Country Girl in the City: July 2024

I thought about not jumping in this week but figured it's only a day late and I do want to be better about blogging this month. With all the kids home from school it's fun but busy. A lot to schedule, celebrate and just enjoy each other's company and being able to be outside.

Let's jump right into this week's Happy Homemaker Monday with Sandra over at Diary of a Stay At Home Mom.

The Weather:

It's a gorgeous day here. Supposed to be in the 80's all week with some random showers near the end of the week.

Outside my Window:

Sunny, gorgeous blue skies. We've also been enjoying watching a mama turkey and her 6 baby turkey's in our yard (not right at this moment but we see them pretty much every day).

Right Now I am:

Blogging and drinking my coffee before starting the to-do list.

Thinking and Pondering:

A lot of different things. Frustrated about a few things, needing extra prayer time today.

Health Goal Accountability:

Keira asked to do yoga this summer so we have been doing a yoga workout pretty much every day Monday-Friday. We are doing YouTube videos from Arianna Elizabeth . I love her channel, at the end of each workout she puts up a positive quote, a Scripture verse, etc. She makes no apologies about the fact that she loves Jesus. I also went to the gym with Matt on Sunday.

Podcasts I'm listening to this week:

None this week.

On my T.V this week:

Probably will just watch some YouTube as new episodes come out. .

On the Dinner Plate:

I think I'm making Spinach Pie tonight.

On the Menu this week:

Morrocan Quinoa Salad

BBQ Chicken Salad

Spinach Pie

Chicken Parm

What I'm Reading:

Bible

The Farthest Shore by Ursula Le Guin (#3 in the Earthsea series)

On Bended Knee by Crickett Keeth - study on prayer the women's group is doing through the summer

On my To-Do list today:

Workout ✔

Laundry (working on this)

Blog ✔

Clean House (vacuum, litter box, etc)

Wrap birthday gift

Pick up kiddos from various places this afternoon

Plans for this week:

Catch up on laundry

Family time on the 4th (hoping to do a hike)

Take Maisie to friend's birthday party

Host Youth Group

What I'm Creating:

I'm playing around with making an alpine stitch blanket/throw with all the leftover blanket yarn that I have. I love the look of the alpine stitch and started working with some leftover yarn. I don't like the colors I started with (red & black) since I mostly have neutrals. So I'll probably start over and just use the neutrals and leave the bit of red and black for something else. Sometimes it's fun to just play with different stitches and make it up as I go.

I've also been trying several new recipes lately. One is for a Keto bread made with eggs and almond flour and the other is a new couscous salad I made last night.

Keto Bread - This recipe is a nice substitute for traditional bread. It holds together well but the texture is more like a pound cake. My tips are: mix everything very well, make sure it is fully cooked (maybe add a couple minutes after to think it's done), when cooling place the loaf on it's side so it doesn't collapse too much (even well baked I found that it collapsed a bit).

Moroccan Cauliflower and Couscous Salad - This is going into our regular meal rotation. We all loved this salad. I doubled this for our family and used fresh mint from our yard. I used 1/2 the dressing on the salad and used the other half to marinate some chicken that I then grilled.

From the Camera:

We have been trying to get out and enjoy the gorgeous weather as much as possible. We enjoyed a beautiful hike with friends on a local trail, have spent some time at the local lake and last night we took an evening ride out to the ocean to enjoy some ice cream and time on the beach.