WRAPPING up the WEEKEND

 

Friday morning sunrise
First Day of Spring

I'm stealing my blogging friend Deb's(she's a prayer partner too!!)  idea and doing a weekend wrap-up type of post. 

I sure hope she doesn't mind!  😉

Friday was the first day of Spring although it was still rather cold.  I won't share the hiking photos as I'll save those for the Friday Fave Five meme, but it was a great success and everyone, including me, had never hiked in the preserve before. It's actually now a part of the state park Dave and I have loved for years and not too far from our home. It's only about a 35 min drive north which is  considered the "foothill of the Eastern Adirondack mountains".   It ended up being a little warmer on Friday and we had an afternoon of rain. After the hike, I had time before dinner, to practice the Good Friday music I need to perform, along with some general tidying up in the kitchen, family room and guest room. I also did a thorough cleaning of the half bath.   Friday evening  was dinner at home which was pulled "pork" (Jackfruit), steamed green beans, and blue corn tortilla chips.  Dave loves BBQ pulled pork sandwiches but I haven't eaten pork since 2015.  I use the packaged Jackfruit instead.  Here's what it looks like before you add the BBQ sauce. Jackfruit looks and tastes just like pork without the animal fat/grease and calories/cholesterol! Jackfruit is native to Southeast Asia.  Dessert is for Friday and Saturday evenings only so we each had a custard sized dish of coconut milk chocolate peanut butter ice cream. It tasted so good!

I buy mine at Whole Foods or Hannaford

Jackfruit aka pulled "pork" 
it only takes about 6 minutes to cook before adding the BBQ sauce

Saturday morning was partly cloudy after a night of rain. For some odd reason, Dave and I were both up fairly early, around 6 AM!  Usually we sleep until 6:30/7 on Saturdays this time of year. He went off to buy fresh warm bagels and I sat with my Scripture study and the first mug of steaming Guatemalan coffee. I then did a stretching workout.  We had a bagel and fruit for breakfast and then I had some errands to run, one of which included doing a good power walk on the bike path in the town park. It was brisk but the rain held off for which I was thankful. When I got home from the errands, I had some cleaning to do in the master bathroom. I did some vaccuming as well upstairs and did some dusting.  The rest of Saturday was spent watching a couple of episodes of Virgin River season 7 on Netflix while Dave worked on a follow up missions letter. Dinner was chili made with Beyond meat "beef" and fresh grated cheddar cheese. The meal was plantbased/vegan minus the handful of shredded cheese we both put on our chili. I had also popped in some pillsbury crescent rolls and added some fresh purple grapes to the table. Dave  wanted to go to bed early, so I read almost to the end of a good book I had taken out from the town library. 

plant based chili

book review is here. 

Sunday was downright cold. As in I don't think it got above 38 degrees F. It was sunny when I was getting ready for the 11 AM service at church.  Dave left early as he was on the Production Team and had to be there at 7:30 AM for the 9 AM service. I had oatmeal, berries and walnuts plus 2 mugs of coffee for breakfast and a very small glass of Orange Juice. After breakfast I showered and got ready for church and was thanking God for the sunshine when it began to get cloudy again!  I did my Scripture study, listened to some MP3s for our vocal ensemble rehearsal.  During church, my friend Maggie (she's in my small group as well as the hiking group) got baptized!!  She was raised Catholic, came to Christ a number of years ago, and decided to partake in water baptism. Our site pastor had a really good sermon about life in the flesh vs life in the Spirit and the consequences of both. It was very good as was the worship music. After the service, 6 of us ladies (including my oldest daughter) went to our worship director's office to practice for the Good Friday service in which we will be singing.  It was a good, productive practice and by mid-afternoon, I was home, changed my clothes and bascially read most of the day. Dave had to run an errand to the mall so wanted to get food from a place he likes there. I chose to eat leftover chili.  Neither of us wanted a full dinner Sunday evening so we ate thing like cheese and crackers/hummus and fruit.  We were both so tired Sunday evening that we went to bed with our books and sat and talked and read and lights were out by 10:30!! 

It was a cold, mostly rainy, but very relaxing weekend over all! 

The rest of this week is much busier!

How was your weekend?