Book Club Girls' weekend getaway

 Last weekend got to have one of my favorite times of the year, the annual Book Club Girls' Weekend Getaway! And since no nursing babies this season in the group, and ability, we were able to go for 2 nights!!! One of our former "members" (aka friends) had moved to Chicago several years past, and she had invited us to stay at her house for the weekend and go see Hamilton which was in town. I was the only non-theatre person in our group, but was up for a group outing, so that's what we did this year. A bit different from our usual going to the coast and enjoying beaches and small town shopping, but it was really fun. 

Before getting ready and going out to the show we did walk around the Morton Arboretum, it was beautiful and could've spent a lot longer there walking all around. 

Then we got ready, had an amazing dinner at Gio Mia in my friend's suburb, and then went down to the show. 

(that's a light reflecting purple on my friend's hair, but it looks pretty cool :))

So apparently Hamilton was started in 2016, and I'd heard of it before, but really had no desire to see it. I have to say it was pretty good. My friend and I had watched a bit before on Disney + to prepare and we didn't like it, but it was pretty good in person. (And I think our friends playing it in the car nonstop on the drive to Chicago helped a little, lol), The music is really good, and I am amazed the whole thing was written by one man. Wow, such talent!

The next morning after a nice breakfast we walked in Waterfall Glen and then began the trip home (listening to Hamilton most of the way home again, I have to admit a lot of those songs are pretty catchy!)

Such a great getaway, a time to talk and have fun together, so thankful we can do this every year. 

book club girls weekend

Finally all 7 of us were able to go on our book club girls weekend! We are mostly a group of 6, since one member moved to Chicago, but we have an annual one night away and miraculously all the calendars aligned. This year we didn't want to spend as much time in the car so we stayed a little closer to home in Bay City. One of the girl's parents lives there and has a new house with a huge basement, so instead of staying at a hotel or B & B, we stayed there. Which not only saved us money, but was super flexible and ended up being a great option. See ya next year parents ;)

We spent time in nice restaurants, hanging out at her parents, we made ourselves an amazing breakfast with freshly laid eggs, and then we went and did a canopy walk at Dow Gardens. It was beautiful. All in all lovely, but too short, time together, good talks, and actually got 5 hours sleep straight since I was baby-less (!) and only woke up once to pump.

Good times. So blessed to have these Godly women in my life and to get together every month so faithfully for our bookclub, going on 10 years now!

girls weekend!!

Last weekend was the annual bookclub girls getaway. And it was wonderful. This year we went to Ludington, and it was great. Although a bit of a far drive for just a Saturday/Sunday.

We arrived Saturday lunch time and ate at a restaurant (actually still an hour South) called the Twisted Pickle or something like that. Got these huge sandwiches that were full of almost too-much meat. I also had a side of fried pickles, mmmmm. Then we continued to our destination where we met our friend who used to be in our book club, but now lives in Chicago. It was so nice she makes the drive to come see us!

We checked into our bed and breakfast, we had the top room that could sleep 7 people!

My little sleeping nook.

We went downtown and did a little shopping, mostly we spent the time at this consignment shop and helped our friend try on wedding dresses. We found this gorgeous lace one that looked amazing on her, but she couldn't pull the trigger. Too bad. After that we walked down to the beach, sat on the sand chatting, and then watched the sunset.

We then headed back into town for a late dinner, ate at the Barley & Rye and I had this amazing hummus wrap.

Then back to our B & B for wine, snacks, girl time, and sleep!

The next morning woke up at the usual time, and my friend Kelly was getting ready to go for a walk so I went too. We power walked all the way to the water and back, and my hips were sore for 2 days afterwards! But it was a beautiful morning, good exercise, and nice 1 on 1 time.

We then had the most amazing bed and breakfast breakfast that I'd ever had. Usually they just make the plates for you and give you your meal, but this was buffet style and they kept bringing out dish after dish "I've got a egg scramble coming out in a minute", "hot bread over in the corner", etc. SO GOOD!

We ate a ton. Then packed up and headed back to the beach. The water was chilly, but some girls went in. I laid in the sun for a bit, and then spent some time in the sun tent eating snacks and chatting. It was a gorgeous, hot day.

Then time to go. We'd told our husbands home at 6, so we headed back. But yet somehow, even with minimal stops, it took almost 6 hours to get home, so that felt frustrating. Instead I was home just in time to put August to bed and that was it. But my boys had a good weekend together too, and it had been fun with the girls, so it was worth it!

book club girls getaway and life lately

Last weekend the bookclub girls had our 2nd annual little getaway, and it was wonderful. We went to St. Joseph right on Lake Michigan. We got a hotel, walked on the beach and by the pier, ate delicious food, window shopped, and most importantly had some kid-free time and time talking about our lives (which of course included lots of talking about our kids and husbands) haha. I am so blessed to have these friendships. We've had our bookclub about 9 years now, and faithfully get together once a month for rotating dinner at each others houses, we always choose a book, but don't always all read it and talk about it a couple minutes, but it has just turned into a group of friends meeting, eating, talking, and sharing life together. What a blessing. We've been through so much together, marriages, my divorce, movings, the birth of 11 kids and 2 more still on the way, and the death of a spouse. It's been a true blessing to share life with these wonderful, encouraging Christian women.

Doug and August dropped me off so we could all carpool

The girls, minus Courtney, she couldn't make it this year (or last year! :( ) and we met Kathryn, who has since moved to Chicago, there.

Beautiful Lake Michigan

We are daydreaming about bigger trips, "bookclub girls do Prince Edward Island" or Europe. Those are pretty far off in the future though as some of us are still having and nursing babies. But maybe someday.

Doug did a great job of manning the fort at home. And I think August was a good sleeper for him.

He's been all over the map lately. Either sleeping all night or getting up anywhere up to 10x. It's crazy. The night before last was one of the worst. He went to sleep 9, up at 12:30, wouldn't fall asleep till 2am, I picked him up no less than 6 times from the crib to hold him, rock, sing, hush, nurse, you name it. Nothing. Finally laid him on our bed till he fell asleep, then transferred. He still woke up another 3x because his binky fell out. Then up at 7. The next day was one of the worst days for me yet. All day he was fussy. He would cry if I was ever out of sight, and even when I was close he just seemed to cry on and off all day. The only cry-free time was our stroller walk in the park. I was exhausted. I literally screamed at him twice. Screamed. Loud. Which of course scared him and he screamed more. It was a real low in my mothering life. Two times I called Doug at work crying and sobbing. I felt horrible. I was in the bathroom looking at my Colossians Bible verse and begging God to give me patience, compassion, and kindness and then I went straight over to him and screamed at him to shut up. And then burst into tears. I felt like a monster. My poor sweet baby being screamed at by the one who is supposed to love and comfort him.

Finally Doug came home and like the flip of a switch he was fine. We went to our friend's who made us a delicious Indian feast and we met their new baby. Then came home, put August to bed. He laid down and didn't even cry one time. He slept all the way until 3am when I woke HIM because my breasts were painfully full and they woke me up. So nursed him, put him back to sleep and not even a peep even though he was awake, and he slept till 8am. What the heck. But seriously I'll take it.

So I don't know what is going on. I think I need to come up with some strategies for the next time. I know he likes walks, he likes being in the backpack, it might just mean sitting with him and doing nothing. Maybe going for a drive. But I don't ever want to do that to him again. So I continue to pray for patience and that God would increase my love and care for him. I wonder if I might finally be getting my period back and some of that could be related to PMS? But anyway, it was a true low.

girls' getaway

My book club has been meeting for 8 years now. It is really nice to see these friends so consistently, at least monthly, and now we have been there through many of life's ups and downs together and it has been a wonderful blessing. We have done movie nights and the occasional sleepover, but we had never done a trip. Until last weekend!

We went away to a west coast city called South Haven. Unfortunately, one of our core-group friends couldn't make it, but we were able to meet up with another past book club friend who had moved to Chicago, so it was so nice she could come up and meet us.

After a fun car ride, we arrived and we went down to the beach and laid in the sun. We also window shopped and shopped in the cute downtown and got a delicious dinner. Then we raced back down to the water to see the end of the sunset.

We went back to the hotel and were sad to see the hot tub water was brown :( the hotel lady was not super helpful "I don't know, people must have worn their street clothes in there." Hmmm... how about not allowing that?? Anyway the hotel owner the next morning took some money off the bill, so that was a bit better. So we just hung in the room talking and having snacks.

Next morning hotel breakfast and back downtown. It was a little overcast, so we shopped some more and got a super tasty lunch. I had a salad with roasted beets and goat cheese, and a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich. And ice cream of course!

Then the sun was out so we walked to the beach again. It was incredibly windy and there were humongous waves.

Pretty soon it was time to start heading back home. All of these ladies are moms and everyone was excited for the break, but ready to get back to their families. Me too even though September just breezed right by me to her food bowl, I did get a nice welcoming hug from Doug :) It was such a nice time, cool to see a new city, and just great to relax and have meaningful conversations with friends. Doug is super supportive of me spending time with friends, and I've wanted to do something like this for awhile, just hard to pry others away from their babies! Haha, I'm sure I'll be feeling the same way pretty soon too. But it was a great time and I think we all realized how important it is to break away and rest, so hopefully this will become an annual thing. Love girl time!

pillow talk, handy husband, and day off

One of my favorite times with Doug is as we're laying in bed about to go to sleep. Last night we were talking about who knows what and I can't remember what he said, but it ended in "... you will be". Which of course there is only one way to say "you will be" and that is in a Yoda voice. So I'm talking in a Yoda voice and then started talking about the new Star Wars movie and then we're both trying to do a Chewbacca voice which sounded like we were strangling a goat. It was hilarious. I just was thinking if September was wondering what was going on.

Ahhh... good times....

So. My handy hubby solved the problem of losing our laundry and September shelves to the pantry

take an unused space above the dryer

add a couple shelves

pile your stuff on there and decide it looks too messy

ta-da! after a couple of JoAnn's baskets half-off, it looks pretty good!

Other things going on lately was meeting my prego friend Liz at this cupcake place on my day off. I didn't even like cupcakes until Jill introduced me (I curse/love you Jill!!) On Tuesdays the minis are on sale for a dollar and the big ones for 2. So we got quite the smorgasbord and shared and talked. It was nice. The German chocolate is still my fave. I'm praying her baby comes on a day off so I can be there!

Then I finished reading our book club book The Rosie Project (recommended by Joel, thanks!) while snuggling with little furry

And lastly I'm very proud of my progress on my new crochet project. Two crochet classes under my belt, and taking a tip from Doug, I youtube'd videos to learn how to do stitches I didn't know what the heck they were talking about. I think it's working!

Although it's not really much quicker than knitting as I had hoped, it is kinda fun, and different.

food wknd

This weekend we celebrated my mom's 69th birthday.

I made a chocolate cake with strawberry filling

Doug and I went up to my parents, Dad grilled chicken and veggies and we had the cake and presents, it was nice.

Later that evening we went to Matt & Rachel's for a vegan potluck with Mark & Liz. I have pretty much been waiting 4 years for my favorite chefs to come together in the ultimate cook-off, but a potluck is a close second I guess.

Rachel made homemade bread with bruschetta, some kind of sweet potato cakes with homemade chutney, a Tex-Mex casserole with cashew sour cream, a white bean kale soup, salad with maple vinagrette, Liz made some kind of pumpkin spinach lasagne, and a variety of vegan chocolate muffins, I made a beluga lentil/quinoa/asian pear salad, and Rachel made this amazing vegan carrot cake with the most delicious cashew coconut frosting. SO good. Vegan food is awesome.

I've had a couple weekdays with no work, so I've been organizing stuff, working out in our messy tangle of a yard, and today off to visit some friends.

Last night I started our new book club book

I couldn't put it down and then when I went to bed, I couldn't stop thinking about it!