I really wanted to get this post written and published last Monday, but rather than feel like I already failed in one of my goals for the new year, I’ll just go with the saying of better late than never.
While I do want to get this blog up and running and post things like recipes, DIY tutorials, home hacks, etc. I also like to take the time to do these types of “dear diary” posts. (Even though my dad and I will be the only one that reads them.) I love to go back through my old posts and read about things I’ve done just like you would with a diary.
This is just the online version. 🙃
Anyway, H A P P Y N E W Y E A R!
For this post I’ll start with last Friday (New Year’s Eve) – I usually work a Tuesday – Friday work week but this particular Friday I had the day off for New Year’s Eve. Unfortunately, Hubs still had to work, but he came home early because he wasn’t feeling well. I knew that we had family coming over to hang out for New Year’s Eve evening, so I wanted to get the house cleaned up and tidy. I did some home schooling with my son, Cody, and then managed to get a lot of the house chores done. I was able to take down the rest of what was left for the Christmas decor too. I got everything put away except the (live) Christmas tree. I hadn’t planned on leaving the house, but since Hubs came home early due to not feeling well he wasn’t able to stop at the store for me to get the few things that I needed for dinner the next day. Once he got home I left for the grocery store with my daughter, Clara. Cody stayed home to tend to Hubs in case he needed anything. By the time I got home Hubs was a little rested and feeling much better. Eventually my in-laws came over, we ordered pizza, and then my mother and I left to go pick up the pizza. By the time we got back my sister-in-law and her boyfriend had arrived. We all ate pizza and wings, I made some brownies, and then we all hung out and played some card games until everyone decided to go home. I don’t remember exactly what time it was, but it was before midnight. (I think it was about 10 PM.) When they left we put the kids to bed and Hubs and I settled in on the couch to wait to ring in the new year. Admittedly, I fell asleep for a little while. It was one of those types of sleep where you are still kind of aware of your surroundings but your eyes are closed. I “woke up” around 11:30 PM. We tried to get Cody up to watch the ball drop on TV with us, but he was not interested in getting out of bed. 😂 Hubs and I watched the ball drop and rang in the new year together as we have for many, many years and then headed to bed.
Saturday – In the morning, Hubs made the kids breakfast (like he does every weekend) while I prepared the crockpot for dinner that night. We usually do a pot roast on New Year’s Day and since Hubs had been so successful in hunting last month we decided to do a venison pot roast. Once the kids and Hubs were done eating and the pot roast was cooking, we all got cleaned up and headed to Hobby lobby. Hubs wanted to get a photo organizer to use as a seed organizer (homestead hack). While we were there I picked up a photo album so I could scrapbook our vacation from last October when we went to Tennessee. (New Year’s goal # 2 – start printing pictures and making albums with them. I take 99% of my pictures on my phone and I LOVE to look back on them. If something were to happen to my phone I know I could lose those pictures forever! I want to make it a habit to have pictures printed and put in albums or frames.) I already have a ton of scrapbook stickers and managed to not buy anymore while we were at Hobby Lobby. (New Year’s goal #3 – to be more mindful and conscious of the things we are purchasing. Do I need it?, Will I use it?, etc.) When we got back home, Hubs helped me take the lights down from the Christmas tree and he hauled it outside. I cleaned up the pine needle mess that taking out a live tree always leaves behind. After that, I transferred the finished venison roast to a casserole dish and we all walked the 99 yards through our backyard to my in-laws house to have dinner with them. My sister-in-law and her boyfriend showed up shortly after. We ate, talked and played some more card games. We went home around 6 PM, got the kids cleaned up, put them to bed, and then Hubs and I got cleaned up ourselves. We watched some TV together before heading to bed.
Sunday – My in-laws, my sister in law, her boyfriend and the four of us got together again and went out to do some antiquing. Antiquing is something we love to do but we hadn’t been in a few months. We went to a place called White Owl in Mount Pleasant, NC. We had been there once before and really scored some good deals. The drive was about an hour and a half. We spent a few hours looking at all the cool things you can find in an antique store. I left with two blue mason jars, a three-piece set of white vases, and a ceramic deer statue thing to use as shelf decor. Once we were done at White Owl we headed over to another antique store called The Gibson Mill. Hubs and I had been there once before, but we went later in the day and kind of had to rush through it. It’s the largest antique mall in North Carolina! We spent a few more hours there looking around. I didn’t find anything to take home with me this time. By the time we were done we were all pretty hungry, so we Googled some nearby restaurants and settled on a place called Johnny’s Farmhouse. Everyone except myself got burgers and they all said that the burgers were “just okay”. I got ribs and thought they were delicious! Hubs said that his burger was pretty tasteless and since I couldn’t finish my ribs, he ate the rest for me and agreed that they were very good! We headed home and got there around 8:15 PM. We got the kids cleaned up, put them to bed, got ourselves cleaned up, and watched a little bit of TV before heading to bed ourselves.
Monday – As previously mentioned, I usually work Tuesday – Friday so this was just another day off for me. Luckily though, this was Hubs’ holiday day off so he was off too! It was nice to have our days off lineup together. I headed out in the morning to do our weekly grocery shopping. (I usually do this on Sunday, but since I knew that we were both off Monday and had plans with the family for Sunday, I knew I could just go grocery shopping Monday morning.) I went to Aldi, swung through Starbucks, got some gas, and headed home. The night before we had a lot of wind and rain, so when I got home Hubs headed outside to clear the water trench that we had around our property. It was FULL of fallen debris! He also had to fix the tarp above our wood pile because one of the ropes snapped in the wind. It also snowed for a couple of hours! That doesn’t happen much in North Carolina. The weather in North Carolina is kind of crazy. Saturday and Sunday were highs in the 70s. Monday was highs in the 30s! When Hubs was finished with the things he needed to do outside he started a fire in the woodstove. I got some homeschooling done with Cody and then hung out in the house with Clara while tidying up things here and there. There’s always something to do. We all managed to get cleaned up early (which was really nice and very rare). We had a bunch of leftovers from over the weekend, so we had those for dinner and then just hung out until it was time for the kids to go to bed. Clara didn’t finish her spaghetti from Johnny’s Farmhouse the night before so her and Cody split that for dinner and Hubs and I had leftover pizza. After dinner, we all snuggled in the living room in front of the woodstove and relaxed a bit. The kids were playing, Hubs had the recliner set back and was watching TV, and I was settled in with a book (Local Woman Missing – in case you were wondering). The kids went to bed at their regular bedtime for the first time all weekend, 🤪 Hubs and I relaxed a little more in front of the TV – chatting while watching – and then we headed to bed for work the next day.
Runt's Pickins 