Friday Favorites: Shelter at Home Week #7

I started back on Weight Watchers this week and while I am doing pretty well with tracking food you are sure to see that I went over my points most days.  I figure baby steps!  We also celebrated a birthday, had a few fun hikes, and managed to get some yard work done.

We started our day off on Friday with a huge double batch of waffles!  I then spent my morning in the kitchen baking up a squash casserole and a chicken, broccoli, and rice casserole for later in the week.  I put together a large garden salad too and then supervised Alec assembling Ian's cake.

He put a peanut butter filling in between the layers

Topped that with crushed Reese's peanut butter cups

Topped the cake with another layer of peanut butter filling and frosted the sides with a coffee flavored buttercream

He piped on a few piles of frosting and topped off the cake with peanut butter cups

Ian headed out with this grandmother to get takeout and have lunch with her; every year around his birthday my mother in law takes him out for a nice lunch just the two of them but since that wasn't an option this year they did the next best thing.  She also gave him his gifts; two new model trucks for his collection.

My mother stopped by to drop of Ian's gifts too... even though she's still waiting for one of them to come in.  Evan and I took a quick walk up to the mailbox and then I started making dinner.  I made chicken Parmesan with spaghetti and garlic bread and it was delicious!

After dinner the whole family battled it out in ping pong and then we had Ian open his gift (new riding boots) and finally dug into that cake-- it was so delicious!

Saturday was warm and sunny so I kicked the younger two boys outside and set them to work cleaning up sticks from the yard.  My husband and Ian were out working but by afternoon they were back at home and began putting Ian's 4-wheeler back together now that his new parts had arrived.  I worked on clearing out leaves and dead plants from our flower garden beds; finishing up 4 of the 6!

I showered, put together a pasta salad for dinner, took a little walk up to the mailbox and settled myself on the glider to read a bit more of my book.  For dinner we had this amazing cranberry chicken, ham & cheese pasta salad (recipe coming soon!), and salad.

It was supposed to rain on Sunday so we didn't really have any plans.  Ian headed off to work and my husband spent part of the morning working on the 4 wheeler and making a part for it at the machine shop.  Just before lunch my husband, Evan, Alec and I headed out on a walk and ended up walking for about an hour.  By the time we arrived home it began raining and we spent a quiet day inside.  I finished up my book and my puzzle!   For dinner I made a pot roast and a tray of mixed roasted vegetables using up a bunch of veggies.

Monday was another cold and rainy day; I just loved finding these two together in Alec's room (in the dark-- so sorry the photo is blurry) watching something on his Kindle together.

We read two more chapters in Harry Potter and Ian tackled another science experiment dealing with why we have buffered aspirin and what buffers do testing the PH of various substances and buffers (they keep your stomach from becoming acidic).

I decided to head to the bank and deposit a few checks we had and tackle our small pile of bills.  Once home the boys played Apple to Apples and Scattergories while I talked with my sister (for 2 hours!).  We cleaned the upstairs and I started another puzzle.  Alec began packing up his room and reminded me that we were supposed to buy paint.

I had some potatoes that we needed to use up so I made some homemade french fries in the air fryer while Evan prepared pork chops with shake and bake and I heated up some frozen corn and green beans to go with it.

Tuesday was a beautiful and sunny day.  We spent our morning working in Alec's room getting it ready for painting.  He decided to clean out while packing up most of his stuff and we got rid of 5 garbage bags full of stuffed animals, books, and outgrown toys.  I taught him how to spackle the holes and we're getting really excited about painting!

In the afternoon, once we got Ian all settled on sweeping the road with the new sweeper attachment for the tractor, the younger boys and I headed out on a nice hour long walk.

I cooked up some fish (chicken for the younger boys), heated up the squash casserole, and served it with broccoli and salad. A yummy and low point dinner.

Wednesday morning was pretty foggy on the lake but once the fog cleared and the sun decided to shine we made plans to head out on a hike after breakfast.   We headed to Old Furnace and hiked for 45 minutes then swung by my sister's house to drop off some games for her kids.  Alec and I stopped in at Lowe's real quick and picked out a bunch of paint swatches.

Once home I spent the afternoon working on another garden while the younger boys went to play outside.  Ian was still working on sweeping the road and we all took a little break when my mom stopped by with Ian's birthday gift that had finally arrived.

I heated up the chicken, broccoli, and rice casserole for dinner and made up my grocery list while Ian and my husband finished putting Ian's four wheeler back together.  Ian rode it around for a bit to make sure everything was working just fine.


As soon as we finished breakfast on Thursday, I headed out to do our weekly grocery shopping.  While I'm not really scared and nervous about getting sick I do feel so much anxiety on my way to the store and I think it's that combination of worrying if I'll find what we need for the week and if there are even more/ new regulations I'll have to worry about once I'm there.

Thankfully for the third trip in a row I was able to find everything on my list!

It was a really yucky, rainy day and so I spent my afternoon baking.  I whipped up some zucchini bread, oatmeal/ butterscotch cookies, and a cornbread to go with our chili for dinner.

How was your week?

Linking Up With: A Morning Cup of Joe,