A Fun Winter Weekend

As most of you know, I'm on my "short winter week" work schedule right now, and I do believe that plays a big part in why I love winter so much.  Having Mondays and Fridays off during the months of January, February and March opens up so much free time!  I like to maximize my long weekends as much as possible, and I must say, this past one was great!

Friday morning, I headed off to do groceries in a neighbouring town, and I brought friends Caryl and Shannon along with me.  It was a productive shopping trip, and I got almost everything I needed on my list, including lots of healthy foods to stock up on.  Last week went well in the healthy eating department, and I wanted it to continue!  We had lunch at one of my favourite local places, Cafe 349, and my panini and salad were divine.  Since I just tooted my own healthy eating horn two seconds ago, I won't mention the giant, drool-worthy slab of chocolate peanut butter cheesecake I had for dessert... (omg it was good!!)

We were home early afternoon, so I had time to get my house tidied up, baked some of my new favourite chocolate chip cookies, and got supper prepped, as I had my friend Sara and her three adorable kiddos coming over for supper and a visit that night.  We had a great chat and a fun picnic-style supper on the living room floor - pizza muffins, bacon bunnies, veggies, chips and dip, and cookies! I was so glad to finally have them over, as I'd been wanting to have them for a long time!  I especially loved it when I took my camera out to capture a "picture of the day" for my Project 365, and Charlotte, Daniel and Hannah really hammed it up for the camera!  Too cute!

I got an iPhone this past weekend.  It was a weird and almost unsettling combined with exciting change for this longtime Blackberry user.  Lindsay and Sam popped in for a visit Saturday morning, and after they left, I literally spent hours sitting on the couch trying to figure out the new phone.  I eventually had to force myself to go get showered and ready for the day.  My plans for making a pot of soup flew out the window, as the phone became my main occupation.  Crazy how time can just disappear when you're playing around with something like that!  I finally have Instagram... I still don't really "get it", but I have it! ;)

Can you tell I have no clue what I'm doing?  #myfirstinstagram

Saturday afternoon, my mom and I headed off to my sister's place, as we were celebrating my BIL's birthday that day.  We had a great time, and enjoyed a delicious spaghetti supper and his favourite cherry cheesecake for dessert.  Yum!

Sunday morning was church, and then after brunch, Mom and I decided to go out on a tour of the back roads so that I could take some winter scenery photographs.  We came home and had homemade pizza for supper, and just relaxed and watched TV.

Yesterday was another busy and productive day for a Monday off!  I got up early as if I was going to work, and got my exercising in before the sun came up.  Once I was showered and dressed, I did a few loads of laundry, and I also hit the kitchen to do some meal prepping for the week.  I made a big pot of stuffed pepper soup, a pot of brown rice, I roasted some butternut squash for Mexican burrito bowls that I want to try out for supper this week, I got some veggies cut up and ready for quick snacking, and I also made some energy balls to have in the fridge for snacks.

Then I was off next door to Shannon's to do some painting!  I've been taking some private art lessons with her, as she's helping me do a bigger version of one of her paintings that she's featured this month during her Paint Nites.  My mom and some of her friends were there painting yesterday, so while they were working on their birch tree paintings, I was working on mine too.  I got a lot more done than I expected, and I can't wait to have the finished project hanging in my home.  Another few sessions and I should have them finished! Yay!!

 This is how my project looked when I started yesterday - I don't have pictures uploaded from how it looked when I was done for the day!

I stole this from Shannon's Facebook - it's the finished work of my mom and her friends.  I think they did a great job!!

I got home late afternoon, and spent the evening reading, relaxing, and catching up on a bunch of PVR'd episodes of Criminal Minds. I'll say it again... Oh how I love my winter long weekends!