2020 is half over! Yay! I started to say that hopefully the second half will be better. But with the election coming up, and as much vitriol as there has been between sides, social media may not be a pleasant place for a long time to come. But for now, I enjoy this pause on Fridays with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story to recount some of the blessings of the week.
1. Timothy’s first camping experience and brunch. His parents wanted to set up camp in their yard before trying it away from home, so that if Timothy woke up in the middle of the night upset, they could take him right in. He did great. Jim went over to “camp out” with them. The next morning, Mittu made a hash brown casserole and bacon and biscuits for the campers and invited Jesse and me as well.
2. Gifted produce. Our neighbor has a good-sized garden and always shares from his bounty. He brought over some zucchini this week.
3. A brief visit with another neighbor. We happened to be taking mail to our mail boxes at the same time and visited across the cul-de-sac for a bit.
4. Menu planning is something I know how to do, but I just don’t often do it. I’ll have a few meals in mind, but then I keep a lot of staples on hand to throw together. I don’t like to try to decide on Monday what I’m going to want to eat on Friday. 🙂 But, for some reason, I made up a list of meals for this week. I didn’t assign them for certain days: I decided on a daily basis which to do. But it was nice to choose from a list of meals that I knew I had the ingredients for rather than racking my brain to figure out what to make each day.
5. Timothy’s second camping experience! Everyone in the family had today off for the Fourth of July. So they decided to camp out here last night. Jesse and I slept in our own beds, but Mittu joined the campers this time. Timothy spent the night in Granddad’s tent instead of his parents’ and did fine. I figured some time during the night he’d want his mom and dad, but he slept straight through. Then Jim made “camp breakfast” on the grill this morning. So good!
Belated Happy Canada Day to my Canadian friends! And I wish my fellow Americans a happy Independence Day.
Stray Thoughts 
I agree with you 100% about not wanting to know what I’m eating on Friday, by Monday already!! I much prefer planning meals around what I can get at a good price, more so than planning and then buying.
The campouts look great!! –Ann
I think we’re done with camping now but we’ve been sorting out all our gear and the kids will take some and we found a new home for our large frame tent. We had some fun times at camp. I try and plan meals at the moment because we are relying on shopping deliveries rather than going to the stores so I have to plan a bit in advance. Enjoy the weekend.
I do a weekly menu plan but i don’t assign days to it other than Mondays are ALWAYS meatless, and Fridays are usually take out/order in or we (used to) go out. but i do plan what dinners are going to be and then just decide that day which of the 6 I’m making.
yay for trying out camping! we never did that with our girls. Our oldest had her first camping trip in our pop up camper the week before she turned 1 and our youngest was 6 months old when we camped for a week in Vermont and NH!! (3 days in vermont and 3 in NH). they always did really well. the younger you expose them, the better! And your breakfast sounds delish!
I hope you have a wonderful weekend celebrating the birth of our Country!
Sounds like you are having a fun family summer, despite the pandemic. Have a great 4th of July!
Awww…you are making a camper out of your grandson. It sounds as if he likes it! Happy 4th!
Happy 4th! I, too, hope the second half of the year will go better — but yeah, like you, I doubt that things will improve much before the election. Praying hard about that! I too love to be gifted produce. I planted some zucchini, but so far the plants are not producing. I hope they will because we all love zucchini bread.
Your campout breakfasts sound great! Backyard campouts are so fun, except my kids ALWAYS ended up in the house.
I agree with you on menu plans. My method is the same, I plan five meals for the week (allowing pizza night and leftover night), and then choose a recipe from my list each night.