Weekending- a Big Gulp, a beautiful bunch of flowers & a birthday celebration

Linking up with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday

Friday I subbed- sort of at the last minute on Thursday, I picked up the job. I wasn’t planning on subbing on Friday but a good (or what I thought would be good (it turned out to be all right)) opening showed up on the site where we subs can pick jobs so I picked it up.  Working meant that I had to run errands after school even though it sounded unappealing. I went straight from school to Sam’s Club and then to Aldi. We were having people over Saturday for dinner. There were items from stores that I needed for the meal and I knew that I would want to get started early on Saturday rather than go to stores on Saturday so I had to go on Friday.

Saturday dawned early for me and I was able to go on a slow run before getting started with my day (or rather, that was the start to my day!). Then it was starting all the things for the meal. I was not serving a feast or anything like that; however, just making a few things takes time and makes the kitchen really messy so I needed to get moving. 

Donnie and Alyssa ran out to get coffee and a couple of items and Donnie came back with a couple of things for me:

A Big Gulp (Diet Dr. Pepper 💕) and these roses

Awww! Isn’t he the sweetest? Now, to take away a little from his good deeds, in all fairness, I did ask him for both of these items 😆

The Big Gulp because, Diet Dr. Pepper and the flowers because my china pattern depicts a single rose on it and so whenever we use the china, I like to have a centerpiece of roses that, ideally, match the color of the rose in the china. 

My aunt gave me this beautiful twelve piece china setting as a wedding present. It was china that she had purchased in the 1950’s for herself when she was in Japan (the brand is Noritake which is made in Japan). My aunt never had children to whom she could give her set of china to but she had five nieces and numerous nephews. I was the lucky recipient of the china by dint of my middle name... My middle name is June and the china pattern is called June so my aunt thought that I should have the china! (I don’t think that my parents named my middle name June in hopes of persuading my aunt that I should get the china though if they had, well played, mom and dad! I like my middle name and I love the china so if naming me June was in any part motivated by the china, I am grateful!)

Anyway, of course I wanted to use the china on Saturday, ergo wanting flowers, ergo asking Donnie and Alyssa to pick up some. Before they left for the store, Alyssa took a picture of one of the pieces to try to match the roses to purchase with the rose on the china. They picked a winning bunch of flowers- I loved how good the real roses looked as well as the beautiful rendition of a rose on the china. 

I worked on making dessert, setting the table, making a mess, making side dishes, making a mess, etc for most of the morning and then got ready to do a little shopping with Alyssa. 

How it started:

How it ended:

The end is always worth it!

The pain of the clean up is temporary; the pride of making things that taste good at home, save money, and indulge a little bit of creativity lasts, if not forever, longer than picking up a tray of goodies at the store (that is when time is not really a factor- at busier times in my life I would have forsaken the homemade for the convenient :))

Going to TJ Maxx and Kohl’s on a Saturday afternoon sounded like 👎 but spending time with Alyssa and helping her pick out some things she needed/ wanted soon for a spring break trip was all good. And I picked up something for Mary Gracia. I had forgotten how good prices are at TJ Maxx for baby clothes. 

When we came home, I finished cleaning up the house and getting finishing touches ready for dinner and guests. 

We had a good time celebrating the birthday boy! We enjoyed spending the evening together. After everyone left, Donnie and I relaxed. Alyssa had gone to see our girls varsity basketball team play in the state finals. They lost, unfortunately, but had a great run.

Uncle Bill was ready to St. Patrick´s PARTY. {Too bad for him, he came to the least St. Patrick’s Day Saturday night event ever!!}

Donnie, Uncle Doug, Denise and Donnie’s dad, Don

Sunday morning- a double whammy of unhealthiness- I didn’t run (I was due off for a day (or so I told myself)) and when I saw that there was one cookie left (with a bit o’ green on it in honor of St. Patrick’s Day), one cupcake left and some potato chips left (the salt in which would counterbalance all that sugar), my breakfast was complete, though certainly, not a paradigm of health. You win some, you lose some! 

We went to church where we heard a good message and then came home where Jacob was waiting for us. He attends a large church in Cincinnati that is so big it has started having a Thursday evening service as part of its weekend services. The church we used to attend had a Saturday evening church service but I have never heard of a Thursday service. Anyway, he had attended his church on Thursday so he was free on Sunday. He and Donnie wanted to run some errands together and hang out. While they were out together, I finished cleaning up the kitchen from Saturday- taking the leaves out of the table, putting the china back in the cabinet, etc. and then relaxed. Alyssa’s boyfriend came over and we all had dinner together. It was a good, relaxing Sunday.