in our sky today. We have all blue skies mainly and 100 weather and a SEVERE HEAT ADVISORY WARNING. I did capture these though on my morning walk.

We are almost complete with photo challenge! Thank you for those that have joined in so far. I have been having a hard time blogging and reading all the blogs I follow but I am trying to keep up. I just may not make it daily as I usually do. BUT please know I will stop by your blogs!!! :) 

I am still having major updating issues with blogs. Most of the blogs I read are not updating still in my reading list. So, I have to be so intentional to check. I can name about 10 blogs that do not update. It is a tad frustrating. I hate missing posts and I am sorry if I haven't popped by in a bit. I am going to try to better about checking blogs even if I do not see updates of new posts. 

Blessings, 

Chrissy T

Hello friends! I thought I would do something fun & different today. As many of you know I am from the south (Mississippi, USA) I was born in Alabama and I have lived in various southern states in my childhood from Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and spent many summers from May to September in Texas and north Floridia/Georgia area. As most know we have our own language a lot of times. I do know when to be elegant and speak proper (y'all my mama and granny taught me right) and I do not use much of my "southern slang" on my blog. BUT.... you can bet your bottom dollar I do use slang and sound every bit as southern strong accented as expected. In person I will say very strange sayings, most words that end in "G" I leave that letter off and I end at the "N"... Y'all, it is just the way! 😆 And yes..... I say Y'all all the time.... daily, weekly, and I catch myself a lot of times trying not to greet you all on my blog with it. 

This is a TRUE FACT! We do not just say goodbye to people. Saying goodbye is a process in my family. We will stand in the yard and wave and talk more and shout goodbyes and then when the car windows roll down, we still wave and yell bye until they are almost down the road AND then we will call them a few minutes later to check in. SERIOUSLY! This is the way! You should see my family at any holiday gathering. It is hilarious. We have seen others doing the same thing in the neighborhood. I will say it is not as common as it was growing up though nowadays. FOR US IT STILL IS!

While I do not treat football as a religion nor do I super care for it this list above is hands down accurate. 

My granny said these things, my mama says these things and sure enough I do still to this day. When I lived in Illinois for 15 years people would say to me all the time, "you sure have your own language." I giggle now thinking about it. They probably did think I was strange. HAHA! Oh, well. My kids thought it was weird growing up because nobody else in Illinois sounded or said these sayings but then when we moved back to the south and they were around family they realized how deeply ingrained it is and now some things they say. EXCEPT for our oldest. HE IS TRULY midwestern sounding and lived the longest there and he still looks at me strange when I say things. LOL!

Hello everyone! Happy Saturday~ or whatever day this finds you! Let's start with last night! I got to go out and have dinner with my husband for the first time in 5 weeks. Woohooo!!! We went to a pizza place which we usually order from and pick up and take home but we decided to go inside. We had a children spaghetti each and these cheesy bread sticks. It was nice to get out. We laughed and enjoyed ourselves. It has been some stressful months for us both. It was a nice time. We then went driving around in some neighborhoods we are interested in looking into for possible future relocation. We aren't in any rush! Like years if it is the Lord's will or not at all if that His will as well. We do like our house but we have some personal safety concerns as our neighborhood has been changing after Covid and we have seen some saddening things. This is a topic for another time. Back to the date night.

We did not realize that our kid spaghettis came with a large piece of garlic bread so we only ate about one of these and took the rest home for lunch today. It was good and I will have yummy lunch later. 

On our drive we saw this beautiful shady small walking path and while I would not go to this regularly, I decided to go visit it today for a short walk and to take my daily photo for the photo challenge.

It was ABSOLUTELY refreshing to walk a different easy shaded path and listen to this incredible fountain going. 

My photo for the day... The Theme today is FAR AWAY! 

Oh, how nice this little path is!!!! It was everything this nature lover needed today! It was a Mood Boost for sure!!!

Here are some more photos of my walk. I "strolled" about 15 minutes.

I love birdhouses!!! I have some put haven't gotten around to put them up! Must do when I am better. 

 I love cypress trees! They are just so wonderful to me. I enjoy going on boardwalks down in our area because they are surrounded by cypress trees and they never cease to amaze me. 

In other news.... I am back to cooking more. Last week's menu went as planned and it was so nice to have simple and good homecooked meals again. We were tired of sandwiches, take out and frozen meals as I have been recovering. I am super grateful for it all, but I am glad there is a little more normalcy with our meals. 

Derrick (the hubby) still has to shop, unload and put things up all by himself or if one of the guys is home they help. I am still not able to lift over 10 pounds. I do help put away simple things. In the normal routine of my life, I do this all by myself always and usually Mondays, but that doesn't work for my husband with his schedule. He has to shop on Saturdays, and it is so busy and he also does elderly visits and outreach on Saturdays. So, I decided to utilize delivery or pick up the last two weeks. Delivery has been a terrible experience. We never get all of our items and they don't take time to find substitutions so if I need an ingredient for a meal and they don't bring then it is a hot mess. 

So, today we are trying grocery pick up. We do not do this ever because to be honest I like picking my own food out and I like interacting with people. I just know this route will be easier on my husband. He has been doing all the shopping but now that I am cooking actual meals it gets a little more complicated then just picking up basics. 

So, I have been planning my menu for the following week on Fridays and then place the order to be delivered (now we are trying pick up) and ready on Saturdays. Here is this coming week menu...

I am going to wrap this post up... but before I go, I finished my nostalgic Strawberry Shortcake and Friends puzzle!

It turned out so cute! So, far I have done four puzzles since May. I have one more summer puzzle that I will start today. After that I will be putting the puzzle board up until the Fall. I don't like to overdo it because I get bored with them and stop for long periods. So, when I sense I am heading that way I take a break. 

I hope you all have a great weekend!

With Love, 

Chrissy