Well hello there friends! How have you been! I took a slightly unplanned break from the blog the last week. Lately I’ve felt a bit burned out on the blog end. I was having a hard time coming up with ideas, and I didn’t want to post just for the sake of posing. Having limited time to actually work on anything (since Annabelle now comes downstairs at about 6am) doesn’t help the situation either. Then Matt took a few extra days off the past week, so we worked on a lot of stuff around the house, and at the end of the day, all I wanted to do was veg in front of the TV.
As much as I love blogging, it was nice to just take a little break. To not worry about getting that perfect picture, or stress over trying to design the most amazing pinnable image. If you a blogger, and are feeling overwhelmed, I say take a break. Now that I am feeling refreshed, I’m back and ready to party!
So, what did we do this weekend? The big task we accomplished? Installing a pergola!
Here is what the deck looked like when we began.
The first task was removing all of the benches. Thankfully it didn’t take too long, and I was super excited for all that weathered wood! I’m hoping to create a few fun signs!
Then came building the actually pergola. I didn’t take any pictures, but let me tell you it took some time. The hardest part? Getting the “roof” on the posts. I’m not exactly the tallest person, and while I find myself fit, I couldn’t hold the roof up for a long enough time. We ended up balancing one end on a ladder, while Matt held up the other end, and I clamped the posts on.
We have some solar powered lights wrapped around the arches, but will also be getting some of those light bulb lights (I think they are called Edison Lights). We will also be making some side shades since the sun can still get in, but that’s for another weekend. 😉
We were so happy to have finished it, and can’t wait to use it more this summer.
While we were working on the pergola, Annabelle wanted to paint her own wood board. She really loves being crafty, and I love letting her be (even though I didn’t want to part with any of my precious weathered wood 😉 ).
Since it was crazy hot this weekend (and why wouldn’t it be? We had so much to do outside) the girls had a blast running in the “water sprinkler”. It was nice since it kept them somewhat entertained while we did outside work (we also weeded our raspberries and got our square foot garden all planted).
Since Matt had some days off we were able to do a two smoked meals! On Friday we smoked rack of lamb, and oh my goodness so tasty! Then on Sunday, we smoked pork belly! One again, super tasty. 🙂
On Sunday we went to church. We go to the same church as my parents, and the first thing she said when she saw my mom was “Grammy when can we have a sleepover??”. My mom was like “Well, maybe today, Danielle what do you…”. She didn’t even have to finish the sentence before I said yes. Since my dad sings in the choir, he had no idea about this plan. After mass, Annabelle ran up to him and said “Guess what Papa! I have a surprise for you! We’re spending the night!!” I just about lost it while I exclaimed “surprise!” I know I am so blessed to have my parents (and my MIL, who also takes the girls) allow the girls to spend the night. The best thing about it, is being able to actually sleep in. I didn’t get up until 9:00am on Monday. Glorious!
I hope that everyone else had an amazing weekend! It’s supposed to be hot again this week, so I’m hoping to make it to the splash pad. How do you beat the heat?