Weekending- + Amazoning

It was the first weekend where we'd had no child in the house since early December. Abby's school started back up later in January and Alyssa was home last weekend since her birthday was last Sunday. So it was a bit of an adjustment but we persevered. What is that saying that the only thing that stays the same is that everything changes? 

I'll back up to Thursday because I subbed for the first time in about two weeks- it was a good day which I need to document because I need to keep in mind the good days for when the bad days at school come. Also on Thursday, I ran outside for the first time since early January! The sidewalks were finally clear of ice and snow.

On Friday, I didn't sub and my oldest brother didn't have to work so we met north of town (he lives two and half hours north of me so it's common for us to meet somewhere sort of in the middle- he volunteered to come way closer to me this time). We met at an Outback in Troy and enjoyed good food and conversation. 

I arrived first at the restaurant and sat down at a table to wait for him to arrive. I couldn't help but notice the calorie information was displayed for each entree and found this interesting:

The grilled shrimp entree has more calories than the deep fried coconut shrimp does

...so of course I ordered the less caloric option 😋

Once home, I tidied up and made cookies for us and to take some to our friends' house. Both of our friends, the husband and wife, have been sick for a few days. I wanted to bring them dinner and something sweet to eat. I ordered Bob Evans for them and then dropped the food off at their house.  

Donnie and I had leftovers for dinner (I had eaten so much at Outback and then of course had to sample the cookies that I made so I was not very hungry!) and then started to watch a movie after popping some corn. 

 

The movie was sooo bad and after my second complaint/eyeroll during it, Donnie asked if I wanted to stop watching it. Uh, yes! We turned the TV off and both started scrolling on our phones and that got me thinking about what a bad rep "scrolling" has. While, yes, it doesn't seem soul edifying in any way, at least the person scrolling is reading? That seems more worthwhile time wise than watching drivel on TV? I don't know? 

Saturday morning, Donnie went to the gym while I started pulling items out of the unfinished part of the basement that we intended to add to a shelving unit (once we bought said shelves). The items were kitchen items that I've relegated to the unfinished part of the basement because I use them often enough to not want to get rid of them but not often enough to justify having them in the kitchen cabinets, the result of which having them in the kitchen was cabinets stuffed to the gills! Examples of these items are my second crock pot (super handy when having many people over for a meal but we don't have many people over for a meal very often), my cupcake holder (super handy when traveling with cupcakes but I don't travel with cupcakes very often), a variety of serving platters that look nice and are great to use when entertaining, but again, that doesn't happen super often. All of the "basement kitchen items" had at one point been in our kitchen cabinets but as time went on and the number of items increased that I didn't use often but didn't want to get rid of, I had to find an alternate spot for the items. I started placing them in one spot in the basement. However, that spot was ill defined and poorly designated and I wanted to change that.

We considered building shelves but Donnie pointed out that with the cost of lumber, it made more sense to buy a shelving unit so we did just that later on Saturday. We already have one shelving unit in the basement that I use to store my Christmas dishes and a variety of other items on; a quick perusal of Home Depot's website showed that they still carried that same shelving unit and so we went into the store intending to buy a duplicate of that which we already have. However, once at the store and in the aisle where the website said the product was, our eyes fell to the "Husky" brand (the name cracked me up!) of storage systems and we bought Husky shelves. The system is as high and long as our other shelving unit but it's deeper in width and can hold way more weight. 

Once home, Donnie began reading the instructions for putting it together and I swept the floor of the unfinished  part of the basement (the parts of the floor that don't have things/furniture/Christmas tree bags/plastic bins/a folded up ping pong table/luggage/a freezer/weight equipment and much more on it!!). I don't sweep often down there; it was nice to do so and get rid of some of the floor detritus. I helped Donnie put together the shelves (and by help, I mean I held his phone with the flashlight on it to enable him to see better). By the end, we realized that we'll have to make a call to Husky and have them send out parts that were missing in the box (😩). The missing parts precluded completing the top shelf but... we were still left with four shelves onto which we could start filling with all the things. YAH!

We picked up our favorite in town pizza for dinner- Jett's. We bought two pizzas and brought one to our friends' house- they were still not feeling better. Not sure to what extent eating greasy (but reaaally good)  food was going to help them recover, but it kept them from having to physically do anything about procuring dinner! 

After dinner, we headed back out to see a movie in the theater. We saw Brave the Dark from Angel Studios. I am a "guild member" of Angel Studios meaning I receive two free tickets to see any theatrical releases of Angel Studio movies. (Angel Studios has a variety of shows and movies to stream on its app and in addition, releases some of its movies to theaters). Of course, I pay a monthly fee to be a member so the movies aren't technically free but right now I'm only paying $4.99 a month and movie ticket prices are over $13 a ticket so we are coming out ahead :). Not that we probably would have seen this in the theater had we not been members so we aren't overall coming out ahead. But we are supporting a company that is committed to producing quality, non drivel, family friendly and/or based on true story (it did Sound of Freedom) movies so it's all good. Plus, we supported our local movie theater. (I'm looking at you, ten dollar drink of soda!!) Anyway, the movie was good and based on a true story of a high schooler who had a traumatic past and was living out of his car until one of his teachers took him in to live with him (the teacher). 

Literally, at the moment, looking at my $10 pop from the theater. At least you get refills on larges and you betcha I got my refill before leaving the theater.

Sunday, I got up early and ran/walked outside and then got ready to go to church. Church was really good- it's only our third time attending in person but we like it more each time we go. The service is longer than we're used to and the drive out and back is longer but what a blessing to find a church where truth is not considered something to be withheld lest it offend someone. 

After church we relaxed some and then I went to the store to get some items to grill- it was supposed to get into the low 50's later in the afternoon so we declared it the day to grill on Donnie's new grill for the first time and eat outside. Donnie watched some videos on the best way to season the grill and then how to grill steaks on it. We grilled sirloin steaks and I made us salads and cooked potatoes to eat with our dinner. Everything turned out really good and we are both looking forward to more meals outside!

I wanted to link up with the new Prime link up

I only ordered two items from Amazon in the month of January which was amazing! I loved spending less and receiving less. I'm not heading towards minimalism at all but less is the new more in January for me :).

I bought these pink shoes and really like them so far. 

This weekend marked ten months since having Achilles tendon surgery and my heel is still quite noticeably swollen. While I can and do wear normal shoes despite the swelling, I try to wear opened heeled shoes as much as possible. I was going to wait until spring to wear these because pastel pink (I didn't intend to buy pink- I went online to find a blue pair of mules but these pink ones called my name!), but on one of our warmer days in January, I threw fashion caution to the wind polar vortex and wore them. I was complimented on them by someone with whom I had an appointment so I felt extra all right about wearing them in January...

Next I bought an item for Alyssa's Valentine goodie box that I plan to send to her. Lightweight is the name of the game since I'll be paying by weight to send the box and Alpha Xi Delta is the name of her sorority so this made perfect sense to buy. 

Linking up with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday:

And Andrea and Jill for