Prettiest Pumpkin in the Patch

I started out the day by making a double batch of “stick of butter rice” to take for our church Thanksgiving lunch. It’s the most simple thing, and I’ve made this for the last three years in a row, but it’s sooo good! (And I put the Christmas box on the counter, where it was sure to be remembered.) Here’s the post from this event last year, if you’re interesting in checking that out.

I was on praise team today, so I had to be there early for rehearsal. Emerson and Daddy are cereal together while I got ready for church and then we drove separate cars, which we don’t usually do, but they were both

Our church members packed and brought back more than 200+ Operation Christmas Child boxes. So cool!

And then we had our huge Thanksgiving dinner on the grounds. We set up two huge tents in the parking lot (the second one is in the background, if you look hard enough), the church provides the meat, rolls & tea, and all of us provide the sides and desserts. And it was really yummy! We got to eat good food, enjoy great fellowship, and sit outside in the beautiful weather!

Miss Priss couldn’t be bothered to put her cookie down long enough for a photo, and if it was closer, you might be able to see her mouth is actually covered in cheese noodles & chocolate…

Prettiest pumpkin in the patch!

And the silliest pumpkin in the patch!

I got Emerson down for her nap really easily today (after I let her run around her room for a few minutes being silly and playing with Elmo), and then I opened the screen door in the living room, and laid down to take a nap myself! (Jeff had gone back to Ed’s house to finish up their project, then he stopped at Publix for a few things I forgot, and he got a hair cut too.)

I slept for about an hour (even though it wasn’t a very good nap and I kept waking up over & over), and then I watched an episode of FRIENDS until Emerson woke up. Then she helped me with the laundry again this afternoon. And even carried her own hamper!

And to toot my own horn, I actually got alllll of Emmie’s clothes folded, hung & put away, all within a day of them being washed. I don’t know about y’all, but that’s nothing short of a miracle around here. (I know we all hate to fold the clean clothes, right!?)

We played for a while, and watched some videos for a while, and then I got started on dinner. My work friend Tammy was telling us about a recipe she made last week, and it sounded so good I immediately added it to my meal plan for this week. And it was sooo good. I made a Weight Watchers recipe for Bleu Cheese Chicken Burgers, plus little garlic herb potatoes and a bleu cheese salad. (I had gotten out the Caesar dressing, but decided to do Bleu cheese to go with the bleu cheese burgers.)

But y’all, these burgers were DELISH. I’d highly recommend making them. They’re different, and very flavorful, and healthy!

I had cut up a half of a burger patty for Emerson on her plate, but then she saw us eating ours like actual burgers, she wanted one too. So I made her a half, and she ate almost the entire thing! Plus lots of croutons and carrots 😉

She tried a new stalling tactic tonight (that was actually successful before nap time), by telling me she needed to poop and it wasn’t time to change her diaper yet. At nap time, I let her wander around for 10 or 15 minutes waiting for her to “finish,” but nothing ever happened. She started doing it again at bedtime, but I didn’t let her get away with it this time. I was on to her now! But we read books and sang lullabies, and then she was ready for bed.

I set a timer for 20 minutes on my phone, listened to my Elton John audio book, and got most of the dishes washed (although there’s still a pile of silverware in the sink that got left behind). And of course now it’s time for hot tea and Netflix. We finished “Modern Love” the other day (it’s only eight 30-minute episodes), so now we’re back on the hunt for another new show. Any suggestions? We like tv series on Netflix, Hulu & Amazon. 🙂