The Week In Review

 You know the holidays are approaching when I keep thinking I want to get a post up on my blog but it doesn't happen. I like the busyness of the season but it can distract me and stress me out.

And this week has been stressful. After Tropical Storm Eta literally blew in from the Gulf, my allergies went into overdrive. It always happens after a big storm, especially one as windy as this one was. All the dust and tree debris gets blown everywhere, and even though we got massive amounts of rain, it wasn't enough to totally clean all the allergens out of the air. Hence I've been dealing with itchy eyes, stuffy nose, and worst of all, asthma. I'm feeling better today but the dry cough persists. Which is annoying whenever I go anywhere because anyone coughing gets people's attention. I want to scream out, "Y'all, it's not coronavirus okay?!"

On Tuesday I put up the shelves I'd bought the week before from Ross. The guest bathroom went from this:

To this:

And finally to this:

I haven't really decorated it because in a couple of weeks I'll begin decorating for Christmas so I wasn't too concerned about getting it perfect. 

By the way, I'm so excited to begin decorating for Christmas! Now that my oldest son is married I needed a stocking for my new daughter-in-law. I checked Amazon first but I didn't find anything I liked that didn't cost over $20 or came in a set of 4+ stockings. So instead I went to Hobby Lobby. They have such a good selection of all different styles, and right now everything is 50% off which is right up my alley. This is the stocking I settled on.

The stocking I have for my son R has a reindeer on it. I wanted something similar but this was the closest I could find. It's super cute, and was only $5. I thought about getting all matching stockings for the whole family but that would be an unnecessary expense in my opinion. I'd rather spend that money on gifts.

Since I was already at Hobby Lobby I looked around and found this very pretty poinsettia arrangement for $6.99.

It's kind of hard to see against the granite but it's white and gold, which I think will look beautiful in my bedroom.

I wanted to get a few more small picks for the Christmas tree. I like using them as fillers and to make the tree look a bit more realistic since our allergies don't allow for a real tree. These were just $.99 so I got 5 of them.

They're small pinecones and greenery that's flocked. My tree isn't flocked but I like adding some little accents like this.

Finally, I found the cutest little pillow:

I got a red and black buffalo check throw for the sofa last year, and I think this will look adorable with it. I wanted to see how it looked with my new Costco pillow as well:

I love it! Then I remembered: the big pillow in the back is reversible! So I tried that out too.

Now I'm really itching to start decorating! I'll have to see how the three pillows look against the red and black throw but this is just so stinkin' cute! 

I was looking at some tutorials for Christmas villages on YouTube. I'm wanting to up my village game this year. Miriam's Manner gave me some really good ideas for adding more snow to my village and how to put it on so it looks full and realistic, and I knew that's what I wanted to do. So I took a trip to my local Super Walmart because the artificial snow on Amazon was ridiculously expensive. I'm not paying $25 - $30 for fake snow. 

This value size bag of Buffalo Snow was $5. I've used it before and it lasts. I also got some snow flurries to sprinkle around for more effect. While I was there I did my grocery shopping and picked up a few more items for Thanksgiving dinner.

Yes, I can make pie crusts. I've done it before. It's not rocket science. But when you've got a turkey to roast, plus mashed potatoes, dressing, green beans, salad, crescent rolls...y'all, I will take shortcuts wherever I can! Boxed pie crusts it is, LOL! I'm thinking of making a pecan pie and maybe an apple pie. My boys will all want a chocolate pudding pie I'm sure. And the day after Thanksgiving I like making turkey pot pie. It's pie season y'all!

I also went ahead and bought the Stove Top stuffing mix. I'd gotten a couple of boxes of the Aldi's brand but even though it's pretty good, it doesn't compare to Stove Top. This twin pack box was $2.97, and the other boxes of stuffing will get eaten, trust me. We love us some dressing with our fried chicken.

Ladies bible study was on Friday. We studied the parable of the Great Banquet found in Matthew 22:1-14. It was an impactful study. This coming Friday is our last session, and I'm going to miss having this study time with my group.

Then Saturday our new church has a Friendsgiving day brunch for all the children's ministry volunteers. E and I had such a sweet time of fellowship! We both sat by ourselves because with our allergies we didn't want anyone to feel uncomfortable if we sat near them and started coughing or sneezing. Well, a couple of ladies came and sat with us and we had some uplifting conversations with them. It was like God was showing us that this is where He wants us right now, and I'm thankful for the confirmation.

That was my week! I hope y'all had a blessed week as well. This coming week is Thanksgiving prep. I'm so excited!