Relaxing, creating, and a little pouting

Vince and I spent a relaxing, low key weekend at home.  Kyle and Nick left yesterday for a fishing trip with their dad, and Hope was busy for much of the weekend with parades, pageant projects, friends and boyfriend activities.  So, Saturday morning found me out on our deck early, enjoying the cool air, the sound of the neighborhood birds, and the smell of one of my new birthday candles...Watermelon Lemonade!  It's got a fresh, fruity scent and as soon as I opened it I had a smell memory that took me back to Jr. High....it smells just like watermelon jolly ranchers and I ate many of them back then.  

Vince made us a wonderful breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon, and coffee in our favorite mugs.

Mr. W jarred up the first harvest from our herb garden for the year.  I'm curious to see what we will do with dried lavendar.  Apparently you can cook with it, so we'll see what he comes up with.

My Sunday morning view looked very much like my Saturday morning view!  

We live-streamed church today, which was a lovely thing to do outside.  The message was great and so was the worship.  I like being able to take in the service from the comforts of our home, and not having to navigate the sometimes awkward social small talk (cue my social anxiety).  But God pointed out something to me today.  Church isn't just about what I get out of it, or how comfortable I am.  It's a place for me, for us, to serve the body of Christ.  We have gifts and talents that God has given us to bless our brothers and sisters in Christ and we can't do that while staring at a computer screen from our deck.

Ouchie.

But the view, though...

...we truly are blessed.

And then there's the Macers...pouting because daddy went inside.

She doesn't stand at the door and whimper when I go inside.  She's such a daddy's girl. 

Vince spent much of the afternoon making a wooden box for the butcher knife and fork set that I got him (for Christmas I think).  He's becoming quite the woodworking master!  It turned out beautiful. 

My project for the day was homemade pizza dough.  My first attempt wasn't too bad, but I have some ideas for next time. 

I perfected my homemade pizza sauce recipe a few years ago.  It's pretty easy and sooooo good!

Mr. W made caramelized onions and they are so good I think I could eat them with a fork right out of the pot.

They turned out pretty good! My new favorite pizza is hamburger (with house seasoning) and caramelized onion.

Just a summer weekend

It's been a lovely and productive weekend.  Both Vince and I have had stressful weeks at work, so we needed a good weekend.  Yesterday, this is what the afternoon looked like at our house...first of all, tho, I can't believe how HUGE this flower box has gotten!!  It loves the shade.  I'm going to have to remember this for future summers.

Saturday afternoon found us doing various things around the house...me with the budgetting...

Vince fixing...something?

Kailey and Kyle lunching and talking...

Miss Goodview and the royalty court practicing their float dances...

And Macey at Vince's feet...she's such a daddy's girl.

Vince and I spend several hours this weekend purging and organizing things in our storage room. After a trip to Good Will and countless trips up and down the stairs, what we used to refer to as our "hoarder's room" is now neat and organized.  Hallelujah! We have only things we intend to use or keep as keepsakes, we can get to everything, and we even have a couple shelves of toys for the grandkids.  I did the same thing recently in our office, and the surplus from that project has been lining our hallway for the past several weeks, so it's nice to have that all put away. One room at a time, we are getting there.

Sunday morning started out with some sweet time with God and my husband, who made me a delicious breakfast.  I'm starting a new bible study...Seamless by Angi Smith, who is one of my favorite authors.  When the introduction makes me cry, I know the study is going to be amazing so I'm eagerly anticipating this one.  

After finishing the aforementioned storage room project by noon, we decided we needed a little time away, so we met Vince's sister and her husband in one of our favorite little towns...Lanesboro!  It's exactly halfway between Rollingstone and their home in Decorah, and luckily they were up for a spontaneous little getaway.  The drive there is always beautiful, no matter what the season.  We had lunch and great conversation at this great little place, Pedal Pushers Cafe.  Our sides were served in little flower pots, which Denise and I loved alot :)

After lunch we meandered around town and explored a few of their downtown shops, and ended up at the waterfall by the river.  It's actually a dam, not a natural waterfall, but still...the sight and sound of water and nature has become something I crave.  

Feeling a little winey

It was time for another day trip and a couple wineries because it had been, what, you know, like a week?  Or maybe two?  Tehe.  We had fun.  This place, Villa Bellezza in Pepin WI was amazing!!  I had heard about it from a friend who talked it up and that's all the proof I needed that we had to go.  It did not disappoint.

Wine tasting is one of our favorite things, as I may have mentioned a time or ten.  We have different tastes - Vince likes the bolder, spicier, oaky, less sweet wines and I am all about the sweet/dessert ones.  He likes those too, so we can share.  I have expanded my pallet quite a bit over the years, but I am always drawn back to the sweets.  We left here with a couple bottles and of course a glass - our tradition is to buy a wine glass from each winery that we visit and like, which have been most of them. 

One amazing winery just wasn't enough on this day...we traveled on down to Elmaro ... our favorite winery of them all with one of our favorite friends who happens to be their event coordinator!

We enjoyed some delicious wine outdoors while listening to this great couple playing 70's covers.