Weekending and F is for fellowship, friendship

Linking up with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday:

Had a nice, beautiful weekend to usher in November. Like many areas of the country, we experienced a cold front at the very end of October but warmed up by the weekend. The cold weather and vicissitude, while terrible for trick or treaters on the 31st, was great for those who had outdoor plans for the weekend. We had almost all indoor plans but did enjoy, when we went outside, not being freezing cold. 

Friday evening, Alyssa had plans so just Donnie and I were home. We took a walk, knowing both warmth and lack of light after dinner will be walk inhibitors for most of the next few months.  We started to watch a movie from the 80’s (I can’t remember the name) that was so dumb we abandoned it halfway through. Donnie had watched it back in the day but didn’t remember it being so odd.

I forgot that after our walk, we ran a brief errand to a store to get a few things. I loved the colors of the sunset though the iPhone photo taken through the windshield of the car is less than stellar.

Saturday morning, I was up pretty early and went for a run. We didn’t have plans until the evening but those plans included having people over to our house for a meal, so I had lots of prep to do for the meal and also to get the house ready. 

My younger brother and I caught up by texting each other. He sent some pictures of my nieces. Both of my brother’s older two girls have beautiful singing voices. (Baby definitely has a voice; the melodiousness of her singing voice is TBD)

Here is his middle daughter singing the national anthem before a sporting event at her school. She has the lead role in her school's upcoming musical. 

So cute!!

My country cutie! Abby and some friends went to a corn maze for some fall fun- glad they had beautiful weather for it. She sent me this picture of her. Jacob went to Ann Arbor, Michigan with some friends to see Michigan play Purdue. Do you think I received a photo??

My neighbor and I met up unplanned and ended up chatting for close to an hour. I was outside to place a carved pumpkin in the compost bin and she was putting up outdoor Christmas lights. We both stopped what we were doing to catch up on what was happening with us and our kids. We used to spend a lot of time together when our kids were younger. While kids played in the cul- de- sac, the moms would sit and talk. Those days are long since gone and now we seem to catch up more inadvertently than make scheduled time to do so.

We had friends over for dinner, so I had a lot to prepare. Dinner was great- simple yet satisfying and the company was even better. 

Sunday was church and then we came home briefly before heading out again. Alyssa had to go to work so just Donnie and I went to the movie theater to meet up with friends there and watch the movie called After Death. It was produced by Angel Productions- the same company that produced The Sound of Freedom. The movie was documentary style about near death experiences. It was really good! 

With free refills for large pops and popcorn, you know I got a refill of both to go!!

We came home, relaxed, watched some football and that was it. (We didn't make it until the end of the Bengals game, but I was glad when I checked this morning and saw that they won!)

Continuing with the alphabet theme and posting every day in the month of November, today is about fellowship/ friendship since it ties into the weekend of having friends over for dinner.

I am grateful for my friends and Donnie and are thankful for our friendships with other couples and we make an effort to get together with friends fairly often. Time together doesn’t mean expensive meals out or fancy dinner parties. Quite the contrary! For our get together this weekend, I had originally hoped to get together before Halloween for a Halloween themed meal with our friends. However, that wasn’t possible, so we got together this weekend. Without having a holiday theme for a meal, I decided on an easy, fall inspired dish of chili. I fancied it up a bit by adding a homemade cornmeal crust.

Here is the recipe that I used and here is a photo from the site:

I didn’t make mine in a skillet (nor did I take a picture of mine. It wasn’t super pretty). I approximately 1 1/2ed the recipe to make sure there was plenty. After browning/ sauteing everything on the stove, I placed the chili in a 9 x 13 glass pan, added the cornbread mixture and baked it in the oven. 

At the last minute, well technically, the last hour, I decided to have one more protein based, super easy dish. I thought of this by myself and was pretty pleased with how it turned out... I had a bottle of Aldi brand Asian zing sauce in the pantry so I added that bottle to the crock pot along with a bag of frozen meatballs. The Asian zing flavored meatballs turned out really good when they meatballs were heated.

We bought pretzels from our favorite pretzel place for a fun addition. Then I made some homemade nacho sauce and Alyssa made guacamole that we had with tortilla chips. 

Having that variety of food is definitely more than we’d have for a normal dinner at home but nothing about it was fancy and it was all easy. I think people appreciate being invited into your home and the effort you make to make them feel welcome and loved. The amount of money you spend or time you spend preparing food does not have to be excessive. 

I also made a couple of desserts and friends brought this pumpkin log of goodness from Dorothy Lane Market. YUM!